Macbook for business school - trying to decide between 15 and 17

[spoofboy]

Normally in this situation I'd say go with the 13 because you just don't really need the better graphics card. But now that the 15" has the 9400M I'm going to suggest that size. I'm a student right now and I walk a couple miles a day with my 15" MBP and it never bothers me. The 13" would be slightly lighter, but I doubt I'd notice the size difference when carrying it. But I know for a fact I'd notice the difference when using it. I wouldn't even consider the 17".

I'd go for the base level 15", an external if you'd like, and some HDD/RAM upgrades, and/or some other accessories.

Monitor Recommendation: This Dell. Its really a fantastic monitor for a good price.

http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/...etail.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=bsd&cs=04&sku=320-7825

A note about bootcamp: If you are only using 1 program I'd look into some of those virtualization programs. They have gotten pretty good now, I know people running programs like Solidworks no problem in them. Bootcamp is very annoying to deal with. I use a couple 3d modeling/rendering programs on XP and its just a hassle.

thanks a lot for your insight! and for the monitor recommendation... that price is much much easier to look at. but i notice (from your sig) that you're using a samsung monitor now?

re virtualization programs - i hate having to reboot into bootcamp. which one are you using?

 

[Luba]

Scrolling back and forth on a wide Excel spreadsheet is a pain so go 17. The 17 is sharper and crisper but the text is just a bit small to my liking. Readable but IMO not comfortable. So if you're comfortable with the default text size on the menu bar, you're all set for the 17. In the body of a program you can increase the size etc. but you can't on the menu bar, at least I don't know how without changing the resolution (1900 x 1200)

You're not really hiking miles with it so I don't think the weight will be an issue, the size might be though . . . a bit clumsier when you take it out etc.