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Mac Purchase Help

thcri

thcri

Gone But Not Forgotten
I know I know I have asked before but not I have to bit the bullet and can't stall anymore. My daughter's HP is now junk just after 4 years. She has been begging for a MAC for some time now since she is in Graphic Design at school. She has been using the Mac's at the lab and was not a problem because she lived on campus but now that she is off campus it requires her to drive in. As she is getting close to graduating the majority of her work can not be done on a Windows based system.

I am looking at the middle of the line 2.53 and the higher end unit 2.66. The difference is the I5 2.53 and I7 2.66 and more memory on the graphics card. The programs she needs is an additional 1K on top of the laptop. The minimum requirements of the software was 2 gig memory but recommend 4. I am still thinking of going with the 2.53 and keeping some of the savings over the 2.66 and upgrading the memory. What is every ones thoughts on the two?
 

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Are these the MacBook Pro models or the iBook models?

I use a MacBook Pro and for my needs its overkill. My wife does here school work (class preparation, PowerPoints, etc) on an iBook and she has the middle model iBook but I can't recall the spec's on that. I bought if for her about 2 months ago to replace her old one. Honestly its a nice computer and plenty fast, but for graphic design the MacBook Pro is probably the better model because I believe it has a faster BUS speed, etc.
 
My experience with Apple is the following:

New products are typically announced at the Macworld Expo (http://www.macworldexpo.com/), this means that they typically try to get rid of all their old inventory the month before - especially if new products are coming out.

It's often better to buy the minimal RAM from Apple when buying a new computer, you can buy replacement RAM from somewhere like Newegg.com a lot cheaper than you can buying the RAM from Apple. Of course you need to be able to replace the RAM modules yourself. It's not that hard and you can usually find instructions on the net.

Same for hard drives but they are a little more work to replace in notebooks.

I would recommend getting the fastest CPU you can get in the notebook, you don't want to revisit the Apple well any sooner than you have to.

You can get the 2.8Ghz I7 base 15" for: $2,399.00 and then buy 8GB of RAM for ~ $225 from somewhere like Newegg or any place that sells RAM.

If you can get an educational discount then by all means go for it.
 
I got my G5 new on the educational discount because I was taking a class at the local Community College. Every dime saved can be put into upgrades. I bought my MacBook refurbished then added ram and then upgraded the HD. I also run AutoCAD 14 on the Windows side of the machine. More speed than I can ever use. Also run Photoshop with zero problems. I think we've bought 3 or 4 refurbs, and 4 on the educational discount over the years. Daughter #2 is just now replacing her 9 year old laptop. They are really tough. Here's what's on mine:

Hardware Overview:

Model Name: MacBook
Model Identifier: MacBook1,1
Processor Name: Intel Core Duo
Processor Speed: 1.83 GHz
Number Of Processors: 1
Total Number Of Cores: 2
L2 Cache: 2 MB
Memory: 2 GB
Bus Speed: 667 MHz
Boot ROM Version: MB11.0061.B03
SMC Version (system): 1.4f12
Serial Number (system): RM648B5PU9B
Hardware UUID: 00000000-0000-1000-8000-0017F228B506
Sudden Motion Sensor:
State: Enabled
 
Melensdad said:
Are these the MacBook Pro models or the iBook models?

I use a MacBook Pro and for my needs its overkill. My wife does here school work (class preparation, PowerPoints, etc) on an iBook and she has the middle model iBook but I can't recall the spec's on that. I bought if for her about 2 months ago to replace her old one. Honestly its a nice computer and plenty fast, but for graphic design the MacBook Pro is probably the better model because I believe it has a faster BUS speed, etc.
Click to expand...

She does need the Graphic Design. According to her (?????) she needs the MacBook Pro.
 
JEV said:
I bought my MacBook refurbished then added ram and then upgraded the HD. I also run AutoCAD 14 on the Windows side of the machine. More speed than I can ever use. Also run Photoshop with zero problems. I think we've bought 3 or 4 refurbs, and 4 on the educational discount over the years. Daughter #2 is just now replacing her 9 year old laptop. They are really tough.
Click to expand...

I have always shied away from refurbished. It kind of sends up a flag as it is something somebody had and was not happy with it? Obviously you have had good luck.
 
Thcri
I run a mac and I realy like it,I sent a shout to the soninlaw...geek! and he said if you are doing graphics th get the best you can afford and that mac is the best for that type of work. He runs 5 and 6 machines at a time mac and windows and he says the mac is the most secure. He is in security type work, all I know about it Jerry
 
I ended up taking the 2.66 with the Intel Core i7. Has the faster processor and the 512 memory on the graphics card. Since she is doing Graphic Design type stuff it was not only recommended here but other places.

With her school discounts and friend of an Apple Employee discount we ended up getting a pretty good deal on it.
 
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