consolidating all my machines to an intel mbp.

[sev]

Hi,

After literally ten years of loyal service I'm thinking of retiring my machines.
I've a 2011 macbook air, a 17" mid 2010 mbp and imac27. I use a windows laptop for heavyweight cad, hence looking at intel machines vs M chips.

I will probably donate the macs to a school to hand out to students as they're probably worth nothing now.

My thoughts are to buy a large monitor and an intel mbp as they have the professional graphics chips - ok, they're not quadro chipsets but at least they're a pro chipset so the software won't throw a hissy fit and give me display issues - if they'll play nice in bootcamp or just as a separate windows volume then great, I can just have the one machine as opposed to a windows machine and a mac.

I'd like to ask, will the mbp work with lid down and mouse and keyboard fitted with an external monitor? I've done the multiple monitors thing and everything just ends up on the one screen in the end so I'd just want to go massive screen real estate.

I tried this on my old 17mbp and the fans just went into overdrive.

Can you tell the system to only use the pro gpu as opposed to the integrated intel video, or does it only have pro gpu?

Given how long my current trusty steeds have performed, I know that the machine is good for a good many years - after all, it it wasn't for the fact that the best i can run is high sierra, I'd probably have kept going on the existing kit till the video boards just died.

Or, I just concede that It's better to keep windows separate and run it on a separate machine, in which case, I can probably live with a macbook air as in reality the mac doesn't do anything heavyweight or taxing - I leave anything grown up for windows by virtue of the software I use, hence the mac is just a lifestyle machine - I'm too wrapped up into the apple eco system to get off the fairground ride now - having been with mac since my first LC!

Your thoughts would be gratefully recieved.

 

[macsound1]

Why not an iMac if you're always going to use it in clamshell mode with an external display?

 

[Euroamerican]

I think about getting all the devices eventually merged down into "one mac" , but does that one (perhaps new purchase) Mac's cost outweigh the benefits of that consolidation?

All the old Macs are already payed off, after all. If I use one now and then for a certain duty, then it's "free".

 

[Macdctr]

1. I'd like to ask, will the mbp work with lid down and mouse and keyboard fitted with an external monitor? I've done the multiple monitors thing and everything just ends up on the one screen in the end so I'd just want to go massive screen real estate.

2. Can you tell the system to only use the pro gpu as opposed to the integrated intel video, or does it only have pro gpu?

3. Or, I just concede that It's better to keep windows separate and run it on a separate machine, in which case, I can probably live with a macbook air as in reality the mac doesn't do anything heavyweight or taxing - I leave anything grown up for windows by virtue of the software I use, hence the mac is just a lifestyle machine - I'm too wrapped up into the apple eco system to get off the fairground ride now - having been with mac since my first LC!

Your thoughts would be gratefully recieved.

To answer your questions above...

1. yes, you can run the MBP in clambshell mode with lid closed, external display connected and keyboard/mouse and run it that way.

2. yes you can select the GPU assuming you have a dual GPU MBP such that the integrated intel GPU is not running and you're running the dedicated GPU full time instead. At least with my 2013 15 inch dual GPU MBP I am able to do this.

3. Depending on your needs you can get a decent Dual GPU MBP depending on how spec'd you want it and then run everything with your Windows apps running in VMWare Fusion or Parallels if you're running a virtual system which is the way I do things or if you want to run dedicated Windows thru Bootcamp. Personally I stay with the 2013-2015 laptops as they are my preference machines.

 

[sev]

Why not an iMac if you're always going to use it in clamshell mode with an external display?

I think about getting all the devices eventually merged down into "one mac" , but does that one (perhaps new purchase) Mac's cost outweigh the benefits of that consolidation?

All the old Macs are already payed off, after all. If I use one now and then for a certain duty, then it's "free".

Thanks for the replies all.

In answer to these two questions, the main reason I was thinking mbp again was so that when I go away, it means that I'm not tied to one room or location, I just take my machine and that's it, rather than moving files I need etc.

The biggest problem I have with my 17" pro is that the gpu is still a consumer gpu. My software is most comfortable on Quadro or equivalent gpu architecture, and running things like Catia through Vmware or parallels is pretty dire, hence being able to dual boot into windows, then after my "work" is done, I boot back into my happy OS.

My current work hack is a Lenovo W540, and it powers through everything, and the Quadro card handles everything I throw at it. If I can have my mac rolled up into that as well, happy days.