Macbook for college or not ?

Lmao_Man

I'm looking for a new laptop for college that's 13.3" or even 14".

I've around €500 to spend, and thinking about getting one second hand on adverts.ie or whatever.

Only thing is, I'm not sure if a MacBook would be good for college, at the moment I need to use :

Visual studio 2010
Microsoft office/excel etc
Notepad++
and there's probably going to be others soon.

Is it worth considering getting MacBook ? Have an iPhone already and love it, never tried a MacBook but sure that Ill get used to it.

Is there anything that I should look out for as well ? Would an intel core 2 duo be fast enough ?

Thanks

Colonel Panic

Visual Studio etc are all Windows apps so they won't run natively on a Mac running OSX.

The alternatives are installing both Windows and OSX and dual booting or installing Windows in a VM.

To be honest, I think if they're the main apps you use, you'd be better off sticking with a Windows PC. I'm sure people will list alternatives to Visual Studio, Notepad++ etc but it really depends on what you're developing.

conor.hogan.2

Visual studio worked fine in a virtualbox vm for me on a base 2010 mbp, and while you are at it you could use notepad++ etc while in the virtual machine.

If you dont want osx at all, or not that often then partition and dual boot.

Or you osx and try out VS alternatives and there are plenty of good or even better word and notepad++ apps for osx. excel and VS are a bit more sketchy so look into virtualization or dual booting.

BULLER

If you're going to be using your laptop with those programs, without a doubt get a Windows laptop. You dont want to be messing around with virtual environments when you just want to get some work done! You'll get much more bang for your buck aswell in terms of specs but thats another days story...

Munster Blogger

I agree. If you need to use the software you listed I would buy a Windows Laptop. For 500 you will get a much more powerful Windows laptop.

There is always the option of getting a Mac and installing windows on it via Boot Camp of a Virtual Machine. There are loads of tutorials out there.

The very minimum processor you should be looking at is a core 2 duo. For a windows laptop second hand I personally would be aiming for an i-series processor.

Personally I'd go Mac every time. Great bits of kit but on your budget I think any Mac you get second hand won't have any great specs and will be very sluggish. Battery life would also be a concern

Thats my 2 cents Good luck on you search

Matt Bauer

Personally I would go with a Mac every the as well, but on your budget and with Visual Studio you may be better off sticking with a PC.

i've a mid 2007 black macbook with 2gb of ram.
i had it bought before college even came into picture,
so in that sense i didnt have to decide on buying it for college , if you catch my drift.

for college last year i used Windows 7 thru bootcamp
it ran visual studio 2010 and office 2010 with no problems what so ever.
i'm using it this year also and still going good (so far )

if i didnt have to do college stuff i just used the mac side of things.

if you are going to get a 2nd had one the minimum processor for Lion is an Intel Core 2 Duo.
min req here

i use VMware fusion (Virtual machine) on my iMac and it runs fine as i've 8gb ,
but i dont think the macbook would be up to much in Win 7with only the 2gb total,
so bootcamp is the only option for running windows imho.

hope this helps

SouperComputer

Question is really weather you want to use OS X or not in addition to your college work. If not, then might as well go the non-Apple hardware route.