I'm looking to purchase a MBP, any tips or suggestions?

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Hi, I'm new to the forums and I am looking to purchase a MBP in the next couple of weeks I'm getting it as I am going to uni and want to change from PC to MAC, I plan to get the 13" : 2.7 GHz model so I can take it away with me.

But I'm not sure whether too either get:
8GB RAM upgrade
or
750GB HD upgrade (or just stick with the 500GB)
my price wont let me go for both just one or the other.

I do have an iPhone 4 and that's the reason I'm converting.

Any help or advice in general would be appreciated

:)
 
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Your Mac's Specs
Currently 13" Late 2010 MBA, 4GB/128GB; Early 2011 13" MBP, dual core i7 2.7ghz, 4gb ram, 500gb hd
If it were a choice of one or the other, I'd go with the extra RAM. But, personally, I'd recommend the stock configuration of 4GB/500GB and spend the money on an external hard drive for Time Machine backups. You can always add RAM or a larger hard drive later, and for less money than what Apple charges. If you begin a habit of backing up your computer from day one, you'll know that if your hard drive does fail, or if the computer is stolen, drenched in a beer pong accident, or any other of a multitude of things that can happen in a college environment, your data is backed up and can be restored. I've heard too many students' horror stories of computers rendered inoperable just before a major project is due, on which the student's entire grade hinges, and no backup to be seen.
 
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Your Mac's Specs
1.8 GHz i7 MBA 11" OSX 10.8.2
I have upgraded both the hard drive and RAM after the fact - the RAM is a much easier upgrade and something that Apple considers user replaceable. (Of course if the 3rd party ram fails you have to go to where you bought it from, not Apple to get it fixed, but it is generally cheaper for you to replace stuff)

The interesting thing is that the Hard drive is currently harder to replace - because there is no install disk for Lion currently (unless you thought ahead and made one before you installed Lion) If you are buying new then there is a repair partition, not a install disk - so you would need to use something like carbon copy cloner to bring up a new hard disk. Or you could pay Apple $70 for their USB drive of Lion
OS X Lion USB Thumb Drive - Apple Store (U.S.)
Or try making your own bootable drive you can download the Lion installer from the Mac store.
How to Make Your Own Apple OS X Lion Bootable USB Key | PCMag.com

Anyway TL ; DR - upgrade the hard drive through Apple, then get more RAM 3rd party for cheaper, it is an easier install.
 
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:)

hm, thanks for your suggestions, if I got it from a computer shop it would come with snow leopard (that would be the 4gb/500gb model) or if I got it from the apple site it would come with Lion, I'm paying for it myself so this is why I'm in a bit of a confusion about it. Also I can get education pricing on Apple with would cover apple care (which I plan to get), so I'll keep both suggestions in mind. Only I was thinking if I got the ram increased it would make the computer run smoother and I suppose 500GB I would probably never fill up.


EDIT: and yeah I wasn't planning on messing around with the inside of the computer changing like the specs etc until I atleast leave uni (in 3 years) after the care runs out :)
 

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