Upgrade or no? (MBA->rMBP) Student

[MelonMellow]

Hello everyone,
this is my very first thread here so if I there is anything inappropriate just let me know! Thanks!

I have been thinking if I should upgrade my MacBook Air now or wait till later. It works ok for now.

Current Spec: 1.8Gz mid 2012 MacBook Air, Intel 4000, 4G of Ram, 128 GB of SSD 13inch
Upgrade: Mid 2015 MacBook Pro 15inch

I'm a college student major in engineering,

Daily usage:
Web Browsing
Photoshop (for work)
Illustrator (for work)
FCP

Future School usage:
some industrial design program require Windows
3D design program (AutoC etc.)

Game play:
CS-GO


I just want to know if I should upgrade now follow with the education promotion or wait till the redesign of MacBook Pro.

 

[kohlson]

Hello everyone,
this is my very first thread here so if I there is anything inappropriate just let me know! Thanks!

I have been thinking if I should upgrade my MacBook Air now or wait till later. It works ok for now.

Current Spec: 1.8Gz mid 2012 MacBook Air, Intel 4000, 4G of Ram, 128 GB of SSD 13inch
Upgrade: Mid 2015 MacBook Pro 15inch

I'm a college student major in engineering,

Daily usage:
Web Browsing
Photoshop (for work)
Illustrator (for work)
FCP

Future School usage:
some industrial design program require Windows
3D design program (AutoC etc.)

Game play:
CS-GO


I just want to know if I should upgrade now follow with the education promotion or wait till the redesign of MacBook Pro.

If it works OK for you now, then wait until it doesn't. Do other students use an MBA like yours to run Windows apps and AutoCad? Do you foresee your MBA not working for you within the next 6 months? If so, then consider the promo. But one thing is for sure: the future will always hold better tech. At a future date, the same money will buy more capabilities.

 

[phrehdd]

The two drivers of this should be AutoC and FCP. Each requires a different operating system. If it were not for FCP, I would have suggested you looked at some Windows based laptops instead as there may be more bang for your buck. However, the MBP BTO would certainly best the the MBA. What perhaps you might investigate is whether the Windows apps work well within a virtual window (such as VMware Fusion or Parallels) and if not, could you consider doing a dual boot into Windows. (I heard that Apple may not officially support Windows 10 in bootcamp but there are always workarounds.)

Last - if FCP is the only app that drives a choice for OSX, would you consider a counterpart found in Windows such as some of the Adobe products?

Btw, I thoroughly enjoy using my Apple laptop and my Minis and in the past the iMacs and Mac Pro so please don't get the idea that I am anti-Mac but I tend to pick the right tool for the right job (as I run Window 7 virtual for 3 specific apps.

 

[balamw]

MOD NOTE: Closed at tread starter's request.

B