ArcGis in Macbook Pro

I know this is not the right place but I am counting on your wisdom and expertise...

My girlfriend needs a new laptop but she works with ArcGis and AutoCAD. She wants a fast and light computer but small enough to carry around!!

I wanted to ask if a MacbookPro would do the job for her properly with bootcamp? Or would parallels or VMware Fusion be better?

Or should she stick with windows??

Budget is around 1000€, give or take!!

Thanks.

Question is: does she have a mac or is she getting a new one?
If she does NOT have a mac right now, tell her to get a dell precision workstation (laptop), since they have quadro graphics cards instead of consumer ones. That will end up being at least 5x faster than even the best consumer graphics options and likely well under the $1300 budget (well, maybe not well under). Autocad+ parallels type program is a horrible idea, and no sense in bootcamp if it's running on a slower system anyway. Trust me, go for the quadro cards, and those are only available outside Apple

The ArcGIS Desktop is strictly Windows, unfortunately. Some of the ArcGIS server side apps can run on Linux and Solaris, though. Probably better to get a non-Mac computer for her work.

Here's an ESRI page on the issue of ArcGIS and Macs: http://blogs.esri.com …9/05/arcgis-on-a-mac.aspx

Instead of the reflexive Apple vs pc world; if you girlfriend is interested in a MacBook Pro, I suggest you would be get better advice from architosh. They have a forum section and are much better qualified to answer your questions.

ocabj wrote in post #8297253
The ArcGIS Desktop is strictly Windows, unfortunately. Some of the ArcGIS server side apps can run on Linux and Solaris, though. Probably better to get a non-Mac computer for her work.

Here's an ESRI page on the issue of ArcGIS and Macs: http://blogs.esri.com …9/05/arcgis-on-a-mac.aspx

Unfortunately the article only addresses Boot Camp vs Parallels 3. Parallels is now up to version 4 and is significantly faster than before, and apparently even previous models of MacBook Pros were powerful enough to run ArcGIS with only 2 GB RAM.

I'd go with a PC. You can get a faster computer for your money which it sounds like she needs.

RacingThoughts wrote in post #8297395
I'd go with a PC. You can get a faster computer for your money which it sounds like she needs.

Macs are PCs, well built ones with a heavy dose of markup that happen to run on OSX instead of Windows. Since when have you heard of something being called something other than a pc (or server) when running linux or unix (well, maybe mainframe, but they have windows for mainframes as well).

wlescall wrote in post #8297335
Unfortunately the article only addresses Boot Camp vs Parallels 3. Parallels is now up to version 4 and is significantly faster than before, and apparently even previous models of MacBook Pros were powerful enough to run ArcGIS with only 2 GB RAM.

Running it and running it well are two different things. Currently, neither parallels nor the apple certified display driver for the 9400m support the graphics card virtualization (new thing nvidia is promoting, basically like the virtualization extensions in the x64 core based chips, except for with video cards. Allows the card to be shared by more than one OS), so performance is going to be significantly less than with true Windows. As I said before though, it's not so much about the OS as it is about the graphics card though, and having quadro or fire gl instead of geforce or radeon is a good thing.

wlescall wrote in post #8297292
Instead of the reflexive Apple vs pc world; if you girlfriend is interested in a MacBook Pro, I suggest you would be get better advice from architosh. They have a forum section and are much better qualified to answer your questions.

Yeah, she kind of wanted a MBP!

It is supposed to be a computer on the go, not her main workstation. Just to do some "homework"...

We really have to weight the pros and cons of each system!!

Any other thoughts?? What would be the minimum RAM and processor for this?
Her 5 year old computer has a 1GB RAM and 1.73GHz processor...full of windows crap (according to her...). It still does its job quite well but, physically, it is falling apart...


Thanks.

makande wrote in post #8297553
Yeah, she kind of wanted a MBP!

It is supposed to be a computer on the go, not her main workstation. Just to do some "homework"...

We really have to weight the pros and cons of each system!!

Any other thoughts?? What would be the minimum RAM and processor for this?
Her 5 year old computer has a 1GB RAM and 1.73GHz processor...full of windows crap (according to her...)


Thanks.

What does she need? Computer running Vista, 2.2gh or faster core 2 duo (if she does cad work, else 2.0 is more than enough), 2gb ram (min, 4gb is better and often not much more), 7200rpm hdd (for cad, else 5400 is good enough and wastes less power), 1280x800 or larger screen (most small ones are now 1300 something x900 to a full 1920x1200 on 16"+ machines) with LED (almost all companies now have an option.

Why Vista? Stable, fairly fast (not as fast as 7, but most companies now have free updates to 7 when it comes out), and UAE. Yes, the same UAE that people "hate" is a good reason for her to get it. 99.999% of garbage (including most malware and "viruses" ) she probably talks about is stuff that comes with branded computers (apple also includes garbage like iphoto and quicktime, so it's not a windows only issue) which she can remove by reformatting (good idea regardless, even on macs), and then not downloading and installing garbage (which often installs other garbage too, like itunes installs bonjour regardless of if you want it or not). UAE will make her rethink installing stuff, like apple's password system does.

Sorry but I'm really not a computer guy...

What is UAE??

As for the computer, she wants a 13" monitor...portability issues!!

Thanks.

wlescall wrote in post #8297335
Unfortunately the article only addresses Boot Camp vs Parallels 3. Parallels is now up to version 4 and is significantly faster than before, and apparently even previous models of MacBook Pros were powerful enough to run ArcGIS with only 2 GB RAM.

I'm actually running Parallels 4 right now and yes, it is definitely better than 3. But if I had to run ArcGIS on a laptop, I'd rather run it on Windows over baremetal, and not through a virtual machine. But then again, maybe it's perfectly usable under P4. My only experience with ArcGIS is administrating an ArcGIS license server.

ocabj wrote in post #8298123
I'm actually running Parallels 4 right now and yes, it is definitely better than 3. But if I had to run ArcGIS on a laptop, I'd rather run it on Windows over baremetal, and not through a virtual machine. But then again, maybe it's perfectly usable under P4. My only experience with ArcGIS is administrating an ArcGIS license server.

I have been using Fusion for my minimal windows needs, but I got it when it was much better than Parallels. I don't do any CAD which is why I pointed the OP to Architosh.

If her 5 year old laptop handles her software just fine then you shouldn't have any problem whatsoever with one of the 13" MacBook Pros. Throw 4 gigs of ram in it and it will fly compared to her old laptop.

Instead of bootcamp or parellels, look at VMWare. For running Windows (or any other operating system) on a Mac it is really the only GOOD option. It is so much better than either of the others.

Thanks a lot, very helpful answers!!

We'll take a look at VMWare!!
And every other option.

If you have any other opinions, keep 'em coming!!