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volntitan

macrumors 6502
Original poster
May 4, 2005
374
0
Hey Folks....

My daughter was in a car accident that damaged her macbook pro so the other driver's insurance will be buying her a new one. She had the first gen MBP with the 1.83 processor plus a gig of ram that I added (1.5 total). So I told them the baseline replacement mac will be $1999 plus the ram. Now I will get an education discount, so that will drop the price, but doesn't matter because they are paying.

My question is do I get the 2.16 model or upgrade to the 2.33 with the extra video ram? She doesn't need it right now, but I wonder if I just don't go ahead and get the "latest and greatest" 15 inch.

Opinions welcomed!!
 

aaronw1986

macrumors 68030
Oct 31, 2006
2,622
10
It depends on what she uses it for. How important is video card to her? Does she do photo/video editing, or play games? Though, if the person's insurance is paying for the entire purchase, I don't see why not get the best. It's not like the insurance companies can't afford it! :D There are many threads on which MBP, do a search, and you might find some good discussions that you can relate to what she would need.
 

Swarmlord

macrumors 6502a
Sep 18, 2006
535
0
It depends on what she uses it for. How important is video card to her? Does she do photo/video editing, or play games? Though, if the person's insurance is paying for the entire purchase, I don't see why not get the best. It's not like the insurance companies can't afford it! :D There are many threads on which MBP, do a search, and you might find some good discussions that you can relate to what she would need.

I second that suggestion. For the incremental amount you'd be paying, I'd just get the state-of-the-art and be done with it.
 

volntitan

macrumors 6502
Original poster
May 4, 2005
374
0
I told them that the cost would be $1999 plus a couple of hundred for the additional stick of ram. So by the time we add the education discount (although I read something about a student development discount?), the 2.33 model would only be a couple of hundred extra, so would be "change" to get the better one, even though she doesn't need the video ram.

What about Leopard? Will I get some kind of coupon to be able to upgrade it?
 

volntitan

macrumors 6502
Original poster
May 4, 2005
374
0
Hey...another possibly stupid question. I see people mention a "HE" discount that comes with Apple Care, what is this and is it something I can get for my student?
 

failsafe1

macrumors 6502a
Jul 21, 2003
621
1
There are coupons for software upgrades but only if that software is released shortly after you purchase the version being upgraded. Leopard will show up next year so the coupon won't help you if you buy now. With the insurance money you should always get the most for your money in my opinion. The better machine will always prolong the life of the laptop. Bigger better faster is always a good thing in the computer world. Get the most machine you can afford.
 

volntitan

macrumors 6502
Original poster
May 4, 2005
374
0
Duh...Higher Education. Is that the same as the education discount? Since she is a student, we will obviously be using that. But does that come with Applecare already? I thought I saw some kind of education applecare for like $58?
 

cecildk9999

macrumors regular
Sep 10, 2006
173
0
East Coast
It might mean Higher Education...AppleCare is discounted by a bit through the education store. Hope it wasn't a serious accident and that all else besides the computer (and car) is well!
 

aaronw1986

macrumors 68030
Oct 31, 2006
2,622
10
Apple Care for a Macbook Pro is approx $250 at educational pricing. There is something called the student developer discount, which would essentially save you $200 ($300 off educational pricing +$100 for membership fee= $200 savings from educational discount). I would recommend this for your student. You can only purchase 1 computer, ever, at this pricing, but it's worth it. Plus, according to others on this forum, the month that Leopard is released, the student developers get a free copy in their kit. Or at least, they gotten previous OS releases. Sorry to make this long, but summing it all up, you'd save around $200 by going student developer way on the MBP, plus you would then get Leopard when it is released. Here is a link to the process for becoming a student developer. If you went this way, you could get the high end macbook pro for $2000, which comes with 2GB of RAM. The total cost would be $2100 with student developer membership (without Apple Care, which is better to buy later through educational pricing).

http://developer.apple.com/students/
 

aaronw1986

macrumors 68030
Oct 31, 2006
2,622
10
To correct myself, it's technically "ADC Student Membership", and you would be utilizing, a "once-per-lifetime discount"
 

w8ing4intelmacs

macrumors 6502a
Feb 22, 2006
559
4
East Coast, US
I have huge doubts that your daughter will notice any significant difference between the MBPs. I think you're better off spending $500 on other things (printer, external hard drive, external monitor, more RAM, AppleCare, ...).

To further my point, Apple doesn't think there's much of a difference either. Although the "latest and greatest" MBPs have a $500 difference, the 1.83 CD MBP refurb is $1399 whereas the 2.0 CD MBP with 256MB VRAM refurb is $1499, only $100 difference. That's just 8 months after they were released.
 

volntitan

macrumors 6502
Original poster
May 4, 2005
374
0
We already got her a external drive and certainly doesn't need external monitor and such.

You do think it is worth getting one with the new processor as opposed to buying a refurb unit?
 

Aperture

macrumors 68000
Mar 19, 2006
1,876
0
PA
Because of the title, I thought this was one of those threads where you wanted us to donate $$$ to your PayPal account for a MBP. :eek:
 

grum

macrumors regular
Jul 22, 2006
156
0
Here in the uk if you purchase through the Higher Education store online (only accessable through your university server) then you get a 3 year warranty, but not the full phone support etc of applecare. You can upgrade to get the full package for £58 I think.

Dont know if a similar situtation applies in the US.
 

aaronw1986

macrumors 68030
Oct 31, 2006
2,622
10
If there insurance is already ready to pay $2000, then get the superior model! It doesn't seem like a hard decision. Having the better machine will allow the computer to last longer, plus, it's not exactly coming out of your pocket. The refurbs are good deals, but why not get the best and fastest computer when it's being paid for?
 

ruftytufty

macrumors member
Jan 4, 2005
96
1
Berkeley, CA
I have huge doubts that your daughter will notice any significant difference between the MBPs. I think you're better off spending $500 on other things (printer, external hard drive, external monitor, more RAM, AppleCare, ...).

Ditto on this. Save your money. Apple almost always charges a significant premium for the "high-end" model, a much higher percentage in $$ than in improved performance. She is unlikely to notice.

The increased VRAM is only necessary if she runs 3D apps, or does a lot of gaming (and you probably don't want to encourage that :) ). The extra 1GB of memory isn't necessary unless she's working on big Photoshop files (etc.), and memory is easy and relatively inexpensive to upgrade (may be simpler to go ahead and upgrading that through apple, esp with the HE or ADC discount).
 

mr_matalino

macrumors 6502a
Oct 14, 2005
563
248
Ditto on this. Save your money. Apple almost always charges a significant premium for the "high-end" model, a much higher percentage in $$ than in improved performance. She is unlikely to notice.

The increased VRAM is only necessary if she runs 3D apps, or does a lot of gaming (and you probably don't want to encourage that :) ). The extra 1GB of memory isn't necessary unless she's working on big Photoshop files (etc.), and memory is easy and relatively inexpensive to upgrade (may be simpler to go ahead and upgrading that through apple, esp with the HE or ADC discount).

I bet you can buy a bunch of other goodies rather than an extra 128MB of VRAM etc...
 

volntitan

macrumors 6502
Original poster
May 4, 2005
374
0
Sorry to sound so stupid, but what other goodies would you suggest? She already has a bag, external hd, etc.
 

2ndPath

macrumors 6502
Feb 21, 2006
355
0
I have huge doubts that your daughter will notice any significant difference between the MBPs. I think you're better off spending $500 on other things (printer, external hard drive, external monitor, more RAM, AppleCare, ...).

It should be noted however that the $500 also buy you 2GB of Ram instead of 1GB, which is a value of about $150. So the price for the faster CPU and the additional 128 MB VRAM is about $350.
 

w8ing4intelmacs

macrumors 6502a
Feb 22, 2006
559
4
East Coast, US
Sorry to sound so stupid, but what other goodies would you suggest? She already has a bag, external hd, etc.

what would i do with $500 to spend? :)

digital camera
wireless mouse and keyboard
this nifty case
a second power adapter
a firewire bus-powered external drive
a usb jump drive
a 20-in-1 media drive (cf,sm,mem stick,sd)
notebook lock

at the same time, $500 gets you halfway to a refurb black macbook for yourself :)

btw, i might be wrong but i'm not sure you qualify for the education discount for your new macbook pro if you bought the first one with that discount (i think you're limited to one notebook per year, but again, i might be wrong).
 

aaronw1986

macrumors 68030
Oct 31, 2006
2,622
10
doesn't seem like you could take insurance money supposed to go towards the computer to use for anything you want...
 

Abstract

macrumors Penryn
Dec 27, 2002
24,835
847
Location Location Location
Don't you need to get the equivalent model MBP? I mean, if you bought the low-end MBP the first time, then you should be buying it the 2nd time as well.

Anyway, since insurance is paying and won't know the difference other than that you spent $1999 on your MBP, I still don't think you can buy anything other than the MBP and the RAM you declared.

Ditto on this. Save your money. Apple almost always charges a significant premium for the "high-end" model, a much higher percentage in $$ than in improved performance.

You're right. The amount of performance you get for the additional money isn't in proportion. Even if you pay an extra 20%, you'll probably get 5-10% better performance.

However, it's not necessarily Apple charging a premium. CPU prices are like that. The fastest C2D processor costs a lot more than a slightly slower one because the fastest model is.....well....the fastest proc.....the "best you can get."
 
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