Mac for college

I'm graduating from high school next week and I'll be off to college next fall. My mom has agreed to match what ever I can pay towards a new computer. Right now I have $800 (USD) that I can spend on it so together with my moms money thats $1600 that I have to spend.
I am totally set on getting a mac. I've been with windows my whole life and just can't take it anymore - popups, spyware, lag, poor UI - it's just been too long that I've dealt with it and these past couple months I've just really been jealous of mac users.
Anyways my question is what mac do you think i should get thats in the $1600 dollar range. Should I wait untill the fall to get my computer so that I will have some more money saved up? I could probaly have about $1200 saved by the end of the summer. So that would be $2400 to spend. When are the new models of macs released? Can I use my 21" CRT monitor from my windows PC with a mac or do have have to buy another one?
I need something that can multi-task pretty well - many times i have dreamweaver, flash, photoshop, FTP client, and a browser open at the same time. I would also like to start editing videos.
I probaly should not be saying this but...another question that I have is what kind of P2P clients are available for the mac. Are they any good? Seeing that I'm pretty young and money is tight, I usually get my programs like photoshop and illustrator from these types of networks. Would I still be able to do this on a mac or would I loose that ability.

With that amount of money and the tasks you have planned, no quuestion, a Powerbook. Since you will be a college student, you will have an education discount. You will have no trouble hooking up a Powerbook to an external monitor.

As for your question on P2P clients, I'll let someone else answer that for you. I an still a newbie at Macs, but I can tell you one thing, I am never going back to a Windows machine ever again.

U could get a 12inch powerbook with the money you have
Save if you wanna get the 15 inch powerbook
They say iBooks were made for students cuz they are more durable than the powerbook
p2p clients-limewire is preety f-ing good

hey mittens i was actually asking myself the same question..... it's not about fraud, or anything, cuz i would not distribute it or sell it, but i' a little bit afraid of maybe loosing the GREAT "download programs, music, videos, etc" option that we haave on PC's..........cuz i've heard that you have to pay for your music when using iTunes.....and honestly...that sux a little bit (specially if you're used to Kazaa, etc.)

What P2P clients can we use on macs to download the latest programs like photoshop, maybe office x, etc etc???.......and that's just for self usage, not trading or selling, because it would be illegal.

Joeytpg said:

hey mittens i was actually asking myself the same question..... it's not about fraud, or anything, cuz i would not distribute it or sell it, but i' a little bit afraid of maybe loosing the GREAT "download programs, music, videos, etc" option that we haave on PC's..........cuz i've heard that you have to pay for your music when using iTunes.....and honestly...that sux a little bit (specially if you're used to Kazaa, etc.)

What P2P clients can we use on macs to download the latest programs like photoshop, maybe office x, etc etc???.......and that's just for self usage, not trading or selling, because it would be illegal.

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Doesnt matter if its self usage or not its still illegal.
Yes you have to pay for music in iTunes and its the right thing to do. Unless you feel like being sued by the RIAA then iTunes is the best thing around.

Doesnt matter if you distribute or not its still all fraud when you download programs

Well, since a moderator said not to discuss it, I won't talk about the available clients. PM me for instructions on how to get a great client based on the Direct Connect protocol in OS X. Please, don't PM me more than once....=)

--PCjabber

NOTE: If this message offends anyone, or violates any rule, I will be happy to remove it. Please contact me via email or PM before you do so, though.

Thanks everyone, I've decided to go with the 15" powerbook. Its $2,100 with my student discount, I should have enough in about 2 weeks. My only questions are when were the powerbooks last upgraded and when are they expected to be upgraded again? If it's anytime this summer I was thinking mabye I would hold off for a price break on the current model. Moneys tight!

Powerbooks were upgraded April of this year. You can check here.

pcjabber said:

Well, since a moderator said not to discuss it, I won't talk about the available clients. PM me for instructions on how to get a great client based on the Direct Connect protocol in OS X. Please, don't PM me more than once....=)

--PCjabber

NOTE: If this message offends anyone, or violates any rule, I will be happy to remove it. Please contact me via email or PM before you do so, though.

Click to expand...

The P2P concept may be a bit of an issue to some, but by any rule I know of, there is nothing wrong with talking about those networks... but beyond that a bit of discretion may be a good idea

Actually, you can get an eMac for a really good price, and it's still got the power and programs of a Powerbook running OS X. I mean, if you buy the cheapest Powerbook, the Ghz would only be slightly higher than that of the eMac (by 80 Mhz). I mean, you won't get an LCD screen, or even a portable computer, but Powerbooks are extremely expensive, and it sounds like money is an issue for you. And judging by your willingness to use your CRT screen from your old computer, it doesn't sound like you really care if you have a portable computer or not.

http://www.apple.com/education/emac/

http://www.apple.com/emac


And here's a treat: What the prices of an eMac would be like to someone going to NYU. I imagine the prices are very similar, if not identical, throughout the US. http://store.apple.com/1-800-780-50...eUJvcCo397h1JK/4.0.7.1.0.5.21.1.2.1.0.0.0.1.0


As for the monitor question? Well, only if you buy a PowerMac will you need a monitor, really. eMacs, like laptops and iMacs, have a built-in monitor, so you won't have to worry. However, you'll have to decide which eMac you want. They're both pretty cheap, but one is more expensive (by $150) than the other, since it's got twice as a big a hard drive as well as the ability to write to DVDs. Both have a 1.25 Ghz G4 processor, and 256 MB built-in memory.


And as for your current pop-up problem, I can easily solve that. Simply download the Google Toolbar for Internet Explorer.
http://toolbar.google.com/

Or perhaps the MSN Toolbar for Internet Explorer?
http://toolbar.msn.com/

We Mac users can't use the toolbars, but we just use the pop-up blocker in Safari instead. In addition, I think there are other web browsers besides Explorer that have free pop-up blockers.

Anyway, enjoy.

if you want to go places with your computer, as many college students do, get the powerbook..you won't regret it. They're wonderful machines. Especially since your mom is going to match what you make.

Nightblade said:

...

We Mac users can't use the toolbars, but we just use the pop-up blocker in Safari instead. In addition, I think there are other web browsers besides Explorer that have free pop-up blockers.

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Opera, Mozilla, and, of course, Safari come to mind. Of course, Safari's only for OS X, and I can't remember if Opera has an OS X version or not (they do have it for Palms, Linux, Windows, and about every other OS, though, so I think they have it for OS X too...). And, Opera is $$ to register to get rid of the small ad in the corner advertising Opera and ONLY opera, and they don't track anything with it...just to say "Register Me" essentially.

EDIT: Yep, Opera has a Mac version. It's available here. And by "Mozilla", I meant the Mozilla Project or any other Projects branching from Mozilla that support OS X, i.e. Firefox (formerly Firebird and Phoenix).

PCjabber[

hmmm, to my understanding there are ways to getting out of that charge for opera, or so I've heard

I did a spot of hunting and found AcquisitionX (http://www.acquisitionx.com/)> My friend ran it on his iBook and has had no problems. It would at least be worth a look I feel.

mittens said:

another question that I have is what kind of P2P clients are available for the mac. Are they any good?

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Limewire is okay for what u want, and so is Poisoned. The best thing to do is use Bittorrent. Its excellent. Check out all the downloads at www.suprnova.org

BitTorrent and Acquisition are what I use. I def recommend Acquistion, def worth the registration price as well.

Keep it clean guys. I KNOW you all use thse p2p apps for their LEGAL downloads.

don't steal.

The powerbook doesnt come with such programs as AppleWorks or any other programs the iBook has, does it?

All macintosh systems are shipped with everything you need.

I had my heart set on a 15 inch PowerBook but only have $1170. I decided to go with an eMac and load it up. The total is $1195 with my discounts. I got Blue Tooth, uped the RAM and Memory and got iSight.

(Does Blue Tooth mean it's wireless internet ready?)