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Need advice Macbook air or Macbook pro

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  • O Offline
    okto
    last edited by 14 Nov 2011, 09:31

    Hi everyone..
    i would like to asking for advice about which Mac series i should buy. is Macbook air 13" good enough for SU & render? or i should turn to Macbook pro 13''/15" ?
    first i love imac, but since i quite mobile enough i think i need to buy a laptop. while having Macbook air is light as it could. but im affraid the prformance is not good compare to macbook pro.

    please guys, help me with this. since i dont have much cash/ tight budget i cant buy two computer.
    i really need your advice.

    thanx

    regards

    Okto

    Design and concept might look a like, but the souls that come with it, will never be the same. open minded & trust your self

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    • T Offline
      tfdesign
      last edited by 14 Nov 2011, 10:37

      If its renders you want, go for the 15" Macbook Pro, which has an AMD/ATI dedicated graphic GPU. Both the 13" and the Macbook Air have Intel HD3000 where memory is shared with the CPU.

      But if you are simply posing to your mates, and you want a beautiful streamlined laptop, the Air wins hands down! πŸ˜‰ 😎

      Good luck! πŸ˜„

      My book "Let's SketchUp!" Download from here

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      • O Offline
        okto
        last edited by 14 Nov 2011, 12:05

        Hi Tom,
        thanx for the respond. i think the MBP 15 " much more expensive then the 13" MBA. yes i do rendering also. im using supodium for sketchup.

        the application i will using will be :

        1. Sketchup
        2. cinema 4D
        3. autocad.

        im trying to learn the above application.in the internet they say MBA is as fast as MBP. but since they never mention it about how well it will run if running 3D application or rendering program.
        my budget is no more then $ 1500. very tight i know.

        so the MBA13" is the same performance with MBP 13" ?
        can you share more if using MBA 13" for rendering?

        thanx again for the respond
        really helpfull

        Design and concept might look a like, but the souls that come with it, will never be the same. open minded & trust your self

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        • G Offline
          Gaieus
          last edited by 14 Nov 2011, 13:40

          Well, let's face it: MacBook Airs come with an integrated Intel video chipset which will take you nowhere farther than browsing the internet, watching some movies and whatever one expects from a fancy looking, really slim but (otherwise) "good for nothing serious graphics work" laptop than either show off among the girls or get one to your girlfriend (when you are already settled).

          The same issue is there with PC based laptops.

          So get something "real" and forget about slimness (I don't know why his is so sexy nowadays - when I was at your age exactly the opposite was the cool). πŸ˜’

          Without a dedicated video card, you cannot run SU (or any real 3D application) properly.

          Gai...

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          • D Offline
            dale
            last edited by 14 Nov 2011, 14:15

            okto
            I am running an older 2.66 Ghz Intel i7 Macbook Pro 15", and use SketchUp constantly with some very large models, and I'm super happy with it's performance.
            I also work with AutoCad files imported into Vectorworks, with no power problems at all.
            I can't speak for the Air though, but given the above comments I think the Pro is the better choice.
            Cheers

            Just monkeying around....like Monsanto

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            • R Offline
              Rich O Brien Moderator
              last edited by 14 Nov 2011, 14:22

              MacBook Air are not suited to your needs.

              Cinema 4D and Autocad need some juice to operate nicely. SketchUp also benefits from some GPU grunt.

              The Air is not the platform you need. It's fine for day to day crap like browsing/editing documents/admiring but outside of that it's like tinsel on a Christmas tree. Nice to look at.

              For the price of a MacBook Pro you'd get a pretty powerful Sager Notebook.

              Download the free D'oh Book for SketchUp πŸ“–

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              • G Offline
                gilles
                last edited by 14 Nov 2011, 16:34

                On apple store bottom left there is a "Refurbished Mac" link.
                I bought my MB pro 15" there and it works fine even with lots of apps running.

                " c'est curieux chez les marins ce besoin de faire des phrases "

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                • T Offline
                  tfdesign
                  last edited by 14 Nov 2011, 17:20

                  @unknownuser said:

                  The Air is not the platform you need. It's fine for day to day crap like browsing/editing documents/admiring but outside of that it's like tinsel on a Christmas tree. Nice to look at.

                  😲 Steady on old chap! 😲 πŸ˜†

                  The Air is actually pretty darn good- especially as it also has an i7 processor. It ain't no netbook! πŸ˜†

                  @unknownuser said:

                  For the price of a MacBook Pro you'd get a pretty powerful Sager Notebook.

                  Yep, that's right. And for the price of a Sager notebook, you'll get a pretty powerful Macbook Pro! πŸ˜› πŸ˜†

                  Windows 7 and OSX are both excellent. The advantage of a Macbook Pro though is at this time, the graphic card doesn't quite cut the mustard in an Air (although the Air is superb for other software such as Photoshop, Illustrator, Logic Pro, XCode etc) that both the computer and OS are built under the same factory roof allowing for far better compatibility and intergration. And you also get the best of both worlds too of course with the Mac.

                  FWIW, I'm typing this on my Macbook Pro 2.16gHz. It's 5 years old and still runs Sketchup well. There's Windows XP SP3 on another partition. These can be picked up for about Β£350 secondhand. It's also built like a brick sh*thouse!

                  Fanboy and proud! β˜€ πŸ˜†

                  My book "Let's SketchUp!" Download from here

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                  • O Offline
                    okto
                    last edited by 15 Nov 2011, 08:24

                    I really would like to thank you very much for the respond.
                    @Tom, @Gaieus, @Dale, @ Gilles and @ Rich O' Brien your advice are clearly now to me. i will buy a Macbook pro 13" i7. cant afford the 15" the price its touching the $1800.
                    i dont know if there's refurbished Mac in Indonesia or how they will make it happend.

                    thank you so much guys.. will be updating soon after i buy the laptop. thank you so much. really helpfull.

                    GBU everyone

                    Design and concept might look a like, but the souls that come with it, will never be the same. open minded & trust your self

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                    • T Offline
                      tfdesign
                      last edited by 15 Nov 2011, 14:25

                      Okto,

                      Don't forget, that if you know someone who works at a university, they can get a Mac ever cheaper- usually with all the VAT knocked off, and a load of Applecare thrown in for free. πŸ˜„ πŸ’­

                      My book "Let's SketchUp!" Download from here

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                      • O Offline
                        okto
                        last edited by 15 Nov 2011, 23:36

                        @tfdesign said:

                        Okto,

                        Don't forget, that if you know someone who works at a university, they can get a Mac ever cheaper- usually with all the VAT knocked off, and a load of Applecare thrown in for free. πŸ˜„ πŸ’­

                        Thanx for the great advice Tom,
                        but i wonder how they will process it here in Indonesia. refurbished Mac also quite hard to get in here. anyway will try it Tom.

                        best regards

                        Design and concept might look a like, but the souls that come with it, will never be the same. open minded & trust your self

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                        • O Offline
                          okto
                          last edited by 18 Nov 2011, 13:54

                          i wanna say thank you so much for giving me the opinion for me to buy to buy new laptop.
                          finally i bought Macbook pro 15" thank you so much.
                          if i wanna ask about the compatibility of Sketchup 8 with osx lion is it in this theard also?
                          thanx again,

                          GBU everyone

                          Design and concept might look a like, but the souls that come with it, will never be the same. open minded & trust your self

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                          • G Offline
                            Gaieus
                            last edited by 18 Nov 2011, 14:29

                            There's a sticky topic in the SketchUp Discussions forum about Lion:
                            http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=38858

                            Gai...

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                            • O Offline
                              okto
                              last edited by 22 Nov 2011, 13:45

                              @gaieus said:

                              There's a sticky topic in the SketchUp Discussions forum about Lion:
                              http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=38858

                              Thanx a lot Gaieus, it really help a lot πŸ‘

                              Design and concept might look a like, but the souls that come with it, will never be the same. open minded & trust your self

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