Macbook for 2nd sem. college, now or wait?

[wby87]

hi all,

I'm planning on getting a Macbook for college not this sem., but the next one. My main question is should I get one now and enjoy it, or should I wait 'til say, Dec. or Jan. for the price drop (if there is any) or the hardware upgrade.

Since this will be my first mac, I don't really know a whole lot about it, especially about Mac's price change/update. Does apple/other store usually have a "sale" during the holiday season/thanksgiving? And if so would that beat the "educational discount" that I could get as a student?

I also have a couple hardware/software question. I have read alot good things about Macbook, such as its sleek style, nice performance, long battery life (4 hours+ right?) and everything just seems amazing. But can you guys give me one/more big draw back of Macbook comparing to other notebooks?

Being a poor student who will probably gave up food for this Mac, I probably won't get any fancier upgrade and stick with the basic 1000$ ish white model. But I will most likely sacrifice another week of breakfast for that 90 dollar 1gig ram upgrade (all of these price is of course based on the current model and pricing. But the price wouldn't change alot 3 month later right?). Besides the daily usage like Windows (which I will probably use exclusively at first at least, 'til I learn OSX) Office, web-browsing, a big thing that I want to do with this notebook is World of Warcraft (gasp). So my question is will I get say, 15-20 bearable in-game fps from this 1gig ram, 1.83ghz dual-core, and intel950 (ouch, only 64 vram right?) machine on the absolute minimal setting?

Of course, I won't change my mind even if I couldn't play WoW on it (I'm probably better off without WoW anyway…), even through there are 1000$ PC notebooks that could handle WoW nicely…

One last thing, could the possible hardware update in the up comming months enable MacBook to run Vista.? Well, I'm probably dreaming too much for this 1000$ model...

I'd appreciate any comment/advice, thanks a lot guys.

 

[ghall]

Definitaly wait. You'll be happy you did. I doubt there will be much of a price drop, but you can count on better hardware by then.

 

[Alag28]

i say buy

 

[Mernak]

Since you are buying it for your second semester mainly, I would wait, at least till a processor upgrade or sept 12 (Depending on how long you want to wait for. I doubt it would be much later than that). As for WoW, I thought it played just fine on my MB. Note: I do realize that you would probebly won't use the faster processor, but I believe in using coputers for as long as possible before replacing them and this would make it (slightly) more future-proof (I would probly still be using my iBook if it had more RAM)

 

[FFTT]

Since you have the comfortable option to wait, hold out till we see what the processor will be in the next MacBook revision.
This should be within the next two weeks-two months.

If you go much longer than that, then you might as well hold for a Leopard/Santa Cruz powered MacBook later this spring.

 

[daneoni]

Since you have the comfortable option to wait, hold out till we see what the processor will be in the next MacBook revision.
This should be within the next two weeks-two months.

If you go much longer than that, then you might as well hold for a Leopard/Santa Cruz powered MacBook later this spring.

Santa Rosa...santa cruz is a soccer player.

 

[GfPQqmcRKUvP]

uggghh, a main use is to play world of warcraft. great.

Maybe you should cut down on that game, work more, stop paying their monthly fees, then you might not be as strapped for cash.

To actually be helpful in this thread, my belief is you should wait. If you only need it by second semester, the best thing to do with technology is to wait until the last possible moment, you will get something better for the same price if you wait.

 

[brandon6684]

I suppose you could wait, but for the regular non-Pro MacBooks, I don't see them getting Core 2 Duos until well into next year.

 

[FFTT]

Santa Rosa...santa cruz is a soccer player.

Doh!

Well I knew it was Santa Something.......

 

[pianodude123]

santa clause is my favorite santa!

 

[FFTT]

Apple Could change the start-up chime to Jingle Bells
Chong Chong Chong
Chong Chong Chong
Chong Chu Chong
Chu Chong

 

[Sun Baked]

You might want to dig up one of tha Ramen Noodle threads for some recipes while you spend that mighty $1.00 a day on food, just so you can get a MacBook.

 

[ZoomZoomZoom]

Even a used powerbook would probably work very well for your uses. No matter when you buy your laptop, it'll do what you want; September 12 will see price drops on Rev A refurbished MBs, if Rev B MBs are introduced.

WoW performance is very depenadant on how far your character is in the game. When I make a new character, my framerate is acceptable (Pending where I am, maybe 20-30fps?) running through starter towns. But when I'm playing on my level 60 and raiding or playing in battlegrounds, my framerate becomes near unplayable. Alterac Valley is almost entirely unplayable, and 40-man raids are real pain, especially since I'm a tank.

 

[wby87]

thanks a lot for all the replies! I think I'll wait another 3 to 4 month for this. But I still have a couple questions:

Does Apple/other store put Macbooks/previous apple notebooks on sale during the holiday season, especially the thanksgiving rush?

What do you guys think is the biggest disadvantage of a Macbook besides the price (I do realize that this is a Mac Forum, but still? I'm pretty set on a Macbook, but its still nice to know what you'll be getting, even the bad part right?

What is the education discount from apple exactly? I might be wrong but I don't see any price change except that you get a nano for free?


and here is a couple questions/my-thoughts to some of the repliers

Mernak:
I think that the 150$ish (iirc) upgrade to the 2.0 ghz cpu and dvd writer isn't that expensive for a notebook, but that would probably result in cutting down my slim breakfast to a 40cents milk everyday from now on=/ appreciated the advice nevertheless.

Badandy:
I picked up WoW just this summer because I had nothing else to do except a 2 hour job on week days. the game is still "entertaining" to me 2 month after, though I do realize a big part of it is just plain addiction. So who knows, maybe I'll find much more interesting things to do in college and find people that I want to hang out with physically instead of playing WoW. Hack I might just give up video game completely because my Mac and OSX is just much more entertaining But right now my plan is about 7-10 hours of WoW every week. And 15 bucks… I'll find those 3 free lunches from time to time I'm sure
I guess the good thing is that I am using a 3 year old Toshiba right now and can't play anything except say, Starcraft.
I appreciate the notes, and I'll probably think of WoW the same once I experience college life.

edit: typo, another question

 

[Demon Hunter]

Does Apple/other store put Macbooks/previous apple notebooks on sale during the holiday season, especially the thanksgiving rush?

Not really. There is usually a sale after Thanksgiving, but it wouldn't be more than your student discount.

What do you guys think is the biggest disadvantage of a Macbook besides the price (I do realize that this is a Mac Forum, but still? I'm pretty set on a Macbook, but its still nice to know what you'll be getting, even the bad part right?

It's perfect!

What is the education discount from apple exactly? I might be wrong but I don't see any price change except that you get a nano for free?

Apple discounts almost all its products for students. For example, the MacBook is $1049 instead of $1099.