Quick Help before I buy! 3.06 or 2.8

Hi, with the new price drop and student discount i'm all set to finally buy my first MBP. I'm going to be using for Maya, Cinema 4d, After Effects and Final Cut Pro.
Funds are very tight and i'm stuck between the 17" 2.8 and 3.06, for $300 do I reallly need the 3.06 or will the 2.8 be fine? And for 300$ is the warranty really worth it? Most things don't happen until after 3 years anyway...

I won't comment on the warranty aspect as I have never owned a Mac for more than a year but as for the processor bit, you should be fine with the 2.8 (which is mighty powerful itself). The thing you are going to need is RAM and since the 17" come with 4GB, you should be fine. 8GB is unfeasible financially for most and unnecessary at this point.

If funds are tight, then I'd say stick with the 2.8. The 3.06 is not going to be that much faster.

As for AppleCare, I had it on both of my iMacs and it paid for itself on my old G5 when the Super Drive and power supply needed replaced (separate incidents), however my 2.4 GHz Aluminum iMac is nearly 2 years old and I have not yet used the AppleCare. I haven't decided on whether to get it on my MacBook Pro yet or not.

The extended warranty will be taken advantage of by maybe 10% of the people that purchase it. If your machine ends up being in that 10% then you save some money. If it ends up being in the 90%, then...

If you are one of those that will need repeated phone tech support after 90 days, it could also be worth it.

bobtomay said:

The extended warranty will be taken advantage of by maybe 10% of the people that purchase it. If your machine ends up being in that 10% then you save some money. If it ends up being in the 90%, then...

If you are one of those that will need repeated phone tech support after 90 days, it could also be worth it.

Click to expand...

Not to call you our or anything, just curious, but does your 10% figure actually come from anywhere or are you just estimating based on your experience?