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Good Specs for Unity

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by A_Sabharwal, Nov 12, 2014.

  1. A_Sabharwal

    A_Sabharwal

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    Hi Guys,
    I am looking into buying a new laptop (needs to be a laptop as I also need to take it to school) for Unity as my old Macbook Pro just died. I am looking towards a Mac as I get up to 15% off on Apple Store for Education and I already have a copy of Microsoft Office for it and the security is excellent. I don't know whether the 13' Macbook Air would be suitable (I might be able to get 8gb ram) or maybe if the 11' Air would be okay as I do have an external monitor (scripts on one and something else on other)and how much space you'd recommend getting 128gb with hard drive when needed or just 256gb (thanks in advance)
     
  2. KheltonHeadley

    KheltonHeadley

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  3. N1warhead

    N1warhead

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    I've never used a mac before, but if you get into Computer Games (not mobile) than I would recommend a mac that has better settings than my crappy lap top!!

    4 gigs ddr3 Ram, 2.3 Ghz ICore 3 (dual core) processor with dumb integrated graphics chips.

    So anything better than that (in mac standards) will be suitable for Computer games.
    But I do however think it's the 64 Megs of Integrated graphics on my Laptop that ruins my experience for PC games.

    But I've never owned a mac so I don't know what's better or not with the stuff in it.
     
  4. A_Sabharwal

    A_Sabharwal

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    So how about the 4gb ram version??With i5 1.4ghz Turbo boost uptp 2.7ghz
     
  5. A_Sabharwal

    A_Sabharwal

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    And anyone found the 11' Macbook Air too small for like simple tasks?
     
  6. Ryiah

    Ryiah

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    Memory is just as important as processor and graphics hardware. You do not want to go below 8GB.
     
    BrandyStarbrite likes this.
  7. A_Sabharwal

    A_Sabharwal

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    So 8gb ram 11' Macbook Air okay??
     
  8. angrypenguin

    angrypenguin

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    It really depends on what you want to do with it. The Air is an "ultrabook", which means it's geared for efficiency and portability moreso than performance. That's perfectly fine for most tasks, but game dev can be more demanding than most typical computing. So, it really depends on what you want to make with it.
     
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  9. orb

    orb

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    A current MacBook Air will be fine, unless you're trying to make a fancy shooter like Crysis :)

    Anything i5 and an SSD will make building and working very nice. I recommend going for 256GB space straight away. Also, how do you carry an 11-foot laptop anyway?
     
  10. A_Sabharwal

    A_Sabharwal

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    I meant 11 inches just simple 3d game with not too complex maybe a 3d racing game or a 3d soccer game at the most.
     
  11. Not_Sure

    Not_Sure

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    Unity its self is very light and easily run on most rigs. Really you should buy a computer that will at least match the requirements you would need for the game you're making.

    I, myself, was managing fine on 2 gigs of ram and a $60 GPU for some time.
     
  12. A_Sabharwal

    A_Sabharwal

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    Yeah because games like COD run on the air on low settings so do you think I'll be fine
     
  13. angrypenguin

    angrypenguin

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    If they run on low settings then that means in all likelihood they won't run in 3 or 4 years. You'll have to speculate about what you want to do over the lifetime of your laptop and how long you think that'll be.
     
    inafield and Ryiah like this.
  14. A_Sabharwal

    A_Sabharwal

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    Probably around the five year mark but I won't be developing games that high end so it should be alright??
     
  15. inafield

    inafield

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    More ram is better. Don't go under 256GB for the SSD. If you can max out at 16GB, you won't regret it. You can even set up a ram drive with some of the space to help save wear and tear on the SSD if you're working on files in RAM it's even faster than SSD.

    edit: 256GB for SSD, not RAM! :)
     
    Last edited: Nov 16, 2014
  16. A_Sabharwal

    A_Sabharwal

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    How about a Macbook Air 2014 8GB RAM 11 Inch with External 16 Inch Monitor i5 1.4ghz with Turbo Boost of up to 2.7ghz 128GB SSD with 1TB External Hard Drive
     
  17. inafield

    inafield

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    Do you really want to have to lug around an external harddrive? What's the point if you're getting something mobile?
     
  18. A_Sabharwal

    A_Sabharwal

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    I always have one on me anyway in my bag so it doesn't really make a difference to me but with a MBP its a lot heavier difference than a light weight hard drive or USB stick and I am also an avid user of the cloud
     
  19. A_Sabharwal

    A_Sabharwal

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    Anybody with any like powerful Windows laptops around £500ish with 8GB RAM, i7 and a graphics card
     
  20. inafield

    inafield

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    You're less likely to find a used laptop with those specifications, and more likely to buy it on NewEgg or TigerDirect.
     
  21. A_Sabharwal

    A_Sabharwal

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    I'd prefer to buy new maybe what if I stretch to like £600
     
  22. A_Sabharwal

    A_Sabharwal

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  23. A_Sabharwal

    A_Sabharwal

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  24. inafield

    inafield

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    All good.
     
  25. A_Sabharwal

    A_Sabharwal

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    OK many thanks