{"id":122,"date":"2015-01-27T12:09:19","date_gmt":"2015-01-27T12:09:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/screenshotsfromtheedge\/?p=122"},"modified":"2015-01-27T12:09:19","modified_gmt":"2015-01-27T12:09:19","slug":"about-those-macbooks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/screenshotsfromtheedge\/2015\/01\/27\/about-those-macbooks\/","title":{"rendered":"About those MacBooks\u2026"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>For a long time my default recommendation for a Mac laptop has been the MacBook Air 13&#8243; &#8211; it&#8217;s a good basic machine. With the\u00a01.7GHz dual-core i7 CPU, 8GB RAM, and 256GB SSD it comes to \u00a3866 ex VAT. The\u00a0<em>problem<\/em> with the machine is that it only has one Thunderbolt port, which means you have to choose between video-out and gigabit networking, or else buy a docking station or Thunderbolt Display. Since gigabit networking is mostly non-negotiable, you&#8217;re obliged to spend around another \u00a3150 (ex. VAT) on a dock, and then possibly another \u00a320 on a USB or Thunderbolt ethernet dongle in case you go somewhere where you need wired networking. Total price, around \u00a31040 + VAT = \u00a31250.<\/p>\n<p>I wasn&#8217;t keen on the Retina MacBook Pro 13&#8243; for a few reasons &#8211; chief amongst them being that I wasn&#8217;t sure the screen was justified, and that the machine was up to driving it without a discrete GPU. Well, having used retina screens for a while now myself, I think they&#8217;re more than justified &#8211; they&#8217;re so much easier on the eyes that I think anyone who is using computers for extended periods should have one. And having played with a 13&#8243; rMBP, and spoken with folks who have one, it seems my concerns on the GPU front were overstated. And most importantly, the rMBP comes with\u00a0<em>two<\/em> Thunderbolt ports, which means you can have both gigabit networking\u00a0<em>and<\/em> video without a dock!<\/p>\n<p>In terms of spec, the entry-level CPU is fine for most people &#8211; a 2.6GHz dual-core i5. I don&#8217;t see the point in upping this to the i7, as all that adds is a slightly higher base clock speed and the mostly useless hyper-threading virtual cores. So a machine with 8GB RAM and a 256GB SSD comes to \u00a3859 ex. VAT, which is actually cheaper than the similar-spec MBAir\u2026 Throw in the \u00a320 gigabit dongle and we&#8217;re at a total of just under \u00a31060 inc VAT.<\/p>\n<p>Oopsie. :\/<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For a long time my default recommendation for a Mac laptop has been the MacBook Air 13&#8243; &#8211; it&#8217;s a good basic machine. With the\u00a01.7GHz dual-core i7 CPU, 8GB RAM, and 256GB SSD it comes to \u00a3866 ex VAT. The\u00a0problem &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/screenshotsfromtheedge\/2015\/01\/27\/about-those-macbooks\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-122","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa93hP-1Y","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/screenshotsfromtheedge\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/screenshotsfromtheedge\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/screenshotsfromtheedge\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/screenshotsfromtheedge\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/83"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/screenshotsfromtheedge\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=122"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/screenshotsfromtheedge\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/screenshotsfromtheedge\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/screenshotsfromtheedge\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/screenshotsfromtheedge\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}