First time soon to be Mac owner with much needed advise!

Hello everyone! I just joined today...

Reason I did was first because I found these forums to be a bit better than others I read around online..

Secondly, I am a third year (last year) graphic design student who has worked hard this summer to save up to finally purchase my mac!

So this is my dilemma. I have a serious issue with making a decision. So far, I have managed all these years with my Compaq PC laptop. But, low and behold, old technology can no longer keep up with new stuff that is out. Not to mention that this semester I am taking an Audio/Video for which I will mainly use Final Cut Pro.

Anyways.... this is my dilemma. Wait.. I need to mention that I have a $3200 budget (Canadian dollars I might add, I used to live in the U.S. **** it is way cheaper there! grrr)

1) iMac or Macbook, Macbook Pro?

I want RAM expandability, for that matter i would love a G5! but I am afraid it's way out of my league money wise, not to mention that, I also need something I can carry to and from school or potential clients, print houses. I can also get a display for the Macbook or Pro much later if need be as any Graphic person knows, bigger screens, pleasure designing. Also, I have thought of iMac and Macbook together if I can pull it off as it has a 24" screen (drool)... lol.. But what stops me there is again expandability with the Macbook...

2) 128 MB Video or 256 MB?

3) Buy it through Mac with education discount and get an ipod, but I have to have the cash in hand.

4) Buy it through work (computer store that has an employee purchase plan) where I have to pay anything that exceeds $1500 right away and 25% of the remaining balance. But then the balance gets split in 26 paychecks interest free.

5) Would refurbished be a good option?

Anyways, I think that is enough food for thought... and I can always answer any other questions I did not address here.

Thanks for all your help in advance!

San ;D

P.S. Oh and I will obviously be working mainly with Adobe CS3, Final Cut Pro and Office Student Edition, plus obviously internet and my Wacom tablet

Hi San and welcome.

Let me be the first to say either Mac will be great. It will largely depend on what you want the machine to do that will determine which you buy. Mac Book is a little more portable than a Mac Book Pro to some. Personally I went with 17" MBP as I use it as my desktop the majority of the time. When I go away for work I take it along just fine. Photo shop CS3 needs a bit of grunt so go the fastest processor and biggest graphics card combo you cn afford, and at least 2 gig of ram. The ram can be upgraded easily yourself afterwards ( I did ) as the extra money that Apple charges over what you can buy it for is silly in my humble opinion.

I would stay away from refurbished, but thats just me. I want to be the only owner of my pride and joy.

Oh one more thing, this topic has been answered many times before, so I advise to use the search function and if that doen't get you the answers you need, then post a new thread.

Enjoy your Mac - whichever you buy.

Thank you MaDDoG!

Sorry for being redundant with the topic! I just picture so many new souls searching for the answer as if their first child was being born! lol..

At any rate, I will search more around the forum and see if anything enlightens me more. I think right now I am over thinking about it way too much...

Cheers!

San

Yes I remeber asking questions and getting told regularly. I was a first time Mac user just come across from Windows so I was very confused about things. There are some great people on this forum but if you hand around long enough you will soon learn why sometime they don't anwers these questions or simply just type "use the search function" Every new user seems to ask the same questions so it can get frustrating.

I just try to remember what it was like and help out best I can.....

I appreciate it! Nighty for me!

Back tomorrow to surf around...

gee its only mid afternoon here. Have a good sleep.

To answer your questions:

1. If you don't need the portability get an imac. it's im my opinion the best of the 3 by far. But if you do need the portability I'd say go for a macbook pro. Sure it's heavier to cart around but the extra screen real estate and dedicate graphics card will be of great use with all that editing you want to do.

And in the new imac and macbook pro you can have up to 4GB memory which is absolutely heaps. But I suggest jsut getting the standard amount of ram from apple and buying it elsewhere and installing it yourself as apple's ram is rreally over priced.

2. 128MB should be just fine for you unless you want to do some high end gaming. Then 256 might be useful. But 128 should suit you fine. Sure if you can afford it go for the 256 but that should be on the bottom of your priority list.

3. If you have the cash on you that's a great option. I say go for it.

4. If you don't have the cash on hand that's the next best option. But I assume this is full and not student price. So it's basicly a free ipod and a few savings for paying up front. If you can't really afford all that now take this option.

5. Refurbished are a good option. They have the usual apple warranty and are checked and tested by apple. But they are not new products. And some people prefer a new mac. It's totally a personal preference. For me I'd want a new mac if I was paying over 1K for a mac. But that's just my choice.

And good luck with your choice.

the8thark said:

To answer your questions:

1. If you don't need the portability get an imac. it's im my opinion the best of the 3 by far. But if you do need the portability I'd say go for a macbook pro. Sure it's heavier to cart around but the extra screen real estate and dedicate graphics card will be of great use with all that editing you want to do.

And in the new imac and macbook pro you can have up to 4GB memory which is absolutely heaps. But I suggest jsut getting the standard amount of ram from apple and buying it elsewhere and installing it yourself as apple's ram is rreally over priced.

2. 128MB should be just fine for you unless you want to do some high end gaming. Then 256 might be useful. But 128 should suit you fine. Sure if you can afford it go for the 256 but that should be on the bottom of your priority list.

3. If you have the cash on you that's a great option. I say go for it.

4. If you don't have the cash on hand that's the next best option. But I assume this is full and not student price. So it's basicly a free ipod and a few savings for paying up front. If you can't really afford all that now take this option.

5. Refurbished are a good option. They have the usual apple warranty and are checked and tested by apple. But they are not new products. And some people prefer a new mac. It's totally a personal preference. For me I'd want a new mac if I was paying over 1K for a mac. But that's just my choice.

And good luck with your choice.

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Many Thanks for your response!

Not a fan of gaming on the notebook unless it's 80's videos games like Mrs. Pac Man & have I have Playstation to satisfy that hunger lol!

But as Graphic Designer, I thought it was crucial to have more memory for heavy programs? Didn't realize that it only affected it when it came to gaming.

So then the question becomes, can I be ok with a 15 inch Macbook Pro 2.2Ghz for Graphic Design and all the programs I listed on my first post? Would save me tons and I can probably get away with getting an Apple 20" cinema display. Costing me $3,337 for both + a free ipod.

I do need the portability, but I want a bigger screen too! So if a 2.2Ghz is not recommended, then I was thinking of getting an LCD to plug into it (later maybe through work due to the nice payment plan) But I surely can't afford the Apple Cinema display along with a 15 or 17 256 Video.

Also, ref: Memory, Macbook Pro's come with 2 X 1GB chips, Can I remove one of the 1GB chip and put another 2GB to make it three? I was thinking if I were to get the macbook pro, I found a decent place that is selling a 2GB chip for $115 (http://www.mushkin.com/doc/products/memory_detail.asp?id=582) but obviously I can't afford 2 as it would take away from my budget for buying a new mac. So hoping I can get away with 3GB for now until later.

I have $3000 on hand, but hoping to get a bit more the next couple of weeks. Also, I failed to mention that I get a cut for the macbook pro from apple for the student discount (15' $1,999.00 2.2GHZ, 128Video, 15' $2,599.00 2.4 256Video & 17' 2.4 256Video $2,899) Also, from work I get 10% off the retail price. Mind you that only really helps me with my tax as here it's 14%! But also without going through work I get the Free ipod. I compared both and through work I save some money ($70) NO free ipod but a payment plan for some of the balance.

iMac looks really tempting, but then the question becomes, for the times when I need portability, what to do?

24" iMac specs I am considering:
* 2.8GHz Intel Core 2 Extreme
* 2GB memory
* 500GB hard drive1
* 8x double-layer SuperDrive
* ATI Radeon HD 2600 PRO with 256MB memory

All for only $2,803 (with warranty& tax) + Free ipod. So don't need the cinema display. But then, no portability unless I get the mackbook through work and I could only really afford:

Macbook 13" I am considering:
* 2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
* 1GB memory
* 80GB hard drive1
* Combo drive

$1402 (with warranty, tax & work discount) and only have to put $350 down. Now the last caviat is that I don't have much space right now, but that is soon to change when somebody moves out of my apt and I have a spare office room.

Yes the more I think about it, the more I think New, not refurbished.

SO yeah, I need to make a decision today! argghhhh (going to the mac store later on)

Sorry for going off like this, but the mind is working overdrive ha ha..

P.S. The Macbook pro and the cinema display sounds so tempting, but then 128 MB video might not be enough.. Can't win? or tangled in undecisiveness?

Just wanted to tell you all that I decided to go for the Macbook Pro 15" 128 MB one... Going to get it either today or tomorrow! Can't wait...

i dunno in my opinion... between the macbook and the i mac... your eventually gunna go on vacation... and wanna do a little bit of fun and games and work...of course... so with that in mind get the macbook for the portability mate. Its totally worth it in my opinion and its cheaper..and dont worry about upgrading the memory and the hard drive cause you can do that all later.....so yeah hope that helps you in your decision making...although....one more thing... i'd suggest though if you really dont mind dropping the cash getting the low end macbook pro like i did or pump it up to the next stage macbook so then its still cheapish...
u get a slightly faster processor i believe...
2.0 vs 2.16Ghz
and also you get a 120g hard drive...and its only 200-300 more...
oh and by the way yeah I'm canadian too and I agree with you that its way cheaper in the us...in fact I think its a sham against us... especially with the rising dollar lol...my suggestion is get it shipped to a US PO box that you know of if you are like me and live within 20 minutes of a border and then go across and pick it up and save your self even more money...

hope that helps bud

san4peace said:

Just wanted to tell you all that I decided to go for the Macbook Pro 15" 128 MB one... Going to get it either today or tomorrow! Can't wait...

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Woooohooo. Thats what I just got. I absolutely love it. I am sure you will love yours when you finally get it.

If you're a graphic designer, want portability, and are using graphic / video programs like Final Cut Pro I would suggest you get a Macbook Pro, especially if you want RAM expandability. I have a Macbook and it is perfect for me and I am a web designer. I haven't encountered any problems of the laptop being too slow for Photoshop and other Adobe programs after upgrading to 2GB RAM. I'm sure this would work for you as well, but I think you have enough money to just go for the Pro. You can expand it a bit more than a regular Macbook as well.

As for the payment question, I'm not sure. I would suggest going through the Apple store and getting the student discount. I never went for the "free" iPod since I didn't have the cash in hand, but it's an okay deal. Also, never buy extra RAM from the Apple store since you can get it for a lot cheaper elsewhere.

[Edit] Just realized you already got the Macbook Pro! Nice choice of getting the 15"

san4peace said:

Just wanted to tell you all that I decided to go for the Macbook Pro 15" 128 MB one... Going to get it either today or tomorrow! Can't wait...

Click to expand...

Good choice and good luck with school!