*Update* Got my Macpro today....need a little help

 So recently changed majors at the college I’m attending and decided on Graphic/Visual design so we shall see how that goes. Picking out my Mac laptop today and let me just say there are so many confusing options to choose with the specs and other I guess Mac laptop stuff it needs to be able to do. Anyone else have a Mac laptop and know how to do the OS? All of it is so many options but I’m having fun at the same time XD so just figured I’d rant/tell y’all how it’s going. 

Last edited on 2020-01-14 at 14:53:54 by Daphne101

I have used Macs for years, and I have to say, once you make the switch you never want to go back. |D I'm not sure what kind of advice you're looking for though, so is there something more specific you're having trouble deciding about?

I’m more looking for one that’s fast and I think the gb/mb is what is getting me stumped. On every one there’s a smaller option for that and then a larger number that costs extra. 

I'm not sure how much help I can be because I'm a bit confused by what OS is but I do have a MacBook Pro the 13 inch and it's perfect. I got it in 2017 and is much easier to transport and fits the small desks we have at college. It's never given me a problem with viruses (this is my third MacBook just the newest edition) and they have all lasted years and never gave me issues. I had a dell once that lasted roughly ~9 months because it got a virus quickly after playing a different horse sim game that is now closed (if you know, you know xD). 

^{If you post the specs we could explain what they mean, or what you intend to use them for. Graphic programs often need a lot of RAM to run well, so you want at least 8gb of it minimum to run at decent sizes. Some programs also don't work on mac compared to pc's so that's something to consider as well. I've never personally been a fan of macs but I know a few people in the industry usually use macs for design.} 

I think it's hard find a Mac that would be slow (except a super old one maybe) - I second what Maple said on the RAM size. When you're running programs for graphics/rendering/etc you can need that RAM for the operating speed to be reasonable. 8GB is decent, but the more you have the more sort of 'thinking space' your computer has, so it'll be able to handle more intensive activity. 

One of the other things that impacts speed is the processor speed, and the number of cores. The more cores, the more processes (ie things your computer is doing) it can handle. I would recommend a processor speed over 2.0GHz. Any processor over that speed will have a decent number of cores to match too, so you should be good to go. 

It sounds like what you're mentioning with the GB might the size of the hard drive. It appears all Macs come with SSDs now - Solid State Drives - which basically means the hard drive is stored on a non-disk device, kind of like the internal memory of a phone or a flash drive. A typical hard drive in the past was the disk variety, so there was a risk of it physically breaking (I had this happen to an old Mac, back when SSDs were not standard yet). SSDs cost more to produce, so you tend to get less storage space on them than a disk hard drive, but you can get a larger drive if you'll need the space. Mine is 256GB, which I have found manageable. If you like to save a lot of files though, especially large ones like videos or large sized programs, you might want to go larger.

Last edited on 2020-01-13 at 13:50:04 by River

Thank you guys for all the help and I decided to get it today and got the Macpro 16” now comes times to just play around with it and learn how to use it. I don’t think learning it will be that hard and if I have any questions can go to y’all for help

Since I’m the one setting it up myself. I’m trying to play around with it and it popped up with a light mode and a dark mode. Now I don’t know how to get the dark mode back to play around. Any help would be much appreciated 

Last edited on 2020-01-14 at 14:55:32 by Daphne101

Apple --> system preferences --> general

should have the dark/light modes on the top c:

Ohhhh thank you so so much nebby