15" MBP or 24" iMac for Architecture Grad School

[SilverHandprint]

What would be more appropriate for architecture graduate school: a 15" MacBook Pro or a 24" iMac? The curriculum will require me to make 3D renderings and 3D models using a slew of programs like Rhino, AutoCAD, Adobe CS3 software, and maybe Maya & 3DS Max. I am aware that a bunch of these programs are Windows-only, so I'll be using BootCamp and/or VMWare Fusion. It'd be wonderful if the computer will last the full three years of grad school.

I'd especially be interested to read what current M.Arch students think. Portability vs screen real estate vs computing power/speed vs cost are the specific concerns I have. I'm also open to suggestions for alternatives, i.e. 2nd monitor with MBP or 17" MBP. Thanks!

 

[alphaod]

I have friend in architecture and it would appears she's doing fine with her MBP. Also, I would get an Mac Pro with a workstation card. These gaming cards on the iMac/MBP don't do OpenGL rendering very well in Maya and AutoCAD. Also the drivers aren't optimise for quality, but rather for speed in games, so I wouldn't use it.

 

[anbudub]

As a fairly recent architectual graduate (Bachlors), I would suggest getting the MacBook Pro. My school's bachlors program was not much different from the masters program, we even worked on group projects together. I would say that at least 90% of all the architecture students at my university used laptops.

Portability is a big plus. My school has had incidents of theft in our work studio, so I would recommend having something that you could keep close with you, especially considering you are going to be investing a decent amount of money for your computer. It is also nice to be able to work at home or work at the studio. It works great for presentations especially if you get the remote with it. If you want more screen real estate, i would just hook it up with a monitor, then you can use a duel desktop.