Well the title bout sums the gist of this up.
I'm a first year Industrial Design student at RMIT in Melbourne.. thats Australia so prices are a bit different over here.
I've had my P4 1.8 Ghz, 1gb ram 128mb Graphics card for maybe 4 years, it's served me very well, but lately, specially with Photoshop.. well my pc constantly recieves the one-finger salute
I want a laptop mainly because in a Uni of 80,000 people, computers can be hard to come by when you don't have a class scheduled, so a laptop will be the obvious solution. Also my fav lecturer has the 13.3 Black Macbook for a little while ago, and it's a really nice size, (ive used it a few times for presentations). I want to be able to put it in my backpack when I go on the train into the city.
My needs are
Photoshop and Illustrator use primarily, alongside InDesign
CAD work, school uses SolidWorks (is that even Mac compatable?? I can always VMware it)
I am also a musician and a major factor in wanting a Mac is Logic.
Preferences
In my past I have done quite a bit of work in Adobe Premiere and After Effects, not so much now so this is not really a desperate need.
Now here's the fun part, I'm 18 so I earn next to nothing an hour, and I'm at Uni 4 days a week, so I usually only work one shift a week. I'm rather strapped for cash. I've got about enough for a White Macbook, will this be enough for my needs? Buying a white Macbook is really hard for me, since I'm studying Industrial Design (basically product design kinda) so the Alu Macbook is sexy as hell.
I've never owned a Mac, always wanted one for some reason, maybe cos they would make me cool.. haha Especially in my design course, Macs are the dominant computer (which in the area I live is not a mac area). I love Windows XP, but I know I won't be able to hide in there forever, and Vista and Windows 7 loom over me and I don't want to go there, so Mac is my next logical step.
The biggest factor for me is justifying the expense. For what i'm paying $1580 with the education discount, I could buy a PC laptop with far higher specs (i know mac is superior hardware and software but still..)
The most important and final factor in my purchase is my father. Even though I'm 18 and it's my money, I wouldn't buy anything that expensive without his consent. With him being a very tech savvy individual and lifelong PC user I need to justify the switch to Mac, (lately he has made a few Mac friendly statements, something like "everyday windows gives me a reason to switch to Mac) so that should be easy. The hardest part will be explaining why for more money I get less hardware power.
I've had a detailed conversation at my on campus Apple Store about Vmware and all good things. He has recommended since I have the knowledge, to buy the laptop in it's basic form, and upgrade the HDD and RAM myself.
I hope I haven't written to much, but I want to give you all a good picture of what I'm looking at.
Many thanks
-Alan
I'm a first year Industrial Design student at RMIT in Melbourne.. thats Australia so prices are a bit different over here.
I've had my P4 1.8 Ghz, 1gb ram 128mb Graphics card for maybe 4 years, it's served me very well, but lately, specially with Photoshop.. well my pc constantly recieves the one-finger salute
I want a laptop mainly because in a Uni of 80,000 people, computers can be hard to come by when you don't have a class scheduled, so a laptop will be the obvious solution. Also my fav lecturer has the 13.3 Black Macbook for a little while ago, and it's a really nice size, (ive used it a few times for presentations). I want to be able to put it in my backpack when I go on the train into the city.
My needs are
Photoshop and Illustrator use primarily, alongside InDesign
CAD work, school uses SolidWorks (is that even Mac compatable?? I can always VMware it)
I am also a musician and a major factor in wanting a Mac is Logic.
Preferences
In my past I have done quite a bit of work in Adobe Premiere and After Effects, not so much now so this is not really a desperate need.
Now here's the fun part, I'm 18 so I earn next to nothing an hour, and I'm at Uni 4 days a week, so I usually only work one shift a week. I'm rather strapped for cash. I've got about enough for a White Macbook, will this be enough for my needs? Buying a white Macbook is really hard for me, since I'm studying Industrial Design (basically product design kinda) so the Alu Macbook is sexy as hell.
I've never owned a Mac, always wanted one for some reason, maybe cos they would make me cool.. haha Especially in my design course, Macs are the dominant computer (which in the area I live is not a mac area). I love Windows XP, but I know I won't be able to hide in there forever, and Vista and Windows 7 loom over me and I don't want to go there, so Mac is my next logical step.
The biggest factor for me is justifying the expense. For what i'm paying $1580 with the education discount, I could buy a PC laptop with far higher specs (i know mac is superior hardware and software but still..)
The most important and final factor in my purchase is my father. Even though I'm 18 and it's my money, I wouldn't buy anything that expensive without his consent. With him being a very tech savvy individual and lifelong PC user I need to justify the switch to Mac, (lately he has made a few Mac friendly statements, something like "everyday windows gives me a reason to switch to Mac) so that should be easy. The hardest part will be explaining why for more money I get less hardware power.
I've had a detailed conversation at my on campus Apple Store about Vmware and all good things. He has recommended since I have the knowledge, to buy the laptop in it's basic form, and upgrade the HDD and RAM myself.
I hope I haven't written to much, but I want to give you all a good picture of what I'm looking at.
Many thanks
-Alan
