is 256 GB enough for engineering student- solidwork,autocad etc no (dual boot as wel)

I went through a BA and MS in Computer Science with much less storage than that. My use of a Mac always gave me a distinct advantage in university. I didn't have to deal with all the mundane details of how to get my computer and software to work. That gave me extra time to devote to my actual schoolwork. I am working on another Masters degree right now and it seems the other students have wised up. Non Apple devices are pretty rare among the graduate students in my program - no more than 30%.

Until getting my new MacBook Pro last fall, I have never had a startup volume bigger than 250 GB. Don't worry about it. You'll be fine. If you ever need help moving these files around or running any software, just come back here and ask. Maybe all the trolls will be busy with some other important troll business that day.

That's more than enough. Pages itself is only 266 MB.

I'm assuming that AutoCad is AutoCAD LT 13 [http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/autocad-lt-2013/id507308262?mt=12]. That itself is only 511 MB.

You should be fine for apps. Music shouldn't be a problem. I've never had over 20 GB of music ever on my computer [I delete a lot of music every now and then].

Only you would know if 256GBs of storage space is big enough for what you plan on doing with the computer.

Rule of Thumb, you can never have to much hard drive storage space.

For what you plan on doing, Install Win 7, ACad and Solid Works I think you will be running out of space in a short time.

If you got this Mac recently, like within the last 14 days, Apple as a 14 day No questions Asked return policy for full refund. Take it back get a refund and buy a computer the fits your needs better. Which as it looks would be a Windows notebook or desktop.

I think you will be okay, if you don't put a lot of music, photos, and other non essential stuff: put it on a flash drive. I believe you will benefit with a Mac in a educational environment. Good luck.

avionicsengineer wrote:

I believe you will benefit with a Mac in a educational environment. Good luck.

I disagree with that. There is nothing special about a Mac computer that will benefit the user in a educational environment more then a Windows computer.

Please point out what you think those benefits are.

Thanks

avionicsengineer wrote:

I think you will be okay, if you don't put a lot of music, photos, and other non essential stuff: put it on a flash drive. I believe you will benefit with a Mac in a educational environment. Good luck.

I too wonder what those benefits are. I can't think of a single benefit of using a Mac in an educational environment over using a Windows PC. I think in an educational environment either would work. The Mac may be of little less benefit considering the price and need to run Windows on it anyway.

Sorry Franciscohky,

I did not check with the forum trolls before I gave my opinion, please forgive me. I'm only a engineer who works with ACAD daily and pursues a MBA in my spare time, I really do not know anything about the original question you posted. Disregard my previous post as I did not list each benefit of a Mac vs. PC in a educational setting. I will not post any more opinions until they are fact checked in their entirety.

Neither I or Bob the Fisherman are trolls.

You made a statement that I find in error and I and Bob ask for some clarification and your option on why you find Mac better in an educational environment.

Especially since the world runs on Windows, as do most schools.

I'm asking a serious question of you. I am not being a troll. If there are indeed benefits of using a Mac in an educational environment as you stated I'm genuinely interested in knowing what those benefits are.

I view computers as tools and as such they should be used to best accomplish the task at hand. In that vein I really want to know what the best tool is for an educational environment and if you can provide some insight I would appreciate it so that I can make appropriate tool recommendations in the future.

In an educational environment, you're the most important tool.

AutoCAD works on both platforms, choose which one you like more and use it. If you give an educationally-challenged person a MBP or a Windows laptop, they won't do any better or worst with the other. I use MBP because of less viruses and potential to get viruses [believe me, there still are Mac viruses].

If you're going to use AutoCAD, I recommend getting a very high-end computer to reduce lag [I'm not going to lie; I've never used AutoCAD, I'm a pre-med / bio student].

Get an external HDD [or an SSD if you have the money] to place all of your files on, and make back-ups on another secure computer reguarly. I have back-ups of my work on 3 different computers at my house and one online back-up in case they all burn out.

It's all up to you. If you want to future proof your rMBP, and you have the money, go all out and max out your MBP [the ~750GB SSD and the 16GB RAM]. Obviously, not everyone can do this, so I'd go with the 256GB and get an external SSD/HDD.

Bus powered external hard drives will help you in the long run no matter what OS you use. It gives you added security that if you drop your laptop or break it, your work will still be on that hard drive. It also provides for much easier portability. If you need to go to a friend's dorm to do some group work, you can just bring your hard drive and plug it into their Mac/PC.

It's all your choice.

Programming is a bit more than Word docs as I'm sure you will learn shortly. I have 197 GB of test data on my work machine.

MacOS X is not based on Linux. Is is much more stable. You don't want to have to rebuild your kernel when you have a paper due. Furthermore, Linux is very accepting of errors. Linux will run buggy code that the Mac will not. As a student, you don't want that. You want your work to be stable and useable on any platform. On Linux, each individual machine is essentially a unique operating system.