Work Computer vs. Macbook Pro 15 inch.

[Blueobelisk]

So I might be working at a new company soon (as a software developer), and they said that I'll be issued a 15 inch Macbook Pro (2.9 GHz CPU, 16 GB. But who wants to code on some tiny laptop. And a Mac, at that. And I'm not even sure it's that powerful (I'm not gaming on it, but the specs are surely peasant level).

I'm not even sure I'd be allowed to even build a custom computer: maybe they have a deal to get those Macbook Pros cheap or something. And I'm sure warranty/other stuff is easier for a laptop than random computer parts. But still...

Just curious, how much do you think a "Work" computer would cost if it were custom built? There'd be no gaming, so no need for a good graphics card, although obviously visuals and maybe dual monitors dictate that a decent card might be necessary. (No peripherals, you guys know I live in NY, and W10 would be like $35 from w/e that site is called, and I'd need it shipped within like a week.)

[Onikaroshi]

So I might be working at a new company soon (as a software developer), and they said that I'll be issued a 15 inch Macbook Pro (2.9 GHz CPU, 16 GB. But who wants to code on some tiny laptop. And a Mac, at that. And I'm not even sure it's that powerful (I'm not gaming on it, but the specs are surely peasant level).

I'm not even sure I'd be allowed to even build a custom computer: maybe they have a deal to get those Macbook Pros cheap or something. And I'm sure warranty/other stuff is easier for a laptop than random computer parts. But still...

Just curious, how much do you think a "Work" computer would cost if it were custom built? There'd be no gaming, so no need for a good graphics card, although obviously visuals and maybe dual monitors dictate that a decent card might be necessary. (No peripherals, you guys know I live in NY, and W10 would be like $35 from w/e that site is called, and I'd need it shipped within like a week.)

Depends on how intensive you work actually is. But even graphics people are moving away from macs, video editors, all of it, they're just not providing the power anymore, specially with AMD starting to rule that type of market.

[Temp name]

Honestly depends what you need. If you just need it for writing the code? You can get something in the 3-500 USD range. It won't be fast, probably not even faster than the macbook.

If you need something with a lot of CPU cores, you'd be looking at probably some threadripper stuff, which retails for 800+ for CPU alone. You could probably get away with 1500-ish for a 2950x system with a cheapo GPU.

Really comes down to your specific workload

[Blueobelisk]

It's backend server coding. So I'll write REST APIs I guess and need to test them using a browser or Postman.

Although the work is supposed to be paired with websites/mobile apps, so I'm not sure if I'll ever need to run and test those front-end things (or run an iPhone simulator? I don't think that's part of my job but...)

[Onikaroshi]

It's backend server coding. So I'll write REST APIs I guess and need to test them using a browser or Postman.

Although the work is supposed to be paired with websites/mobile apps, so I'm not sure if I'll ever need to run and test those front-end things (or run an iPhone simulator? I don't think that's part of my job but...)

I don't see why you couldn't just get an external monitor, keyboard, and mouse and just use the macbook (you need to get adapters usually, because Apple is straight up fucktarded though)

[Temp name]

Take it up with your employer if you can bring/build your own solution. But if you really just need to write code, just use the provided MacBook.

[Blueobelisk]

I mean, I guess a Macbook would work. I just thought using the money it costs to get one of those would be better spent on an actual desktop (for cheaper). I guess if I get peripherals, as you guys suggest, it's not a huge deal...I guess coding APIs shouldn't require that intensive of a rig.

(Evidently I can also get a few peripherals (monitor, keyboard/mouse) to go along with it.) Idk, maybe I'm just spoiled by PC Master Race.

[Kagthul]

So I might be working at a new company soon (as a software developer), and they said that I'll be issued a 15 inch Macbook Pro (2.9 GHz CPU, 16 GB. But who wants to code on some tiny laptop. And a Mac, at that. And I'm not even sure it's that powerful (I'm not gaming on it, but the specs are surely peasant level).

Yeah, those peasant-level Core i9s that turbo to 4.8ghz. /facepalm.

Depends on how intensive you work actually is. But even graphics people are moving away from macs, video editors, all of it, they're just not providing the power anymore, specially with AMD starting to rule that type of market.

.... yeahno. Until Premier becomes something other than a raging garbage fire, professional video editors will continue using Mac. FinalCut is leaps and bounds more powerful. (And Premier actually doesn’t scale that well with lots of cores - NOTHING in the Creative Suite does).

Same with Photoshop/etc, the entire Creative Suite is not super multicore aware. They prefer clock speed.

I don't see why you couldn't just get an external monitor, keyboard, and mouse and just use the macbook (you need to get adapters usually, because Apple is straight up fucktarded though)

Uh.... how is using what is rapidly becoming industry standard “fucktarded”? USB-C is a better standard. You could, in fact, just get a monitor that connects via USB-C (LG makes a few) that has USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-A ports on it.

I mean, I guess a Macbook would work. I just thought using the money it costs to get one of those would be better spent on an actual desktop (for cheaper). I guess if I get peripherals, as you guys suggest, it's not a huge deal...I guess coding APIs shouldn't require that intensive of a rig.

You can code on a dual-core Chromebook. Its not exactly rig-intensive.

(Evidently I can also get a few peripherals (monitor, keyboard/mouse) to go along with it.) Idk, maybe I'm just spoiled by PC Master Race.

For “work”, im not really sure what there is to be spoiled about. You cant really buy a PC laptop with equivalent specs any cheaper. And while you can build an equivalent desktop rig cheaper.... its a desktop rig. Its not going to go home with you. You could also simply go (if you want to spend less for an equivalently powerful machine) with an iMac (not the Pro, though thats also an option) that has the six-core i7 in it.

Or, if you want a PC, and your employer doesn’t care (they likely are purchasing you a Mac because IT support for a Mac is substantially easier and less costly - which is why IBM, for instance, replaced every Windows machine they had with Macs, and saved over 50% on their IT costs).. you could get a PC ultrabook of similar specs (from Razer, Lenovo, etc).

The Razer Blade Pro is actually quite a good little machine, and spec’ed/priced similarly to the MBP.

[Onikaroshi]

Uh.... how is using what is rapidly becoming industry standard “fucktarded”? USB-C is a better standard. You could, in fact, just get a monitor that connects via USB-C (LG makes a few) that has USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-A ports on it.

Because so many periphials come with USB-C right? Mice? Keyboards? Headsets? no, no they don't. Removing standard USB ports and not including adapters is as bad as removing the headphone jack from the iphone.

[Kagthul]

Because so many periphials come with USB-C right? Mice? Keyboards? Headsets? no, no they don't.

... because you’re going to bloat down a laptop with corded accessories? What are you, a neandertal?

And if you ARE going to use it “docked” at home.... how is it an issue to simply buy a 20$ USB-C adapter hub so you can bring your laptop home, and plug in ONE plug and be docked and done? (Or use any of the extremely good Pro level LG, Samsung, or ASUS monitors that have a hub and power delivery built in?).

Get out of the stone ages, you luddite.

Edit: Another advantage of the Mac is that if you need to, you can run Windows (or Linux) on it. Both natively and through a VM. You cant run MacOS on a PC without a LOT of extra (unsupported) work, and not natively at all unless you just happen to have a machine that has certain chips on it.

I use Parallels all the time to run a Win 10 VM; performance is near-native. The only thing that is a little slow is gaming (as Parallels and VMWare dont support anything past DX9 in hardware) - but thats hardly why you’d use it. And you wouldn’t be doing any worthwhile gaming even natively on anything in that class.

[Onikaroshi]

... because you’re going to bloat down a laptop with corded accessories? What are you, a neandertal?

And if you ARE going to use it “docked” at home.... how is it an issue to simply buy a 20$ USB-C adapter hub so you can bring your laptop home, and plug in ONE plug and be docked and done? (Or use any of the extremely good Pro level LG, Samsung, or ASUS monitors that have a hub and power delivery built in?).

Get out of the stone ages, you luddite.

Because laptop keyboards (specially mac keyboards) are awful and track pads are unusable? It should include an adapter, not have to go out and purchase a separate one.

[Temp name]

Yeah, those peasant-level Core i9s that turbo to 4.8ghz. /facepalm.

Except the part where they can't actually turbo that high in any load because it'll throttle like a bitch.

Apples thermal solution is probably worse than Intel stock coolers

[Onikaroshi]

Except the part where they can't actually turbo that high in any load because it'll throttle like a bitch.

Apples thermal solution is probably worse than Intel stock coolers

It's actually kind of a good thing Intel apparently gave up on stock coolers lol.

[Kagthul]

Except the part where they can't actually turbo that high in any load because it'll throttle like a bitch.

Apples thermal solution is probably worse than Intel stock coolers

Uh.. no. That was a bug and was fixed within weeks. LTT even did a follow up video about it. Works fine.

- - - Updated - - -

Because laptop keyboards (specially mac keyboards) are awful and track pads are unusable? It should include an adapter, not have to go out and purchase a separate one.

Way to completely miss the point.

If you’re going to be using peripherals with your laptop, it is going to be when it is docked. If it is docked, any peripherals can be plugged in to the dock/monitor/adapter.

If you’re for some reason trucking around peripherals to use with your laptop (why the hell would saddle yourself with MORE crap to carry around when you went through the trouble of getting an ultrabook?) - you’re going to carry WIRED peripherals that take up even more space and leave cables all over the place? Somehow... i dont think so. You’re gong to be packing wireless peripherals, if for some insane reason you carry periphals when you’re on the go.

Hell, even if you’re at home and “docked”, you’re likely to be using wireless peripherals. There’s no reason to clutter up your desk with cables and with the systems we’re talking about, wired vs wireless latency is a 100% non-issue, as you dont buy an Ultrabook to game on. Theyre for work or general computing.

And, your anecdotal opinions are not shared by the majority of users. Though the first generation of of the “new” laptop keyboards was not that great, the updated versions on the newer MBPs are ... fine, which is about as good as any non-mechanical laptop keyboard gets - and the Trackpad on the Macs is industry-leading and extremely useable. Its far easier to navigate OSX -or- Windows with the the trackpad gestures than it is to use a mouse of any kind.

Hell, i use the Magic Trackpad for my daily-driver because after getting used to using the trackpad when i was traveling, i couldn’t go back to using a mouse, it was so damn inefficient.

Now, obviously you’re still going to use a mouse of some kind for gaming, as a trackpad isn’t well suited to gaming... but... to repeat it.. we’re not talking about gaming. Any machine from any manufacturer in this product category isnt going to game worth a damn unless you dock it with an eGPU. Mac or not.

[Temp name]

Uh.. no. That was a bug and was fixed within weeks. LTT even did a follow up video about it. Works fine.

Which video is that? The one where they liquid metal it?
Because the other one I can find on their channel is this one: https://youtu.be/7gJ8mGFjeqA
Where at 8:30-ish you can see the CPU frequency.. At <3GHz with a temp of 97.

[Wermys]

So I might be working at a new company soon (as a software developer), and they said that I'll be issued a 15 inch Macbook Pro (2.9 GHz CPU, 16 GB. But who wants to code on some tiny laptop. And a Mac, at that. And I'm not even sure it's that powerful (I'm not gaming on it, but the specs are surely peasant level).

I'm not even sure I'd be allowed to even build a custom computer: maybe they have a deal to get those Macbook Pros cheap or something. And I'm sure warranty/other stuff is easier for a laptop than random computer parts. But still...

Just curious, how much do you think a "Work" computer would cost if it were custom built? There'd be no gaming, so no need for a good graphics card, although obviously visuals and maybe dual monitors dictate that a decent card might be necessary. (No peripherals, you guys know I live in NY, and W10 would be like $35 from w/e that site is called, and I'd need it shipped within like a week.)

They probably won't let you guy your own. They probably want to lock the environment down to make servicing easier. Otherwise just buy a cheap Dell or Lenovo laptop or NUC from intel.