berkicome

Hello guys, i'm planning to buy a macbook pro 13.3 the base model with the back to school deal. do you think the i5 core is good enough for a computer science major at uc berkeley? is the base level macbook pro powerful enough for it? or do i have to spend an extra 300 on the i7?

Big Cat

Itll be more than enough. I'm in CompSci and I use a core 2 duo model from 2 years ago and I've never had an issue with it running any of my school programs. You'll be fine with the i5, save your cash.

turbo93

Being a reformed CS major myself I checked UCB's CompSci to see what courses they teach and maybe what languages they use... That may be the best indicator of how much horsepower you will need. For undergrad the i5 should be fine, just writing code on a 13" screen is like watching a ball game on a 3 inch screen...

More memory would also be a good idea. 4gb min, 8gb ideal.

You've probably seen this (CS 10: Beauty and Joy of programming :-)):

http://www.eecs.berkeley.edu/Schedul.../schedule.html

aStyle

You don't need i7

berkicome

i know the 13" is a little bit small. i can't go after the 15'' due to cash limits. do you guys recommend me to buy a 20-25" lcd in my dorm?

ilikepizza

the 13" is not that small. the screen is pretty good. go to microcenter. they are selling it for $999

Big Cat

Yeah its not terribly small, but for coding work you're going to want a much bigger display (trust me.) An external display would be a nice pickup if you got the extra cash. That along with a keyboard and mouse would give you a dorm set up for doing your big projects and then you can just disconnect your Macbook when you need it for class or whatever.

turbo93

If we could get the boss at work to cough up money for twin 22" widescreen LCD's (software development all day) I'm sure you could find $150 for a nice Samsung or LG 22". Either that or you have awesome vision :-). Keyboard and mouse are musts as well.

berkicome

why is keyboard and mouse necessary for programming?
the trackpad and mbp keyboard are not good enough? why is that?

Big Cat

They are, but are if you have it hooked up to a display, you'll most likely close the lid of your macbook and work exclusively off the display. This means you can't use the built in KB+M so you'll need to buy a KB+M. You can keep the Macbook open and use it along with the display. I've done it in the past, but I've found it to be more of a pain than its worth.

turbo93

If you program in APL or Forth, the keyboard/trackpad should be enough :-)

(let's see who gets this :-))