NEED HELP!!! Buying a MacBook Pro for College

[Drew15]

Hey there! I'm new to these forums but I wanted help from people that know everything about MacBooks. I'm currently saving up to buy myself a MacBook pro for college, but I'm not sure what road I should take. My first dilemma is that rumors about the new 2012 MacBook Pro say that it can be released as soon as April, but it will not include an optical drive. I usually tell myself that I NEED an optical drive but I hardly use my drive in my current computer so I can live without it. My MAIN dilemma is upgrading to a SSD. As you know they aren't the cheapest things in the world if your getting alot of memory. So let me tell you what my 2 options are and you tell me which one I should do. I could get a 60 GB SSD and buy the 2TB apple timecapsule so I can just save all my files onto the external hardrive for all around 500 dollars OR saving up and just buying a 500GB SSD for 1000 dollars.

So my two questions
1. Wait for the next MacBook or buy the current one
2. 60GB SSD or 500 GB SSD

And I can wait to buy my MacBook I'm not in a rush since I don't start college until September

 

[Spink10]

Dont buy the SSD from Apple - get a Samsung 830 or Crucial M4 - or another Sata 3 SSD

Wait til 2012 MBP comes out - if you don't like it get the 2011 at a huge discount from an Apple Authorized Deal - MacMall / Amazon

 

[hillsandvalley]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9B179 Safari/7534.48.3)

Unless your loaded, you'll kick yourself when the price of ssd's goes down. Which it will

 

[Tatonnement]

dont buy the ssd from apple - get a samsung 830 or crucial m4 - or another sata 3 ssd

wait til 2012 mbp comes out - if you don't like it get the 2011 at a huge discount from an apple authorized deal - macmall / amazon

+1

 

[squeakr]

Since you don't need it now, wait until closer to the time when you will. Also check with your school (and current students there) and see what the requirements are for your intended major and recommendations for curriculum. Several have bought only to find that their school has no MAC support and they are on their own. This lack of support can be fine for some, but for most it can be a severe hinderance on their ability to be productive and get work done correctly (as MAC versions may not be fully compatible and may cause more issues than are worth for the average user).

You should also be able to take advantage of the student discount one you get the registration papers for next year (which can be a large savings in itself, and you school may have a student store offering even greater savings).

 

[camardelle]

I think they will give better educational discounts as you get closer to the beginning of the school year than you would get right now also.

 

[squeakr]

I think they will give better educational discounts as you get closer to the beginning of the school year than you would get right now also.

The educational discount is what it is ]. It is the same no matter when you purchase. Although the last few years they have had a back to school promotion, which stacks with the educational discount to give an extra incentive , but the amount of the educational discount doesn't change.

 

[camardelle]

The educational discount is what it is ]. It is the same no matter when you purchase. Although the last few years they have had a back to school promotion, which stacks with the educational discount to give an extra incentive , but the amount of the educational discount doesn't change.

I guess I should have been more clear? I got the ed discount, when I got my MBP. Earlier when I got an iMac, my daughter was with me and with her college id card she got me an additional $100 iTunes card. Maybe that was part of the incentive/back to school program? Makes sense.

 

[squeakr]

That was last year's back to school discount. In the past they had given free iTouches and printers with a purchase (although for both the price was reimbursed through a mail in rebate), but last year they did away with that and gave a $100 iTunes credit instead. The back to school promotion was available fro all whether they received the education discount or not.