I need help deciding what to buy within a $11,xxx budget.

[Heeriill]

My mom has allowed me to buy $11,xxx of hardware with the condition that I pay the monthly fee, which means she would apply for a Juniper Visa Card. I'm allowed to spend $11,000 because I would be making monthly payments of around $2xx if I spend $11,xxx. I would be working at Vons to earn the $250 a month to pay off the $11,xxx + APR. I will also start to offer freelance design, print and illustration work after I buy the hardware, which will allow me to pay off the debt quickly. I'm turning 16 in 12 days and I might be going to college in 6 months, so I will most likely use this hardware throughout and after college.

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MacBook Pro, 17-inch, 2.4GHz
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Two 3.0GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon
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The Mac Pros are overpriced, so I was wondering if I should pay the premium or just configure a top of the line Windows system through Newegg. Keep in mind that I want to use this computer for design, print and illustration work.

I'm also wondering if I should get http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/productdetail.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=dhs&cs=19&sku=222-7175
instead of the 30" Apple Cinema HD Display (30" flat panel).

 

[riker1384]

A car?

 

[xUKHCx]

Are you buying a Mac Pro and a MBP.

If so I would switch the MBP down to the 15.4" because you will have the power at home, and it iwll be more portable.

Also you won't really need the 3.0 octo. Save the money and go for the 2.66 quad and perhaps get a better video card, get ram third party.

Just because you have 11,000 to spend doesn't mean you have to spend 11,000.

Quite a few pros on here would love a setup like that (that ones that dont already have better systems)

Here is what i'd do

15.4 MBP
2.2 GHz
everything stock apart from the harddrive
with applecare
$2,573.00

Third party ram 4GB =$294

Mac Pro
2.66 GHz
Stock apart from
upgrade HD to 500Gb
upgrade graphics to X1900XT
with apple care $4925

Third party ram 4GB (for total of 5GB) = $379.99

30" ACD = $1799 (or 2 x23" ACD =$1798)

All comes in at under $10,000. So you are saving close to 2 grand or 8-10 months work.

I would get the MBP and see if your needs really require the MP or the other way around. As to the issue of whether or not you should build a PC i would advise against it as you would want an all in one integrated workflow.

I can't advise on the dell screens although many around here will probably testify for them.

 

[Heeriill]

A car?

A car doesn't pay for itself.

Are you buying a Mac Pro and a MBP.

If so I would switch the MBP down to the 15.4" because you will have the power at home, and it iwll be more portable.

Also you won't really need the 3.0 octo. Save the money and go for the 2.66 quad and perhaps get a better video card, get ram third party.

Just because you have 11,000 to spend doesn't mean you have to spend 11,000.

Quite a few pros on here would love a setup like that (that ones that dont already have better systems)

I want the 17" because it would be mostly for showing customers WIPs or any kind of work on the move. Look at it more as $2xx a month then $11,xxx because that's what it really is. I'm 16 and will be making upwards to $1,xxx a job creating and maintaining websites for local customers, so it's all pocket money which can easily pay for this hardware.

I can't get third party RAM because I doubt my mom would want to open a line of credit through Newegg unless I buy my whole desktop through them. Even though this does nothing but help my mom, I'm sure that she would want to keep it as simple of a process as possible, which means only one credit card and one payment per month.

Can anybody offer me any advice on the monitors? If I buy the Dell 30" instead of the Apple 30", then I can also buy a Dell 24" for various uses or upgrade the ram on the Mac Pro even more.

 

[hayduke]

Am I the only one that thinks this sounds like a horrible idea? If you already have a business doing freelance design then I would use that income + Vons to *save* money to buy either a good desktop or a good laptop. As your work load and income continue to rise you can then buy another machine, but running out to put $11k on a *CREDIT CARD* when you are *16 years old* is a bad combo. If you under stand how interest compounds you'll appreciate the challenge. Have you calculated how many $2XX payments you have to make to pay off $11,XXX? You'll be making those payments NOT INCLUDING interest for 3 to 5 years ($11,000 @ $299/mo or $$11,999 @ $200/mo)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I would carefully re-consider this choice.

 

[Neutral Gamer]

I'm thinking of getting the 17" MBP Hi Res and 30" ACD as well.

Although the Dell 30" monitor is definitely cheaper, there's something about that ACD which I just love the look of - it just looks so cool! Especially as it matches the colour scheme of the MBP.

As for the Mac Pro, if you're getting a MBP, is the Mac Pro really necessary?

 

[Mac One]

Even though you may be getting cash to pay off the debt, $11000 is a lot of money to owe on hardware.
I would say get a MBP now as this would be enough to get you going. You probably wouldn't want two computers when you are at college. Also as time progresses the computers will be come slightly outdated so buying two at a time would be less effective than buying one now and one later.
So I think you should get a MBP now and get a MP when you've paid the MBP off or once you've finished college.
Good luck with your decision.

 

[CanadaRAM]

Check the interest rate on that card -- it can be stupidly high like 18% or 21%
A loan from your local bank or credit union may be a better choice. Some of those open a line of credit at a reasonable rate, and give you a charge card that you can make your purchases on.

Don't pay interest if you don't have to.

Also, your take-home from your job will not be the full rate - there will be deductions for taxes, and other levies.

Why don't you take this in stages? Don't spend the whole thing right away. This also give you the ability to 'leapfrog' technologies. The MacBook Pro has just been updated to SantaRosa, so it's going to be stable for a bit. The MacPro is due for an update in the near future, so why not wait that one out? Particularly, if Mom arranges the line of credit thing, then you can add items / pay off at any time.

Do tell your Mom that buying the RAM and possibly the software through third party will save hundreds of $, and each 200 you save is one monthly payment

I don't know what school you go to but see if you qualify for Educational pricing on the machine and or the software. There are significant savings to be had on software, but some of the licenses restrict you from using Ed software for any commercial use, so find and read the license agreements.

 

[xUKHCx]

A car doesn't pay for itself.


I want the 17" because it would be mostly for showing customers WIPs or any kind of work on the move. Look at it more as $2xx a month then $11,xxx because that's what it really is. I'm 16 and will be making upwards to $1,xxx a job creating and maintaining websites for local customers, so it's all pocket money which can easily pay for this hardware.

I can't get third party RAM because I doubt my mom would want to open a line of credit through Newegg unless I buy my whole desktop through them. Even though this does nothing but help my mom, I'm sure that she would want to keep it as simple of a process as possible, which means only one credit card and one payment per month.

Can anybody offer me any advice on the monitors? If I buy the Dell 30" instead of the Apple 30", then I can also buy a Dell 24" for various uses or upgrade the ram on the Mac Pro even more.

Well as i said there are lots of savings to be had with the ram from third party which as i have shown reduce your payback time considerably. Also don't count money that isnt there re. website design, who is to say that you'll get paid $1xxx a job. That is pretty steep for a 16 year old to be earning. And as said before considered getting them separately to see if you really need them. Also this is assuming you keep your job, what happens if they fire you.

 

[Apple a Day]

Financial Nightmare

Another thing: Are you so sure your Vons job is guaranteed?????!!!!!! You well get yourself into some serious life-long financial problems if you can't keep your head above water if Vons falls through!

 

[Heeriill]

Am I the only one that thinks this sounds like a horrible idea? If you already have a business doing freelance design then I would use that income + Vons to *save* money to buy either a good desktop or a good laptop. As your work load and income continue to rise you can then buy another machine, but running out to put $11k on a *CREDIT CARD* when you are *16 years old* is a bad combo. If you under stand how interest compounds you'll appreciate the challenge. Have you calculated how many $2XX payments you have to make to pay off $11,XXX? You'll be making those payments NOT INCLUDING interest for 3 to 5 years ($11,000 @ $299/mo or $$11,999 @ $200/mo)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I would carefully re-consider this choice.

I will be making upwards of $7,xxx during two months alone of Summer vacation, so I see no problem with payments.

I'm thinking of getting the 17" MBP Hi Res and 30" ACD as well.

Although the Dell 30" monitor is definitely cheaper, there's something about that ACD which I just love the look of - it just looks so cool! Especially as it matches the colour scheme of the MBP.

As for the Mac Pro, if you're getting a MBP, is the Mac Pro really necessary?

I need the Mac Pro for multiple things which I haven't listed in full, but I'm wondering if the Mac Pro is such a ripoff that I should get a Windows system instead.

Even though you may be getting cash to pay off the debt, $11000 is a lot of money to owe on hardware.
I would say get a MBP now as this would be enough to get you going. You probably wouldn't want two computers when you are at college. Also as time progresses the computers will be come slightly outdated so buying two at a time would be less effective than buying one now and one later.
So I think you should get a MBP now and get a MP when you've paid the MBP off or once you've finished college.
Good luck with your decision.

I will be making upwards of $7,xxx during two months alone of Summer vacation, so I see no problem with buying two. I would like to keep these two systems and will frequently use them if I ever decide to upgrade.

Check the interest rate on that card -- it can be stupidly high like 18% or 21%
A loan from your local bank or credit union may be a better choice. Some of those open a line of credit at a reasonable rate, and give you a charge card that you can make your purchases on.

Don't pay interest if you don't have to.

Also, your takehome from your job will not be the full rate - there will be deductions for taxes, and other levies.

Why don't you take this in stages? Don't spend the whole thing right away.

Do tell your Mom that buying the RAM and possibly the software through third party will save hundreds of $, and each 200 you save is one monthly payment

I don't know what school you go to but see if you qualify for Educational pricing on the machine and or the software. There are significant savings to be had on software, but some of the licenses restrict you from using Ed software for any commercial use, so find and read the license agreements.

My parents are doing a lot of things at the moment, so the simplest way to do this would be to just open a line of credit through Apple and then pay the $2xx monthly fee.

I don't mind paying interest and the interest tax will be nothing for the amount I'll be making.

 

[Heeriill]

Another thing: Are you so sure your Vons job is guaranteed?????!!!!!! You well get yourself into some serious life-long financial problems if you can't keep your head above water if Vons falls through!

I can easily survive until I find another job if I somehow get fired from Von's. I'm not going to buy this hardware until I have a $1,xxx security incase of emergency.

 

[zelmo]

If you're dead set on using credit to buy a machine, then may I suggest deciding which is more important for you now - laptop or desktop. Then just get that one Mac.
Buying both at the same time means that in three years' time, you'll have two machines that are looking long in the tooth. Buy one now, and another in 18-24 months, then repeat the pattern every 18-24 months. This way, you'll at least always have one Mac that is relatively current gen hardware.
Honestly, I still find there's plenty of pop in my trusty ol' PB G4 1.33GHz, and I dabble in design [work for a printing company]. Since you've voiced a
need to show WIPs to clients, perhaps the 17" MBP is the thing to nab now, maybe along with an external hard drive and a monitor. Maybe wait on the desktop until you've built a clientele and have paid off a good chunk of your first purchase.
After all, there's no reason you can't make a later purchase on the same Juniper account is there?

 

[maclover007]

gasp. wow 16. dude just buy the macbook pro right now with top configs. that way you can always buy the pro if u really need it. good luck with u'r job.

 

[Heeriill]

Well as i said there are lots of savings to be had with the ram from third party which as i have shown reduce your payback time considerably. Also don't count money that isnt there re. website design, who is to say that you'll get paid $1xxx a job. That is pretty steep for a 16 year old to be earning. And as said before considered getting them separately to see if you really need them. Also this is assuming you keep your job, what happens if they fire you.

Due to my dads field of work, people constantly ask him if he can build them a website and he has been constantly asking me to take those jobs, so I finally will. I'm not depending on the design work to pay the monthly fee, it's just a means to pay it off faster.

I told my mom about the savings of buying RAM third party and she seems on board with the idea. Time to research the RAM. I would like RAM equal or higher in quality.

 

[xUKHCx]

Why are you so confident that you will be making such huge sums of money, do you have contracts written up and signed. Looks like you are counting your eggs before they've hatched.

 

[hayduke]

I told my mom about the savings of buying RAM third party and she seems on board with the idea. Time to research the RAM. I would like RAM equal or higher in quality.

What do you mean by higher quality the Apple's OEM ram? Equal quality is understandable. How much RAM do you need? This is the first question to ask yourself.

 

[gotzero]

Ultimately this is up to you, but I would seriously reconsider this. You would end up attempting (hopefully even successfully) to pay this off long after these computers stopped working.

Also, no one needs this much computing power as a casual user. If you are not generating this money from doing "freelance" already, you cannot count on any kind of contract for income.

If you must do this, get a laptop and if you feel you need it (after using the laptop for 6 months or so), get a modest external display. There is no point learning on top end hardware bought with debt. By the time you get proficient enough to use the feature differences between a $500 laptop and a $5000 workstation, the workstation that you bought now will seem like crap to you, and you will still be paying for it.

If you are headed to college, you school will undoubtedly have workstations that you can use for the rare times you want to do something that even a macbook cannot handle.

There is a lot of hype on forums like this about having to have the fastest/biggest/best stuff, but at the end of the day, with even a modest computer, what matters is the person operating it.

 

[Heeriill]

Why are you so confident that you will be making such huge sums of money, do you have contracts written up and signed. Looks like you are counting your eggs before they've hatched.

I'm an artist, my dad has a masters in art and also owns his own printing and design business above other things, so I have ready access to all the means to make money with the hardware I'll be buying. It's very easy for me or any other teenager to make $2xx a month, so please get off the subject of payments and onto the hardware I'll be buying.

 

[xUKHCx]

Don't buy them both together, buy one and pay it off, then use the money from your seemingly guaranteed endless supply of money to save up for the other machine. This will reduce the amount of interest you will have to pay as someone has pointed out and will be a whole lot less risky. Do you really need both and really need both straight away.

Will you have to pay for college because or living expenses.

I'm an artist, my dad has a masters in art and also owns his own printing and design business above other things, so I have ready access to all the means to make money with the hardware I'll be buying. It's very easy for me or any other teenager to make $2xx a month, so please get off the subject of payments and onto the hardware I'll be buying.

Well i have already done that, yeah ok with that sort of money **** it get the 17". Even without interest you'll be well over 20 by the time you will pay this off if you don't get that extra income. Over time the mony you earn gets spent on more and more things, living expenses.

 

[chriswheat]

Further, has your mom applied for the card? Can you guarantee she'll get an $11,000 credit limit off the bat?

I also have to agree with everyone else that buying two computers at the same time is a mistake. Buy one now, and one in a year, then you'll be that much happier with the one in a year, and when it comes time to replace them, you won't have to do it at the same time.

Lastly, if you can guarantee $7000 of income, why not wait until you have that in cash to purchase the rest of the gear? Buy what you need (on credit) now, pay off that card and use the rest of your cash to buy the rest of the gear (and if necessary use credit again). You'll minimize interest charges, which maximizes your wallet.

 

[maclover007]

all you people just tell this guy what 2 get 2 make his purchase!!! stop telling him how 2 buy it.

 

[Heeriill]

Don't buy them both together, buy one and pay it off, then use the money from your seemingly guaranteed endless supply of money to save up for the other machine. This will reduce the amount of interest you will have to pay as someone has pointed out and will be a whole lot less risky. Do you really need both and really need both straight away.

Will you have to pay for college because or living expenses.

I will be living with my parents for the first 2 years of of college, and if I decide to move for the remaining 4 years, then they will finance all my expenses.

Please get off the subject of payments; I'll be making $2xx a month and upwards of $7,xxx during Summer vacation. I made roughly $6xx in 2 months working weekends when I was 14.

 

[synth3tik]

Buy an Xserve with a fold down LCD on a slide out rack shelf and put it all into a rad rack case. It would be the ultimate laptop.

 

[MacDawg]

Am I the only one that keeps coming back to this thread, starts to post and then just shakes my head and moves on...?

Woof, Woof - Dawg