My first notebook going to cost me 4000$ !?

Apple's RAM is overpriced, and it is highly suggested that you purchase 3rd party RAM.

Do you seriously need a VGA adapter? There are not many monitors that use VGA anymore. I would suggest sticking to just DVI/HDMI. All MacBooks come with a charger, so unless you're constantly going on flights that are longer than 5 hours, don't bother with it.

Is the RAM needed right now? RAM will always become cheaper over time.

I wouldn't go with the OEM version of Windows 7. If you ever need to reinstall it, you are screwed, among other things. Purchase at your own risk.

Welcome to Canada mate. If you're a student, you can get a discount via Apple's education store. Alternatively, you could always go for one of Apple's refurbished products. You are correct on the graphics assumption.

In the end, all we can suggest is go for what you NEED and can AFFORD, and not what you WANT. Good luck!

 

lol you spec out your box with latest gen everything including a 512 SSD and you're surprised about cost?

 

He's not surprised about anything. He's bragging. LOL

 

I spent around 1200 for my refurb MBP that's a little smaller sized screen and HD, and I'll bet I can do anything he wants to do, especially for school.

 

you can run photoshop, after effects and whatever the hell you want on a base MBP.

the upgrades can come later dude, chill the f out.

 

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IMO ... you are spending too much for your first Mac ... forget all that stuff you don't need ... try the base 15" MBP and find out that it will do what you need it to do. ... why overspend by $2000 or more.

 

You can save a lot of money if you buy the adapters and magsafe on ebay. Get windows 7 loader to save another 100 bucks.

 

Lion will be $30?

 

lol you go do that. and why stop at 15"? just fully spec out the 17" while you're at it

 

OWC for RAM is a great choice, Im not sure but you can also check the Marketplace on MacRumors should you have permission to do so.

Windows 7, OEM is just the non-retail version and shouldnt have ANY problems with it (with regards to reinstalling it, i personally never had issues with OEM Windows). You may just need to reactivate it if you plan to reinstall it on a different machine but it seems like this will be your main workhorse so you're fine and you can get good deals here:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100006816 600021084&IsNodeId=1&name=OEM

As far as the 750GB HDD is concerned I'd recommend holding onto that incase of warranty issues as they will want whatever came with the machine if you ever get it replaced or serviced; id pick up the OWC Mercury ELite-AL Pro Mini that has all the ports you'll ever need and its powered by USB or FireWire800.


You can get USB 3.0 devices they just will run at 2.0 Speeds.


For cases and bags, definitely try ebay or optionally Amazon.com they have good deals on things like that plus alot have free shipping as well.
I'd recommend any of the BOOQ bags, I have the Taipan Lift L BOOQ messenger bag, i really like it.

 

For the external enclosure, you can get any 2.5" SATA enclosure, as the drive is 9.5mm height. Not sure why you need the extra power adapter though, and please don't buy those video adapters from apple. Check out monoprice.com, and you can get all 3 for probably less than the $35 it would cost you for one from apple. Just a few bucks to save there.

 

You *need* a 256gb minimum ssd? Tht's going to cost the same regardless of which laptop you get.

$100 for a bag? I got a sleeve for mine for about 25$ that works great.

Why do you *need* win7? All the programs you listed as needing run on Mac.

Isn't the 128gb ssd upgrade only 100$ through Apple? Get that, since you are not planning on using the stock harddrive that comes in your mac and save yourself $400.

For the amount of graphics stuff you do I'd suggest the 17" screen size.

 

Dollar virtually worthless

Fortunately for people outside the United States, the US Dollar is dirt cheap! It is virtually worthless soon, thanks to the budget deficit. So whenever possible I buy the highest end machine and pay in worthless Dollars.

 

To my knowledge, 3ds max does not run on mac osx. So if you don't want to switch around all the time, you are pretty much stuck with windows. In such case, if you are concerned about hardware cost. Your best bet is to stay away from mac, or even stay away from laptop. You can spend a lot less than 4k to get the same stuff, performance wise.

 

Dont buy the 2.3 Ghz. I heard the difference between 2.2 and 2.3 is negligible.

Go look around amazon! (it is MUCH safer than eBay)
for your DP - HDMI: http://www.amazon.com/DisplayPort-F...629E/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&qid=1301763691&sr=8-9
for your DP - VGA: http://www.amazon.com/Displayport-C...5?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1301763875&sr=1-5
for your DP - DVI: http://www.amazon.com/StarTech-Disp...2?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1301763932&sr=1-2

Also, you could save some money if you dont need the laptop right now. Wait until Lion comes out. That definitely will be worth some $.
Also, do you REALLY need a Macbook pro 15? I mean, I love macs but 2300 dollars for a laptop is a lot. Go look around Cnet to see any pc laptops that are worth looking at at least. Remember, be smart about your money (although it is your money)
Anyways, good luck in your search!

 

I mean personally 800 just for the name "Mac" sounds outrageous to me, but go ahead if you think its worth it.
I would seriously just buy an iPad2, but of course, I am a student only doing basic stuff and some starcraft.
Anyways, good luck man, I hope you love your MBP.

 

concerning Lion and new bootcamp.
bootcamp is just a bios emulation and has little to nothing to do with OSX. Once windows runs at all it all comes down to decent drivers and while Apple provides stable ones they have little motive to deliver really good ones or else Windows doesn't look as bad in comparison. If they added drivers of Lenovo, Sony quality it would run much longer on battery and cooler too. Why should they? This won't change a bit with Lion.
You can always install modified Graphic drivers which give much better performance, game compatibility and overclocking. But there is pretty much nothing one can do for battery live and stuff that would make a decent Windows notebook to work with out of a MBP.

 

A SSD that big is expensive. Stick with a regular hard drive and it will bring the cost down. Also, get rid of all those overpriced cables from Apple. Check out monoprice, dealextreme or ebay for much cheaper cables.

 

I don't agree that these is only a negligible difference. With the 2.3GHz 15" you get a higher performing ATI graphics subsystem full 1GB Video RAM instead of only 256MB.

While the nominal CPU clock is only 100MHz higher, the difference in i7 Turbo Boost is more significant for the maximum frequency. Normal users don't need the highest CPU frequency, so you get a bigger performance bump investiong in an SSD instead of HDD.

 

I was talking CPU wise, but if you want to bring the GPU in it... Yes, GPU wise the 2.3 will be much farther advanced than the 2.2