Yeah... I was suggesting a monitor.
edit- rather a place to look. I didn't see what they have.
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Advice on Macbook configuration for an engineering student.
- Thread starter gtanner00
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Yeah... I was suggesting a monitor.
edit- rather a place to look. I didn't see what they have.
Real world experience here from a structural engineer in the UK.
Mac Mini Late 2012 Quad Core 2.3 ghz, 16GB Ram 1TB stock hard drive, running Windows 7 in parallels (4 cores shared and 8GB RAM shared). Rendering on Revit 2015 the medium structural model: 1 hour 20 minutes.
Macbook Air 2013 1.3 ghz, 128GB SSD, 4GB RAM, Windows 7, in bootcamp. Rendering on Revit 2015 the medium structural model: 2 hours 15 minutes.
The MBA handles Revit models up to 150mb without blinking, day to day drawing, detailing, etc. For rendering, well it isn't designed for that and to be perfectly honest Revit is terrible for rendering - if you render alot, then go quad core. Vray, Kerkythea etc. use less resources, run great and render better than revit and cope well with dual cores. In Autocad the MBA handles everything I throw at it in - lots of layers, lineweights, hatching and Ordnance Survey maps with lots of co-ordinates.
I split my workload between the MBA 80% and the Mini 20%. At work I hook the MBA up to a 24" Samsung 1080p monitor, when I get home I just use the Mini as it's hooked up to a 27" 2560x1440 screen i got from eBay.
If I didn't have monitors I liked then I would maybe be tempted by the 15" as the screen can be run at 1920x1200 - so desktop class.
As for the retina 13", I see no massive benefit of: cost v power v battery life. The 13 MBA has turbo boost dual cores (albeit at lower clocks) and great battery life, the 15" has quad cores and desktop class resolution. The 13 rMBP has slightly higher dual core clocks and I suppose a smaller footprint but battery life isn't as good as the MBA and I don't see what it can do the MBA can't. If my MBA had 8GB Ram I could run Revit models up to 250-350mb.
If your a student you can use the Autodesk cloud for rendering work anyway so negating the need for a huge chunk of power - use your student ID/Email to sign up with Autodesk.
Mac Mini Late 2012 Quad Core 2.3 ghz, 16GB Ram 1TB stock hard drive, running Windows 7 in parallels (4 cores shared and 8GB RAM shared). Rendering on Revit 2015 the medium structural model: 1 hour 20 minutes.
Macbook Air 2013 1.3 ghz, 128GB SSD, 4GB RAM, Windows 7, in bootcamp. Rendering on Revit 2015 the medium structural model: 2 hours 15 minutes.
The MBA handles Revit models up to 150mb without blinking, day to day drawing, detailing, etc. For rendering, well it isn't designed for that and to be perfectly honest Revit is terrible for rendering - if you render alot, then go quad core. Vray, Kerkythea etc. use less resources, run great and render better than revit and cope well with dual cores. In Autocad the MBA handles everything I throw at it in - lots of layers, lineweights, hatching and Ordnance Survey maps with lots of co-ordinates.
I split my workload between the MBA 80% and the Mini 20%. At work I hook the MBA up to a 24" Samsung 1080p monitor, when I get home I just use the Mini as it's hooked up to a 27" 2560x1440 screen i got from eBay.
If I didn't have monitors I liked then I would maybe be tempted by the 15" as the screen can be run at 1920x1200 - so desktop class.
As for the retina 13", I see no massive benefit of: cost v power v battery life. The 13 MBA has turbo boost dual cores (albeit at lower clocks) and great battery life, the 15" has quad cores and desktop class resolution. The 13 rMBP has slightly higher dual core clocks and I suppose a smaller footprint but battery life isn't as good as the MBA and I don't see what it can do the MBA can't. If my MBA had 8GB Ram I could run Revit models up to 250-350mb.
If your a student you can use the Autodesk cloud for rendering work anyway so negating the need for a huge chunk of power - use your student ID/Email to sign up with Autodesk.
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So your point is that the Macbook Air with i7 is a better pick? I suppose that the i7 cpu is better and you get more battery life but you are stuck with a TN display with no scalable resolutions and OK viewing angles.
My original quest was to pick a computer with 8h of battery life. This was when I was looking at windows systems. Now that I have decided in Macintosh, I can see that the 9h of the Pro is plenty sufficient and the retina screen, full power CPU, and better graphics make it a better pick for engineering.
Yes. The i5 in the 13" is a dual core full mobile cpu with 2.4ghz/2.9ghz turbo boost. The MBA i7 upgrade is 1.7 ghz/3.3ghz turbo boost. I would suspect that the MBP can maintain the higher clock speeds for longer though.
Does that change your opinion?
If I'm not mistaken, not many software takes advantage of multiple cores or threads.
So for single-threaded tasks, the rMBP will still be faster (but it may not be that noticeable though)
No, I wouldn't worry about it. Honestly, I think you need this to get through school. Yes having it for longer would be great, but the main point is for schooling, and this should suffice. By the time we graduate, we'll be a couple gens behind anyways so I wouldn't worry about it.
Quite frankly I like the form factor of the rMBP more than the air, and the screen is great too. I wouldn't worry about the clock speed very much, both are quite capable machines. I would still vote for the rMBP. Also, don't forget they have a generous return warranty. Not that I advise taking advantage of it, but it's there for a reason. When you make your decision, load everything that you can on it and test it as well as you can. If you made the wrong decision, return it.
I believe either decision is a good one and you will be happy either way. I know when I was choosing it was hard settling on my perfect laptop, but it all works out!
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That depends on the program of course. I would hope most engineering programs are optimized for multiple cores, but in reality quite a few are not I would imagine. I can't remember whether mine were or not.
So I'm just about to make the purchase from the refurbished store and I have run into a conundrum.
I have already decided that I am OK with 8gb of ram and 256gb hard drive. I now see that there is another refurb model with the upgraded 2.6ghz i5 and higher clocked GPU as well as 512gb SSD for $250 more.
The step up in CPU is appealing however I would likely upgrade to a new machine in 3 years time so CPU may never become a bottleneck. Double the storage is enticing but I am planning on getting an external drive anyway and I'm not a data hoarder. I likely will set aside the bare minimum for boot camp and use parallels for the rest if my windows work.
At the end if the day, I want to know relatively quickly whether or not there is a large enough difference in capabilities to warrant the upgrade. I am not planning to do heavy work in this machine but it would be nice to have the capabilities for occasional use. If there is no noticeable improvement, then I will not buy it.
I have already decided that I am OK with 8gb of ram and 256gb hard drive. I now see that there is another refurb model with the upgraded 2.6ghz i5 and higher clocked GPU as well as 512gb SSD for $250 more.
The step up in CPU is appealing however I would likely upgrade to a new machine in 3 years time so CPU may never become a bottleneck. Double the storage is enticing but I am planning on getting an external drive anyway and I'm not a data hoarder. I likely will set aside the bare minimum for boot camp and use parallels for the rest if my windows work.
At the end if the day, I want to know relatively quickly whether or not there is a large enough difference in capabilities to warrant the upgrade. I am not planning to do heavy work in this machine but it would be nice to have the capabilities for occasional use. If there is no noticeable improvement, then I will not buy it.
Hey guys. So I sent this message below to a couple of friends in the engineering industry in order to get an idea of what I will need from some recent graduates. The message basically sums up my current needs and presents a few more questions I have had. I am hoping that a few of you might be able to give me your advice on the configurations below. Just know that I would like to stay within the 13" size and cost bracket for reasons stated below.
*/I have decided upon purchasing a 13" Macbook pro as a midway point between a portable ultrabook and a powerful workstation. I am not a gamer and I needed something very portable around campus that will last a full day away from the wall. I'm sure that you know how most of the lecture halls have not been renovated to include student power outlets.During my visit to the school I noticed that ~60% of the computers in the engineering section were macbooks and the apple repair store is very close to campus.**I am quite adept with digital technology and feel that I can learn how to adapt to using a bootcamp installation for windows as well as virtual machines to cope with support for engineering programs. I think that I will try to use the labs for major projects and rely on my own machine for reports, research, data collection and some light CAD work. That being said, I would like to make the most of my only computer (I have no experience with desktops) and be able to work with a connected monitor at my desk when I do not want to go to the lab. Ideally I would consider purchasing a desktop tower in my later years.
So I am presented with 3 different configurations for the Identically designed machine and Apple is offering some good incentives in both their education and refurbished stores (highly recommended and comes with full warranty support.) The three options are as follows in order of cost.
1, 2.4 GHz processor, 8GB of RAM and 256GB SSD. I can get a very good discount on a refurbished model and use the money saved to put towards extended warranty and accessories.*
2. 2.6GHz processor, 8GB of RAM and 512GB SSD. This is a $250 upgrade from above. the CPU is only about 8% better
3. Option 1 but with 16GB of RAM
In the end, I would like to know which upgrade 2 or 3 is more beneficial to my situation if at all. If not then it doesnt seem worth it to pay extra to future proof something I could potentially be selling and replacing in 3 years.
I am especially unsure about option 2 because I have no idea how much data I will be accumulating over the course of a degree and how much I will want to keep stored on the computer itself. I plan to invest in a portable drive option to keep 10 years of photos and important files so storage space might not be an issue. Then again, I dont know how much memory I will want to allocate to the Windows partition considering that I hope to only use it when necessary. ( when software is incompatible)
the 16GB of RAM option has been recommended the most since it comes soldered on. I can see the point of having the most you can get but I'm not sure that I would every need to use it.
Lastly, I wanted to know if you have any experience in running CAD projects on portable machines like this as opposed to workstations?. What are they really capable of? As far as I can tell, the machine will be comparable to that of the Lenovo thinkpads which your company supplies. How do those function under workload?
I really appreciate any recommendations or suggestions you can give me. This is turning out to be a tougher decision than I previously thought. I have had a lot of forum recommendations for 6lb workstations which really annoys me as it is the exact opposite of the machine I have in mind.
Thank You/*
*/I have decided upon purchasing a 13" Macbook pro as a midway point between a portable ultrabook and a powerful workstation. I am not a gamer and I needed something very portable around campus that will last a full day away from the wall. I'm sure that you know how most of the lecture halls have not been renovated to include student power outlets.During my visit to the school I noticed that ~60% of the computers in the engineering section were macbooks and the apple repair store is very close to campus.**I am quite adept with digital technology and feel that I can learn how to adapt to using a bootcamp installation for windows as well as virtual machines to cope with support for engineering programs. I think that I will try to use the labs for major projects and rely on my own machine for reports, research, data collection and some light CAD work. That being said, I would like to make the most of my only computer (I have no experience with desktops) and be able to work with a connected monitor at my desk when I do not want to go to the lab. Ideally I would consider purchasing a desktop tower in my later years.
So I am presented with 3 different configurations for the Identically designed machine and Apple is offering some good incentives in both their education and refurbished stores (highly recommended and comes with full warranty support.) The three options are as follows in order of cost.
1, 2.4 GHz processor, 8GB of RAM and 256GB SSD. I can get a very good discount on a refurbished model and use the money saved to put towards extended warranty and accessories.*
2. 2.6GHz processor, 8GB of RAM and 512GB SSD. This is a $250 upgrade from above. the CPU is only about 8% better
3. Option 1 but with 16GB of RAM
In the end, I would like to know which upgrade 2 or 3 is more beneficial to my situation if at all. If not then it doesnt seem worth it to pay extra to future proof something I could potentially be selling and replacing in 3 years.
I am especially unsure about option 2 because I have no idea how much data I will be accumulating over the course of a degree and how much I will want to keep stored on the computer itself. I plan to invest in a portable drive option to keep 10 years of photos and important files so storage space might not be an issue. Then again, I dont know how much memory I will want to allocate to the Windows partition considering that I hope to only use it when necessary. ( when software is incompatible)
the 16GB of RAM option has been recommended the most since it comes soldered on. I can see the point of having the most you can get but I'm not sure that I would every need to use it.
Lastly, I wanted to know if you have any experience in running CAD projects on portable machines like this as opposed to workstations?. What are they really capable of? As far as I can tell, the machine will be comparable to that of the Lenovo thinkpads which your company supplies. How do those function under workload?
I really appreciate any recommendations or suggestions you can give me. This is turning out to be a tougher decision than I previously thought. I have had a lot of forum recommendations for 6lb workstations which really annoys me as it is the exact opposite of the machine I have in mind.
Thank You/*