First Mac buyer needing help

[markmc2k8]

Hi guys, I am looking to get my very first mac and as unimpressed as I was with the latest macbooks I am going to take the dive and get one this week or next. Below is the one I am thinking of getting:

MacBook, 13-inch, 2.4GHz, 2GB, 250GB
SuperDrive 8x (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
Backlit Keyboard (British) & User’s Guide (English)
250GB Serial ATA Drive @ 5400 rpm
Apple Remote
4GB 1066MHz DDR3 SDRAM - 2x2GB
2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
Apple Time Capsule 500GB

The Total Price inc VAT is £ 1492.96

A couple of questions, is the 2gb upgrade on RAM worth an extra £100 or can I even do it cheaper myself at a later date? Also as you can see I am interested in the Time Capsule because it sounds just the sort of thing I need and it seems to also work with vista.

This dilemma I am having though is get that with the time capsule or go for this:

MacBook Pro, 15", Aluminium
2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
4GB 1066MHz DDR3 SDRAM - 2x2GB
250GB Serial ATA @ 7200
SuperDrive 8x (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
Backlit Keyboard (British) & User’s Guide (English)
Apple Remote

The Total Price inc VAT is £1,549.01

I would be interested to know what you more experienced users would go for.

 

[JML42691]

I would say that you could probably bag the remote and save yourself a few bucks, I never end up using mine. And as to the Time Capsule, what exactly are you planning on using it for? If just for TimeMachine backups and other "lightweight" transfers then that would be fine. But if you are planning on regularly accessing it and transferring data to/from it, then you might want to consider a cheaper priced external hard drive, something USB powered (or Firewire-800 if you end up going to the MBP).

 

[markmc2k8]

I would say that you could probably bag the remote and save yourself a few bucks, I never end up using mine. And as to the Time Capsule, what exactly are you planning on using it for? If just for TimeMachine backups and other "lightweight" transfers then that would be fine. But if you are planning on regularly accessing it and transferring data to/from it, then you might want to consider a cheaper priced external hard drive, something USB powered (or Firewire-800 if you end up going to the MBP).

Suppose your right about the remote but I just threw it in because it is little price compared to the overall.

What I want the time capsule for is solely iTunes, I have about 45gb of music and I am addicted to playlists, counts, ratings etc... I lost all the play counts once and I was really unhappy about it.

 

[JML42691]

I'm still a little confused, is this for simply backing up your iTunes in case if anything happens, or is this for constantly streaming music off of the drive?

 

[markmc2k8]

I'm still a little confused, is this for simply backing up your iTunes in case if anything happens, or is this for constantly streaming music off of the drive?

No I read that no drive can backup and restore all your itunes library like time capsule. I won't be streaming off it just using it as safekeeping encase it happens to me again where I lose all my play counts and ratings.

I may be wrong about that but I would be very willing to pay the money for a drive that can do that.

 

[tbae12]

It all depends on what you're going to do with the computer. If you're not going to do any graphic intense stuff then I'd go with the Macbook. Also know that the regular macbooks don't have a firewire in case you were thinking of doing stuff in the video editing department.
It'd be best to buy the minimum RAM from apple and upgrade later because it'll be a lot cheaper.

 

[mbrizan]

No I read that no drive can backup and restore all your itunes library like time capsule. I won't be streaming off it just using it as safekeeping encase it happens to me again where I lose all my play counts and ratings.

I may be wrong about that but I would be very willing to pay the money for a drive that can do that.

In that case, it sounds like you want the "time capsule" functionality. If you already have a wireless setup, you may want to just get an external disk to hook up to your router and type this in the terminal.app:

defaults write com.apple.systempreferences TMShowUnsupportedNetworkVolumes 1

If you don't already have a wireless router, you may want to just get the time capsule.