[RESOLVED] New laptop advice

I have been using a Dell Inspiron 14" 640m for over 5 years. Runs Windows Vista.

I have been thinking of replacing it.

I spend most of my time doing php development using Dreamweaver. I also enjoy using Visual Studio for windows apps. Something I bounce back to after php projects.

For business, I use Excel a lot and a CMS online.

I spend a good bit of time working with my laptop, at work and home.

I do enjoy some of Apples "stuff" and needed advice.

I was seriously considering getting a Macbook Air (not pro). And then I was going to get a windows parallel to install windows 7.

With that said, is that a good idea? Will I still have fully programming capabilities with dreamweaver and visual studio? Does anyone else do this?

What do you think?

Thank you.

If you're looking forward to doing programming, I suggest you buy MacBook Pro.

I'm with abhijit: Mac Air doesn't have enough power for what you want to do. Mac Pro is the way to go.
I'm running (this is pro with quad core/8gb ram) Win7 vm I have 2 processors and 4gb of ram dedicated to this vm) - Mac Pro handles that very nicely, not a single hickup so far (few months already). Mac's native OS runs very smooth as well.

Thanks for the advice.

Glad to hear others have the mac pro and it's recommended.

I liked the portability of the air, that's the main reason I wanted it.

I read that just maybe in a few months Mac will release another pro that is slimmer, like the air.

Rhino, did you buy the best mac pro they have and then added more ram?

No, I configured it with 8g right from start - check apple store on-line.

Oh, ok.


*ten minutes later...*

Wow, quad core with 8gb for around $2000!

It's actually more than that but you get what you paid I guess. :)

I am wondering if a mac is worth it.... do they last longer? Easier to use? Hmm...

For me there are two brands only (as far as buying laptop): Lenovo (W series) and Apple (Mac Pro).
Both are premium brands that are solid build, last long and offer outstanding performance.
All the others are just average consumer products. But that's just my opinion.

Lenovo, eh? I heard good things about them.

Thanks.

I will check into the Mac Pros for now.

I used to own a Lenovo. The ThinkPad series is good, but stay away from the Ideapad series. It stinks.

We have IdealPad Y570 in the house - my only complaint it doesn't offer full hd screen; other than that it's a great machine.
Perhaps you had a bad luck.

I wanted to revive this thread. I never got a new laptop.

However, I am on the verge of buying the newest Macbook Pro w/ Retina display.

The one I am thinking of getting is this one:

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Apple%26...&skuId=5430514

Any advice on this, given my requirements? Wondering if 8 gb would be enough and also if the hard drive 256 gb is enough since I'll be installing Windows 8 on parallel?

I can upgrade to a 512 gb hard drive, but that is $500 more... I'm thinking if I needed that space, I could just get an external drive. Also moving to 16gb is $200 more, but would have to order from apple.com. If I do that, then I wouldn't be able to take advantage of bestbuy's $120 off promo. So then, getting the same computer with 16 gb would be $320 more.

These computers are not upgradeable - everything is soldered to the motherboard I was told. So I don't even know how to feel about that.

I now do video/photo editing as a hobby. So that's a new thing for my laptop needs!

Thanks!

I would recommend 16Gb ram. As you note, it is soldered to the 'system board', so a later upgrade is basically out of the question. But, it is also significantly cheaper - $320 for another 8 gigs is quite a lot. Having said all that, you are spending 2 grand on a computer; if you want to be 'cheap', then you really shouldn't be buying a Mac. ;)

The hard drive (erm, SSD) is upgradable, but in a propitiatory format.

I have 16/256. I run 3 windows environments (win8, Win7-32 and win7-64), as well as X-Code. A whole bunch of pictures and music - not videos - WoW and Diablo (native OSX), office for Mac and a few other mac apps. I have around 50Gb free. There isn't a lot more I'd install in the Windows environments or the Mac, so 256Gb storage is fine for me. For videos I'd use thunderbolt storage or USB3 - When I used to do video on the PC, it'd easily hit 500Gb or more just in video. Whatever internal storage you choose isn't going to be enough.

So, I'd say it's 8gig vs 16gig memory: honestly, I think 8gig would have been fine if you run a singleton VM. I put 4gig in each VM and don't worry about it with 16.

Good advice all around. Thanks.

I was thinking of getting a good NAS drive to use as external storage instead of upgrading to 512 gb SSD (that is, if I ever need more storage). Do you use one?

I'm sure in the coming years, I'll be happy I went with the 16 gb of ram also.

I bought the new macbook pro retina, 15 inch, 16 gm ram, 256 hdd. Also bought 2TB time capsule... LOVE IT.

I have a pretty nice 1TB NAS. There are all kinds of options out there, and some of them are quite nice. Mine is fairly old, by now, and has 4 256GB drives that can be configured into a variety of different RAID levels. The drives are all hot-swappable, so I could upgrade the NAS size by swapping different drives in and out, but I've never needed to.

With all the options available today, I think an external NAS is a pretty reasonable alternative for adding extra storage.