Student Mac Combo advice.

[AJ.G]

so, yes, this is another one of those, what should i buy threads- BUT, at least its not one of those should i wait for the new Macbook Pro or buy now?
im a student, my needs arent anything to intensive, i run photoshop quite a bit, sometimes with illustrator. other than that its the usual- just chrome, MS 2010, itunes, and utorrent. All this on a HP Mini 210, which is starting to get slow, and im looking to change to MAC! yay.

thing is, after pondering, and loking at my options, i still really dont know what to get. The MBP 13 looks good, its affordable, rather good package, and looks like it could run my programs rather easily. im also really looking forwards to itunes integration on Mac OSX as its really annoying on windows (slow, laggy, keyboard shortcuts for play and pause dont work, etc...).

then i was looking at the MBA, looks more like a luxury item, not a main machine, and expensive for me. or the white macbook, but my family already has one. then mac mini (5000 RMB), but with a monitor, which i can pick up for 700RMB easily, plus the apple keyboard, and magic trackpad (love that thing!!!) that would be an extra 700 rmb, so the mini- is 5000, with kb and trackpad 6400, plus monitor, 7100. still a whole lot cheaper than MBPs over here in china though, which currently run for 8500 roughly.

the imac is way too much for me, bear in mind im saving up for this. if it helps i already have an itouch. i think the mac mini would be really nice, just worried about no portability, i really have no idea what to go for. and by the time i have enough money, lets say six months, all the new tech will be out.

so does anybody have any advice?

all the best,

AJ--

P.S. FYI RMB is chinese currency, and 1 USD is roughly 7 RMB

 

[karsten]

depends if you want the portability of a notebook or are going to use it at your desk more then maybe a mini would make sense. they're both great machines i've had both the 2010 mini and a 2009 mbp 13 and i kept the notebook for the portability. you can run a display off it too to use at your desk but that might be more than you want to spend.

 

[jmpnop]

Well it depends on how you would use it. If you use it on desk, get Mac mini which is very affordable and a great machine. If you need portability and descent power, get Macbook Pro.