turtlerock

Personally I don't. This is for the generalization that you're giving to "see third-party Thunderbolt hubs where you do one plug at home or office and that gives you Ethernet, DVI, VGA, Firewire, and additional USB ports."

It's fine and dandy when all you're using your USB ports for are keyboards and mice, but if you're trying to work with multiple data storage devices and/or web hosting, then there will be an ill effect to that method.

What's her major?

BCEagle91

> Personally I don't. This is for the generalization that you're giving to "see third-party
> Thunderbolt hubs where you do one plug at home or office and that gives you Ethernet,
> DVI, VGA, Firewire, and additional USB ports."

I'd guess that the vast majority of MacBook Pro users don't order the 12 TB storage array option.

> It's fine and dandy when all you're using your USB ports for are keyboards and mice,
> but if you're trying to work with multiple data storage devices and/or web hosting,
> then there will be an ill effect to that method.

There are two Thunderbolt ports on the MBP so you could hook up the big storage array to the other port.

Do people use their laptops for web hosting? What do you do when you have to take it on the subway?

My son works with data approaching the petabyte area. His server room has 10xGigabit bandwidth and they apparently buy specialized servers and storage arrays to handle the huge amounts of data. I think that my company does something similar though that's all a black box to me. If I need more capacity, I'd probably get a server instead of a laptop. My laptop is meant to be mobile.

turtlerock

You're the one that brought it up in terms of bandwidth. If you question why someone would use their laptop for bandwidth power, then why would you bring it up in a discussion about a laptop?

The form can be more simplistic. Say you have a miltiport connected to a single thunderbolt port. The data rate effected thus negates the faster rate promised by the thunderbolt (or even USB 3) as soon as the channel is grown or split - i.e. when you try to use two or more receptors in a single transmitter (the origin port). Like it's been stated, it won't effect a keyboard connection, but keyboards aren't the only thing that uses USB these days. Not to mention it cuts down on battery life as well.

BCEagle91

> You're the one that brought it up in terms of bandwidth. If you question why
> someone would use their laptop for bandwidth power, then why would you bring
> it up in a discussion about a laptop?

Actually you brought it up here:

"Wouldn't that bottleneck the data transfer rates, therefore negating the benefit of the 3.0? "

> when you try to use two or more receptors in a single transmitter (the origin port).
> Like it's been stated, it won't effect a keyboard connection, but keyboards aren't the
> only thing that uses USB these days. Not to mention it cuts down on battery life as
> well.

If you're using a hub for VGA, DVI, Ethernet, etc. one could assume that you have a power adapter and 120VAC.

If you need USB 3.0 bandwidth, you could always use the two built-ins.

docchix3

Consider the fact that many desks in lecture halls with be very small, making anything larger than 13" awkward and prone to falling. I had a 14" VAIO my first two years at school, and even that felt like it was teetering on my desk everytime I took it to class; I'm getting the 13" MBA for my junior year in the fall.

BCEagle91

After I ordered mine, a co-worker went to the Apple Store yesterday afternoon, took a look at one and ordered one. He currently uses a damaged MacBook Air and was looking at replacing it with a MacBook Pro because the resolution of the Air models isn't sufficient for his work. I think that he would have been happy with a true 15 inch Air at 1680x1050 but I think that he is going to be very happy working at 1920x1200 on the MacBook Pro Retina.

bl4ke360

They should have done 1920x1200 but used an OLED screen instead, it would have looked much better than a higher resolution LCD especially at that size where you would hardly notice the resolution difference anyway.

nydavid

Sorry, but why are you being so belligerent?

Nope, you were the first to bring up bandwidth:

Besides, for regular uses, even if you plug in 1 Gbit ethernet + multiple USB + VGA + FW 800, you're still not going to saturate one Thunderbolt port, which was the point. You decided to take it further by naming extreme use cases unrealistic for a laptop or college student.

(For the record, Thunderbolt offers 10 Gbit throughput in each direction.)

Bottom line: the new Pro's lack of ethernet, Firewire, and optical drive is a non-issue, since these can all be easily supported via adapters/hubs. I'm replacing my 2010 11" Air + iMac setup with one of these in a few weeks, before entering college.

BCEagle91

> They should have done 1920x1200 but used an OLED screen instead, it would have
> looked much better than a higher resolution LCD especially at that size where you would
> hardly notice the resolution difference anyway.

I actually like the approach that they took. Back around 2002-2004, laptop makers typically offered three resolutions on their models and this was obviously a pain in the neck for them as the higher-resolution models were usually BTO and they had to keep display inventories around. Today, super-high resolutions are pretty hard to find - it seems that computer companies prefer to build it and then sell it to you. They still do BTO but I think that they prefer not to as it complicates the supply chain.

With the Retina display, Apple only needs one screen solution so they don't have to order 1440x900 and 1680x1050 panels as with the regular MacBook Pro. It also means that your laptop will have more resale value. I have a 15.4 inch Dell Inspiron 8500 with 1920x1200 resolution. Most people wouldn't want to buy something like this which is why everyone dropped this many years ago. So I could sell mine to someone that wanted a lower resolution. It also makes it easier for someone that I loan it to (within my family or at work) to use it at whatever resolution is most comfortable for them.

I think that it's an interesting experiment (one that I'm willing to pay to try out).

Whateverhappens

Am I odd in that I actually dislike the lack of an optical drive? I'm going to college in the fall, and my huge DVD collection is leading me to want either the previous MacBook model or even a PC.

BCEagle91

You can get the non-Retina models in 13 or 15 inch if you want the optical drive. You can also go with an external drive or a networked drive.

I have seen many complaints about the lack of an optical drive in the comments section of the review sites.

CPUscientist3000

Are the non-retina 13' and 15' models upgraded as well? In terms of hardware.

BCEagle91

Yes. Ivy Bridge, nVidia graphics, USB 3, Thunderbolt on the 15 inch MBP.

CPUscientist3000

Okay thanks! I was looking at my college's computer store online and they listed the Air and Pro 13/15' models, then listed them again with *new* labeled on them.


Kind of unrelated to the topic, but Macs are OK for engineering (esp MechE or EE)? I've talked to upperclassmen and they've said they haven't had "too many" problems, and that classes accommodate either or. And AutoCAD 2013 will be Mac compatible. If going into engineering, should I get a Parallels for VMware when I buy my computer, or wait it out and use bootcamp? Should I buy windows then, too?

BCEagle91

I have BootCamp and run a Windows VM on my MacBook Pro (2008 model). I much prefer using the VM but I don't do anything computationally heavy on Windows. I use VirtualBox (freebie VM software). You need to have a valid Windows license to run Windows - you may be able to get these inexpensively at your university. If not, then Newegg runs specials on Windows 7 Home Premium from time to time. They had a sale last weekend for $80 for an OEM license.