

Ask HN: Which Macbook is best for development? - stasy

I need to get a Mac for iOS development (and some ruby on rails). I have limited amount of money, so something below $2000. Should I get a 13 inch Macbook pro with 4gb of ram or is retina something I should get. Is a desktop Mac better than laptop?
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dougbarrett
I have a current model Macbook Air 13" w/ 4 Gb of ram. I do a whole variety of
development (PHP, golang, python) with MongoDB and MySQL.

Currently, I have a few tabs in the terminal open connected to a few servers,
MongoHub (MongoDB client), Sequal Pro (MySQL client), Firefox (2 open tabs),
Chrome (15 open tabs), Sublime Text 2, Spotify, Cyberduck (FTP/SSH client),
MAMP Pro, iTunes (phone is backing up), Adobe Reader, VLC and Excel open. I
usually have those, along with Photoshop and Parallels opened as well and
haven't felt any slowdown at all.

I'm using the Microsoft Wireless Keyboard 800 and Microsoft Bluetooth Notebook
Mouse 5000, have a 23" AOC monitor hooked up via Displayport to HDMI adapter
from Monoprice. This setup was probably around ~$1500 without any warranties.
I just picked up a nice SD card that is sized to fit almost flush with the
Macbook Air and is 128 GB w/ a fast 90 MB/s read/write which I can use as a
file dump, that cost around $50 on Amazon, but worth picking up a few if you
want to isolate projects or just use as backup.

Unfortunately, the Macbook family isn't too upgrade friendly so you may buy a
laptop and it may be underpowered and until you refresh your hardware, you'll
be stuck with that hardware, so it may take you a few years to get the exact
setup you need. This is why people recommend maxing out as much as you can
with RAM and expand hard drive modularly. I'd honestly recommend not going
with an older model laptop or desktop because HD space is going to end up
being your bottle neck, not RAM, and the newer lineups have USB 3.0 so you
want to be sure you get that, then you can pick up a 1 TB external USB 3.0 HD
for $100 and won't suffer with USB 2.0 speeds.

~~~
dchuk
Can you provide a link to the SD card you're using? I have the exact same Air
and would love to do what you're doing with the card...

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iloveshw
If you have limited budget don't worry about retina. You're a developer, not a
designer so that shouldn't be your priority. Think about getting some used
macbook pro, replace the hdd with ssd for system and apps, and super drive
with case for hdd and put there some larger hdd for data. The money that you
save use to get more ram (and maybe faster ssd) and bigger display to fit
simulators.

This setup should work for most cases giving you mobility, speed and space to
work, when needed.

~~~
mattquiros
Can attest to this. You're gonna have to buy an iPhone or iPod touch anyway,
so don't bother with retina.

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CookWithMe
I'm developing iOS on a mini and am happy, I don't have any issues with it at
all. The fan is nearly silent even when it's running. Don't have any
performance issues with XCode or so.

If you don't need a laptop, save the money and get a mini. Even though it
hasn't been updated for well over a year, it still buys you the most RAM/$ and
CPU/$.

~~~
stasy
Is there any way to upgrade to 8gb of ram on a mini by myself?

~~~
balac
Yes, the RAM is user-serviceable and is very easy to upgrade yourself.

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Maximal
I have used a Macbook Air 13" (i7 2GHz, 512GB SSD, 8GB RAM) for over a year
exclusively for software development. The machine has been great, except I am
frequently swapping windows back and forth, because of the screen resolution
(1440x900).

I develop using numerous tools including Emacs, Xcode, IntelliJ, WebStorm and
Visual Studio (running inside VMWare Windows 8 Pro). I have never noticed any
lag whilst coding

Would I buy the same size machine again? Yes. The trade off is weight against
screen size, although I think a higher resolution screen might put a strain on
my eyes considering how long I use the laptop.

For me desktop was never an option, because I code on the train often. I also
do not use either an external monitor nor a keyboard.

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frankHQ
Try to get as much RAM as possible, that will end up being your bottleneck for
upgrading down the line.

Retina vs. non-retina is not a huge deal, especially if you're trying to keep
it under budget.

Definitely go laptop!

Good luck.

~~~
ericcumbee
In the current pro line, I'm not sure I would get anything other than the
retina ones. Given that the 13 inch non retina has an older cpu, and a fairly
low screen resolution. I've had no problems doing rails, sql, and vagrant on
my 2012 13 inch MBA with 4gb of ram.

~~~
jyu
YMMV. The rails codebase I work on is over 5 years old, and is pretty ram
intensive. Upgrading to 8 gb made everything ridiculously snappier.

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koberstein
I would get a refurb late 2011 17", upgrade the ram to 16gb and put a SSD in
it.

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YoAdrian
13" Macbook Air w/ 8GB RAM runs $1400.

27" IPS-ZERO-G Slim Monitor WQHD 2560x1440 - Dual Link DVI $390

[http://www.monoprice.com/Product/?c_id=113&cp_id=11307&cs_id...](http://www.monoprice.com/Product/?c_id=113&cp_id=11307&cs_id=1130703&p_id=10509)

Mini DisplayPort + USB to Dual-Link DVI Adapter $70

[http://www.monoprice.com/Product?seq=1&format=2&p_id=6904](http://www.monoprice.com/Product?seq=1&format=2&p_id=6904)

~~~
hkarthik
any other options for the 27" IPS monitor that has mini-DP or full DisplayPort
built in?

~~~
caw
The next one up does
[http://www.monoprice.com/Product?c_id=113&cp_id=11307&cs_id=...](http://www.monoprice.com/Product?c_id=113&cp_id=11307&cs_id=1130703&p_id=10489&seq=1&format=2)

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yizzerin
If you don't have that much $$, get a Macbook Air. I did all my development on
a 13" Macbook Air before my current job (and I still use it in my personal
time) - I _love_ how light it is and easy to carry around. If you're doing iOS
+ Rails you don't need any fancy power to do the majority of your work (and if
you do, go buy time on AWS or something).

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27182818284
I bought the Macbook Pro Retina for Python+HTML dev, it is overkill and I
don't find the retina screen to be a game changer on a regular basis. I'd go
with the Air if I had to make the decision again. I do suggest maxing out the
ram and such when you do it, though.

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mattwritescode
Do you need a laptop?

Well if you wanted to save your self a whole heap of money get a mac mini.

