Advice on a coding / video editing / graphic design machine.

[hostins]

Here's the deal, i need a machine for those purposes, i'm currently on my second graduation, first is Industrial Design, and currently studying Computer Science.

Here's the deal, i do have some budget, but i'm as cheap f***...

I need a machine to bring to classes, but should be able to deal with my video and graphic hobbies.

I was considering getting two computers iMac and MacBook Air... but i think i'm gonna need more than a macbook air on university to deal with Android Studio(i h8 it) and Distributed programming... need advises from coders and videomakers.

Thanks!

Sorry for my english.

Cheers from Italy.

 

[RoskO]

your best bet if you want it all in one machine is going to be a macbook pro 13 or 15. The 15" with dedicated GPU is rather expensive, though not really conducive to your cheap f*** mentality .

When doing video editing, the 15" has a quad core and will probably be much faster than something like the 13 pro or 13 air. The 13" just have dual core with 4 threads, 15" is true quad core with 8 threads.

Coding won't matter much between the dual and quad core, most software development tools can only utilize 1-2 cores efficiently when compiling, compilations usually have an order or dependency.

If I were you, I might just keep the macbook air for the coding/battery life or get a 13 retina pro, then build a desktop system (windows) to do the video editing. Building out video editing desktops is far cheaper and run much faster than Apple products in my experience. If you MUST use Apple tools (final cut) then you are stuck with IMac or MBP I suppose.

Edit: One other thing I forgot to mention: Having an SSD as your hard drive will make a big difference. The 13" air/retina and 15" retina have extremely fast PCIE SSDs, that makes a big difference especially when coding/compiling a lot of little files (it does for me anyway). The traditional spindle drives or even hybrid drives with SSDs tend not to perform as well for coding large projects.

 

[hostins]

If I were you, I might just keep the macbook air for the coding/battery life or get a 13 retina pro, then build a desktop system (windows) to do the video editing. Building out video editing desktops is far cheaper and run much faster than Apple products in my experience. If you MUST use Apple tools (final cut) then you are stuck with IMac or MBP I suppose.

I'm not a big fan of PC Desktop, my days of trying to solve hardware issues are kinda gone, also the lack of support after 3 months on oem parts when they fail...

I guess ill stick with high end mbpr 15"... but the biggest doubt now is.. wait for the updates (not sure when, but i think they won't deliver machines this year) ? Does this new processor will be THAT much different ?

 

[RoskO]

If I were you I'd wait until next week or the week after to see what Apple shows us. I personally think the current mbpr 15" might be slightly better (IMO) than the new one if the rumors are true, however sometimes Apple surprises us.

One advantage you will have when they release the new one is that you can cherry pick the people that upgrade on Craigslist if you don't want the new one (and you don't mind a few month old machine). Online retailers usually discount the previous model heavily too at the time of the new release. You get the choice of paying full price for the new new model, or paying likely a lot less for what may be a just as good or better current model.

Some of the major reasons I think I might hang on to my current 2015 mbpr.

1: If they actually release a true quad core 15" in the next few weeks, it has to be Intel Skylake and the performance of Skylake over Haswell is almost nothing in the real world, and almost nothing in benchmarks (clock for clock). Kaby Lake quad cores won't be out until 2017 I believe.

2: If they slim down the 15", they'll probably remove some of the ports I use the most (SDcard/USB3 ports/HDMI/Headphone jack). I'm not really a dongle guy.

3: If they slim down the 15" and try to make it lighter, I'm guessing they will have to sacrifice somewhere and use a smaller battery, Skylake will probably compensate for this so battery life will end up being similar as current gen in a barely lighter machine.

The one key difference you might want to look at in the new one is the second GPU. Because you do graphics/vid, If you use Photoshop or other applications that can utilize a very beefy GPU, there's a chance the new model might be slightly better at that, though if the slim it down even more I'm really not sure how they are going to cool the darn thing .

 

[Samuelsan2001]

I'm not a big fan of PC Desktop, my days of trying to solve hardware issues are kinda gone, also the lack of support after 3 months on oem parts when they fail...

I guess ill stick with high end mbpr 15"... but the biggest doubt now is.. wait for the updates (not sure when, but i think they won't deliver machines this year) ? Does this new processor will be THAT much different ?

It's more the prospect of a Polaris dGPU that is worth waiting for, nothing else will make much difference to you.

 

[hostins]

Hello, it´s me again..

So, they release the new MBP, imho opinion it can be a disaster or very successful based on the choice to push the market forward to use usb-c type, but if this don´t works ? Will that new GPU be a huge difference ? If i buy the old one, in 5-6 years i´ll be with a obsolete machine ? Most of my macs worked great after that time, and i gotem after launch.

Now i gotta decide between the late 2015 refurbished rMBP with those specs:

Intel Iris Pro Graphics e AMD Radeon R9 M370X
flash PCIe da 512GB
i7 quad-core a 2,5GHz

Price: 2.419,00 EU

and the new one with that configuration:

2016 Entry level 15" with:

• SSD PCIe da 512GB
• Radeon Pro 460 con 4GB

Price: 3.041,00 EU

 

[RoskO]

Personally I think it's insane and crazy to buy a Macbook Pro for video editing unless you just absolutely need portability for some reason, but then again I use Windows and Mac both and I'm happy in both operating systems, so the transition might be harder for others that are more entrenched in just one.

For me, I can build a PC for around 1/3rd the price with a lot larger monitor and get probably 5-10x performance with video encoding/transcoding. I know it's not for everyone, but it sure is nice to have real power.

If you have to have a MBP, I'm not really sure you'd notice much real world difference with video editing between the two, I suppose it will depend on the application you are using, whether or not the new skylake cpu accelerates it somehow, and whether or not the video application will support the GPU (I know some CAD software just doesn't work if you don't have Quadro or FirePro cards).

I think you'd probably be safer going with the latest and greatest Macbook for resale value alone. The difference in cost might be ~600 now, but in a year or two the "new" model will probably make up the difference if you try to sell it. I thought Apple obsoleted just about everything after 4-5yrs? Maybe I'm wrong .

 

[phrehdd]

To the OP, if you can see you way clear beyond the Apple world you might want to consider going to the dark side and in particular a "gaming" laptop.

This was just one I pulled up that has a reasonable fan base and specs galore starting at around 2034.00 USA

There are others in this bunch plus other companies. What makes a gaming laptop a good choice - graphic cards, meant for continued heavy use (so heat dissipation is handled), up to 64 gigs of RAM and then some. What you dont' get is Apple's favourite hard on - THIN MORE IMPORTANT THAN FUNCTION.

https://www.originpc.com/gaming/laptops/eon15-x/

• Up to 15.6” QFHD 3840x2160 G-SYNC Matte Display
• Up to Intel Core i7 6700K Quad-Core 4.0GHz (4.2GHz TurboBoost)
• Overclockable Intel Core Desktop Processors
• Up to NVIDIA GeForce GTX GDDR5 1070 8GB
• Overclockable NVIDIA GPU
• Up to 64GB 2666MHz DDR4 Memory
• VR Ready
• HDMI Output; Up to 7.1 HD Audio with Sound Blaster MB5

 

[hostins]

Personally I think it's insane and crazy to buy a Macbook Pro for video editing unless you just absolutely need portability for some reason, but then again I use Windows and Mac both and I'm happy in both operating systems, so the transition might be harder for others that are more entrenched in just one.

Trust me, i think the same, i used to do my stuff on a iMac. But now things changed and i moved to italy and soon im gonna move again, and i have the feeling that i wont be settled down, so i need some mobility.

To the OP, if you can see you way clear beyond the Apple world you might want to consider going to the dark side and in particular a "gaming" laptop.

Well, i decided that, i made the pre-order, im gonna test the machined for 10 days, if suits my needs ill keep it, otherwise im going alienware, not sure if that originPc sells in EU, also it´s very thick huhn ?

Thank´s all. I´ll post my thoughts soon as i get hands on the machine.