MacBook Pro for a design student
Didi64_549 Posted messages 2900 Registration date Status Member Last intervention -
My daughter’s course is steering her toward studies in Graphic Communication Design.
The prospective school sent us the list of equipment she will need. MacBook Pro, external SSD...
Unfortunately I know nothing about Apple and everything surrounding it.
I would need advice to know what to actually steer toward. The minimum configuration is a 13” MacBook Pro with Apple Silicon starting from the M2, recommended M3, M4 or M5, 16 GB (minimum) of unified memory, and in the recommended configuration: 14” or 16” MacBook Pro with Apple M3 Pro to M5, 16 GB (minimum) of unified memory + SSD hard drive (minimum 1 TB): transfer speed from 1000 MB/s and a Thunderbolt/HDMI adapter, USB, SD Card, MicroSD, …
And there I’m lost; plus we’ve just taken the Apple price inflation into account to fix things. The budget for the Mac will be around €2000, but then I understood that you can’t just put any external SSD.
If someone could kindly guide me because I’m roaming the web without knowing what to actually aim for. I found this: MacBook Pro M5 with 24GB.
Thanks in advance.
6 answers
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Hello,
For the MacBook M3 it’s good.
If your daughter's studies last, therefore over time it’s better to use high-end, for example a 1 TB external Thunderbolt SSD which is quite fast.
For the connection, do you need HDMI? USB-A etc... via a hub.
It’s high-end but justified for a substantial duration for studies.
Graphic work is sometimes quite heavy and the GBs fill up in a few months.
It’s the school that requires this hardware and this fast external SSD like 10,000 Mb/s equals 1250 MB/s, so an NVMe SSD with a Thunderbolt 3/4 enclosure.
Then there is also a lower-end but good option like the Samsung T7 Shield in quick USB-C but not Thunderbolt, and that’s the one I have myself, and I added this complete Hub-C which seems essential for this PC.
That’s it in broad strokes, but on a MacBook everything works well.
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The Mac is purchased, we found a MacBook Pro M4 Pro 24/512 refurbished at Apple. Now I’m eyeing external SSDs etc.
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Hello and thank you for your help.
I just noticed that the link for the M5 wasn’t working: M5 Pro
The school requires an SSD hard drive (minimum 1 TB) with a transfer speed of at least 1000 mb/sec.
Plus an adapter Thunderbolt / HDMI, USB, SD Card, MicroSD, …
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Well, the offer at €1939 is over. So I guess maybe 16GB will be enough.
Actually, I have no idea, except that Apple's price increase comes at the worst possible moment for me.
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Ideologically, I’m not a big fan of Amazon, but you can find this offer, which deserves a look: https://www.amazon.fr/Apple-MacBook-14-pouces-Stockage-Reconditionné/dp/B0DT7HR3G2/ref=sr_1_17?
Hello to you!
Bernard-
Hi again,
1700 euros all the same, the price stated in this listing.
You can negotiate in an Apple Store and see with them the complementary equipment they have to offer you.
Apple sells refurbished PCs in their shops.
I bought my last Mac that way.
Hello,
Most of the schools in question are private, it’s a swamp where there is something to drink and eat, some offer no certification guarantee for the diplomas, while others issue diplomas that are only “in-house” and only bind themselves; they have only one common feature: stratospheric tuition fees often exceeding €8,000 per year, which is their main criterion of admission selectivity.
There is no omelette without breaking eggs; we are no longer at €2,000 and, new or not, it will be difficult to go below given the required characteristics.Re,
That remains your personal opinion brucine and stop announcing unofficial topics because studies are not everywhere stratospheric but only in certain private commercial institutions.
There remain the fine arts and they only require enrollment fees.
There is also the national diploma of crafts and design.
So, no need to worry, I am a teacher.
Universities that offer design/visual communication programs.
I said most of them are private.
I know there are inexpensive public trainings at various levels (not necessarily right after high school) and which are often, here too, more selective than by tuition fees alone.
I also know that you are a computer science teacher on odd days and a literature teacher on even days, which gives you full competence in art schools, but I am not sure either that the public schools in question specify the obligation of such make and model of computer at enrollment, even if in media matters the tradition is Mac.
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Indeed the school is private and after spending a year wading through all the ones in my region I can confirm there is both good and bad. I just hope we made the right choice, but only time will tell.
Otherwise for the MacBook I’m tempted to find a M4 Pro with 24GB and a 512GB hard drive. I’m prioritizing power over storage, it’s my daughter who’s paying for it so she’ll decide whether she prefers a new one or Apple refurbished. I’m less fond of refurbished by others.
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Hello,
512 GB may already seem huge but it can quickly be filled by power-hungry programs and especially the content they generate.for example I have an external drive that contains about 300 movies, almost 800 GB.
One can always do like me, an external drive but in this specific case Thunderbolt will have a speed close to an internal SSD but a cost already of several hundred euros for 1 TB, with the advantage that one can defer the purchase.
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