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2.53 vs 2.8 MBP for college engineering student?

D

deanmadoo

macrumors member
Original poster
Dec 25, 2008
46
0
I am going to college in about 3 months and I'm deciding on which one to get between the

2.8Ghz or the 2.53Ghz

I am planing to use this computer for all 4 years of college
and some gaming, photoshop and video editing from time to time.

Is the 2.53Ghz going to be enough for all 4 years of engineering program?

Is the 2.8Ghz worth it?
If its not necessary I would not want to spend the extra money.
 
No, stick with the 2.53Ghz and spend the extra $ on a bigger 7200 rpm HDD
 
what kind of engineering program are you getting into ? CS ?

I'm a programmer so I use quite a bit of CPU/Memory intensive programs so any extra power I can get out of CPU/Memory helps.

If your planning on using the MBP for the next 4 years, I would go for the 2.8 with 4G RAM, which is standard on 2.8 model.

Good luck...
 
I am currently in one of the top programs in the country for aerospace engineering. You will be fine with the 2.53. It rapes games. The only difference in clock speed will be seen when rendering stuff. But that will be done on desktops at the university. I used a 1.33 ghz g4 for my first year and a half. It was fine for the one matlab class I took.

But do what will make you happy. And wait for a refresh.
 
djl said:
No, stick with the 2.53Ghz and spend the extra $ on a bigger 7200 rpm HDD
Click to expand...

no matter which clock speed i get i will get the 7200rpm drive:)


FarSeide said:
what kind of engineering program are you getting into ? CS ?

I'm a programmer so I use quite a bit of CPU/Memory intensive programs so any extra power I can get out of CPU/Memory helps.
Click to expand...

I will be studying in Aerospace Engineering.

FarSeide said:
If your planning on using the MBP for the next 4 years, I would go for the 2.8 with 4G RAM, which is standard on 2.8 model.
Click to expand...
But will the 2.53Ghz do?

masse said:
I am currently in one of the top programs in the country for aerospace engineering. You will be fine with the 2.53. It rapes games. The only difference in clock speed will be seen when rendering stuff. But that will be done on desktops at the university. I used a 1.33 ghz g4 for my first year and a half. It was fine for the one matlab class I took.

But do what will make you happy. And wait for a refresh.
Click to expand...
My university's computers are very old and there arn't that many.
And do you think the refresh will be in time for my purchase in about three months?
 
Aerospace eh? I dont think your gonna need a super computer, more a super calculator.

Where ya goin to school? Check out my old school Auburn they got a pretty god program.
 
sideline3 said:
Aerospace eh? I dont think your gonna need a super computer, more a super calculator.

Where ya goin to school? Check out my old school Auburn they got a pretty god program.
Click to expand...

2 Years in Thailand and 2 Years at University of New South wales in Australia

Any suggestions?
 
If you dont plan to upgrade for a while get the 2.8, if you do get the 2.53. Either one will more than suffice for what you want to do
 
FarSeide said:
what kind of engineering program are you getting into ? CS ?

I'm a programmer so I use quite a bit of CPU/Memory intensive programs so any extra power I can get out of CPU/Memory helps.

If your planning on using the MBP for the next 4 years, I would go for the 2.8 with 4G RAM, which is standard on 2.8 model.

Good luck...
Click to expand...

4GB RAM is standard on both models, not just the 2.8.
 
get either ne, just make sure your "$·"5#¢∞ adviser sends your semester report to your sponsoring agency.... sorry, just venting since I won't get any money this month and rent is coming.

back on topic, one of my friends is in mechanical engineering and he has the stock aluminum 2.8 and says he should have gotten the 2.53 with a hard drive upgrade. I don't know how demanding his stuff is.
 
wesrk said:
get either ne, just make sure your "$·"5#¢∞ adviser sends your semester report to your sponsoring agency.... sorry, just venting since I won't get any money this month and rent is coming.

back on topic, one of my friends is in mechanical engineering and he has the stock aluminum 2.8 and says he should have gotten the 2.53 with a hard drive upgrade. I don't know how demanding his stuff is.
Click to expand...

What year is he in?:)
 
If you missed my post I am majoring in aerospace engineering also. I go to Georgia tech. There is no need for a super computer unless doing complex 3d models in CATIA. The school will have their own computers for you to use. You can't get a lot of the software so you need to use what the school has.

I would have been fine with my old G4 if I were not also into audio recording etc. I needed a MacBook pro for reasons not directly including formal education.
 
I made it though 4 years of aerospace engineering undergrad work with my 1.5 Ghz G4 Powerbook, and never had a problem of any kind.

I'm now going through my aerospace Ph.D. program with first a 2.33 Ghz 17" and now a 2.53 Ghz 15" Unibody. Either of these serve both my experimental and computational needs excellently (despite what the Mac Pro beast listed in my signature would suggest).

You'll be just fine with the 2.53.

Go aeros! Howdy from Texas A&M.
 
if a 2.4GHz Penryn classic MBP is good enough for a theoretical physics-PhD, i'm sure 2.53GHz is more than sufficient for college engineering :)
 
alphaod said:
Wouldn't that make you ECE/CE?
Click to expand...

No, we definitively studied CS. There were other programs for Electronics, Automation, etc. but we didn't mix with them... ;)


To get this back on topic, I think the OP would do fine with either machine. Maxing out RAM** and bigger/faster HD are more important than 10% faster CPU, IMO.

That said, I'm getting the 2.8 (if and) when we get a good deal at work... ;)


** That is in general, here the RAM is maxed out on both. Hopefully a future firmware update and cheaper 4GB RAM chips can make future upgrade to 8GB possible...
 
If you're using it for 4 years, go with the 2.8. By the third year netbooks will run at 2.53 or faster.
 
The difference between 5400rpm and 7200rpm 2.5" drives is nil as far as speed goes. Not worth the money.
 
alphaod said:
Wouldn't that make you ECE/CE?
Click to expand...


GACK!!!! I'm EE and we ARE NOT related to CS. The cross between CS and EE is Computer Engineering. Man, I'm offended :p

Anyways, I'm a EE (third year) and I'm planning to get a 2.4GHz with 4GB RAM. The difference between a 2.4 and 2.53 is minimal, but the price is huge. If you want to shell out the extra money, go for the 2.53. But the 2.8 is overkill, IMO. If you can afford it, fine. But if it's a stretch, go for the 2.53 or even 2.4. Get the extra RAM instead which will help you rull VMFusion or Parallels, which I'm 99% sure you'll need.

Wahoowah!
 
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