Which Macbook should I get for a computer science course.

I'm looking for a laptop for uni, well more specifically a Macbook. I love OSX that mac offers and cant see myself readjusting to back to windows. What Macbook would be best to take to uni? I plan on doing a computer science degree next year (start in 2014). My price limit is around £2000~. So would it be better to get get a Macbook air with a Intel Haswell processor and possibly get some sort of desktop PC as well, Or just get a Macbook pro 13' with a retina display with a Intel Ivy Bridge processor? Also if I was to get a Macbook pro would it be worth waiting for a Haswell processor version of the Macbook pro for the extra battery life?

Scroll to see replies

Reply 1

jackdans

Get a MacBook Pro and a Windows laptop or PC, especially for computer science

Posted from TSR Mobile

Reply 2

dom979

Original post by jackdans

Get a MacBook Pro and a Windows laptop or PC, especially for computer science

Posted from TSR Mobile

What about just setting it up so it can dual boot to windows 7/8 and OSX

Reply 3

jbur

Original post by dom979

What about just setting it up so it can dual boot to windows 7/8 and OSX

Get a Mac and use VirtualBox to run Windows, Linux, BSD etc. Then you don't even have to worry about dual booting.

Reply 4

iisjman07

I got myself an ultrabook and would recommend the MBA, although you'd want to pay extra for the extra memory as this can't be upgraded later (bummer). The most intensive thing you might want to do is virtualisation and the MBA should be OK with enough ram (plus uni provides everything you need anyway).

You can get an educational discount from Apple stuff from your institution so you should think about that before buying (message me for more).

Reply 5

margybear

The MBA is made for short bursts- so Safari, work processing. Haven't tried it without programming software, but I imagine it'd work. The MBP is a bit more pricey, but it runs complex software waaaay better. So it might be better to get the MBP on the off chance of a better experience in the long run! Also, it's 14% off all MBs and iMacs. Plus up til the 6th of September you get a £70 gift card to download apps for free. You just have to prove you're accepted on a uni course! (They should be able to print out acceptance letters from UCAS).

You can also get Parallels for like £60, so you get OS X Maverick (When it gets here) plus windows 7/8.

Hope that helps!

Reply 6

pnorm

I hate virtual machines, they're unpredictable and slow. Boot camp really isn't that hard to set up especially if you have an official copy of Windows... :P The only annoyance is switching over takes a while and sometimes you just need to use one program on the Mac side then switch over again and it just becomes a bit tedious. If you've got the money definitely just get two laptops. If not boot camp is the way!

Reply 7

MrJoker

I was interested as well, but I'm doing A2 now LOL. I looked around and watched some videos on you tube and I think Macbook pro would be the right choice.

Reply 8

dom979

Original post by pnorm

I have a spare Toshiba laptop with a i3 first gen processor, it's not the most powerful machine in the world, and I use it for web browsing and word processing, would this be all right to take or would I want a more powerful machine? I already have a windows surface tablet which I got for free a few months back, would it be worth taking this, its only used for surfing the web and storing back up .iso files currently. I was looking at the i5 dual core MBP with 8gb of RAM, but I'm waiting for the new version of the MBP to be released before I start doing more research in to it.

Reply 9

dom979

Original post by MrJoker

I was interested as well, but I'm doing A2 now LOL. I looked around and watched some videos on you tube and I think Macbook pro would be the right choice.

I'm currently doing A2 as well, I taught myself A2 maths and further maths over the holiday, as I struggle to concentrate in class. I'm not going to get my macbook for another few months at least, (my sister is already at uni so I will be getting student discount through her). Are you going to be doing ComSci at Uni too? If so what Uni are you looking at going to?

Reply 10

MrJoker

Original post by dom979

Yes I want to apply for computer science.
I haven't decided which university, have you?

Reply 11

dom979

Original post by MrJoker

Yes I want to apply for computer science.
I haven't decided which university, have you?

I'm looking at Birmingham, Leeds or York. Not the greatest Uni's but I would rather go to a Uni to enjoy my time there and get a good degree than go to a top top uni to be around posh people who look down on you.

Reply 12

MrJoker

Original post by dom979

Birmingham and York are actually very good for Computer Science. I might apply for York as well but Birmingham is too far

Reply 13

dom979

Original post by MrJoker

Birmingham and York are actually very good for Computer Science. I might apply for York as well but Birmingham is too far

York is very close to me (45 minutes), and I want my independence while still at a a top 15 Uni for ComSci without being at one of the Uni where most people think that they are better than you no matter what you do.

Reply 14

Bow Tie

Original post by jbur

Get a Mac and use VirtualBox to run Windows, Linux, BSD etc. Then you don't even have to worry about dual booting.

I have a macbook and I deliberately didn't get any 'virtual box' software because I wanted windows to simply do gaming (That used lots of RAM) and virtual OS's don't give you all of you RAM capability (As some is being siphoned to your main OS).
I would suggest using boot camp, works perfectly fine for me and i get access to all of my 8 GB RAM.

Reply 15

anita21

Original post by dom979

Woo, Macbooks! Wish I had that kind of budget. Make sure you get the student price when you buy your Macbook, it gives you significant savings.

I am studying CS and coped fine my first two years just with my now 5 yr old Macbook (not Pro). However I really want a Macbook Air for next term because, even though this thing isn't super heavy, it's still a pain to carry around campus, and until I got cycle panniers, made cycling to uni every day very unpleasant having to carry it on my back.

So yes, good reason for getting a Macbook Air is simply the lightness for carting around all day - and if you need something more powerful during the day, your university probably has computer labs / computers in the library you can use which should have all the specialist software you need.

Reply 16

dom979

Original post by anita21

How much in terms of storage (hard drive space) do you need for the course? That's the only issue with MBA in my opinion.

(edited 10 years ago)

Reply 17

anita21

Original post by dom979

How much in terms of storage (hard drive space) do you need for the course? That's the only issue with MBA in my opinion.

There's this brilliant thing called the Cloud. Have you heard of Dropbox / Google Docs / Evernote?

:P sorry couldn't resist.. Seriously though, I haven't worried about that, since I have an external hard drive and will be hanging on to my current laptop which has all my music, photos etc on, and just use the MBA for uni stuff - which shouldn't take up much space, I mostly just take notes in Pages, and then there's a bunch of lecture notes which I save as pdfs, but can't think of anything which should take up a lot of space. Thinking of moving to cloud storage next year though, since I'll be switching between 2 laptops..

Reply 18

dom979

Original post by anita21

I have everything already backed-up to the cloud, but I like to keep a physical copy of everything as well as I have issues with cloud storage before. How big is your external hard drive? I was looking at getting a 3TB one to use to store films, music, and my Uni work. Also what size screen are you looking at getting?

(edited 10 years ago)

Reply 19

anita21

Original post by dom979

I got it a while back, think it's 1 TB , just use it for Time Machine sync on my Macbook, plus some extra stuff that doesn't fit on the Macbook. Nowhere near using it up yet. How much storage do you use currently?

I already have a nice big shiny monitor screen (though it's going to feel tiny after the huge one I currently have at work.. ). It's not an Apple monitor, think it's an LG, but don't have it where I'm currently living so can't check, and I can't remember exactly what size the screen is. Probably about 23 inches (???) Makes a decent tv screen for watching films when it's placed at the end of the bed, and nice and big for up close. I usually use my mac air keyboard and shut the lid on my macbook and use a mouse so I just pretend I have a desktop :smile: