dude, i'm gettin a mac

okay, so i'm set on getting a mac...all but one of my friends have a pc, so i'll be a total newb when it comes to handling the mac, but i understand that there will be a learning curve.
so here's the deal
i have 1500 to spend... here are my choices

first: cert. refurbed 15" mac pro; core duo (not cd2) any color

OR

second: macbook with cd2 white 1gig ram 80 gig hd with education discount for $1199 from apple.com

okay, i'd like the refurbed foremost but apple is out. is there anywhere else i can find one that is certified?

secondly, i want the cheapest price and i've checked macconnection, powermax, smalldog, j&r, circuitcity, and compusa--and the only thing close to the education discount is from compusa for $1299. anybody know of a place i should check out?

 

also, i wanted to ask why does the black one cost more?

 

I would say that if you want the best bang for your buck, trolling the Marketplace on forums.macnn.com and other places might not be bad. You won't get something certified, but you will often find people who have taken very good care of their computers, and you can at least get the peace of mind of knowing that.

The black model essentially costs more because Apple has decided to put a premium on the black color; there isn't any particularly good reason beyond that. Personally as much as I like the look of the black MacBook, I can't really personally justify paying extra money just for the color. But having said that, if you do like it, it's worth paying a bit more to get what you want.

I think the big question would be what you plan on doing with it. The MacBook is a nice little machine, and really does quite well. The only question would be if you want to do some more demanding 3d gaming, etc. In that case, the X1600 in the MacBook Pro would suit you better (note that the X1600 in the original Core Duo MacBook Pros is more severely underclocked than in the Core 2 Duo MacBook Pros).

Personally if I were in your position, I'd either get the MacBook and be done with it; or if I needed the X1600 in the MacBook Pro (or other capabilities of it, such as the ExpressCard slot), I think I would try and save up $300 to add to my $1500 budget and get a new Core 2 Duo MBP for $1799 (aside from the less underclocked GPU, the improved vent design makes it run cooler).

-Zadillo

 

AFAIK, you can get a discount on the MBP as well... might bring it closer to your budget of 1500. I agree with Zadillo, it is worth saving a bit.

 

The black one is also a bit of a premium model. It has more expensive components in it by default. I think the difference between it and an equivalently upgraded white model puts it at ... a little bit more expensive. I forget how much.

 

The premium is essentially $150. That is, a white model with upgraded memory and hard drive would still be $150 cheaper than the black model.

 

Just out of curiosity, I popped over to the Apple store website and upgraded the hdd on the white macbook to match the black one, and it's giving me a premium of $50. What're we doing differently? (By the by, that's a great avatar. Almost inspires me to have one...)

 

Hrmm, duh, you're right.

Here I've been repeating the same thing, and it's no longer true.

With the original MacBooks, there actually had been a $150 price premium. This is when the 2.0 GHz white MacBook had 512 megs of memory and a 60GB stock. One could upgrade that to 1GB of memory and 80GB to bring it to the same specs, and it would still be $150 cheaper than the black MacBook.

It looks like they have now made the black MacBook a relatively better value, although it would definitely be nice if they made the black MacBook a single 1GB stick rather than 2x512megs, if one knew they wanted to upgrade to 2GB of memory total.

That's cool though, nice to see the black MacBook is not commanding nearly as big a premium "just" for the color.

-Zadillo

P.S.: Thanks for the comments re: my avatar...

 

Don't think there's a learning curve. I got up the mac learning curve in about 5 minutes. I got my macbook pro from the fedex guy, opened it up, and I was up and running in 5 minutes. Literally. No drivers, and other stupid crap like that.

 

www.apple.com

i will just help you out, if you are fast, you can get a certified reburbished under your budget

Refurbished MacBook Pro, 15-inch, 2.16GHz Intel Core Duo
15.4-inch widescreen display (1440x900 resolution)
1GB (single SODIMM) 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM
100GB 5400-rpm Serial ATA hard drive
Slot-load SuperDrive (DVD±RW/CD-RW)
ATI Mobility Radeon X1600 with 256MB GDDR3 memory
Built-in iSight Camera
Front Row and Apple Remote
$1549

 

man, thanks so much. i ust checked yesterday and they were out. i even called apple and the guy said he wasn't sure when they'd get a new batch out. i just placed my order and am ready to go.
Thanks again!!

 

I really like the MBP.

 

Apple had refurbs today but were sold out in about 1.5 hrs

If you're going for new, buy from Amazon. After rebate it is cheaper than buying from Apple.com even with educ. discount.

 

the learning curve of using a mac is very minimal. don't worry about it. but for establish a quick and natural workflow you might need quite some time.

btw, don't believe the saying that mac is better than windows. both have its ups and down. the best option at this point would be having both windows and mac at the same time. but thats just my opinion. personaly i use windows as my main computer.

 

At least with a Mac you can run OSX + Windows but not with a PC...

Leopard is coming out soon...

 

i plan on running both the os-x and the windows, but unsure about parallels or bootcamp.

 

Parallels: cost $, can be run simultaneously with OSX, a bit slower than BootCamp, recommend 1.5-2GB of RAM for smooth running

BootCamp: free (for now), can't be run with OSX, runs better than Parallels

 

sorry to hijack this thread i also just got a mac

 

Congrats! Which Mac? :-D

 

a macbook pro.

 

Yeah, that's hot. 2.16 or 2.33?

 

a 2.33 it is almost fully loaded.

 

well i got my macbook pro in the mail it is great!!!!.