Need help on Laptop decision..

[Coldhardmac]

Greetings,

After many many hours of researching through many forums, websites, friends, magazines, etc, I decided to bring my issue here. For I have seen a good bit of good advice from people here in the past.

Anyways, I just graduated high school and I'm not entirely sure what I'll be going into in college. Thus, the hard decision of the laptop. I'm trying to decide whether to go with the mid model normal Macbook, or save for the Macbook pro. The -only- thing stopping me from doing the normal Macbook is the graphics. See, I -might- (a pretty good might) go into architecture, and I was wondering if the Macbook had enough graphics capabilities to render 3d models of buildings and other things involved in the field. Otherwise, I also might go into Computer Science, in which I'm pretty sure the Macbook should do just fine (correct me if I'm wrong). I also -might- (depending on how much time I have) be getting into a little WoW. But just a little, and thats the only game I'd ever play on there. I have a 360 for my gaming needs. I'm leaning towards the normal Macbook right now, but I just want other opinions.

Oh, and whatever one I decide to go with, I'd be putting 2GB memory in. Thanks in advance!

 

[Boggle]

Sorry, I got nothin'. But...I know I would listen to deviolet, igary, DoctorQ, IJreiley, Jadekitty24, and Mactastic, and of course Arn. They generally seem to give consistantly good advice. Of course, other ppl might know who else gives quality advice here.

Best of luck.

 

[mrweirdo]

well if I remember corectly for example autocad makes use of the cpu for rendering more so then the gfx card and its usualy the most used app in archeture. So in that sense it wouldnt be worth it to go for the beter card.

 

[devilot]

See, I -might- (a pretty good might) go into architecture, and I was wondering if the Macbook had enough graphics capabilities to render 3d models of buildings and other things involved in the field. Otherwise, I also might go into Computer Science, in which I'm pretty sure the Macbook should do just fine (correct me if I'm wrong).

Do you already know what university/ college you'll be going to? If so, take a little bit of initiative (sp?) and check out each major's specific websites to see if they list general specs for machines as well as software apps they might require. If the sites don't list that information, try emailing some folks from each department asking for that info (apps, and machine specs).

Plus, if money isn't an issue (well, really, either way), you should try to play around w/ the MacBook and the MacBook Pro in person to see how you like the way they look/ feel.

 

[celebrian23]

This is all 2nd-hand, but I've "heard" that for architecture, an MBP is a much more solid investment. But it depends on the programs you'll be using

 

[macsrockmysocks]

I say save for the MBP. I mean, just in case you might need the extra power you will have it. If u get the MB and you need the power, you are pretty much screwed. I have also decided to save for the MBP(I can afford it right now, but would like to accumulate more money so I have some left over) so that I can do things like play 3D games better than the MB.

 

[Xander562]

Well, it depends on what Prog. you are going to create on. I am a High School student and i use ArchiCAD for my architecture class. I'm not sure if it's universal but i know it requires a minimum of 64mb of onboard video RAM the MB i think has 32 so i dont know how well it'd work on that. my vote is save up for MBP.

 

[yoda13]

If you are going to keep it for all four years of college without upgrading, then I would go with the MBP, as it will be a little more able to keep up with newer software for four years that the MB will be due to the graphics card, as well as other stuff I am sure I am missing. Good luck with whatever you decide to do.

 

[celebrian23]

Yoda has a good point. It's what finally pushed me to get an mbp instead of an mb. I'll be using this thing for 4 years- it's important to get the best machine possible