Gift and possible self purchase

[Astinos]

I got a little brother that's getting into graphic design, mostly game design and such, and I wanted to get them a good send off gift. Lot of friends told me to come here to get suggestions.

Side note, he also likes to game, nothing crazy on the high end side, but I wanted something functional for him. Any and all suggestions would be awesome. Also first time here so I'm not sure if this questions is appropriate here.

 

[Barney63]

I'll kick it off for you, due to being in the MacBook Pro forum, I suggest a MacBook Pro

You don't give any details of what programs he is likely to be using so it is difficult to give an informed opinion on which model is the best!
You also haven't said what level of education he is going into, that would also help giving a better recommendation.



Barney

 

[Astinos]

Sorry,

He's going to college, community first. I know he'll be looking into graphic design, Pretty sure he's already using CS 6. Anything else I would have to ask him and find out.

I mostly posted here because he mentioned it would be his best choice in terms of a laptop with everything he needed. I clueless to macs, Been using a PC for years. I mean no harm ><

 

[Meister]

Depends on your budget.
For graphics the top end 15" is never a wrong.

 

[Astinos]

thank for the replies. Budget won't really be an issue. It's a joint grad gift from the family. I found out that most of the programs he will need will be supplied by the school, as for the names themselves I wouldn't know.

Hardware wise I will go with ur suggestion on the high end, probably best I think.

Thanks again for helping me out, I know my brother will appreciate it.

 

[Asuriyan]

The 13" is becoming progressively more worthy of the "Pro" name, especially with last year's refresh. It's a very capable system and the size is more conducive to use on the go than its larger counterpart.

Still, for 3D graphics and design work, the quad core and dedicated GPUs of the 15" models have clear advantages.

 

[Astinos]

So I guessed I've narrowed it to the 15"

Would you say there's a large difference tween the 2.0 and 2.3 quad core, I know theres a jump in the memory and other hardware, but 600 is a jump. I know money wasn't really an issue but $2500 is a bit much. $2000 isn't bad per-say given the track record of a MacBook Pro.

 

[leman]

If he enjoys occasional gaming, he will probably be quite disappointed with a laptop without an adequate gaming card. Also, it is quite likely that a Windows-based computer might be a better choice for the college, depending on what software they will use there. If you want to get him a fancy laptop, I'd rather recommend a Razer Blade or something along those lines.

 

[Astinos]

Well he does game, but it's nothing graphic intensive. He's been into League and anything with a cell shading feel to it. This laptop would be strictly for school as I'll be giving him my "old" pc for gaming that requires a high end system spec.

Seriously, thank you for the help everyone. I'll be taking him later this week to pick out his laptop. I'll probably go with your suggestion on the 15" so he has something larger to look at.

 

[GoingDark]

I have the 13" retina MacBook Pro and I regret not getting the 15". He will definitely appreciate the extra screen real estate - make sure you look at both 13" and 15" models to see exactly how drastic the difference is. I didn't realize a couple of inches could make that much difference but it really does.

Be sure to take advantage of the education discount too, it's usually good for at least $100 off the base price and an even bigger discount on AppleCare.

 

[Astinos]

I have the 13" retina MacBook Pro and I regret not getting the 15". He will definitely appreciate the extra screen real estate - make sure you look at both 13" and 15" models to see exactly how drastic the difference is. I didn't realize a couple of inches could make that much difference but it really does.

Be sure to take advantage of the education discount too, it's usually good for at least $100 off the base price and an even bigger discount on AppleCare.

Yeah I made sure to tell him that haha.

 

[Freyqq]

Well he does game, but it's nothing graphic intensive. He's been into League and anything with a cell shading feel to it. This laptop would be strictly for school as I'll be giving him my "old" pc for gaming that requires a high end system spec.

Seriously, thank you for the help everyone. I'll be taking him later this week to pick out his laptop. I'll probably go with your suggestion on the 15" so he has something larger to look at.

base 15" is enough for league of legends. Keep in mind that neither GPU can do native resolution gaming, as retina screens are ridiculously dense. At 1440x900, the base 15" should have no trouble doing light gaming. Also, the Iris Pro is actually a little faster at OpenCL, which is probably what GPU acceleration his graphic design programs use.

 

[Astinos]

So just got his laptop: http://store.apple.com/us/buy-mac/macbook-pro?product=ME293LL/A&step=config

Went with that base model, no frills or anything. Only thing I threw in for him was the upgraded memory and 500 gigs. I'll grab him an external later or something.

Everything works, most of his games (not the issue), but mainly we were able to get a lot of the other design programs working. Seriously thanks again for the suggestions.