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miquel12

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Nov 8, 2012
2
0
Hello everyone,

I am an aeronautical engineering student and I'm struggling about which macbook I should buy. The main programs I use now are Pro Engineer (Creo 2.0) and Matlab. I may be using Solid Works in the future. I travel... let's say a lot and 13 inch is the only option I have. Logically my first thoughts were on the MBA (1.8GHz i5, 8G RAM, 256 SSD), but then I thought the CPU won't be powerful enough for a lot of CAD working, and the 2.0GHz i7 doesn't seem to make a great difference. Hence, I am strongly considering the MBP 2.9GHz i7, 8 RAM, 750 HD (and it's £170 cheaper than the MBA with the i7). What do you think about it? Is the MBA powerful enough to run all these programs smoothly or I should stick to the MPB (with grater performance and value)?

PD: I will use a boot camp rather than Parallels. I'm thinking of keeping the laptop for about 3-4 years.


Thank you so much for your advice!
 

jmfel1926

macrumors member
Jun 22, 2012
74
0
I have a 2012 11'' i5/8/128 ... i am in a Computer Graphics Master Program and till now i have worked on Matlab and OpenGL with good and fast results. But i believe that having to do hard work and looking in a 3-4 years future and the work that you will do then , i think you should take the MBPro ... the air i think wins on the SSD speed which is incredibly high and "helps" the applications run fast. But as i can see you want clear power and also in 3-4 years from now ... so MBPro my vote ...
 

miquel12

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Nov 8, 2012
2
0
Thanks for your advice jmfel1926!

Yeah, I think the pro is the best solution for my needs. But do you know if the graphics (Intel HD 4000) are good enough for these programs, even if they don't have a dedicated memory?
 

MacPat333

macrumors regular
Sep 16, 2012
140
0
Dubai
Thanks for your advice jmfel1926!

Yeah, I think the pro is the best solution for my needs. But do you know if the graphics (Intel HD 4000) are good enough for these programs, even if they don't have a dedicated memory?

You should get it with a SSD, with the normal HDD it will be slow(er).
 
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