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Recently I’m thought about buying a MBP. It is my first OS X device.I already played around with Linux, BSD and Windows as Desktop OS. I love Linux and BSD but sometimes stuff should just work out of the box. Between me and Windows is somekind of a Love/Hate-relationship.

So I want to use the MBP as portable Desktop which I can use at work, home, school and also on the run while travelling. I would be using it for editing files, programming/scripting. But I’ve 2 more requirments.

  • I want to use 2 Monitors

  • I want to run at least 1 VM (2 VM would be nice)

That’s also why I don’t go for a Macbook Air.
Would you go for the 13" Dual-Core 8GB Ram or the 15" Quad-Core 16GB Ram?

ATM I think the 13" already fits my needs but I’m not 100% sure.

Thanks!

8 Spice ups
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I moved over to a MBP 15" a few years ago as a Christmas present - haven’t looked back. I’ve updated the memory and drive to an SSD. Given the choice again, I’d go for an 13" Air, but it really depends on what you will be doing with it, I used to edit multimedia CD’s and found the MBP was lacking a little.

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It’s worth pointing out that the 13" Pro only has Intel HD graphics (albeit it’s the newer, faster IRIS chip), whereas the 15" runs both the IRIS chip and discrete NVidia graphics, switching between them as the load changes. The former gives better battery life, but won’t touch the discrete NVidia chip for gaming (if that’s what you might want) or anything involving 3D graphics, doubly so if you’re planning to run more than one display.

It’s also worth pointing out that the latest models have Micro-SSDs (not 2.5" models) and soldered RAM, meaning there is ZERO upgrade potential…

In other words, know what you need before you buy, because once you leap… :slight_smile:

@DazGRIT

Why would you suggest a MacBook Air and use ‘editing CDs’ as justification against the MBP? :slight_smile:

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Get the most resources you can afford because you will not be able to upgrade anything once you purchase it… the newer MacBooks you can’t upgrade thats why I went ahead and purchased the $2300 macbook pro with 15" 512GB hdd and 16GB of ram. Lets put it this way go all out because everything is soldered in. The only thing I believe you can upgrade is the hard drive.

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Really depends on your needs. 8GB is a LOT of RAM. Running two normal VMs in there isn’t a problem. What do these VMs do? I run VMs often, like OpenSuse or Fedora, and running two of them with 2GB of RAM each still leaves 4GB of RAM for the main desktop which is way more than I normally need.

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The key point being you cannot add more in 3-4 years, which is how much you should ideally expect a MacBook Pro to last…

If the budget can stretch to 16GB RAM, I’d take it (even at Apple’s absurd uplift prices). Storage is less of an issue, given you can store files externally.

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Go to a store and compare them with your own hands and eyes. You are the judge. You are the consumer. You have the power!

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If it’s going to be a portable desktop, than the 15" is likely a better fit. If you’re going to want to use it on your lap in an easy chair while watching the Broncos play, then the 13" is probably a better fit.

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I’ve a Windows-PC for gaming so there’s no need for an extra graphics card.
It should just be able to handle 2 1080p Monitors. Because I’ve 2 Monitors at home and also at work.

I totally agree that 8gb is enough ram but what’s about the processor.
There are “only” dual-cores build into the 13" ones.

My budget is a bit limited so I think it’s better to go for a full stacked out 13" then a weak 15".
I want to spend around 2200 swiss francs which pretty much 2200 dollars.

Is there any good reason to have more then 8gb RAM if you just have dual-core?
And is there any good reason to go over a 256gb SSD?

Mac OS X 2 virtual cores + 4 GB RAM
Windows 8.1 1 virtual core + 3GB RAM
Linux/BSD with tilling window manager 1 virutal core + 1GB RAM

So for my money I would get a MBP Retina 13" 256/512 GB SSD 8/16 GB RAM i7 2*2.8 GHz

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I am on a 13" mbp with 16gb ram 750gb hd and an i7 2.8ghz. I use parallels and always have a win 7 machine running, but also have some server 2008 machines, mac server, chrome, ubuntu, edubuntu, and an xp machine that I use to break constantly and not save snapshots. Works very well for that.

It is an older 13". My hesitation for not upgrading is lack of wired network. I do enough work with appliances that I want to toss a wired cable in right away.

At home I also attach to a 28" display. Annoying how few docking stations are available for mbp. Make sure you have a plan for that. The two usb ports on the computer are close enough that I can’t install some of the thick usb drives if a mouse is plugged in.

Also, I went with the smaller laptop because I’m always on the move. But it is my sole device

Another thing to consider connecting to another display is spending another $100 for apple tv, then wireless connecting the display. OS Mavricks actually does a decent job treating an appletv connected device at the screen res it wants

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It all boils down to what you define as being ‘acceptable’ performance for your VMs and the main OS. What virtualisation software will you be running?

Parallels, for example, doesn’t seem to do hardware sharing - it segments resources off for the virtual machine, so Mac OS suddenly sees less memory and CPU cores, so Mac OSX performance will tank when running just one VM, let alone two.

I think VirtualBox does the same.

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I haven’t decided yet… VirtualBox, Fusion or Parallels
The VM’s aren’t running all the time and I could life with only one VM at the same time.

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Parallels is better for gaming, so if you are on the road and want to get a quick session of Civ V in, that’s the better option. Fusion is better if you want to go between the VMs and the Mac since it won’t crater your Mac performance, VirtualBox is better if you don’t want to spend any money and absolute top VM performance is a secondary concern.

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I’m probably going to take the 13" just because it fits my needs perfectly!
I’m going to the Apple Store on Friday and have a look at those devices…

What would you do in my case if i go for the i7 2.8 GHz Dual-Core with the 256 GB SSD…

Should I take 8 or 16 GB RAM in your opinion?

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Virtualisation is all about RAM and CPU time. The more you have of it, the better off you are.

Get the most to fit your budget, even if it seems excessive.

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Agreed. I have 8 GB in my MBP, and whenever I’m working with VMs I always wish I had more.

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Do you have a 15" or 13"? Quad or Dual-Core?

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Mine’s an older unit, a 13" dual core, so I’m sure that’s one reason it is starting to feel slow when I’m working in Fusion. This isn’t my first Macbook though, and I’ve always found it beneficial to max out the components as much as my budget allows – anytime I haven’t, I usually ended up purchasing a RAM/disk upgrade within a couple years, so I could get more life out of my machine.

The 13" is a bit limiting, but I prefer the portability.

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That’s true! The thing is I don’t think that the upgrade to 16gb of RAM is worth it because you are limited to 4 virtual cores.
So you can have at max. 3 VM’s at 2GB RAM each but then you will may have some problems with the host OS.
I don’t know how much ressources OS X consumes.

So if you want to have high performance virtualization there’s no way around the 15"…

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Not really, doubly so if you’re using a VM host that doesn’t share resources.

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