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Dad trying to control which computer I buy

What I've found in this world, is that you can't let anyone make a decision for you. People should be allowed to learn on their own. We're simply here as the denizens of past experiences in our lives.

You may disregard your father completely and have a great experience with a MacBook Air. You may also have a bit of bad luck, which might lead you to question that purchase.

Or, you could get a Macbook and do the same thing. Have regret because it's not the Air, or again, have a bit of bad luck and regret getting it just like the Air.

It's your life man. As much as your parents believe they have financial control over you, they really don't. Everyone in this country is perfectly capable of living life the hard way. I don't even need to explain what that is, but I find it a lot better than answering to people that believe they have unconditional control over my decisions because of things that might happen. That's my opinion. Either way, like everyone else has already said, just be happy with whatever decision is made.
 
Take it from somebody that has a Mac addiction..

Since August of 2007 I've owned:

Mid 2007 Macbook Pro*
Pre-refresh Mac Mini (purchased December 2007)
Black Macbook*
Rev. A Macbook Air*
Unibody Macbook Pro
Rev. B Macbook Air

* denotes computers I no longer own.

The Macbook Air is a fine machine that has it's uses, but I've compared it to a friend's Unibody Macbook. The Unibody Macbook basically blows the Macbook Air away for general usage.

I saw this in your post:

"Of course, being a longtime PC user I've been nothing short of ecstatic when considering the idea of running around (not literally) with my air."

The Air looks light, but don't forget that the Unibody Macbook is also very thin and very light compared to a lot of PC notebooks. The idea of having an Air is that it will be more portable than a Macbook and that is not quite as true as you would think.

Take a close look at the Unibody Macbooks. You might like what you see.
 
budkid said:
buying college textbooks sucks. It burns a hole in your wallet.
Click to expand...

This.

Don't be surprised by $200-$300 during your first two years and $400-$500 during your last two years - unless you decide to go into the sciences, where books could go up to $600-$700.

And even then, that's nothing compared to law school, where it's all bumped up to $700-900.

Mommy!
 
maybe ur dads jealous cause he wants an air but cant afford it or ur mum will get mad cause of the price lol.

just buy an air and dont tell him. how can he get mad at you for working hard to get ur money to pay for something that most peoples parents would buy. hes st8 trippn.
 
yeah, it sticks in your craw, but swallow your pride and really analyze this. MBA is pretty crippled unless you gonna go with a dt in your room. This a win-win for you. You get a much better machine with not a lot more weight, you save money, you make dad happy (never underestimate the value of this...) and you get a more rugged computer with way more options.

MBA has a somewhat limited target audience, and you gonna regret that purchase. You want that hot high-maintenance super model who anorexic, or you want the all-american beauty with the great legs who keep you warm at night?

Also, listen to Sushi. Don't piss your money away...
 
As someone who has bought and owned the MacBook Air (took it with me to college overseas), I can tell you it is absolute CRAP as your only computer.

I love the MacBook Air, it is a great computer and it served my needs VERY well (perfectly) when I also had an iMac at home. I would get home, turn up the iMac and do my heavy lifting there.

Then when I went to the library or somewhere else to work remotely, I could surf the internet, use my business and school software flawlessly in a nice light package.

Then I left the US and came to Australia for school. Here, the MacBook Air was ALL I had (Rev A, btw). It was a hassle to connect anything to it due to the 1 USB port. At home all I would use is a flash drive, which was perfect. Here, I had to plug in my modem (USB 3G stick), Printer, SuperDrive for watching movies, etc. and that required a hub and created clutter and made my Air a pain in the butt to connect and disconnect.

Trust me, it is a PAIN.

I also found that in college, you hardly end up taking your computer outside of your room anyway so the Air's weight wasn't much of an advantage.

I sold the Air, and bought a new aluminum MacBook. It is perfect. It is still light enough for me to carry with me occasionally, which is great. It is not much heavier than the Air and it is not much thicker either.

But the benefit now is that I have my DVD drive built in, I have TWO USB ports which is enough for my USB 3G modem and the other empty port is used for my printer and flash drive depending on my needs. No need for a HUB.

The MacBook gives you a few advantages as a college student:

1) More HD Space (unless you go SSD)
2) More RAM (Up to 4GB)
3) More USB ports
4) Built in DVD Drive (which you will use for watching movies because the commons area TV wont always be available)
5) Better video. While its still just 9400m, the MacBook Air is underpowered. That is why for the Macbook they say its 5x faster than the old graphics but on the Macbook Air page they say 4x faster.

My recommendation is to get the MacBook, 2.0Ghz model, and use the money you have left over to upgrade to SSD and 4GB of RAM.

Get the RAM 3rd party, I think its getting cheaper now. It is easy to pop in, no worries. Then for the SSD drive, I would use the money saved by going with the MacBook versus the Air to buy a 256GB SSD (after market of course to save money) so you have plenty of space.

Then you can use the stock Hard Drive as an external drive with a USB enclosure. This is perfect for backups, which you can do once every couple of weeks. Or you can use it to store movies, TV shows, etc. that you won't be watching anytime soon but don't want to delete (or your porn stash).

Not only will this be CHEAPER than buying the MacBook Air (depending on what HD you pick of course or what deal you get on the SSD), but it will also give you a better computer and EXPERIENCE. Trust me, I've been there!!!
 
petermcphee said:
Get a new dad. Yours is broken.
Click to expand...

Mine didn't come with AppleCare!!! No phone support, no replacements, no nothing! Nooooooo!
Hhahaha best post I've seen on here in a long time, and there are some good ones lately!

Anyways, I'm a third year in college (junior) so I'll give you some advice that you REALLY should listen to:
-listen to your parents. You don't have to agree or follow (all the time) but you should at least listen to them
-seeming they've been dealing with economic situations for a long time now, it sounds like they're pushing you to make a smart investment
-the smart investment here is a MB. Go for the Alu if you like the look, and if you do, I suggest you go with the 2.4 to get the most bang for your buck. If not, stick to the 2.0 whitebook.
-to add to this: buy a Refurb!! It's going to be wayy cheaper and it sounds like you're going to have a ton of money left over. There's no reason not to buy refurb, ask anyone on here
-use the extra money to buy extra computer stuff: speakers (trust me on this), printer, etc
-save the extra money for college essentials: food off-campus, beer, movies, etc
-if you need the extra screen, just take the plunge for a baseline 15" MBP Refurb.
-back to the parents: if you listen to them now, I promise, down the road, they will reward you. Either they will remember how flexible you were and say "oh we should really help him out with _____ since he was so cool in passing up the MBA" or you'll be able to milk them with it
-last note on the comp: you're going to want something with more muscle more school (superdrive, better processor, etc). Trust me. Get a base MB or higher.

Enjoy college, it's the best four years of your life
Go Wahoos.
 
ravenvii said:
This.

Don't be surprised by $200-$300 during your first two years and $400-$500 during your last two years - unless you decide to go into the sciences, where books could go up to $600-$700.

And even then, that's nothing compared to law school, where it's all bumped up to $700-900.

Mommy!
Click to expand...

Engineer here: (some books I used multiple semesters...they're only counted once in price)
1st year- $800 first semester. $600 second (used amazon)
2nd year- ~$400-500 both
3rd year- $400 both
4th year - excepting $1000 total (brand new books all over again)

Grand total = $3700. That's TWO MBP refurbs.
:eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek:
I'd be banned if I said the word that came to mind. It starts with a f and rhymes with duck. Do the math
 
About the dad controlling what you buy, that is ridiculous..you made the money. Before my freshman year in college i bought a Macbook Pro, my pops didn't say anything, a couple times he hinted at maybe getting a Macbook, but ultimately he didn't care because it was my money. That being said, it probably is a better idea to get a macbook :rolleyes:
 
I let things cool off overnight, read your responses, and then talked to my dad about this.

I told him that he's right and a macbook would be fine for my needs. I knew that I wanted the air for aesthetic reasons mainly and I reconsidered. We had a long talk about Macs vs PCs and he's concerned with software compatibility, viruses, and the other stereotypical "PC parent" issues. I discussed all these with him, but I could use a better worded explanation if anyone has the time to offer one.

The solution that I came to is this:
Get a macbook (probably 2.0, though I'd love the 2.4) in June with a free ipod touch and use that until Snow Leopard is released. Before installing the new OS, take out the HDD and put it in a 2.5" inclosure and replace it with an SSD.
Would this be a good idea or a waste of money? One of the things we discussed is the durability of my laptop-to-be and, as an accident prone person, would benefit from the durability of an SSD (in my opinion).

Could anyone contribute a little to these ideas?

Also, thanks for all of your advice. I'm a young and inexperienced person at this stage of my life and I appreciate the wisdom imparted from those of you who are smarter than I am.
 
SirJ said:
I let things cool off overnight, read your responses, and then talked to my dad about this.
Click to expand...
Always a good idea.

Just remember, that whether you agree with them or not, your parents always, with rare exception, have the best intentions with their advice. So always listen, then make your decision.

SirJ said:
I told him that he's right and a macbook would be fine for my needs. I knew that I wanted the air for aesthetic reasons mainly and I reconsidered. We had a long talk about Macs vs PCs and he's concerned with software compatibility, viruses, and the other stereotypical "PC parent" issues. I discussed all these with him, but I could use a better worded explanation if anyone has the time to offer one.
Click to expand...
The beauty of the Intel Macs, is that you can run both Operating Systems (Mac and Windows).

With an Intel Mac, you can use software like Parallels or VMware to create a virtual PC. You can also, using BootCamp, set up a Windows (XP or Vista) partition right on your Mac HD and then boot directly into Windows as if you had a Windows machine. Sweet! :)

SirJ said:
The solution that I came to is this:
Get a macbook (probably 2.0, though I'd love the 2.4) in June with a free ipod touch and use that until Snow Leopard is released. Before installing the new OS, take out the HDD and put it in a 2.5" inclosure and replace it with an SSD.
Would this be a good idea or a waste of money? One of the things we discussed is the durability of my laptop-to-be and, as an accident prone person, would benefit from the durability of an SSD (in my opinion).

Could anyone contribute a little to these ideas?

Also, thanks for all of your advice. I'm a young and inexperienced person at this stage of my life and I appreciate the wisdom imparted from those of you who are smarter than I am.
Click to expand...
SSD will be more durable than a regular HD. That doesn't necessarily mean that they won't loose their data due to some other issue. So whether you have a regular HD or SSD, you still need a regular backup plan just in case.

Cost wise, a regular HD will be cheaper than an SSD for the same capacity. So bear that in mind. Personally, I prefer the larger storage space so that I can carry more data on my laptop. On a side note, can't wait for the 1TB laptop drives.
 
SirJ said:
I told him that he's right and a macbook would be fine for my needs. I knew that I wanted the air for aesthetic reasons mainly and I reconsidered. We had a long talk about Macs vs PCs and he's concerned with software compatibility, viruses, and the other stereotypical "PC parent" issues. I discussed all these with him, but I could use a better worded explanation if anyone has the time to offer one.

I'm a young and inexperienced person at this stage of my life and I appreciate the wisdom imparted from those of you who are smarter than I am.
Click to expand...

software compatibility is a non-issue. My brother-in-law just bought macs for his business, to run strictly as PC's. (He a little sick, but point is he thinks they are more reliable.) Anything that won't run in mac you can use parallels/vmware, or boot into windows. I think it was PC magazine that last year listed the macpro as the fastest windows laptop! This computer enhances your compatibility, not limits it. Best of all worlds.

If you run in Leopard with virtual machines (and vm's run most things pretty quick) your virus concerns are a 10th (or less) of a windows machine.

As for the SSD drive, do it when you get the money if you feel the need. My 12 yo nephew is pretty accident prone, has dropped his drive equipped macbook a couple times, still works like a charm. Sensors park the drive head to keep it from messing up the hd in most falls. You sacrifice a lot of storage space with the SSD, but would get that back with the external case.
 
SirJ said:
I let things cool off overnight, read your responses, and then talked to my dad about this.

I told him that he's right and a macbook would be fine for my needs. I knew that I wanted the air for aesthetic reasons mainly and I reconsidered. We had a long talk about Macs vs PCs and he's concerned with software compatibility, viruses, and the other stereotypical "PC parent" issues. I discussed all these with him, but I could use a better worded explanation if anyone has the time to offer one.

The solution that I came to is this:
Get a macbook (probably 2.0, though I'd love the 2.4) in June with a free ipod touch and use that until Snow Leopard is released. Before installing the new OS, take out the HDD and put it in a 2.5" inclosure and replace it with an SSD.
Would this be a good idea or a waste of money? One of the things we discussed is the durability of my laptop-to-be and, as an accident prone person, would benefit from the durability of an SSD (in my opinion).

Could anyone contribute a little to these ideas?

Also, thanks for all of your advice. I'm a young and inexperienced person at this stage of my life and I appreciate the wisdom imparted from those of you who are smarter than I am.
Click to expand...

Nice job. The Macbook will suit you fine. The old NEED vs. WANT argument.

As for the SSD, I think that's more of a WANT with certain advantages towards the spectrum of NEED. But, from a VALUE perspective, I'd stick with the stock drive and invest in a nice external for your backups. Leave the external locked up in your dorm room. At college you are probably just as likely to have your notebook stolen as you are having a HD failure.

One point. The new unibody macbooks don't come with firewire. Your backup drive will not be able to boot your machine if you have a HD failure. For $999 (and less if you get your education discount or go the refurb route) You can get the white 13" with firewire. Again, only you know what you'll be using the computer for, but consider the white macbook with a firewire external drive.

Oh, and one more thing, get an external drive that's much bigger than your internal drive. You can partition in 2 for one half as your bootable (only if you go the firewire route) clone and the other half as a time machine backup. That's the best of both worlds from a backup perspective.

-fate
 
Waste of money to put the SSD in there.

I don't get the point of agreeing to save your money by getting a Macbook instead of a Macbook Air only to spend all the savings on a SSD drive.

Listen to your Dad. I think your Dad is saying save your money!!!!!

You have 4 years of school left at least.

He ain't saying that to bug you. He's speaking from experience.
 
SirJ said:
I let things cool off overnight, read your responses, and then talked to my dad about this.

I told him that he's right and a macbook would be fine for my needs. I knew that I wanted the air for aesthetic reasons mainly and I reconsidered. We had a long talk about Macs vs PCs and he's concerned with software compatibility, viruses, and the other stereotypical "PC parent" issues. I discussed all these with him, but I could use a better worded explanation if anyone has the time to offer one.

The solution that I came to is this:
Get a macbook (probably 2.0, though I'd love the 2.4) in June with a free ipod touch and use that until Snow Leopard is released. Before installing the new OS, take out the HDD and put it in a 2.5" inclosure and replace it with an SSD.
Would this be a good idea or a waste of money? One of the things we discussed is the durability of my laptop-to-be and, as an accident prone person, would benefit from the durability of an SSD (in my opinion).

Could anyone contribute a little to these ideas?

Also, thanks for all of your advice. I'm a young and inexperienced person at this stage of my life and I appreciate the wisdom imparted from those of you who are smarter than I am.
Click to expand...

SirJ,
congrats. you maybe young and inexperienced but your approach shows respect and maturity. You will do very well.

Get set up in college, figure out what you need, and go from there. You may find out that the computer becomes a tool to get things done and less for enjoyment and what you have is sufficient and the extra funds towards something else.
 
In about 20 years time you will thank your father. :D

Let's see. So you are paying for your computer. Does that mean you are completely financially independent from your parents? Your parents don't pay a penny for you? If that is the case, you buy what you want. If your parents are financing you, you buy what they want.
 
ravenvii said:
This.

Don't be surprised by $200-$300 during your first two years and $400-$500 during your last two years - unless you decide to go into the sciences, where books could go up to $600-$700.

And even then, that's nothing compared to law school, where it's all bumped up to $700-900.

Mommy!
Click to expand...


This. Also take into account the fact that the chances that they will change books the next year are quite high, meaning you'll likely be left high and dry financially if you try to sell your books at the end of the term.

a Unibody macbook would be the ultimate choice, I think. The new macbook air is a better machine than the old model, but the macbook is certainly sturdier, more powerful and quite a bit cheaper.
 
SirJ said:
Could anyone contribute a little to these ideas?
Click to expand...

You "need" an SSD about as much as you "needed" the MBA. Upgrade the ram to 4GB and forget the rest. Talk to your dad about opening a Roth IRA with the leftover money if you don't already have one.

Having an actual net worth instead of debt coming out of college is a good feeling :)
 
I think you just have Macbook Air fever. Just get a Macbook. It will do what you need it to do for school, and do it very well. I won't get into what I think about honoring your father because every family is different. For example, I would never be "smart mouthed" or sarcastic with my father. It just wouldnt happen, so it's hard for me to answer your question.

One thing I would do is keep it clean. Keep your hands clean when you use it, buy a skin from Invisible Shield and you will help preserve a TON of resale value. That way, if you decide the Macbook isnt what you wanted, you can sell it for the most you can and get yourself a MBA. I have a unibody MBP that has been covered in Invisible Shield since day one... not a single scratch on it..the metal, that is.

Also, have you considered waiting until you register for school, so that you can get a smoking deal in the student bookstore or through apple store's education store?

I'm a federal employee and the apple store's discount for federal employees can be significant.
 
Great job for realizing that the MB will suit you better. Your plan of waiting a bit & trying to get a free iPod is a good one. You can only end up with a better MB by waiting.

Some more food for thought: When I was first going to college I thought I had to buy every single book my professors told me to. After a couple years I realized that was foolish, at least for me. It depends on your major and several factors, but talk to people who have taken your class before and ask them whether they thought the book was necessary. ALWAYS look on half.com or other websites for used textbooks. I also saved a bunch of money by getting the previous edition of a text (after clearing it with the professors). For example, you could buy the 3rd edition of a book for $14 online vs $95 for the brand new 4th edition at your campus bookstore. Sure, you won't be able to sell the book back to your bookstore for 30% what you bought it for, but you only paid 14 bucks!

Just a thought.

Oh, and compatibility is a non-issue. Get VMWare fusion (Much better than Parallels, IMO), and a copy of Windows XP and you're set.
 
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