When to buy my apple????

Hello everyone,
I am sure that i am going to make my next computer purchase a MAC. I want to get the 17" macbook pro but i am a little aprehensive about spending that much money to see in several months that mac has developed a new laptop that is much better.... Also I have been hearing a lot about the leopard OS should i wait until this OS comes out before i go and buy a new Mac....Also is a New Mac book Refurb model really worth getting or am i wasting my money on someone elses headache.


Thanx


~Paul

First of all, there will always be a bigger better laptop around the corner. Also , being that the macbook Pro has C2D i doubt that intel have a new chip ready for production within the next 9 months.

Leopard is due in spring, but OS X is cheap to buy, so I would't worry.

Also the refurbs are just as good as new, as they have the same warrenty and tests that a new model has, if not they will have more to make sure.

Even if you do buy a new MBP and a new model comes out you still have a great computer. This happened to me I bought my MBP and 15 days later the new MBP C2D came out. 1 day out of the exchange window.

i'm looking to buy a new mac too. i am going to wait til the spring/summer. i will be spending that time researching to make sure this is the right move for me. you should too.

Just get it and stop worrying. If they do update their notebooks I doubt the new ones will be much better and even if you get one of them they can still update again and bring out something better - Just pick one that suits your needs now and it still will when something "better" comes out. You'll still be happy whatever you get, or you can wait forever for the next best thing and die "Mac-less"

If you are a student, apple has promotional deals in september thereabouts. my daughter saved a little on her macbook plus she got a free ipod nano and a printer. So, if you're not in a rush, check out the student promotions.

wavewuver said:

If you are a student, apple has promotional deals in september thereabouts. my daughter saved a little on her macbook plus she got a free ipod nano and a printer. So, if you're not in a rush, check out the student promotions.

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i just looked up the student discounts for apple and they seem pretty crappy. do they get better in september?

I got my iMac this past week and I went through Apple, so I could customize the build myself. If you want stock and want to save a few coins, try Amazon.com, that was about the only place I found it cheaper.

Lucky for you, Apple's notebook line was upgraded to Core2Duo chips pretty recently (late November, I believe) and Intel doesn't have plans for any significant upgrades to its Core line for several months. The only expected change will be coming right around the same time as Leopard, but it's rumored to be simply a bus speed upgrade, not exactly something that will be double the performance from current chips.

If you really want a Mac, just get one now. Any upgrades in the future will only be marginal improvements over what is available right now. The only way you'll feel as though you wasted your money was if Apple decided to jump ship with Intel and go with an entirely new architecture (like how some felt when Intel chips were released a month after their purchase of G5 Macs). Stop worrying so much about what it around the corner and just be happy with you can get now. There will always be something better "just around the corner".

The only thing I held out for was OS 10.4 (Tiger), but it was a LOOONNNGGG month or so! So I would wait for the release of Leopard in the spring, if you want the latest-and-greatest OS that is, and buy whatever Mac hardware is available at the time.

I bought a G4 Mini which has now been replaced by the Intel Mini, and which I know is significantly faster than mine. But surprisingly I'm not too upset by this. The Mini has been my testing ground to learn how to use Macs, and despite not being the newest and fastest one, I've been impressed since day one by its solid performance - it's not as slow as one might think!

Now you're considering the MacBook Pro, right? That thing blows even the Intel Mini out of the water. If you buy it this whole debate about the "better laptop" that will inevitably come out will become irrelevant - you'll be having too much fun learning about the world of Mac to even worry about it anymore! If I were you, I'd take the plunge for sure.

Hey Paul, I have a new 17inch MacBook Pro and I'm very impressed with the machine. Fast, sleek you name it. For sure it's a lot of money but a very good laptop indeed.

im actually in the same boat at the op - i waited 3 months already for the keynote hoping that they would just announce some improvement to the macbook so i can go ahead and jump in - now that they didnt, im not sure what to do

im just planning on getting the macbook (non-pro) directly from apple (i wanna upgrade to 2 gigs of ram and the 200 gig hard drive) - and although i KNOW the computer is gonna be better than any windows laptop ive ever had, i get a little apprehensive shelling out 2 grand on it...

as far as the leopard os coming out - do the new os's generally hold the same pricing schemes? for example, right now, the tiger upgrade costs 129 (only 69 in the education store) - can i expect leopard to cost around that much when its released?

im telling ya, im READY to pull the trigger on this, but like the op said, im ALWAYS concerned that 30 days after i open the box, the "next best thing" will roll out...

Welcome to the Mac world and Mac-Forums to paul836 and Kricket!

About being afraid a newer model comes out after you bought yours, isn't that always the case, no matter the platform? It's really up to you, of course, but if we would all wait, we'd never buy any new computer. The models being updated seem to be at an increasing pace compared to say 10 years ago. I bought my iMac G5 in the last week of December 2005. Ten days later, the new Intel iMacs came out.

Sure, it was painful at first to realize that my iMac was brand new and yet old and I could have taken it in and demanded the newer iMac. But I decided I would stick with a proven model (this iMac G5 was in its third generation) and sit this one out instead of agonizing over the newer release.

My suggestion is to get a model that suits more than your present needs (get one of the higher-end models) so that it will give you room to grow and get as much RAM as you can afford. :girl:

you know - thats kind of how ive been rationalizing my decision - no matter what you do - you can guarantee that a new "upgrade" IS going to come out, at the latest, within 6 months - ive kind of accepted that - of course, im one of those geeks that wants the latest and greatest....

anyway - people seem pretty happy with their macbooks so i guess i shouldnt worry very much - ive read a TON of reviews in the past few months and the only negative reviews ive read seem to come from people that really have no idea how computers work at all - so thats pretty promising

ugh - even opening up my computer right now to get it out of hibernate mode and starting ie up to check my email and respond to this thread seemed to take WAY too long - i cant wait to leave this windows world - its been a nightmare as of late...

Remember to put as much RAM as you can afford and it'll purr along for quite a long long time. You could save some moolah by installing it yourself and ordering from a good place online.

i was considering putting it in myself - but with the education discount - itll only run me 157 to upgrade to 2 gigs (which im assuming should hold me over for quite some time)

do you know of any places thatll sell it for cheaper than that? (ive searched a few places online - but then again, mac is completely new to me - ill have to find the "hotspots" all over again)

A few good places (lifetime warranty and no fuss in changing faulty modules of RAM, good service, etc.): RAMJET, Crucial (often times listed as the preferred RAM for techies) and Other World Computing (I dealt with them in the past for RAM and they are very nice people, efficient).

And if you need a how to on adding the RAM yourself, take a look at the FixIt Guide Series.

awesome - thanks for all of the links! it looks like my best (cheapest) bet is just to get it installed by apple right when i buy it - thats fine with me - ive never even played with a mac before so it sounds like itll be better for everyone that way

I know that it used to be that buying your RAM directly from Apple was really not a good idea (they would sometimes charge nearly twice what you would pay elsewhere). Lately a lot of people have noticed that Apple is pretty good in its pricing and closer to its competitors.

Right you are, if the edu price is good, go for it, you won't have the hassle of taking apart a brand new computer!!!

At this point I think it's simple for you. If you need or want a new computer and you want a Mac, get it NOW. They didn't announce any plans for new computers at Mac World so you're probably safe for a while. And as MHC says if you procrastinate you'll never buy anything. The industy changes too quickly and at some point you just have to jump in and do it.

The one thing I would say and agree again with MHC is that you should always buy the biggest and fastest thing your budget can afford and even go into debt a little if necessary. I usually buy the top of the line model just because I can. And don't forget that RAM!

CrossBones said:

At this point I think it's simple for you. If you need or want a new computer and you want a Mac, get it NOW. They didn't announce any plans for new computers at Mac World so you're probably safe for a while. And as MHC says if you procrastinate you'll never buy anything. The industy changes too quickly and at some point you just have to jump in and do it.

The one thing I would say and agree again with MHC is that you should always buy the biggest and fastest thing your budget can afford and even go into debt a little if necessary. I usually buy the top of the line model just because I can. And don't forget that RAM!

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exactly. There is no better time than now.