MacBook as a secondary computer?

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Level 1

10 points

MacBook as a secondary computer?

I am starting college in the fall. Originally, I was planning on buying a 15 inch Pro because I'll be using it for photo editing, light gaming (Sims, things like that), and possibly video editing. I wanted a computer that could pretty much handle whatever I threw at it. However, I didn't want to lug that around to my classes all day so I think the new MacBook will be perfect as a school computer. I'm thinking I'll buy the MacBook now and save up for the new iMac with 5k. MacBook Air and MacBook Pro 13-inch are out of the question. I would still need a usable computer between now and then. Would the base model MacBook be able to handle simple photo editing on Lightroom CC, streaming Netflix, using Office, etc? Or would I be better off upgrading to the 1.2 or even 1.3 model? Again, I would only be using it for these things until I could get a better computer. Six months at the most. Then I would be using it for basic things like writing papers, checking emails, and maybe occasional gaming if I was traveling. Any advice is greatly appreciated. 🙂

Posted on May 5, 2015 11:53 AM

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Answer 1

Kappy

Level 10

361,741 points

May 5, 2015 12:13 PM in response to rae067

The MacBook specs are similar to those of the MBA model with the same speed. Check the system requirements of your software to determine if the MacBook or MBA meet the requirements.

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Answer 2

John0001

Level 2

394 points

May 6, 2015 5:26 AM in response to rae067

Hi,

so I have the exact setup you described; 2015 MacBook 1.2Ghz and iMac 5k (upgraded).

I take the MacBook to work daily, and as an IT professional I'm using the heck out of it. Office runs fine, I get well over 100 emails daily and Outlook just purrs along. We also use Lync for IM, and it works very well for basic IMs and group screen sharing. More advanced, I commonly spin up a virtual instance of Linux (CentOS 7) and it performs fine. In my role, I really don't have a need for more than one VM running, so 2+ may be pushing it. I also have had JBoss run locally, my IDE up, and that VM instance of Linux with no problem.

As for gaming, that's what my iMac 5K is for (plus the rest of the family uses it) but if your looking at "light" gaming like Simms 3 you'll be fine. I loaded Diablo 3 as a test and it runs okay at native 1440p with very low settings. Lower that to 1080/720p and you can definatrelly bump up the settings.

I only "expected" this MacBook to run basic Outlook, Lync, other office products, access out company Web apps, and use textwrangler on some fairly large files so I could at least pop open some code on the fly. It is performing well above my expectations and I highly recommend it, especially if your main use case is college; you'll be fine!

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