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#1 2009-06-07 10:05 pm
- gd
- Junior Member

- Registered: 2009-04-06
- Posts: 836
Switcher
One of my dads friends son (19) is studying to be an engineer. Not sure what kind though. He is damn tired of the smurfing problems found in Vista. Please disregard the bad language. So he is tempted into switching to a Mac. Dad is more than happy to pay for half the computers price. So we are going to Best Buy on Saturday. He is planning on buying a laptop. He is also learning how to use cad based programs and he loves using photoshop.
After he viewed the works of art I have done in the Air with little effort and how stable and easy to use Mac OSX is he was fully convinced he had to switch. Now he only wants a laptop because he does have to take his work with among other things. I know the optimum computer for that is the macbook pro.
Do you think this setup will cut it for him or can he use a less powerful or more powerful setup for him?
He does not want a 17''.
15'' MacBook Pro unibody
2.66 GHz processor
4 GB of ram
256 GB ssd
Should he get 2.93 GHz instead or a bigger drive?
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#2 2009-06-08 10:13 am
- bvfd123
- Member
- From: CT
- Registered: 2003-04-06
- Posts: 379
Re: Switcher
I would advise going with a bigger drive (the 320 GB from apple or a 500 GB from a third party) since he will appreciate the space since a boot camp partition will be required for using AutoCAD/SoldWorks/ProE or whatever other engineering software he might need. Also, I don't believe BestBuy sells custom configurations, but I could be wrong on that.
24 inch iMac C2D/2.8 Ghz/2 GB/320 GB
MacBook/1.83 CD/1GB/160GB
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#3 2009-06-08 10:14 am
- Robert B Technician
- MyService
- Moderator

- From: Santa Clara, CA
- Registered: 2009-02-26
- Posts: 142
- Website
Re: Switcher
That's a nice setup and I think would suit most students just fine (even with intensive apps.)
I would have him check with his school/teacher/other students first and find out what software he'll be using. Some of the CAD stuff is Windows only so a bigger HD for boot camp and Windows 7 may be in order.
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#4 2009-09-29 7:43 am
- Griffsdad
- Member
- Registered: 2009-09-22
- Posts: 2
Re: Switcher
I would save money on the hard drive by not going with the solid state. You can get more capacity and 7200rpm for less than the 256ssd. If it can be spared, then use that savings to up the processor.
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