I just purchased a 15" NON-retina. I bought it stock, except for the CPU and screen (matte high-res) which I upgraded. I then replaced the hard drive a 480gb SSD and put in 16GB ram. The machine is wicked fast and in total (with SSD, RAM) cost less than a comparable 15" retina.
I don't see the retina as necessary, but more as "cool". I'd either suggest getting the Air or get a non-retina 15" knowing you can upgrade it yourself to what you need/want. ========= Robert Evans Code Wranglers, Inc http://www.codewranglers.org http://www.github.com/revans http://www.linkedin/in/rrevans On Thursday, July 19, 2012 at 8:38 AM, Robert Kaufman wrote: > I used to swear by the 15" display, but a few years ago I traded for the 13" > mbp and later the 13" air. I have to say that as long as you are doing one > thing per screen (I'm kind of a spaces addict) the 13" is plenty sufficient. > Pair that with a large display at your desk for the times you need it and you > have a really capable set up. The 13" air can be a little light on power for > virtual machines, but for day to day dev it works like a charm. The biggest > plus to me is the shear lightness. Passing it to someone, using it on the > couch, making the choice to wander around with with it, those are all easy > things to do with the Air. One thing I know many of you do, but simply > doesn't work for me is multi-machine dev. I like having a single box and > having a backup machine that does something else (usually media) that I can > roll back to if I need it, but trying to keep to boxes in perfect sync makes > me crazy. > > Best, > Rob > > > On Jul 19, 2012, at 12:51 AM, Dave Deriso wrote: > > I've been coding on an air for the past 4 years and, although its old, it > > still works great. I just bought the new MBP retina with 16gb ram upgrade > > because of the GPU, which i use for data modeling and simulation. IMHO, if > > you aren't trying to do lots of heavy number crunching, stick with the air. > > In terms of ROR, they both will do the job very well. Just make sure you > > get the SSD, its a huge leap for performance and heat. Maybe with the > > savings you can pick up a quad core mini server, which is even better for > > ROR development :) > > > > Dave > > > > On Thu, Jul 19, 2012 at 12:38 AM, Guyren Howe <[email protected] > > (mailto:[email protected])> wrote: > > > On Jul 19, 2012, at 12:23 AM, Chris McCann wrote: > > > > I'm debating getting a new MacBook for Rails/Ruby development and can't > > > > decide between a 13" Air or a 15" Retina. Anyone care to chime in with > > > > their own experiences or analyses? > > > > > > I have the previous-generation 13” Air, which was my secondary machine (I > > > do dev on a 27” iMac with an external 27” display, and I’ve no idea why > > > more developers don’t have such a setup; anyway), but which from time to > > > time I did dev on. By the time I loaded up postgres, text editor, web > > > browser with a bunch of tabs, PGAdmin, terminal, … it was all out of > > > puff. Mostly because it only had 4GB of RAM. > > > > > > So no doubt whatever, you need 8GB RAM. > > > > > > I just got an 11” Air maxed out. It’s running Migration Assistant right > > > now (which is going to take over 24 hours because it has to go via > > > Wifi…). I’d be happy to let you know what I make of it in a few days. > > > > > > Note that it can hook up to up to 2x27” displays. A very nice option > > > would be to get an Air (maybe even an 11”), and when you’re at your desk, > > > hook it up to Apple’s gorgeous 27” display (or even 2 of them). > > > > > > Notes on the displays: Apple’s is the best and close to the cheapest > > > (really!). And if you’re being rational about it, the fabulous display > > > will last you between 5 and 10 years, whereas the laptop might last you > > > 3. That makes spending on the great display to work on a much cheaper > > > investment than a computer. Which also brings up the point: perhaps you > > > should buy an external display and keep your existing laptop for a bit > > > longer. That might be a better investment in your productivity. > > > > > > -- > > > SD Ruby mailing list > > > [email protected] (mailto:[email protected]) > > > http://groups.google.com/group/sdruby > > > > -- > > SD Ruby mailing list > > [email protected] (mailto:[email protected]) > > http://groups.google.com/group/sdruby > -- > SD Ruby mailing list > [email protected] (mailto:[email protected]) > http://groups.google.com/group/sdruby -- SD Ruby mailing list [email protected] http://groups.google.com/group/sdruby
