Macbooks?

[Legendaryk4]

Ello, need some help with macbooks. I figured that had to be at least a few apple nerds in here. Long story short I start medic school in September and they specifically recommended getting a macbook. I have never owned a mac and know nothing about them #pcmasterrace... I cant afford a new one so I have been looking at refurbished. A 1 year old macbook air is $850, a 2012 pro i7 and nvidia is $620, a 2012 pro with i5 and intel graphics is $450, and a 2010 is $150. My question is, what is a new macbook going to do that an older one is not? I understand faster processors, better gpu, better display, but functionally are their any differences? Are there programs that wont run on a 8 year old macbook? Keep in mind this is not for gaming, strictly for school, but that doesnt mean im not going to install steam and fart around on it. Thank you.

[Legendaryk4]

Side note, After reading some reviews on the 2010 macbook, they mention with a cheap ssd and 8gb of ram instead of the 2 it comes with it works fantastic.

[Theguywhobea]

I don't know too much about them, but I know that even the brand new Air is still pretty old, so probs don't look at those. My girlfriend has a mid 2012 Pro 13in with an i7, and I slapped a 500GB SSD in there and it seems pretty great actually. I think that was towards the end of when they were still user serviceable, and I think they are starting to be decently priced on Craigslist and such.

[Oshino Shinobu]

Do you know why they specifically recommend Macbooks? I kind of wonder if they just mean a laptop, not specifically a Macbook. 

 

Generally, the only reason to specifically need a Macbook is for Mac exclusive software (but you can just run a VM if you really need some of that). 

 

Older Macbooks may not run the latest versions of the OS and some programs are only available for the latest versions of the OS. You may also run into issues if you ever need to reinstall the OS, as re-installing an older Mac OS is needlessly difficult when the Macbook doesn't support the newest (and current, because Apple doesn't keep the old versions available) version of the OS. 

 

I'd advise finding out if there's Mac specific software that they will use (I kind of doubt it, as that will potentially put a fairly large number of the students at a disadvantage when learning) or any particular reason they recommend Macbooks. I have the feeling they either mean laptop, or they just prefer Macbooks/Mac OS/Apple on a subjective level, rather than for any practical reason. If there's no specific reason you need a Macbook, I would advise getting a normal laptop as you'll get more for your money and Windows is generally better from a compatibility standpoint. 

 

EDIT: As a note, I would advise going for one of the larger/non-air models if you do go for a Macbook. While the Air is lighter and smaller, it does have a negative impact on battery size. If you're going to be using it for a full day of lectures and throughout the day for studying, battery life should be a major point of interest. 

[Legendaryk4]

They did say macbook and I have talked to students that mentioned a particular program when giving presentations that will only run on a mac. Everyone in the class has a mac for this specific reason.

[cflanders]

27 minutes ago, Legendaryk4 said:

Ello, need some help with macbooks. I figured that had to be at least a few apple nerds in here. Long story short I start medic school in September and they specifically recommended getting a macbook. I have never owned a mac and know nothing about them #pcmasterrace... I cant afford a new one so I have been looking at refurbished. A 1 year old macbook air is $850, a 2012 pro i7 and nvidia is $620, a 2012 pro with i5 and intel graphics is $450, and a 2010 is $150. My question is, what is a new macbook going to do that an older one is not? I understand faster processors, better gpu, better display, but functionally are their any differences? Are there programs that wont run on a 8 year old macbook? Keep in mind this is not for gaming, strictly for school, but that doesnt mean im not going to install steam and fart around on it. Thank you.

1. Not an "apple nerd" I just have an iPhone, iPad, Macbook, AirPods, and an apple watch - Well Sh!T

I do play around with windows a bunch though I just prefer the functionality in being able to text an android user from any device.

2. The only issue you might see is program compatibility (just check what version of macOS it requires) and processing limitations. 

3. Skip the macbook air. In terms of a newer macbook, I would skip it for a few years (still using my mid-2009 model). The i5 might choke on some tasks, so I would go with the i7 with nvidia graphics from 2012 model. Both of which run the lastest version of macOS (High Sierra). The lastest I would go is a 2015 model solely from a port perspective until USB-C becomes more common.

4. From an upgrade standpoint, go ahead and check ifixit before you buy to make sure it is upgradeable. In terms of upgrades, make sure it has an SSD and At least 8GB of RAM for much better performance in High Sierra. Other than that, go a few years back and you should find a perfectly usable if not a little bit slower macbook that should suit your needs perfectly.

 

Note: I assumed that you would need somewhat of a decent macbook that can handel some moderate photo work and some light video editing and that you wanted it to not hang every now and then doing basic tasks. 

[cflanders]

35 minutes ago, Oshino Shinobu said:

Do you know why they specifically recommend Macbooks? I kind of wonder if they just mean a laptop, not specifically a Macbook. 

 

Generally, the only reason to specifically need a Macbook is for Mac exclusive software (but you can just run a VM if you really need some of that). 

 

Older Macbooks may not run the latest versions of the OS and some programs are only available for the latest versions of the OS. You may also run into issues if you ever need to reinstall the OS, as re-installing an older Mac OS is needlessly difficult when the Macbook doesn't support the newest (and current, because Apple doesn't keep the old versions available) version of the OS. 

 

I'd advise finding out if there's Mac specific software that they will use (I kind of doubt it, as that will potentially put a fairly large number of the students at a disadvantage when learning) or any particular reason they recommend Macbooks. I have the feeling they either mean laptop, or they just prefer Macbooks/Mac OS/Apple on a subjective level, rather than for any practical reason. If there's no specific reason you need a Macbook, I would advise getting a normal laptop as you'll get more for your money and Windows is generally better from a compatibility standpoint. 

 

EDIT: As a note, I would advise going for one of the larger/non-air models if you do go for a Macbook. While the Air is lighter and smaller, it does have a negative impact on battery size. If you're going to be using it for a full day of lectures and throughout the day for studying, battery life should be a major point of interest. 

I have to disagree on the reinstallation process, I recently reinstalled El Capitan on my mid 2009 model and after it downloaded, I was up and running again no issues with reinstalling the software.

[Oshino Shinobu]

27 minutes ago, cflanders said:

I have to disagree on the reinstallation process, I recently reinstalled El Capitan on my mid 2009 model and after it downloaded, I was up and running again no issues with reinstalling the software.

From my experience with older Macbooks, (like, ones that support up to Mountain Lion), the process is annoying and a lot of the time it won't accept the Apple ID for weird reasons. I've resorted to installing it off installer USBs made from downloaded ISOs (which Apple doesn't seem to want you to do) because it's just easier and faster. 

 

That said, I have had a few times where I've had to reinstall on a Macbook that is compatible with the latest OS, and in that event it's really easy. Just that's the minority of cases from my experience with older Macs, so I somewhat dread having to install OSes on Macbooks.