Mac book pro

J

Jamesmcdr551e

New Member
Hi newby here , my son is starting university in sep. and he's taking media study's they suggested a MacBook Pro with i5 or 7 8 gigs of ram and a 750 gig hard drive 2200 dollars yikes. There's one on craigslist Mac book pro I 5 500 gig hard drive but only 4 gig ram he's going to be using adobe cloud I think it's a subscription will this laptop be sufficient for his need. ? Thanks!
 
You probably cannot change anything these macs, what you get is what you get. If he has the option, I suggest a non-apple laptop because he'll cut the price in half and get better performance for the price. You can build a darn near super laptop for $2200, for a laptop with an i5, 8gb ram, 1tb HDD and good graphics it'll be near $850 or so. If the school is DEMANDING an apple, then you are better off buying one that it refurbished at the apple store instead of buying a used one. This is college (university), you're going to spend a ton of money of a computer but it'll last past college hopefully :) Just keep reminding them how much the darn thing cost! Spent more on my laptop then I did on my first car haha :P
 
True, but that's a lot more over a mac :P...I'm just thinking that the different between a 4gb mac and an 8gb mac is a big difference in pricing and they often times don't have that much space if you get a performance SSD one...I might be wrong but I prefer PC's cuz you're paying for product not for names :P
 
You're paying for product with a Mac alright. Don't know what you think, but Apple has excellent quality with their products. Believe me, I used to be anti-Apple until I started working on and with Macs.
 
I would check with the IT department. Assuming all their software has a WIndows version available (e.g. Adobe CS etc), you can build the exact same specs in a PC for half that price. Now that Apple use intel etc, the only difference is the OS. And to be honest, if you can use Windows and the same applications, then thats what id do.
 
Voyagerfan99, I should start using them, then I will judge :) You might be right but for now, it's cheaper to go with a Windows product...Good luck buddy! :)
 
If you want the laptop to last him 4 years of college, then for a Mac that sounds about right. You can go cheaper, but by the 3rd of 4th year the laptop will begin to show signs of it's low specs.

Since this is for education, go to the Apple website and get education pricing, I believe it's about $200 off MacBook Pro's at the moment. As far as upgrading goes, if it's the non-retina display MacBook Pro than it's actually very easy to upgrade, even easier than Windows-based laptops. Just remove 8-10 screws on the bottom with a philips screwdriver, and you have easy access to the hard drive and memory. If it's the new retina MacBook Pro, than you can't upgrade anything.

For $1,299 you can get a brand new 13" MacBook Pro with a 2.9GHz i7, 8GB RAM, 750GB HD, and amazing battery life.

There are lots of Apple haters here, but MacBook's are the standard when it comes to great laptops. Most Windows laptops have their faults, such as short battery life, cheap plastic chassis, twice the thickness and weight, and overall really cheap. There are some comparable Windows-based laptops, but most are similar in price, with some being even more (such as Sony's).
 
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Its not about hating, its about having apple sell the same hardware specs for twice as much. Yes, they are the benchmark in terms of quality, but you can usually buy two of the same spec laptops for the price of a mac book.
 
Education pricing is only about $100 dollars off, When Adobe sends out the CS6 software to the students they include both Windows and OS X version (I know I got mine last semester) and you can get the same specs on a Mac without Retina display and SSD you save a tone of money.

This one easily hits all your specs and is no where near $2200, in fact is under $1500 from apple and that does not include student pricing.
http://store.apple.com/us/configure/MD102LL/A
 
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My laptop is only 3 screws to get to the hdd and ram ;) hehe....I agree with okedokey (almost always do...hmm :P) you will be able to easily replace a windows product or get two laptops for the same price as a mac. I don't hate macs by any means, if I was in the position to buy one with similar specs to a pc at the same price, I would! I would gladly pay $1200 for a macbook with the same specs as my laptop (see signature) but it just will not happen...I see G4's selling for $800 in my area on craigslist...pay for the name man! :P...but if you don't mind spending the money then by all means go for it! It's for you child correct? I would drop the money if the school requires MAC, but if not specified then save the cash, get the student price on the adobe suite and get a good PC. If you don't mind the size, go with a 17in as they will have 2 HDD slots most likely and will give you a very nice boost in performance and storage :)
 
DMGrier said:
Education pricing is only about $100 dollars off, When Adobe sends out the CS6 software to the students they include both Windows and OS X version (I know I got mine last semester) and you can get the same specs on a Mac without Retina display and SSD you save a tone of money.

This one easily hits all your specs and is no where near $2200, in fact is under $1500 from apple and that does not include student pricing.
http://store.apple.com/us/configure/MD102LL/A
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It was $200 off all MacBook Pro's when I looked a few days ago.


Okedokey said:
Its not about hating, its about having apple sell the same hardware specs for twice as much. Yes, they are the benchmark in terms of quality, but you can usually buy two of the same spec laptops for the price of a mac book.
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xarik said:
My laptop is only 3 screws to get to the hdd and ram ;) hehe....I agree with okedokey (almost always do...hmm :P) you will be able to easily replace a windows product or get two laptops for the same price as a mac. I don't hate macs by any means, if I was in the position to buy one with similar specs to a pc at the same price, I would! I would gladly pay $1200 for a macbook with the same specs as my laptop (see signature) but it just will not happen...I see G4's selling for $800 in my area on craigslist...pay for the name man! :P...but if you don't mind spending the money then by all means go for it! It's for you child correct? I would drop the money if the school requires MAC, but if not specified then save the cash, get the student price on the adobe suite and get a good PC. If you don't mind the size, go with a 17in as they will have 2 HDD slots most likely and will give you a very nice boost in performance and storage :)
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I think you guys are living in the past, you can't get a comparable Windows laptop for half the price of a Mac.

13" MacBook Pro
2.9GHz Dual-Core i7
8GB DDR3-1600
750GB 5400RPM HD
Intel HD 4000
7 Hour Battery Life
$1,299

14" Sony VAIO Fit
2.0GHz Dual-Core i7
8GB DDR3-1600
750GB 5400RPM HD
Intel HD 4000
4 Hour Battery Life
$999 (Not really much cheaper considering for $300 more you get a 2.9Ghz vs a 2.0GHz CPU, and almost double the battery)

15" HP Spectre XT
1.9GHz Dual-Core i7
8GB DDR3-1600
500GB 5400RPM HD
Intel HD 4000
3h 45m Battery Life
$1,299

14" Dell XPS
2.0GHz Dual-Core i7
8GB DDR3-1600
500GB 5400RPM HD + 32GB SSD
nVidia GT630M
Unknown Battery
$1,199

As you can see, comparable laptops are very similar in prices to Mac's these days. People are stuck in the past where maybe 5 years ago Mac's were twice the price. Sure, you can get budget laptops for $499, but the specs are much worse, build quality is laughable, and they are bulky and heavy.
 
Okedokey said:
You can get the 14" Sony VAIO Fit for $750 so yes, nearly half the price. http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2418648,00.asp

It also has a touchscreen plus a standard HDD and an SSD.

So yeah, I still think its a better deal.
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You're comparing apples to oranges here. I could also say a MacBook Air for $949 is cheaper, but it has worse specs.

The $749 14" Sony VAIO Fit has the following specs:

1.8Ghz Dual-Core i7 (2.9Ghz on MBP)
4GB DDR3-1600 (8GB on MBP)
500GB HD + 8GB SSD (750GB on MBP)
Intel HD 4000 on both
4 hours batery (7 hours on MBP)

For $549 more, most would say the MBP is competitively priced. Look at my above post for a comparible Sony VAIO. It only has an 8GB SSD, which honestly is pretty useless.
 
No, the specs I listed are the $750 dollar one including 8GB RAM, 750GB HDD, but as I said it also comes with touch screen, DVD drive which the Apple doesn't, and yes, its nearly half the price. The value is only for brand junkies.
 
http://www.shopping.hp.com/en_US/ho...t-7000-Quad-Edition-Entertainment-Notebook-PC

$699

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olstemp...050001&add_to_pkg=false&pagetype=listing&gf=y

Not a single one under $800 lol...

I own the TQE and have put $100 in upgrades into it and (as I've displayed before) It can run several adobe programs (PS, permier, AE and bridge), itunes, internet, rainmeter, Diablo II, sibelius and skype...WHILE rendering a full 1080p video in premier pro....(upgraded laptop to 16gb ram and a momentus xt...which has 8gb of cache memory that learns as it goes and it so much nicer over an ssd in my opinion)...

You can keep comparing apples to apples, but the truth is that a new laptop is going to cost no matter what, go back ONE YEAR and my laptop will obliterate your mac in most categories at a cheaper price...no need for an SSD honestly, the quad core, 8 thread 2.3GHz hyperdrive CPU does it all...
 
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Apple&#...play/1304486798.p;template=_specificationsTab

Heres a mac with the same CPU, same RAM, very similar GPU, same intel GPU, Smaller screen (of course), WAY less storage in the form of a single SSD which (if properly used) will never store your photos or anything like that...$1899...I'm sorry, you won't win this one....Apple is overpriced, sub par for the money and definitely NOT the best of the best...

Don't get me wrong, the new "Jobs" movie looks good ;) But a nexus 7 will always have the win over an ipad mini...just the same product every single year with the same apps...0 variation...
 
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