cMBP 15" for college

[zerrisk]

I've been reading these forums for about 2 weeks now almost every day. I am attending college for comp. sci. in the end of Sept. and need a laptop, and I cannot decide on the current cMBP or waiting for a hopeful Haswell release.

I haven't really considered the rMBP at all because upgradability sounds good to me for a cheaper price. I've toyed around with a few laptops in my local Apple store and I admit the screen looks nice.

Does anyone have a suggestion for me?

 

[S.B.G]

Get whatever fits your desires and your budget. If you don't need a laptop now, but in the fall for school, wait it out and see what the refresh brings with Haswell and other features. Then you can make a decision based on that.

 

[zerrisk]

I keep hearing either that it would not be refreshed or the performance increase would be minimal?

(Regarding power usage with a dGPU & Haswell)

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I am hoping for it to last me at least 4 years.

 

[S.B.G]

Even if you buy today's model and take care of it, it should last you more than 4 years. I have a MBP that I bought in 2006 which I used daily for 5 years and then gave it to some friends who are still using it today as their main computer.

 

[jamesr19]

I'd recommend waiting around for the Haswell based on battery life. It will mean you're less likely to have to take your charger.

In terms of performance, the MBA will be powerful enough for your needs (mine has done me proud for 2 years doing CS at uni).

On the pricing front. If you consider student discount in-store and online and spec the two machines the rMBP is a very similar price (even if you purchase parts from a 3rd party vendor).

SSD is a MUST so take that into consideration when you make your purchase. It will make your machine so much more responsive. (read other threads if you need convincing)

 

[NewishMacGuy]

I'd recommend waiting around for the Haswell based on battery life. It will mean you're less likely to have to take your charger.

In terms of performance, the MBA will be powerful enough for your needs (mine has done me proud for 2 years doing CS at uni).

On the pricing front. If you consider student discount in-store and online and spec the two machines the rMBP is a very similar price (even if you purchase parts from a 3rd party vendor).

SSD is a MUST so take that into consideration when you make your purchase. It will make your machine so much more responsive. (read other threads if you need convincing)

1. Agreed that if you can wait for Haswell you're better off under just about any circumstance as the prices of non-Haswell machines will likely decline in the open market.

2. If you want to game at all, the MBA won't cut it. I would think that for a CS major, quad core would also be nice - maybe I'm wrong on that.

3. I believe that the rMBP carries an extra $100 of student discount, narrowing the gap on the base machine to $300, about exactly what it would cost to upgrade the uMBP-15 to 8GB RAM and 256 SSD storage. If, however, you want to upspec to a 500GB SSD and 16GB RAM, that gap widens significantly from $0 to about $575 (inclusive of Superdrive, GigE adapter & FW800 adapter and assuming you sell your old OEM stuff from the uMBP-15) and...

4. If you're on a budget that gap gets even bigger should you need storage space but can sacrifice a little speed by upgrading to a 750GB or 1TB hybrid. An SSD is not the only way to go for speed improvement if you care about cost/GB too.


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[gametime10]

The problem with waiting for Haswell is that you'll have to pay full price for them when they come out. At this point you can buy a cMBP on refurb with full warranty or get an even better deal used on CL or eBay.

 

[Chuck-Norris]

ive used a 15" for college, although the screen realestate was nice and power, i think an air would have been nicer. smaller and MUCH lighter to carry.

id be all over the air if it had retina XD

 

[Badrottie]

cMBP is too much to lug around campus. I would suggest you to buy 13" MBA with Haswell. But it all depends on what you ant to do with Macbook anyway.

 

[zerrisk]

I have tried my dad's air and I'm not a big fan. I currently have a 15.6" HP laptop and think that it is a good size, and the dGPU is one of the biggest pluses for me. I've been trying to use smaller screen estate, but it's just not working for me.

I'm just trying to figure out if the performance and battery increase is worth the wait. I'm the anxious type. xD

 

[S.B.G]

cMBP is too much to lug around campus.

hehe, that's all a matter of relativity. Carrying my cMBP and other things around pales in comparison to what I carried on my back in the US Marines in the jungles, deserts and mountains. I'd gladly have traded, based on weight alone, what I had to carry for a bag with a cMBP in it!

 

[sonicrobby]

cMBP is too much to lug around campus. I would suggest you to buy 13" MBA with Haswell. But it all depends on what you ant to do with Macbook anyway.

This member over here thinks the 15" cMBP is too bulky to carry around. Its not too much to lug around campus, it all depends on what else you have. Ive carried around my 17" Asus G73 gaming laptop, along with textbooks and my binders. Trust me, the 15" is cake to carry around instead of that.

To the OP, I would NOT recommend the MBA since its interneals cannot be upgraded. I would wait till as close as possible until school starts (or right before the back to school promotion ends), see if they release anything new by then, if not, just go for the cMBP then.

 

[maflynn]

Have you considered the 13" MBA? I think the cMBP is a fine computer for college but the MBA may be a viable option

 

[NewishMacGuy]

hehe, that's all a matter of relativity. Carrying my cMBP and other things around pales in comparison to what I carried on my back in the US Marines in the jungles, deserts and mountains. I'd gladly have traded, based on weight alone, what I had to carry for a bag with a cMBP in it!

...and pales in comparison to what students carried on their backs around THE SAME CAMPUSES five, ten, and fifteen years ago. They also would gladly have traded, based on weight alone, what they had to carry for a bag with a uMBP-15, one small notebook, an iPad, an iPhone, and a couple of pens.


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[TyPod]

Another one here for purchasing one of the new MBA's. I have a 2010 MBP that I still carry around campus. Although it's not bad at all to carry around in my backpack, I really wish I had a MBA.

 

[jadam]

Why are you guys so fixated on "upgrading" the laptop, there isn't much to upgrade in the first place and there is most likely a 90% chance that you won't upgrade it.

No one uses CDs in college either, everything is done via USB Sneakernet or dropbox!

You're better off with the 13" Air if only because of the higher resolution screen versus the cMBP, forget about the huge difference in battery life and weight.

If you're worried about gaming, just get a PS4, it's faster than any Apple laptop will be for the next 2-3 years for gaming. Besides that, the current MBA handles gaming fairly well from my experience.

 

[leftywamumonkey]

I have tried my dad's air and I'm not a big fan. I currently have a 15.6" HP laptop and think that it is a good size, and the dGPU is one of the biggest pluses for me. I've been trying to use smaller screen estate, but it's just not working for me.

I'm just trying to figure out if the performance and battery increase is worth the wait. I'm the anxious type. xD

The performance increase is going to be minimal, but you're going to get a much better integrated GPU, better battery life and MUCH faster flash storage speeds since they're going to be PCIe based. There won't be a 6Gb/s bottleneck like there is with SATAIII. The flash storage on the Haswell based MBAs are fast! If you're going to be studying CS, the resolution and size of the 15" is excellent, and if you tell yourself that the 15" rMBP weighs (barely) less than the 13" cMBP, you can justify the weight over a 13" MBA.

Why are you guys so fixated on "upgrading" the laptop, there isn't much to upgrade in the first place and there is most likely a 90% chance that you won't upgrade it.

No one uses CDs in college either, everything is done via USB Sneakernet or dropbox!

You're better off with the 13" Air if only because of the higher resolution screen versus the cMBP, forget about the huge difference in battery life and weight.

I don't see why you're saying that there's a 90% chance that the OP isn't going to upgrade it.
The 13" Air has the same resolution as the cMBP 15" and the higher-res model of the cMBP has a higher resolution than the Air. Not to mention that the MBA's display quality is terrible in comparison to the the Pro's.
Although... if the 13" MBA got a Retina upgrade and was configurable to 16GB I'd want it for sure.

 

[Badrottie]

hehe, that's all a matter of relativity. Carrying my cMBP and other things around pales in comparison to what I carried on my back in the US Marines in the jungles, deserts and mountains. I'd gladly have traded, based on weight alone, what I had to carry for a bag with a cMBP in it!

I was hoping my new rMBP was lighter than my old 2007 MBP to carry around but I find it is not easy to carry with both backpack and messenger bag along with iPad, power adaptor, and external hard drive I carry everyday. It feels awfully heavy!!

 

[Suraj R.]

I get 45-80 FPS on COD 4 on my new 13" Haswell Air. For Com Sci it'll give you all the power you'll ever need, and even enough for some light gaming. An MBP is unnecessary.