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On behalf of my girlfriend.

I

iRyu

macrumors regular
Original poster
May 22, 2010
101
1
So, me and my girlfriend is about to going to college in August.
She have problem deciding which mac she wanted to use. This is her first time using Mac OS X. I'm not sure how much power she need for pharmacy :p
*any of you studying pharmacy course?*

She is considering Macbook Pro 13 base or Macbook Air 13 base. Which one is more suitable her?
 
iRyu said:
So, me and my girlfriend is about to going to college in August.
She have problem deciding which mac she wanted to use. This is her first time using Mac OS X. I'm not sure how much power she need for pharmacy :p
*any of you studying pharmacy course?*

She is considering Macbook Pro 13 base or Macbook Air 13 base. Which one is more suitable her?
Click to expand...

The air. She doesn't need the power of the MBP, and she'll find the extra pound to be a pain when she's got 20lbs of textbooks.

Of course, if she's anything like my gilrfriend, make sure she has a DVD player too ;)
 
The Air, definitely. College is going to suck, lugging around something as heavy as a Pro. The Air will not contribute to the probably massive amount of textbooks and references she probably has to carry around. Also, SSDs are much faster than HDDs. The additional speed might be of use to her.
 
Air. SSD speeds will make it seem WAY better than her previous computer. Give her some good feelings about Apple. :D :apple:
 
No question, the Air. The MBP is just unnecessary for iTunes, webserfing, word processing, etc.
 
barredfreak said:
The Air, definitely. College is going to suck, lugging around something as heavy as a Pro. The Air will not contribute to the probably massive amount of textbooks and references she probably has to carry around. Also, SSDs are much faster than HDDs. The additional speed might be of use to her.
Click to expand...

yeahh ssd is faster but the problem is space. She won't paying for upgrade the ssd (she addict to cosmetic and clothes stuff lol). Any nice USB3.0 external hdd to intro?
 
Air for doing actual school work + iPad for textbooks! That is if her books are available on iPad or Kindle or Kobo or wherever. If the books end up being cheaper electronically, the savings will pay for the iPad and her back will thank her. Check it out.
 
dona83 said:
Air for doing actual school work + iPad for textbooks! That is if her books are available on iPad or Kindle or Kobo or wherever. If the books end up being cheaper electronically, the savings will pay for the iPad and her back will thank her. Check it out.
Click to expand...

The Air. No question.

This year's MBP 13" really cannot be recommended for anyone, unless you refuse to use cloud and/or external storage, and absolutely must carry around a dvd player with you at all times. I had last year's MBP. A great computer then (Air did not yet have Sandy Bridge), but the new updated version is almost unchanged, and dated.

As for the iPad, I use it for textbooks. Remember, you can scan them yourself, or pay to have it done ($1 per 100 pages) and you'll be able to have all of your books (heck, a whole library in my case) in your bag. Go from a massive backpack to a tiny one you don't even know is on your back.
 
iRyu said:
yeahh ssd is faster but the problem is space. She won't paying for upgrade the ssd (she addict to cosmetic and clothes stuff lol). Any nice USB3.0 external hdd to intro?
Click to expand...

128GB isn't enough? Does she have a big movie/music/photo collection?

Here's the external HDD that I'm using now. It's a 1TB USB 3 HDD. I use it to store HD movies, as I have a SSD in my MBP.

WD My Passport 1TB USB 3 HDD
 
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barredfreak said:
128GB isn't enough? Does she have a big movie/music/photo collection?

Here's the external HDD that I'm using now. It's a 1TB USB 3 HDD. I use it to store HD movies, as I have a SSD in my MBP.

WD My Passport 1TB USB 3 HDD
Click to expand...

okaay thanks! thanks guys. I think the Macbook Air is the answer.
Gonna explain to her tomorrow :)
 
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iRyu said:
yeahh ssd is faster but the problem is space. She won't paying for upgrade the ssd (she addict to cosmetic and clothes stuff lol). Any nice USB3.0 external hdd to intro?
Click to expand...

Is space really a problem? The _big_ items are in that order videos, music, and photos. If you don't have videos (except for renting some video sometimes), no huge amount of music (only a few hundred CDs), and no huge amount of photos (not ten thousands) then 128 GB is plenty.

How big / strong is she? 11" MacBook Air is the perfect laptop for carrying around.
 
If she's taking it to college, then I would say base Air definitely. The portability and snappy processor will serve her purposes ideally.
 
Definitely recommend the Air. Especially if one has back to back classes. The battery life, the portability, the small form factor is a win hands down. Good luck with most profs today "NO ELECTRONICS IN MY CLASSROOM!!!!" All of my profs last year outlawed any electronics in the classroom (at a 4 year college).
 
palpatine said:
As for the iPad, I use it for textbooks. Remember, you can scan them yourself, or pay to have it done ($1 per 100 pages) and you'll be able to have all of your books (heck, a whole library in my case) in your bag. Go from a massive backpack to a tiny one you don't even know is on your back.
Click to expand...

May i ask where you pay to have your textbooks scanned for $1/100pages?
 
Lets keep in mind any special software she may be required to use for her classes. My wife is finishing a medical assisting program that required some Windows only software for two of her classes. Had I bought her a MacBook Air, I would have needed to get a copy of Parallels and a license for Windows to install her program to complete the class.

That being said, if all you're running is Office (or iLife) and the internet, she could make do just fine with a 11" MBA and maybe have a cheepy $100 LCD in her room to plug into. I have two friends who are surviving on that exact setup. Ultra portable and still a 20" monitor in their room when they need space.
 
I think the Mac Air is also the way to go. She should be a very happy girl. There should be enough power and space for her pharmacy program. It's not like she's devloping software and working with servers or something right?

@Cricketman, I did use that service before http://www.1dollarscan.com/campaign/medical.html and I thought they were pretty good. I used to try to do it myself before. I like doing it, it's kinda fun, but it's just so much easier to get someone else to do it.
 
I am getting my wife the base 13" Air and at first the 128GB storage on the SSD was a worry for me, she is also studying for an MSc the next couple of years. I decided to just buy her a couple of 64GB Flash drives for storing extra bits and bobs on, they are tiny and easy to carry around with the air and they only cost about £20 each.
 
11" air would be even better.....my wife loves hers...it even fits in her regular purse if she has to stash it away quickly. The 13" is too big for that and now the new ones come in the same specs with the exception of the SD drive.
 
Hey CarlyHudson - Did that 1dollarscan place scan your books pretty fast? Some books I may not buy until right before school and I don't wanna wait too long to get the files.
 
@Charlesz,

You might have to ask them on that. They were pretty fast with me. I don't how fast, but I remember it being faster than they promised.
 
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