Buying an Apple Mac

Bob63

For computer graphics I can understand the recommendation to run with a Macbook Pro as the graphics chips in the regular Macbook are nowhere near as powerful. My eldest daughter was quite put out to discover that this means her Macbook won't run Guitar Heroes III.

Do give some thought to the extra cost of warranty and/or accidental damage & theft insurance. Applecare isn't cheap but is a good warranty and gives telephone support or Apple Store walk-in support. However it doesn't cover being dropped or stolen, both of which are foreseeable in university.

FreheitOverture

cheesy.mike wrote: »

However it doesn't cover being dropped or stolen, both of which are foreseeable in university.

Your home insurance can though

isofa

If you are just using graphics software/photo editing, such as Adobe CS3 etc, the graphics chip in the MBP makes no differences over the standard MB. The only time the extra graphics power of the MBP comes into it's own over the MB is with games and some video editing software. Photo-editing, graphic design and so forth are not affected by the graphics chip, the processor speed, hard disc speed and RAM are most important in these applications.

I suggest a good read of the reviews in MacUser, especially when they run comparative tests across the range.

Marty_J

He's doing computer graphics and animation, which sound to me as though it would be very GPU intensive. Maya requires a dedicated graphics card for instance, so I doubt it would run on a MacBook.

Apple's Core Image technology (which makes use of the GPU and is an integral part of OS X) can be used to manipulate and apply filters to photos (among other things), so it's not strictly accurate to say that the speed of the GPU won't have any effect on such an application. Apple's photo editing software Aperture makes extensive use of Core Image and will run faster with a more powerful GPU.

[Deleted User]

Marty_J wrote: »

He's doing computer graphics and animation, which sound to me as though it would be very GPU intensive. Maya requires a dedicated graphics card for instance, so I doubt it would run on a MacBook.

Apple's Core Image technology (which makes use of the GPU and is an integral part of OS X) can be used to manipulate and apply filters to photos (among other things), so it's not strictly accurate to say that the speed of the GPU won't have any effect on such an application. Apple's photo editing software Aperture makes extensive use of Core Image and will run faster with a more powerful GPU.

I'd check what software is going to be used on the course, because if 3DStudio Max is anyway involved then you don't want to buy a Mac..

Ring the uni and ask to speak to one of the tutors and ask what programs are going to be used, then report back and we'll see what's needed

Marty_J

I'm sure we're all very clever and all, but if he has been advised by his university to buy a MacBook Pro, he'd be a bit silly buying something else because someone on the internet said not to.

[Deleted User]

Marty_J wrote: »

I'm sure we're all very clever and all, but if he has been advised by his university to buy a MacBook Pro, he'd be a bit silly buying something else because someone on the internet said not to.

I only threw it out there because it's a considerable amount of money to be spending and you'd want to be 100% sure that it's right. Afterall, people do get things wrong

FreheitOverture

Generally animation will require 3DS Max (my course certainly does, as do the animation courses at my uni) which does not have a Mac version. I run mine on Fusion which dual boots Windows although not very efficiently

I would guess you would also be using Flash and Photoshop which I like better on the Mac although there is really no difference

Bob63

FreheitOverture wrote: »

Your home insurance can though

Not necessarily. You need to check your policy carefully. My buildings/contents insurance is with Hiscox. Although every one of our possessions is covered for all risks including accidental damage whilst away from the home, cover for a child studying away from home at university is a chargeable extra.

Sput2001

cheesy.mike wrote: »

Not necessarily. You need to check your policy carefully. My buildings/contents insurance is with Hiscox. Although every one of our possessions is covered for all risks including accidental damage whilst away from the home, cover for a child studying away from home at university is a chargeable extra.

Agreed, you'll need to be really careful about this. If there are two things that will ring serious alarm bells with insurance companies, they'll be:

1: Students living away from home, and
2: Expensive laptops.

Most insurers will almost certainly have special conditions attached to those. I wouldn't make any assumptions!