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Hey everyone,
Apart from my new registration on this website I'm somewhat experienced with computers and am posting here for some advice on what MacBook Pro I should buy. I apologize for the lengthy post but I'd more than appretiate anyone's time and help.
I'm about to start college within the next few weeks and need a new computer, and I've decided on a 13" MacBook Pro.
My concerns are what specs and hardware I should give my MBP, and I'd love any advice based on the following information.
During college, I'll be running multiple different engineering applications that will most likely be pretty large.
I am going to have to purchase Parallels so that I can run Windows on my Mac as most of the engineering software only runs with Windows, so Windows will probably be running good percentage of the time.
To make use of the new OS X Lion, I'll most likely have multiple desktops open each with a few applications running on them.
My main tasks I'll be doing on my MBP are school work (Microsoft Office, Powerpoint, engineering software, etc.), web design (Adobe Photoshop, Dreamweaver), streaming high-definition TV shows and movies, and some gaming. I'm also most likely to have all of these applications open at once.
My choices come down as follows,
#1 - MacBook Pro 13" $1,864.00
2.3GHz dual-core Intel Core i5
8GB Ram
256GB Solid Slate Drive
#2 - MacBook Pro 13" $1,579.00
2.7GHz dual-core Intel Core i7
8GB Ram
500GB ATA Drive
It's either the slightly faster processor i7 or the 256GB SSD that I'm torn on.
I'm in love with how fast SSD boot and load times and that's why I'm strongly leaning towards option #1 but I'm not sure if it's worth the extra money. Some other benefits of the SSD are a quieter and cooler hard drive and also conserved battery power. The smaller space isn't a problem for me as the most space I know I'll ever need is ~150GB. And as you can see I've opted 8GB of ram in both options.
To sum it up my main questions are,
Which option would be more beneficial for me, seeing as I'll be running Parallels a good amount of the time?
Will Parallels and Windows run faster/smoother/overall better with the SSD (because of faster load times) or with the Intel Core i7?
Is the 256GB SSD worth the extra few hundred bucks and being stuck with the Intel Core i5?
Thanks for all and any help and advice!
Regards,
Kevin
Apart from my new registration on this website I'm somewhat experienced with computers and am posting here for some advice on what MacBook Pro I should buy. I apologize for the lengthy post but I'd more than appretiate anyone's time and help.
I'm about to start college within the next few weeks and need a new computer, and I've decided on a 13" MacBook Pro.
My concerns are what specs and hardware I should give my MBP, and I'd love any advice based on the following information.
During college, I'll be running multiple different engineering applications that will most likely be pretty large.
I am going to have to purchase Parallels so that I can run Windows on my Mac as most of the engineering software only runs with Windows, so Windows will probably be running good percentage of the time.
To make use of the new OS X Lion, I'll most likely have multiple desktops open each with a few applications running on them.
My main tasks I'll be doing on my MBP are school work (Microsoft Office, Powerpoint, engineering software, etc.), web design (Adobe Photoshop, Dreamweaver), streaming high-definition TV shows and movies, and some gaming. I'm also most likely to have all of these applications open at once.
My choices come down as follows,
#1 - MacBook Pro 13" $1,864.00
2.3GHz dual-core Intel Core i5
8GB Ram
256GB Solid Slate Drive
#2 - MacBook Pro 13" $1,579.00
2.7GHz dual-core Intel Core i7
8GB Ram
500GB ATA Drive
It's either the slightly faster processor i7 or the 256GB SSD that I'm torn on.
I'm in love with how fast SSD boot and load times and that's why I'm strongly leaning towards option #1 but I'm not sure if it's worth the extra money. Some other benefits of the SSD are a quieter and cooler hard drive and also conserved battery power. The smaller space isn't a problem for me as the most space I know I'll ever need is ~150GB. And as you can see I've opted 8GB of ram in both options.
To sum it up my main questions are,
Which option would be more beneficial for me, seeing as I'll be running Parallels a good amount of the time?
Will Parallels and Windows run faster/smoother/overall better with the SSD (because of faster load times) or with the Intel Core i7?
Is the 256GB SSD worth the extra few hundred bucks and being stuck with the Intel Core i5?
Thanks for all and any help and advice!
Regards,
Kevin