Student (Computer Science) : Macbook Pro 13" or Air 13"?

Brego · 20-08-2012 12:10AM #1

I'm starting college this September stuyding Computer Science, and am purchasing my first Mac ever, moving from an 8 year old Windows brick.

I'm pretty set on getting the Macbook Pro 13" higher end model and switching out the 750GB HDD for a SSD. (i7 @ 2.9GHz/8GB RAM/128GB SSD).

I'll be ordering this week, and am just wondering should I go for that specific model or should I really consider the Air? I know that the Air has a higher resolution screen and that the Pro is "heavy", but weight isn't an issue for me.

If I was to get the Air, I'd get the i5 @ 1.8GHz/8GB RAM/128GB SSD model.

Any suggestions on which is the better purchase? Any input appreciated!

Chris.Buckley · 20-08-2012 12:25AM

don't take a bit of notice to people saying the mbp is heavy. once you have it, anything you've ever had before will feel like a sack of bricks. You're doing computer science, you may think it's a course that demands alot from your computer, but it's really not. in theory, yes you could do with the mba, as the two have similar specs but there is a performance difference. plus you have a disc drive, which apple are trying to say is obsolete but I think still plays an important daily role. Now to the screen resolution; Apple - as any company trying to make a profit would - are trying to tell you that a high res, retina like display will change your computing experience, and have whole sections of their site dedicated to showing you how bad other screens are in comparison, but in reality, you won't notice the difference. even the standard display on the mbp will look better than anything you've had before. You will need to put some money aside for bootcamp seen as you're doing computer science and the majority of the programmes you'll be running will be windows based.
but all in all, macbook pro all the way. If you can afford it though, go for a baseline 15 inch rather than a highly specced 13 inch as the difference in performance is substantial. plus you get more screen real estate.

Nonoperational · 20-08-2012 12:27AM

I'd go for the 13" pro with the SSD myself. You'd have a serious machine there and it's still extremely portable.

Brego · 20-08-2012 12:35AM

Thanks to both of ye.

Chris: I plan on getting a Thunderbolt Display once I bounce back from this purchase, and the €1,800 is a bit out of reach to be honest. I'd LOVE the 15" though.

Keep them coming! Thanks

Colonel Panic · 20-08-2012 08:30AM

Air for the screen resolution every single time. Plus it's plenty powerful for computer science stuff, I know full time developers who use one as their only machine.

smackyB · 20-08-2012 11:31AM

I'd personally go for the 15" MBP - the extra screen estate makes a big difference when you're coding.

NUTZZ · 20-08-2012 01:50PM

smackyB wrote: »

I'd personally go for the 15" MBP - the extra screen estate makes a big difference when you're coding.

+1 on this, my 15" MBP carried me through my CS degree with no problems, I did have XP installed on it along side OSX.

Captain Commie · 20-08-2012 01:55PM

I recently bought myself a base model 13" Pro and love it, was a tossup between this and the air, both were going for same price but I decided to go for the pro as you can upgrade the ram yourself (up to 16GB, have already upped mine to 8). I find having the optical drive handy as still have some cd's for the car that i dont have on itunes etc.

If you are getting it for CS then I would highly recommend you get more storage than a 128gb SSD. Also, I wouldnt use bootcamp and once you allocate the space, its gone. I have installed Parallels on my MBP and it runs at near native speed. I sat beside a friend with his similar spec pc, booted up parallels whilst running some other stuff on mac and it performed better than his laptop.

padraig_f · 20-08-2012 03:17PM

Colonel Panic wrote: »

Air for the screen resolution every single time. Plus it's plenty powerful for computer science stuff, I know full time developers who use one as their only machine.

+1. Screen resolution is the most important feature for coding because a lot of IDEs will have multiple windows, and the more code you can see on the screen, the better. Also a lot of times when you're programming you're looking at two things at the same time....a running program and code, code and documentation, code and a log etc. The more you can view side-by-side, the easier it is.

Brego · 20-08-2012 04:32PM

padraig_f wrote: »

+1. Screen resolution is the most important feature for coding because a lot of IDEs will have multiple windows, and the more code you can see on the screen, the better. Also a lot of times when you're programming you're looking at two things at the same time....a running program and code, code and documentation, code and a log etc. The more you can view side-by-side, the easier it is.

I really can't afford the 15" at the moment! I'll be getting a Thunderbolt Display by the end of the year, so that will help with the screen real estate.

Brego · 20-08-2012 04:34PM

Captain Commie wrote: »

I recently bought myself a base model 13" Pro and love it, was a tossup between this and the air, both were going for same price but I decided to go for the pro as you can upgrade the ram yourself (up to 16GB, have already upped mine to 8). I find having the optical drive handy as still have some cd's for the car that i dont have on itunes etc.

If you are getting it for CS then I would highly recommend you get more storage than a 128gb SSD. Also, I wouldnt use bootcamp and once you allocate the space, its gone. I have installed Parallels on my MBP and it runs at near native speed. I sat beside a friend with his similar spec pc, booted up parallels whilst running some other stuff on mac and it performed better than his laptop.

Hey man, thanks for the reply. Why do you think I'd need more than a 128GB SSD for CS? Also, how much is Parallels, and does it work with Mountain Lion? Thank you.

Brego · 20-08-2012 04:37PM

Also, to everyone who know their CS stuff:

Is it possible to code on Mac without needing to Bootcamp or use any Windows software at all?

jester77 · 20-08-2012 05:01PM

Brego wrote: »

Also, to everyone who know their CS stuff:

Is it possible to code on Mac without needing to Bootcamp or use any Windows software at all?

What are you coding?

Where I work it is all RoR, Perl, Scala, Java & Objective C and we all use osx.

Brego · 20-08-2012 05:18PM

jester77 wrote: »

What are you coding?

Where I work it is all RoR, Perl, Scala, Java & Objective C and we all use osx.

Java and C++!

Irene818 · 21-08-2012 10:16AM

Macbook Pro 13" is a better decision, IMO. It has more power, so it will run programs much better. It also offers more storage space, which may come in handy if you plan to use it for a long time.

Brego · 21-08-2012 12:03PM

Irene818 wrote: »

Macbook Pro 13" is a better decision, IMO. It has more power, so it will run programs much better. It also offers more storage space, which may come in handy if you plan to use it for a long time.

Cool. Thanks for the reply!

jester77 · 21-08-2012 12:07PM

Brego wrote: »

Java and C++!

Should be fine unless they insist on you using something like Visual Studio. Set up homebrew or ports for keeping your developer tools up to date and you will be flying. Personally I much prefer brew with ohmyzsh, great combination for super fast productivity.

tbh · 21-08-2012 01:17PM

Brego wrote: »

Also, how much is Parallels, and does it work with Mountain Lion? Thank you.

I'm a new Parallels users. Cost (I think) 88 quid and works well with Mountain Lion. New version due out soon, so they tell me. Can't recommend it highly enough.

Colonel Panic · 21-08-2012 01:38PM

VMWare Fusion is cheaper and IMO it and Parallels are more or less equal. There's also VirtualBox which is free and, I think, lacking stuff like 3D acceleration.

I use a Mac at home but I'm mostly a Windows developer and VMWare Fusion does the job for me. I only ever boot my desktop PC for games or more intense 3D stuff.

padraig_f · 21-08-2012 01:53PM

Brego wrote: »

I really can't afford the 15" at the moment! I'll be getting a Thunderbolt Display by the end of the year, so that will help with the screen real estate.

I wasn't necessarily saying to get the 15", just stressing the importance of screen real-estate. If the choice is between better screen resolution and better CPU, I'd take better screen resolution every time. CPU power is almost irrelevant when learning programming. You spend much more time reading/typing than you do executing code, and 99% of programs won't max out the CPU.

If you're getting an external display, that would be a big help though.

Brego · 21-08-2012 04:41PM

Colonel Panic wrote: »

VMWare Fusion is cheaper and IMO it and Parallels are more or less equal. There's also VirtualBox which is free and, I think, lacking stuff like 3D acceleration.

I use a Mac at home but I'm mostly a Windows developer and VMWare Fusion does the job for me. I only ever boot my desktop PC for games or more intense 3D stuff.

Cool. Thanks a MILLION! Seriously helpful.

padraig_f wrote: »

I wasn't necessarily saying to get the 15", just stressing the importance of screen real-estate. If the choice is between better screen resolution and better CPU, I'd take better screen resolution every time. CPU power is almost irrelevant when learning programming. You spend much more time reading/typing than you do executing code, and 99% of programs won't max out the CPU.

If you're getting an external display, that would be a big help though.

I see where you're coming from dude, thank you for your help. I'll consider the Air for the resolution! I'm checking out both machines in a local Apple retailer tomorrow, I'll get back to you after I check them out!

taylorconor95 · 21-08-2012 11:29PM

Brego wrote: »

I see where you're coming from dude, thank you for your help. I'll consider the Air for the resolution! I'm checking out both machines in a local Apple retailer tomorrow, I'll get back to you after I check them out!

Hey. I'm starting CS this september too (trinity - see you there??).. I have a 2yr old 15' MacBook pro. I would definitely recommend 15' - big difference. Anyway I also have 2 external monitors which help too.

As for coding, I obviously use XCode for iOS & Mac stuff in Objective-C, but I have a virtual Windows 7 machine running through Parallels where I run eclipse for java. I seperated into windows when I started Android development because I didnt want to clog up my mac with all the android sdk junk, and then decided to do all the java stuff in there.

So yeah if it was up to me, I'd forget about bootcamp altogether, get the 15' MBP if at all possible, and definitely get parallels.

miralize · 22-08-2012 12:47PM

I loved my Macbook Air. Used it instead of the 15" pro that I had before, and for pretty intensive tasks too. Even did some 3d rendering on it. If you really need more space and a dvd drive go with the pro, but i strongly suggest you go with the Air. the 13" Air has a better screen resolution than the 13" pro too.

K.O.Kiki · 23-08-2012 02:28AM

I'm just after upgrading my own machine -- replaced the main HDD with an SSD, then bought a caddy from eBay and switched out the the DVD with the old HDD.
Screw optical media!

Also with the Pro, you can buy your own RAM for less - Crucial will sell you a 16Gb kit for €2 more than Apple's 8Gb, and you can then sell the 4Gb standard RAM.

micha5L · 27-08-2012 12:34PM

MBP

mcw92 · 27-08-2012 11:52PM

K.O.Kiki wrote: »

I'm just after upgrading my own machine -- replaced the main HDD with an SSD, then bought a caddy from eBay and switched out the the DVD with the old HDD.
Screw optical media!

Also with the Pro, you can buy your own RAM for less - Crucial will sell you a 16Gb kit for €2 more than Apple's 8Gb, and you can then sell the 4Gb standard RAM.

How much did the caddy on ebat cost you? Im looking at getting an sad soon.

440Hz · 29-08-2012 08:02PM

Hmmm well, firstly, with regard to the development - I'm a cross-platform developer and never have any issues with OSX for the 'regular' languages that I would use on a regular basis.

As for the machine issue - well, I have an old MBP and a new MBA. I love both equally. The Air is unbelievably yummy and super portable, but I love the sturdy feel and added power of the MBP. The MBA will be plenty fast enough for undergrad CS, but, I think if it were me, I'd go for the MBP, and treat it as a serious machine

Ricky91t · 02-09-2012 04:50PM

I recently had the same dilemma(?).

I've currently got a white MacBook (late 2009) which is alright specs, 2.26ghz, 8GB ram and a Hybrid SSD/HDD(Which does give a performance boost). However, the laptop was a bit battered from getting dropped once from my shoulder while in my bag, It's still working fine but I decided it was time for an upgrade.

I was in the same position, either the 13" pro, or the air, or the retina(I could have scraped cash together if I needed it) and chose the air, I'll give my reasons:

Retina: It was too expensive for a lot of high spec components that I wouldn't use, The base model has the same HDD as the higher price Air, and for an extra hundred the Air can have the same ram too. Plus the 15" is just a tad too big.

13" Pro: I was really considering this, The specs of the higher priced version were decent, but In my opinion an SSD in a mac really makes them powerful machines. Also I mainly develop iOS apps and the Xcode app is quite screen real estate hungry on the 1280x800. I think if the CPU was quad core it may have made me get it anyway, and live with the other 'issues'.

13" Air: If I go somewhere for a weekend and bring a laptop, I'll usually bring a camera too, the thinner/lighter profile of the air was appealing as my bag would be lighter, add to that the bigger screen resolution which I'll benefit from it seemed like the better option. I won't lie, the base specs of the higher price model weren't the best, so I upgraded the CPU and Ram, this was costly but using the campus.ie(if you can't avail of it yet, wait till you start college and buy then, I saved nearly about €200 and you still get the €80 iTunes voucher ) discount it came nearly the same price as the higher spec Air on apple.ie.

Student (Computer Science) : Macbook Pro 13" or Air 13"?

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