Hi!
I'm hoping to get some advice on what to configuration to buy, and if I should buy now! Here's my background:
I'm a current grad student (just returned this semester) in Statistics. It's a funny field in that people have Mac's and PC's, but one of our major "stat packages" only runs on PC's. I bought my first Mac, a Mid-2011 MBP when I left grad school to teach and have fallen in love, so despite wanting to use programs only available on a PC, I'd like to stay within the Mac family! This is why I'm asking for help! I need to be able to have my laptop do the following:
Run Parallel's or VMFusion as fluidly as possible. Within the Virtual Machine, I'll have either Windows 7 or Windows 8 installed (whichever is cheaper and that I can get my hands on, I think I would prefer Windows 7). The software that I'll have installed on the Windows side will be SAS and perhaps WinEdt.
As a grad student, I don't have a ton of money, so I don't want to spend money on upgrades that I might not actually see, but I definitely can spend the money to make sure the computer does what I need it to do with speed and fluidity.
My Mid-2011 MBP is still running ok, but has gotten slow over the years and is really not capable of doing what I need to do right now (I was assured that it would be able to run Parallel's or VMFusion which it really wasn't able to do ever). I can use it for the time being, but am looking for a long term solution! I've heard / read the rumors about a big upgrade. I know that you need to take the plunge when you buy technology and something new comes out every day, but I'd like to not buy a new computer that's going to be replaced in 3 months!
Any advice would be much appreciated!
I'm hoping to get some advice on what to configuration to buy, and if I should buy now! Here's my background:
I'm a current grad student (just returned this semester) in Statistics. It's a funny field in that people have Mac's and PC's, but one of our major "stat packages" only runs on PC's. I bought my first Mac, a Mid-2011 MBP when I left grad school to teach and have fallen in love, so despite wanting to use programs only available on a PC, I'd like to stay within the Mac family! This is why I'm asking for help! I need to be able to have my laptop do the following:
Run Parallel's or VMFusion as fluidly as possible. Within the Virtual Machine, I'll have either Windows 7 or Windows 8 installed (whichever is cheaper and that I can get my hands on, I think I would prefer Windows 7). The software that I'll have installed on the Windows side will be SAS and perhaps WinEdt.
As a grad student, I don't have a ton of money, so I don't want to spend money on upgrades that I might not actually see, but I definitely can spend the money to make sure the computer does what I need it to do with speed and fluidity.
My Mid-2011 MBP is still running ok, but has gotten slow over the years and is really not capable of doing what I need to do right now (I was assured that it would be able to run Parallel's or VMFusion which it really wasn't able to do ever). I can use it for the time being, but am looking for a long term solution! I've heard / read the rumors about a big upgrade. I know that you need to take the plunge when you buy technology and something new comes out every day, but I'd like to not buy a new computer that's going to be replaced in 3 months!
Any advice would be much appreciated!