Advice on MacBook.

[Konyx]

Hello everyone.

I am new to these forums so hopefully I'm posting this in the right location.

Currently I'm in a bit of a dilemma to which Macbook I should buy for University next year. I will be bringing my desktop which I made made 2 1/2 years ago which is fairly decent. However I would like a portable device in order to do my work. I will be doing Computer Science next year so programming will definitely be done on this laptop. I will also be installing Windows as well on the laptop.

My problem is should I get the 15 for extra power or is 13 sufficient power for what I intend to use it for?

Is the retina display worth it, especially on the 13 inch? I also saw parts were soldiered on which is quite a big put off.

I'm willing to really spend whatever so long as it's justified, so please help me with this decision.

Also I realise that a Mac is over priced for something that I'm just going to install Windows on, however I'm going past Hong Kong on the way back to New Zealand which makes the prices quite reasonable compared to what we get at home even in the Windows market.

Any help is greatly appreciated. Thank you.

 

[Yebubbleman]

Hello everyone.

I am new to these forums so hopefully I'm posting this in the right location.

Currently I'm in a bit of a dilemma to which Macbook I should buy for University next year. I will be bringing my desktop which I made made 2 1/2 years ago which is fairly decent. However I would like a portable device in order to do my work. I will be doing Computer Science next year so programming will definitely be done on this laptop. I will also be installing Windows as well on the laptop.

My problem is should I get the 15 for extra power or is 13 sufficient power for what I intend to use it for?

Is the retina display worth it, especially on the 13 inch? I also saw parts were soldiered on which is quite a big put off.

I'm willing to really spend whatever so long as it's justified, so please help me with this decision.

Also I realise that a Mac is over priced for something that I'm just going to install Windows on, however I'm going past Hong Kong on the way back to New Zealand which makes the prices quite reasonable compared to what we get at home even in the Windows market.

Any help is greatly appreciated. Thank you.

If you are just going to install Windows on it, then a Mac is a waste of money. Otherwise, if you have a fairly recent PC tower, then, unless you specifically need GPU muscle in OS X, you might as well just go with a 13" and forego the 15".

 

[Konyx]

If you are just going to install Windows on it, then a Mac is a waste of money. Otherwise, if you have a fairly recent PC tower, then, unless you specifically need GPU muscle in OS X, you might as well just go with a 13" and forego the 15".

Sorry probably worded my original post a bit wrong. I plan on having both operating systems on the system.

 

[monkeybagel]

If you are just going to install Windows, it would not be a good choice for driver, battery life, and keyboard reasons.

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Sorry probably worded my original post a bit wrong. I plan on having both operating systems on the system.

Do you need an optical drive and an array of ports? If so, that standard MacBook would be the best option. It is also expandable rather easily with an upgradable HDD and RAM. Both retina models are lacking very much in this area, with no SuperDrive or even Gigabit Ethernet, although there is a Thunderbolt -> GbE adapter available.

The GPU on the 13" models are lacking compared to the 15" counterparts. The 13" Air actually has good performance, an SSD, and higher resolution screen compared to the standard 13" MacBook, but again lacks an array of ports and Ethernet.

 

[Yebubbleman]

Sorry probably worded my original post a bit wrong. I plan on having both operating systems on the system.

I'd say go with a 13" MacBook Pro (unless you need your Mac to have a discrete graphics card to do something you wouldn't just do on your PC desktop). At that point, with retina vs. non-retina; I'd go non-retina, but that's because Windows and many other things still look like crap due to not being optimized yet. And I have a feeling it'll be a while before that changes (maybe even longer than a 13" retina would last). Also because you can very easily replace your RAM and storage bays with common screw-drivers, whereas you can't with the retina.