2015 MacBook Pro Retina

[anonymous_soc]

I know this has been covered ad naseum on here, but I'm looking to buy a Macbook for grad school starting this fall. I'm looking at the 2015 13-inch MacBook Pro, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD. My question on this topic is twofold:

1) Should these specs (RAM and storage) be good enough for quant-based social science research and writing, as well as every day grad school needs?

2) Has anyone else already invested in this computer, and if so, do you have any feedback on it?

Thanks.

[GeoDUDE!]

It should be good, but I would just upgrade to 512 GB SSD just for longevity. What's the point of having a nice laptop thats thin and light if you have to take a big external with you? 

 

 

In all honesty, you could probably get by on a macbook (non pro) or macbook air.... you don't really need that much power for most things unless you are working with hundreds of gigabytes - tera bytes of data... most people don't do that even in the sciences !

[anonymous_soc]

It should be good, but I would just upgrade to 512 GB SSD just for longevity. What's the point of having a nice laptop thats thin and light if you have to take a big external with you? 

 

 

In all honesty, you could probably get by on a macbook (non pro) or macbook air.... you don't really need that much power for most things unless you are working with hundreds of gigabytes - tera bytes of data... most people don't do that even in the sciences !

Thanks GeoDUDE! I have gone back and forth about the 256/512; you make a good point though, the 512 is probably the best option. The Pro at 512 is a bit out of my price range, which leaves the 12-inch Macbook (8GB RAM, 1.2GHz/2.6 Turbo Intel Core M, 512 SSD) at $1549 or the 13-inch Air (8 GB RAM, 1.6 GHz i5/2.7 Turbo, 512 SSD) for $1509.

[GeoDUDE!]

I'd probably get the 256 on the 13 inch then, its livable. I keep my computers a long time... I'm still using an early 2011 macbook pro (and truely expensive computations is at the core of dissertation). 

 

Power might be a concern with the macbook (non pro). They are about as powerful as 2012 macbook airs, but get better battery life ect. The one problem is they only use USB C (and have 1 port), which means you are going to need to get an adapter to plug in a thumb drive or monitor. 

 

I don't think an air is a good value right now, because the 13 inch pro represents a real power improvement over them. ALso the screen is much nicer.

 

I think if you are ok with getting an adapter, and may have access to a desktop at school if you REALLY need power, I would get the macbook. But if you are worried that you may not access to a desktop or more powerful computer, I would get the macbook pro. 

 

It also might help, i've been known to make figures right before conference talks ect, and making figures can sometimes need some power, so i think the 256 pro is the best bet.

 

You just need to be diligent in your data management. Maybe down the line get a high speed usb drive that has 128 gb+ or something. 

 

Since you are making compromises, the 256 seems like the best one. 

[anonymous_soc]

Thank you so much for your help.

 

I am very diligent with data usage- I have only 2.3 GB of music (a lot of which I can delete) and no videos. I almost exclusively use the internet for my media needs (Pandora/Netflix/Hulu Plus). On my current 2010 Dell Studio I have only used 72.8 GB of space, which lasted all of my undergrad. It has a few small data sets and probably 100-150 journal articles saved, along with all of my work. Obviously, I will be reading, writing, and computing data sets much more often in grad school, but I feel pretty comfortable with a 256GB SSD given my low usage of storage. I can grab a decent-size USB if my needs dictate it, which is of no concern to me either.

 

I plan on investing in AppleCare for peace of mind, too. Also, for what it's worth, I have an iPad with iBooks to store some reading materials on. 

Edited June 8, 2015 by anonymous_soc

[eeee1923]

I think the 256GB SSD is fine. I have the 15 inch retina pro and it's fine in terms of storage of my work/school files. Music, movies, etc. - I store all that on my 2TB portable external (which was very cheap and pretty small). 

[TenaciousBushLeaper]

The real question is what exactly will you use the computer for? What type of analysis? For example if you're using it for machine learning or brain imaging data processing then you'll want more computing power, else you're probably more than fine with 8GB RAM. 

Edited June 9, 2015 by TenaciousBushLeaper

[anonymous_soc]

I plan on going with the 256 SSD on the 13 inch Pro. Thanks for your feedback!

[ballwera]

Does your program offer access to a supercomputer? 

[Crucial BBQ]

I know this has been covered ad naseum on here, but I'm looking to buy a Macbook for grad school starting this fall. I'm looking at the 2015 13-inch MacBook Pro, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD. My question on this topic is twofold:

1) Should these specs (RAM and storage) be good enough for quant-based social science research and writing, as well as every day grad school needs?

2) Has anyone else already invested in this computer, and if so, do you have any feedback on it?

Thanks.

1.  Yes.  8 gigs of RAM is more than enough and a 250 GB SSD is plenty big if you are not storing music or video.  

 

2.  Yes, but I am biased.  I have had Macs in my house since since 1998 and use them almost exclusively.  My feedback is that Apple should have stuck with RISC as in my opinion Macs were better back when they were PowerPCs (before they went Intel).  You can get a cheaper Windows laptop but don't believe the hype; a comparable Windows laptop is going to cost ~ the same anyways yet the difference is this:  PCs are built to run Windows but not necessarily built to optimize the experience.  Macs are designed to run OSX and OSX is designed to run optimally on Mac specific hardware.  I'm not knocking PCs here as there are some great ones out there.  Just saying that with Mac you know what to expect out of the box. Macs also retain a higher resale value.  That $1500 MacBook Pro would be able to net you $1200 or so three years from now.  Can't really say that about PCs unless it is a custom built desktop with a few high-end components (a top of the line GPU, for example, is going to be "old" three years from now but it will still be workhorse and more than capable).

[GeoDUDE!]

That $1500 MacBook Pro would be able to net you $1200 or so three years from now.  

 

Macs are pretty hard to sell after 3 years, and I think it would probably be more like 700 dollars, but the point being that macs hold their value better is true.  PCs don't hold anywhere near that value...

[anonymous_soc]

@ballwera. I'm not certain if the department specifically has one just for sociology, but I know the university has one for faculty and graduate student research (though I know getting time on it would likely be a challenge).

@CrucialBBQ and GeoDUDE. Thanks for the info about resale value. I appreciate all of your feedback!

[ballwera]

@ballwera. I'm not certain if the department specifically has one just for sociology, but I know the university has one for faculty and graduate student research (though I know getting time on it would likely be a challenge).

@CrucialBBQ and GeoDUDE. Thanks for the info about resale value. I appreciate all of your feedback!

 

If you have access to one ( you'd be surprised how easy it is to get wall time), then your need for a high end computer would definitely be diminished. 

[SuzyH]

I was in the same boat and finally decided to get the 2015 13-inch MacBook Pro, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD. It just arrived today, I haven't even opened the box yet but my research suggested that 8gb was more than enough unless you are using intensive software programs  at the same time (video production/editing etc).

 

As far as storage goes, I store things on the cloud and keep my music on my phone.