Mac Screens and More Advice...

[phnord]

Hey everyone,

I'm new here, and wanted to ask for some advice regarding purchasing an apple or two. I'm going to be buying a Macbook and a Mac Pro, as I'm a film scoring student at Berklee College of Music and my 4-year-old Powerbook G4 isn't cutting it anymore. I figure I need a long-term solution (hence the Pro) but at the same time will still need portability, so I think it's a good investment.

Anyway, I've got a pretty good deal through Apple for the actual machines, between the student discount and the two free iPod Touches & Printers. However, I'm debating about what to do about various other parts.

It's come to my attention that it's a much better idea to buy RAM / HDD's elsewhere, as they go for a lot cheaper on sites like macsales.com. I'm right now mainly debating what to do about a screen.

I do not do extensive video / photo work and therefore don't have a ton of experience in this area. My main concern is that doing film scoring, it's helpful to have a good amount of screen real estate for the various programs I'll be running, plus to have decent image quality for running the videos I'll be working with. That being said, I'm not going to be needing to do high-end image work or anything, so I don't want to pay a crap-load for it as well.

Is the Apple 20" display for $549.00 a good deal for me, or should I be looking elsewhere? All and any advice and opinions, as well as links to stores/reviews to check out would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Andy B.

P.S. Any reasons not to start off with 2 1GB sticks in each machine and look at upgrades later? Also, I've heard stirrings about new machines coming a little down the line - if anyone has any info on what machines these are (Macbook, Mac Pro) or what kind of upgrades are expected, I'd appreciate hearing about it.

 

[Umbongo]

I wouldn't buy the 20" ACD. The market is flooded with 20" and 22" 1680x1050 displays and if screen quality isn't essential then you can get them for half that price. You can also get better 20" displays than the ACD for less.

You can get a Dell 24" Ultrasharp for a similar price and lower quality 24" displays for much less. You could even consider dual 20" displays.

For reviews I use http://www.trustedreviews.com/displays/ but you would have to look up US prices. Cnet's reviews are also useful.

The Mac Pro will likely see an update around January with a significant performance increase. Probably not worth waiting 5-6 months though if you are needing something now.

As for the macbook, look here: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/512761/


Don't forget that waiting likely means no freebies.

Leave the macbook with it's basic memory, but you will probably want some more for the Mac Pro. Try ebay first to see if anyone is selling off their old Mac Pro 1GB sticks cheap, otherwise get 4GB (2x2GB) if you can afford it from macsales or wherever.

 

[phnord]

Thanks for the tips. It seems like displays warrant looking into for a while longer, as there are much better deals than what apple offers. I think I'd prefer to purchase a monitor at a later date.

However, the only two displays I have available to me at the moment are VGA: a MAG LT782s LCD and an old iMagic IM-773P CRT monitor. Will these be compatible with my new Mac Pro for the time being? Will the image quality be awful on them?