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plan to buy an Apple laptop soon, need some help

Z

zackthespartan

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 19, 2012
1
0
I'm planning on buying an Apple laptop because my HP recently died after about 4 years of use (throughout most of my time in college) and would like to try Apple for a change. I have to wait until this coming January before buying it because I will be leaving for Navy boot camp in November then right after boot camp I will get to my A-school location; so I plan to buy it upon my arrival at A-school. I have some questions:

1) What laptop model would you recommend under my basic needs listed below:
-It needs a built-in drive to insert CDs and DVDs (so MacBook Air is ruled out here)
-A built in webcam would be nice
-Needs to be compatible with Rosetta Stone software

2) Once I purchase the laptop, should I add any simple upgrades to it (such as more RAM, antivirus software, etc)?

3) Is there anything else I should take into consideration when deciding which model I should purchase? If so, what are they?
 
Last edited:
keep an eye on updates

If you have to wait until January of 2013 then you have to play the waiting game regardless, so just keep an eye on what they do with the updates. If you're a light user just looking to get a laptop to create documents and surf the internet/listen to music or watch movies, then you'll probably be set with a macbook air. If you need more power, move up to the pro line. 13" is usually fine for regular use, but also has the extra oomph if you need it for gaming, photo editing, light video editing, etc. Anything more serious than that i would move up to the 15" or 17" if you want that big beautiful screen/better speakers. Hope that helps
 
If you only need it for very basic use I wouldn't rule out the air. While the MBP is more powerful and has the built in drive it doesn't have the same kind of speed the MBA has. Plus the MBA is cheaper and you can buy a USB disk drive. The apple official one is 80 bucks but anyone would do for cheaper.

Extra RAM is cheap and easy to install third party but, again, if you aren't doing anything heavy then 4GB pre-installed would be fine. By January 2013 the default could be higher for all we know.

As mentioned, all MacBooks come with built in webcam, better quality then a PC one too, no worries there.
 
I got a screaming deal on the macbook pros on macmall. I'd buy one of those at the huge discount before they run out of stock. I don't see the new models being cheap, or having built in drives.
 
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