Advice Needed: MacBook for STEM Student (EU - Under 900€)

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Hey guys,

I’m looking for some advice on selecting a used/refurbished Mac laptop among these three options for my studies.

Firstly, I can’t wait for Josh and the team to roll out their website for those of us in Europe, laptops are quite expensive here :sob: Any leads on Mac (new or refurbished) /Windows(new) deals in Germany that fall under my budget would be greatly appreciated.

Requirements:

  • Location: I’m in the EU (Austria).

  • Use Case: I am a student in STEM(Engineering, AI), plus I work as a full-stack developer (macOS has got that covered).

  • Current Laptop: ThinkPad T480 (to be converted to a dedicated Linux tinkering machine). I will miss the awesome keyboard and the built-in Ethernet port (mandatory for exams, but the school also makes dongles available). Battery life is too horrible to be used as a daily driver with linux.

  • Budget: 900 Euros very tight. I buy older models of excellent products (phones, laptops, etc.)

  • Key Requirement: QWERTY English keyboard.

Software & Compatibility Context

Most of the software and packages we use are fully compatible with macOS:

  • Core Tools: Safe Exam Browser, R Studio, Niryo Studios, PyTorch, TensorFlow.

  • Languages: Mostly Python, and C++, MATLAB.

Some key applications are not fully compatible and would most likely have to be run on a Virtual Machine (VM) (So I guess I will be needing that too):

  • ROS/ROS 2

  • Gazebo Simulator (I’m not even sure we will use this one).

My Choices (QWERTY English)

Here are my choices:

  1. 2021 Apple MacBook Pro (Refurbished)

    • Chip: M1 Pro

    • Size: 14-inch

    • Specs: 16 GB RAM, 512 GB SSD

    • Color/Condition: Space Grey (Refurbished)

    • Price: 875 EUROS

  2. Apple MacBook Air (New/Used?)

    • Chip: Apple M4 (10-Core CPU and 8-Core GPU)

    • Size: 13-inch

    • Specs: 16GB Shared Memory, 256GB SSD

    • Color/Condition: Silver

    • Price: 858.40 EUROS (heavily discounted)

My Main Question

I need advice on the M1 Pro vs the M4 Air. Given my need to run Virtual Machines (VMs) for non-compatible software (ROS/Gazebo) and heavy workloads like PyTorch/TensorFlow and C++ compilation, is the older M1 Pro (16 GB RAM, 512 GB SSD, Active Cooling) a better choice compared to the newer M4 Air (16 GB RAM, 256 GB SSD, Fanless)?

Also, is the older M1 Pro chip comparable to the M2 chip in the m2 air?

Any other alternatives under 900 euros are also appreciated!

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Go for the M4 air. Although it doesn’t have a fan for active cooling, programming tasks can be handled well in the MacBook Air. For VMs you need a lot of memory it doesnt majorly depend on CPU performance hence you can run VMs without any fans for cooling the chip inside.

The M1 pro is 4 generations older than the M4 chip- which means that the M4 is more efficient than the M1 pro. Even with active cooling the M1 wouldn’t be faster than the M4 chip in all your tasks in tensorFlow and Pytorch. Coding can be done without any issues as well.

16 GB is enough, but i suggest you get 24 GB for future proofing. Try to find a used model or a refurbished model for maximum value for your money.

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Go for the MacBook Air for sure, also try to look for a 15” MacBook Air the screen size will help you if you are doing coding or multitasking

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Just be careful as it may be out of the person’s budget. MacBooks are notoriously not cheap.

Also, be aware that VMs eat through RAM like no tomorrow, trust me, I know, and Apple Silicon and macOS has some gaps neither Windows 11 nor Linux have, and neither will run on the M3 family of SoCs or later, so if you really need to run these applications, I would probably steer you away from MacBooks towards something x86-64.

That being said, if you are okay with Apple Silicon’s and macOS’s limiations, I would go for the MacBook Air (preferably the 15 inch model) with at least 24 GB of RAM, (remember that it’s unified, so it will need more) and at least 1 TB of storage. Yes, that will put a big dent in your pocket book, but trust me; VMs not only eat a lot of RAM like I mentioned earlier, they can chew through storage easily too.

Of course, I’d would recommend the 14 inch MacBook Pro, as even the base model with just the 1 TB of storage upgrade will lilkely be enough for you, but that will likely be outside of your budget.