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advice for buying first mac

S

sgurpartap

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Feb 2, 2015
10
0
india
hello guys
recently my 6yr old studio xps died and i am now looking to buy a new laptop but am confused between 13inch and the 15inch macbook pro. My primary uses will be as follows-
word processing
browsing with generally 6-7 tabs open
video streaming-youtube etc
watching bluray movies tv shows etc
very light casual photo editing(no photoshop)
running one virtual machine of windows to run a very specific medical software(java based ) so was thinking of using parallels as that is the most popular -i just want it to run smoothly.(the software is not ram intensive very light)

No gaming NO video editing No programming

so my question is will the 13inch rmbp with 8gb ram run my virtual machine smoothly along with me doing other tasks simultaneously like some bowser tabs open and word processing or do i really need a base 15inch rmbp

ps- I can`t go for any bto models as its not availaible here in my country so have to go for instore models

from my research till now i should be comfortable with 13inch rmbp w512gb ssd. What do you guys say?
if any of use parallels on the 13inch rmbp please give some review how well does it handle it
thank you :)
 
sgurpartap said:
hello guys
recently my 6yr old studio xps died and i am now looking to buy a new laptop but am confused between 13inch and the 15inch macbook pro. My primary uses will be as follows-
word processing
browsing with generally 6-7 tabs open
video streaming-youtube etc
watching bluray movies tv shows etc
very light casual photo editing(no photoshop)
running one virtual machine of windows to run a very specific medical software(java based ) so was thinking of using parallels as that is the most popular -i just want it to run smoothly.(the software is not ram intensive very light)

No gaming NO video editing No programming

so my question is will the 13inch rmbp with 8gb ram run my virtual machine smoothly along with me doing other tasks simultaneously like some bowser tabs open and word processing or do i really need a base 15inch rmbp

ps- I can`t go for any bto models as its not availaible here in my country so have to go for instore models

from my research till now i should be comfortable with 13inch rmbp w512gb ssd. What do you guys say?
if any of use parallels on the 13inch rmbp please give some review how well does it handle it
thank you :)
Click to expand...
Your usage is very, very light. If you setup your VM correctly it should have very little impact on performance.

Any Mac would work well, apart perhaps from the MacBook which is a bit under-powered.
 
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Either the 13" or the 15" will work for performance wise. Take a look at the screens in the store and pick the one that you like. In the US the 13" with 512 Gb is $700 less that the 15" 512 Gb without using BTO. That is a big difference in price for more power than you need.
 
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sgurpartap said:
What do you guys say?
if any of use parallels on the 13inch rmbp please give some review how well does it handle it
Click to expand...

The 13" rMBP will suit you just fine. I do heavier work on mine and it works great.

I'm not sure about BluRay support in OSX though. Someone else will have to chime in on that.
 
T5BRICK said:
The 13" rMBP will suit you just fine. I do heavier work on mine and it works great.

I'm not sure about BluRay support in OSX though. Someone else will have to chime in on that.
Click to expand...

Agreed if you need an optical drive of any type it will have to be an external one as none of the apple computers have any optical drive at all anymore.
 
I mean, if screen size isn't a problem, I'd go with the 13''. You're also probably better off going for a 2014 rMBP instead of a 2015 one with a haptic feedback trackpad (just because of the good savings on price).

If you're constantly portable (constantly moving around the house, constantly taking the notebook to school, meetings, other places) i.e.. if portability is a major concern for you, definitely 13''. If battery life is an issue for you, too, 13 inch.

Do you use an external monitor? 13 inch will work.


If you don't use an external monitor and want space, go with 15 inch. If you need a little bit more power, I'd fare with a 2013 or 2014 15 inch.
 
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