My only computer is an 11" 2011 MBA and I need more capability, which way to go...

[Blackjack200]

So I have a mid 2011 MBA that's served me well for the last three years (bought it refurb from Apple in early 2012)

Processor: 1.8 ghz i7
Memory: 4 gb
Graphics: Intel HD 3000

I'm going to take over administration of my sailing club's website in the next couple of weeks, and I'm doing more and more VBA scripting in my job, so I'd like something with a dual screen capability (the 2011 MBA does NOT have that capability natively, but more on that later) and I want to run Windows. So basically I'm looking for something that's versatile and powerful, and I understand that that will cost some money.

I already have a monitor rig (2 panels and a stand).

Here are the options that I'm considering so far:

1. Just buy a Surface Pro. The problem is that it only has one mini Displayport uhh, port. So I'd have to get some kind of kludgy adapter like this: http://www.amazon.com/StarTech-com-D...#RI393FT9PKGG0 for $100, and that wouldn't work with my MBA. Plus I still need to pay for office. So $1200 for the pro + $100 for the adaptor + the cost of office.


2. I could get these two devices: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...ct/B00F3J9EZK/
And that will let me convert my Thunderbolt port in my MBA to USB3 (+eSATA) and then drive two displays from the USB3 adaptor. Then I'd have to install boot camp, and somehow get a Windows 7 license. (And a copy of Office)
So $200 + what, $100 for Win 7? + the cost of office. Will this setup even work with bootcamp? After googling around it looks like legally getting a copy of Win 7 to install on my machine would be a total headache, and maybe not even possible.

3. The $$$$ option: Sell the MBA and get a rMBP. My MBA is getting a little long in the tooth, a new rMBP would give me USB 3, Haswell processor, more memory, obviously a much better screen, and far more powerful graphics capability for driving displays. Again, I'd have to boot camp and get Win 7 license and a copy of Office. I'm looking at the 13" option and it seems like a much better value than the 15". Is there something I'm missing, or is the larger display mostly what you're paying for with the 15"? Again, Win7 might not be possible, so this feels like it's pushing me to the SP or another conventional Windows machine.

I guess my main question is how the rMBPs are as development platforms with multiple displays and bootcamp (I guess I'd just have to tolerate Win 8 until Win 10 is released later this year.

 

[Koing]

I like my rMBA with a 23" for some light GIMP work.

I should have sprung for the 16GB version though!

Koing

 

[Blackjack200]

do you mean 13" rMBP?

edit: ahh, just realized I said rMBA in my own post, so my fault.

 

[nitromullet]

I'm looking at the 13" option and it seems like a much better value than the 15". Is there something I'm missing, or is the larger display mostly what you're paying for with the 15"?

The 15" has a Core i7 quad core cpu, while the 13" has a Core i5 dual core cpu. The 15" also comes standard with 16GB RAM as opposed to the 8GB on the 13".

To bump the 13" up to 16GB of RAM and an i7 dual core (quad is not available) is an additional $400 through Apple.

Whether or not quad core with hyper threading and an additional 8GB of RAM are worth it is up to you. I personally really wish they made a 13" quad core model because I like the form factor of the 13" much more than the 15". Coming from an Air, the 15" MBP will probably feel like a box of bricks.

 

[Rakehellion]

I have a 13" MacBook Pro from 2008 that's duing so I'm finally replacing it with a 15" Retina Pro even though there's going to be a major refresh in three months.

 

[redheeler]

I like my rMBA with a 23" for some light GIMP work.

I should have sprung for the 16GB version though!

Koing

How did you get a rMBA?

 

[zerogear]

Just a quick note for SP3 -- SP3 supports daisy chain on the Display Port -- so if your monitors also support it, you won't need the adapter.

And Office 365 is 6.99 a month (on top of unlimited OneDrive). Plus if you buy Microsoft Complete package from MS Store, you get 2 year warranty with 1 year subscription of Office 365 and a bunch of other goodies (usually sleeve, screen protector, etc).

I don't work for MS , but I'm throughly impressed by their Customer Service in their stores as well as the Surface Pro line

 

[Childs]

Check eBay for 2011-2013 15" MBP i7. 2012 version probably the best as it has USB3 and user replaceable RAM and HDD. Usually you can find some for around $900-1000. I have a mid 2011, upgraded RAM and HD, and it does everything I want it to. This is my swiss army knife machine, so admin stuff, light dev and some editing and rendering.

Also, do you need a laptop? Mac Mini can do what you want, especially since you already have monitors.

 

[Blackjack200]

Just a quick note for SP3 -- SP3 supports daisy chain on the Display Port -- so if your monitors also support it, you won't need the adapter.

And Office 365 is 6.99 a month (on top of unlimited OneDrive). Plus if you buy Microsoft Complete package from MS Store, you get 2 year warranty with 1 year subscription of Office 365 and a bunch of other goodies (usually sleeve, screen protector, etc).

I don't work for MS , but I'm throughly impressed by their Customer Service in their stores as well as the Surface Pro line

I'm 99% sure my panels don't support daisy chaining of any kind (I think DP is the only kind anyway?) I will double check though. This always freaking happens to me, I buy hardware that seems versatile enough to use for what I'm buying it for, and for some whatever else I migh need it to do later, and then the one feature I need is the one it doesn't have.

I've been reading reviews of the SP3, and am impressed, but also a little annoyed that I'd have to spend another $130 on the keyboard. Great point on Office 365. I think that's clearly the way I should go.

Check eBay for 2011-2013 15" MBP i7. 2012 version probably the best as it has USB3 and user replaceable RAM and HDD. Usually you can find some for around $900-1000. I have a mid 2011, upgraded RAM and HD, and it does everything I want it to. This is my swiss army knife machine, so admin stuff, light dev and some editing and rendering.

Also, do you need a laptop? Mac Mini can do what you want, especially since you already have monitors.

Great points, both. I had not considered either option. So more research to do

 

[slashbinslashbash]

Don't do Boot Camp. Parallels or VMWare will get you where you need to go.

 

[jji7skyline]

Don't do Boot Camp. Parallels or VMWare will get you where you need to go.

Not sure where you're coming from here, virtualising is fine for casual stuff but you get a performance hit when doing anything intensive.

 

[Blackjack200]

Yeah, that's my impression. With Boot Camp you're booting an x86 directly into Windows. It's like a reverse Hackintosh, so there should be no performance hit at all.

 

[iluvdeal]

Yeah, that's my impression. With Boot Camp you're booting an x86 directly into Windows. It's like a reverse Hackintosh, so there should be no performance hit at all.

What are you doing in Windows? After going virtualization, there's just no way I go back to boot camp or dual booting any systems I have. BTW I've compared running an OS baremetal versus as a VM in ESXi on some work servers, it was shockingly close.

Even if there is a slight performance hit, I'd take it since I can be more productive as I have access to multiple OSes at the same time.

 

[Blackjack200]

What are you doing in Windows? After going virtualization, there's just no way I go back to boot camp or dual booting any systems I have. BTW I've compared running an OS baremetal versus as a VM in ESXi on some work servers, it was shockingly close.

Even if there is a slight performance hit, I'd take it since I can be more productive as I have access to multiple OSes at the same time.

Interesting, maybe I'll try it. But I'd have to buy another license, right?

Edit: In windows it would probably be lightweight development work. I'm not much of a gamer, but I suppose that ability would be nice too.

 

[TheStu]

Interesting, maybe I'll try it. But I'd have to buy another license, right?

Edit: In windows it would probably be lightweight development work. I'm not much of a gamer, but I suppose that ability would be nice too.

You can virtualize your boot camp install. If you already have an unused license for Windows, you can use it for both purposes.

 

[iluvdeal]

Interesting, maybe I'll try it. But I'd have to buy another license, right?

Edit: In windows it would probably be lightweight development work. I'm not much of a gamer, but I suppose that ability would be nice too.

Virtualization should suit you fine then. I know a few people who used boot camp for years and stuck with it as that's all there was for running multiple OSes once upon a time, but once they tried VMs they never went back. I recommend getting a VMware Fusion trial and use Windows on that ( I think you can use Windows for awhile without a license right?), try it for a couple weeks. I'm willing to bet you won't go back to boot camp as being able to use both systems at the same time is just too convenient to live without.

 

[lucia]

I personally really wish they made a 13" quad core model because I like the form factor of the 13" much more than the 15". Coming from an Air, the 15" MBP will probably feel like a box of bricks.

I was debating between the 13'' and 15'', but opted for the 13''. I like the size of it for my day-to-day tasks. As for a quad core, hmmm... depends on what are you need

 

[yhelothar]

I like going with a desktop and reap the power of the desktop with your laptop through remote desktop. Unless you live in a rural place where internet is still slow, any decent cable/fiber optic connection will feel like you're using the computer natively, short of videos/games.
You'll have a vastly more powerful machine to work with and you'll have endless storage upgradeability. As a bonus, you'll be able to reap the lightweight, low power, and portability of your MacBook Air while retaining the power of a fullsized desktop.

I did this option for gradschool in engineering. It was amusing doing programming assignments with my classmates where my code compiled so fast on my OC'ed hexcore xeon desktop that it made everyone else's laptop seem broken.

 

[Blackjack200]

Thanks for all the great advice in this thread. I think in the short term I'm going to get a Windows license and Bootcamp/VM it. I like the idea of having a powerful workstation for compiling code remotely if I do get into heavier duty programming.

 

[slashbinslashbash]

With Parallels (and probably VMWare but I'm not sure) you can set the exact resources you want to be given to the Windows VM. So in my case (quad core i7 15" MBP with 16GB of RAM) usually I go with 3 virtual CPU's (out of 8 possible because of dual threading.... so 1.5 cores) and 4GB of RAM for my lightweight Windows needs. If I were doing development which sometimes required compilation, I would probably step it up to 4 CPU's (2 full cores) and 8GB of RAM. That would still only be half the resources of my 2011 MBP. Supposedly the Windows VM can have almost-native access to the GPU as well, but I have never really tested this out. If I were doing CAD or something, I would probably at least consider Boot Camp, but for my purposes (MS Office and such) it's completely pointless.

So basically VM'ing on a quad-core with 16GB of RAM can let Windows have as many resources as Boot Camping a dual-core with 8GB of RAM. I am sure there is a bit of overhead, but AFAIK it is less than 10%. Virtual Machines are supposed to truly get pretty close to the metal.

 

[Blackjack200]

With Parallels (and probably VMWare but I'm not sure) you can set the exact resources you want to be given to the Windows VM. So in my case (quad core i7 15" MBP with 16GB of RAM) usually I go with 3 virtual CPU's (out of 8 possible because of dual threading.... so 1.5 cores) and 4GB of RAM for my lightweight Windows needs. If I were doing development which sometimes required compilation, I would probably step it up to 4 CPU's (2 full cores) and 8GB of RAM. That would still only be half the resources of my 2011 MBP. Supposedly the Windows VM can have almost-native access to the GPU as well, but I have never really tested this out. If I were doing CAD or something, I would probably at least consider Boot Camp, but for my purposes (MS Office and such) it's completely pointless.

So basically VM'ing on a quad-core with 16GB of RAM can let Windows have as many resources as Boot Camping a dual-core with 8GB of RAM. I am sure there is a bit of overhead, but AFAIK it is less than 10%. Virtual Machines are supposed to truly get pretty close to the metal.

Yeah, I guess I have no clue how VMs work because I always thought they ran on top of whatever OS you were using, like an emulator, so you'd have all the OSX overhead, plus the VM layer before you even started.

 

[paperwastage]

Yeah, I guess I have no clue how VMs work because I always thought they ran on top of whatever OS you were using, like an emulator, so you'd have all the OSX overhead, plus the VM layer before you even started.

http://www.tekrevue.com/parallels-10-fusion-7-virtualbox-benchmark/12/

virtualization definitely has some kind of overhead... the overhead has become smaller over the years (performance degradation, extra battery drain, stability)

 

[boomhower]

Check eBay for 2011-2013 15" MBP i7. 2012 version probably the best as it has USB3 and user replaceable RAM and HDD. Usually you can find some for around $900-1000. I have a mid 2011, upgraded RAM and HD, and it does everything I want it to. This is my swiss army knife machine, so admin stuff, light dev and some editing and rendering.

Also, do you need a laptop? Mac Mini can do what you want, especially since you already have monitors.

Avoid those like the plague. The graphics cards are dying at a rapid pace. If you get one it's not really a matter of if the card will die by when. I'm a member of the club, you don't want to join me.

I've currently got a late 2013 13" rMBP and am very happy with it.