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Is my MBP good enough for my computer science degree?

S

Soulweaponry

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Mar 13, 2010
394
1
I have a base model 2012 15" retina macbook pro. 8 gigs of ram and all that. I'll be going strong in programming courses and finally going to school to start my bachelors in computer science. I won't be doing game design or anything like that. Will my macbook be enough? Or should i sell this year and get the next base model that comes out?
 
Soulweaponry said:
I have a base model 2012 15" retina macbook pro. 8 gigs of ram and all that. I'll be going strong in programming courses and finally going to school to start my bachelors in computer science. I won't be doing game design or anything like that. Will my macbook be enough? Or should i sell this year and get the next base model that comes out?
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Any Mac model made in recent years, including the base Mac mini, is more than sufficient for your school needs.

Computer Science/Engineering Major ; 13" or 15" ?
Advice for Computer Science student
Laptop for Computer Science and Web Design
What MacBook should I buy for Computer Science.
 
If you ever want a speed increase, upgrade to an SSD. It'll be more than worth it, and give you close to what you would experience with a new model.
 
Soulweaponry said:
I have a base model 2012 15" retina macbook pro. 8 gigs of ram and all that. I'll be going strong in programming courses and finally going to school to start my bachelors in computer science. I won't be doing game design or anything like that. Will my macbook be enough? Or should i sell this year and get the next base model that comes out?
Click to expand...

2012 base retina 15" is way more than enough. Don't worry. I know allot of Architects, Engineers, and Science majors at my university who WISH they had a base 2012 15" rMBP. Allot of folks are doing stuff on allot less capable hardware.
 
As everyone else had already said, your MBP will easily handle everything you need for school. I got through most of the same work on an '07 iMac. A newer computer would've been very nice though for non-school related activities (games, youtube, programming for windows), but as far as actually writing code for classes, the computer was nearly overkill. Especially depending on the environment you use to code in. I never had a stutter while using textwrangler and terminal to compile and run. But using an IDE like Eclipse started to strain the memory slightly. With the 8GB you have, nothing will be an issue.
 
T'hain Esh Kelch said:
If you ever want a speed increase, upgrade to an SSD. It'll be more than worth it, and give you close to what you would experience with a new model.
Click to expand...

The OP stated he has a retina MBP, thus already has a SSD.

OP your computer is probably "too" powerful for your needs as a CS student. You're fine.

Edit: Wasn't fast enough lol
 
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