Mac laptops : Imac or Macbook Pro for College?
Imac or Macbook Pro for College?
by xarcun - 8/4/08 10:05 PMOkay here is my situation:
I am finally returning to college as a trasnfer student and pursuing a degree in Civil and Enviromental Engineering. I live in my own apartment with my girlfreind and work full time. So, I have a nice quiet place to go home to do work at. I will be going to classes 5 days a week as well. So, I am in the market to get one of the two, an imac or macbook pro. I am having difficulty trying to decide which I should pursue getting. My desires are to get a machine with the specs that I feel will make for a useful computer for the next 3 years, if not more. I could get a better performing i mac for the cost of the macbook pros, but how much convenience would the macbook pro give. So, please give me your thoughts and advice on what you think will best serve me considering my choice in degree major and my life situation.
Just sharing.
by R. Proffitt
- 8/5/08 5:20 AM
In reply to: Imac or Macbook Pro for College? by xarcun
That the 17 inch may be favored for desk use the smaller 15 inch is easier to carry. You can always get a big screen later if you wish.
Depends
by BeatleMegaFan - 8/6/08 10:42 PM In reply to: Imac or Macbook Pro for College? by xarcunIf you plan on traveling to and fro, and need your computer on hand, take a look at the 15-inch (or even the 17-inch) MacBook Pro. If portability is not an problem or necessity, you can always buy a more powerful iMac. Either choice should last you at least 3 years; probably more. Still, portability is something to think about. Both are great choices.
The choice is yours, and yours alone. But, before you make a decision, try waiting for September, if you can. Rumors and reports are claiming that new Mac notebooks will be released around then. The new MacBook Pros will be quite nice from what I hear. If you go with the iMac, you could pick one up now if you want. They were updated more recently. Good luck.
-BMF
How about
by boya84 - 8/7/08 8:00 PM In reply to: Imac or Macbook Pro for College? by xarcunchecking with the school and see what they have in the way of "minimum requirements"... That way, you either meet or exceed them.
My son's school lists what they will and will support - Windows or MacOSX in the way of campus support - stray from that and you are on your own. Meet or exceed the campus IT department's list and they are required to help when needed. If you don't hit their needs, you take care of yourself...
System for school
by Halo9X - 8/8/08 9:34 PM In reply to: Imac or Macbook Pro for College? by xarcunGet the fastest MacBook Pro you can afford. The next thing is RAM and HD size. Get the largest HD you can afford. This will become important as time goes on. Shop online for your RAM. This will save you some money over Apple's inflated prices.
The laptop will save space in crowded dorm rooms and is something that you can take with you wherever you go. I have both a PowerBook and a new iMac. Both are great, but the PowerBook, even though slower would be my choice for school due to it's pprtability. If portability is NOT an issue, then the iMac is a great system to use. ***** your needs and pocketbook and go from there.
Check college/program/class requirements
by jljue - 8/9/08 8:55 AM In reply to: Imac or Macbook Pro for College? by xarcunAlthough the iMac is small and portable when moving from apartment to apartment, you may want to check to see if you are required to have a laptop to take to class. When I was working on my BSEE, I didn't need a laptop for my first couple of years, but the College of Engnieering changed its requirements to have laptops to take to the classrooms. They were cutting the budget on the labs, but they were also providing borrowed licensing on software and Wi-Fi all over campus. There were some pretty cool things that we did in class demos that we would have never gotten right if we had to try to do them on the computer labs on our own, and it was really convenient to ask our professors questions on our programs at the end of class with the problem at hand rather than to asked back and forth several times.
Get the laptop
by bbtroo - 8/9/08 9:03 PM In reply to: Imac or Macbook Pro for College? by xarcunI teach university physics, and the Mac is a good choice because of the unix underpinnings. Get a laptop; as pointed out earlier, you can always get a big screen later (plus the screens can last you through two or three more computers). All the students I see have laptops and there is WiFi over much of the campus, and this will probably also be true for your college. You might consider waiting until you are actually in residence, because there might be a modest educational discount for students on the hardware. Finally, while it is good to have the "latest", if new models come out it is a great time to save money on the only-slightly-older model, if saving is important to you. You can spend the money you save on a backup hard drive.
15 inch MacBook
by misha219 - 8/12/08 6:04 AM In reply to: Imac or Macbook Pro for College? by xarcunI am a returning student too...but in graphic design. I would say get the 15 inch MacBook and then you can add a cinema later. This is assuming that you will be taking the MacBook to school.
Misha
Best of both worlds....
by Phylte - 8/16/08 6:51 AM In reply to: Imac or Macbook Pro for College? by xarcunHi,
I think I have a solution to your dilemma and its one I've used myself out in the working world. You will kick yourself for the next 20 years if you don't purchase the notebook. You're going to want to take it to many classes, the library and just about anywhere else you can take notes or do some writing. I would buy a heavily loaded MacBook Pro (the best you can afford and remember you can always add external drives to it for at home use). One of the other respondents made the same comment I believe. Buy the one with a 15 inch screen so you don't resent carrying it around.
Now I'm going to suggest something the others haven't. If you can swing it, purchase a large screen monitor to use at home and VOILA!!!! you all of a sudden have the luxury of working on a large screen format for many of your projects.
Hope this helps!
Phylte
Boston
thank you all
by xarcun - 8/16/08 7:35 AM In reply to: Best of both worlds.... by PhylteI think I have decided that I am going to go with the macbook pro, but I am going to wait on it. My reasons are that I have found that this macbook and pro should be receiving thier yearly upgrading, following the trend that apple has doen for those two products timelines in the past.
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