<p>Hello all
I will be coming in U of I for Engineering and just wanted to ask some questions to current Engineering students about getting a macbook pro.
Now I know the new retina display macbook pro is not a necessity, but I really want it like many others do for many reasons..
however, my budget is limited so I could only afford the base model, which is 8gb ram, ivy bridge, 256gb ssd </p>
<p>My biggest concern is my limited amount of storage, which is only 256gb I'm wondering if this is enough? Also, does macbook in general run all the programs that engineering students need to run? If there are other computers you would like to recommend, that would be very helpful also </p>
<p>Thank You</p>
<p>If you buy the RMBP (Retina Macbook Pro) base model, it is almost a must to have an external drive. You will not be able to keep everything on that drive, after adding up the OS, applications, documents, music, etc. I would recommend buying at an external portable HDD (made for portable use, in a good slim enclosure, powers and transfers through USB 3.0). They are honestly not that expensive, just watch for deals (they’re frequent).</p>
<p>I obviously do not know you’re budget. When you say it is limited, I understand that as you have maybe a little over the $1999 education price for the RMBP plus tax (don’t forget tax). I would highly recommend buying Apple Care and a good case. I say this for one main reason: you will not be able to find anyone else to fix your laptop should anything go wrong. As reported by iFixit, the battery is glued into place, the RAM is soldered, and the SSD is a different type of flash storage connection. The battery will, at some point, die and you will end up paying Apple to fix it (they will probably just replace an entire component including the battery, but I doubt they admit that). Likewise for the RAM. Thankfully, AppleCare is discounted for students.</p>
<p>Another thing to consider is the fact that, since the RAM is soldered, you will not be able to upgrade it after you purchase it. I do not know how long you plan on keeping it, but this is the only time you have to upgrade to 16GB. If you plan on doing serious video and audio editing or a lot of multitasking with engineering programs, you might want to consider the 16GB upgrade (also a reduced price for students).</p>
<p>I am not an engineer, I’m just a pre-med that knows a lot about computers. There are no direct competitors to the RMBP at the present time. I, personally, have decided against the RMBP for reasons of practicality. Instead, I am probably buying a W530 from Lenovo. I made this decision, rationalizing that the weight of the W530 is okay for a big guy like myself. I’d rather not fork out so much money to Apple with no chance of ever fixing anything myself or upgrading in the future. With that said, the RMBP is a terrific machine and I am certainly proud of Apple for pushing technology and PC makers.</p>
<p>This answered almost all of my questions! Thank You! I would just like to ask you one more question though if you have the time to answer it</p>
<p>my question is do you think it is a better idea for me to buy the Macbook Pro that is not retina but has ivy bridge, 750gb hdd, 8gb ram? Do you think this is a better idea?</p>
<p>I do not think it would be wise for most people to purchase the normal MBP. The Retina version is the “Next-generation,” implying that the “current generation” MBP will be discontinued soon. I see no reason for a college student to drop so much money on a product that, probably in a year, will be considered the old model (if not already).</p>
<p>If you’re definitely getting a MBP, I would say get either a new RMBP or maybe a 2011 Sandy Bridge MBP. The upgrade from Sandy Bridge to Ivy Bridge is barely noticable except in itegrated GPU (iGPU) performance (which doesnt matter when you have a dedicated GPU).</p>
<p>Hope that helped.</p>
<p>Thank you soo much for your help I think I would stick with the RMBP and use an external hard drive. I would also definitely buy applecare. Thanks again</p>