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What do you guys think of this build for a college student MacBook?

E

Entourage12

macrumors member
Original poster
Feb 21, 2008
70
0
Hello all I am a current PC user and as University gets closer and closer I have always wanting to get a Mac and now I have decided on what I want. It is a bit more than I had anticipated and I am hoping that some comments might be able to help in some areas that I might be able to take a way a few dollars. Please let me know what you think:

Intel Core 2 Duo 2.2 GHz
White Model
160GB Hard Drive
1GB RAM
Apple Care Protection Plan

Laptop total = $1644.00 (Student discount)

Extras:

$146.00 4GB RAM from Kingston
$166.29 Windows Vista Home Basic
$129.99 Microsoft Office for Mac
$30.00 (approximately) for a Sleeve

Total = $2116.28
Total with Tax = $2370.23

All prices are in Canadian dollars. Any help would be great!
 
Get your Apple care from eBay and save yourself some money.

They have a good deal on Refurb models, but only 120GB drive - for $1,099 (US)... Full factory warranty too...
 
Entourage12 said:
Hello all I am a current PC user and as University gets closer and closer I have always wanting to get a Mac and now I have decided on what I want. It is a bit more than I had anticipated and I am hoping that some comments might be able to help in some areas that I might be able to take a way a few dollars. Please let me know what you think:

Intel Core 2 Duo 2.2 GHz
White Model
160GB Hard Drive
1GB RAM
Apple Care Protection Plan

Laptop total = $1644.00 (Student discount)

Extras:

$146.00 4GB RAM from Kingston
$166.29 Windows Vista Home Basic
$129.99 Microsoft Office for Mac
$30.00 (approximately) for a Sleeve

Total = $2116.28
Total with Tax = $2370.23

All prices are in Canadian dollars. Any help would be great!
Click to expand...

what are you going to be using the laptop for? that's a great set up. if you want to save money you could just get 2gb of ram from OWC for now and see if that will do what you need it to. i take it back, if your going to want to run vista via parrels than you will need the 4bg of ram. check your college software prices because i know i can get office 08' for $80(us) virsus the retail 120 or so. the only other thing i could suggest would be a external drive. it might come in handy for Time machine in case you accidentally delete that paper you need or what have you. other than that, its a great machine and enjoy!
 
Entourage12 said:
Hello all I am a current PC user and as University gets closer and closer I have always wanting to get a Mac and now I have decided on what I want. It is a bit more than I had anticipated and I am hoping that some comments might be able to help in some areas that I might be able to take a way a few dollars. Please let me know what you think:

Extras:

$146.00 4GB RAM from Kingston
Click to expand...
You won't need it for basic college ****. 2GB will be fine.

$166.29 Windows Vista Home Basic
$129.99 Microsoft Office for Mac
Click to expand...
no, check with your school bookstore. ms does licensing with schools. i can get office and vista or xp for $5 each in my school's bookstore.

$30.00 (approximately) for a Sleeve
Click to expand...
go incase
 
Thanks alot for the help guys I would definately look into getting the software at school and see what they can do. Also, I forgot to mention I wanted to get the 4gb of RAM for a little bit of minor gaming, like at most World of Warcraft and maybe some old fps shooters
 
Get the Ram from Newegg or OWC, 4 gb for less than $100.
Applecare can be had on eBay for $140-150.

Before you buy Office for Mac. Try the iWork trial which will come with the Macbook, can be bought for $79. Download and try Open Office, free Open Source App. Both are great alternatives to Office for Mac. I used Microsoft Office for years on the PC, for me all I need is iWork.
 
Bobioden said:
Get the Ram from Newegg or OWC, 4 gb for less than $100.
Applecare can be had on eBay for $140-150.

Before you buy Office for Mac. Try the iWork trial which will come with the Macbook, can be bought for $79. Download and try Open Office, free Open Source App. Both are great alternatives to Office for Mac. I used Microsoft Office for years on the PC, for me all I need is iWork.
Click to expand...

Beat me to it.... I agree. I'd been using Microsoft Office my whole life until I got a Mac. I bought Office:Mac thinking I would need it, but iWork is so much better. Never tried Open Office but I hear many good things.
 
Just spoke to my dad and he says his company has CDs I can use to get Office for Mac and Vista and including the suggestions here is what I have now:

Intel Core 2 Duo 2.2 GHz
White Model
160GB Hard Drive
1GB RAM
Apple Care Protection Plan

Laptop total = $1644.00 (Student discount)

Extras:

$84.99 4GB RAM from Newegg
$34.95 Sleeve from Incase

Total = $1763.94
Total with Taxes = $1993.25

That was a lot of helpful information thank you all, thats a very nice almost $400 savings.
 
Entourage12 said:
Thanks alot for the help guys I would definately look into getting the software at school and see what they can do. Also, I forgot to mention I wanted to get the 4gb of RAM for a little bit of minor gaming, like at most World of Warcraft and maybe some old fps shooters
Click to expand...

I'd go with a MBP if you wanted to play games. The intel graphics card makes all gamers cry.
 
Entourage12 said:
Just spoke to my dad and he says his company has CDs I can use to get Office for Mac and Vista and including the suggestions here is what I have now:

Intel Core 2 Duo 2.2 GHz
White Model
160GB Hard Drive
1GB RAM
Apple Care Protection Plan

Laptop total = $1644.00 (Student discount)

Extras:

$84.99 4GB RAM from Newegg
$34.95 Sleeve from Incase

Total = $1763.94
Total with Taxes = $1993.25

That was a lot of helpful information thank you all, thats a very nice almost $400 savings.
Click to expand...
Could you avoid tax by buying it off of Amazon or somewhere like that?
 
No problem dude! I actually just bought my first MacBook 2 days ago, and its the same as yours. MacBook is really not for gaming at all, but if you're just playing older games.. it'll probably be "playable" at least. Wont be the greatest though.
 
noodle654 said:
Could you avoid tax by buying it off of Amazon or somewhere like that?
Click to expand...

That is actually a really good idea i'll definately have to look into that also.

EDIT: $1493 without paying the tax, that includes applecare but only has 120gb hard drive which I think should be plenty.

When the tax is put on the Newegg stuff it should be about $100.

So down to about $1593!
 
dough134 said:
Keep in mind intel MB and MBP won't accept a single 4GB stick, if i'm not mistaken.
Click to expand...

Nope - 2 x 2GB sticks.

Entourage, You may also want to consider getting the 80GB drive if that will save you any real money (provided you can still get the 2.2GHz processor). I got a 120GB drive in mine and immediately pulled it out and dropped in a 320GB WD drive for $200. You may not need the space but, like RAM, there is a steep premium when you get more from Apple. Better to get RAM and HD aftermarket.
 
i would go XP because its going to run smoother and faster, right now most programs still work on XP and Vista so it won't be much of a problem AND you can get XP from almost anyone for free...

Heck i'd even burn you a copy :) and I'm a Mac user
 
Entourage12 said:
Just spoke to my dad and he says his company has CDs I can use to get Office for Mac and Vista and including the suggestions here is what I have now:

Intel Core 2 Duo 2.2 GHz
White Model
160GB Hard Drive
1GB RAM
Apple Care Protection Plan

Laptop total = $1644.00 (Student discount)

Extras:

$84.99 4GB RAM from Newegg
$34.95 Sleeve from Incase

Total = $1763.94
Total with Taxes = $1993.25

That was a lot of helpful information thank you all, thats a very nice almost $400 savings.
Click to expand...

Great choice, man!
When I see your prices, I'm a bit jealous, because the same MacBook costs $1944 here (Apple care not included)! :eek: (do not want to know price of MBP ;) )
RAM and Sleeve prices are almost same, so you spend about $300 less than me. I think you really should not worry that you spend too much. :rolleyes:
 
world of warcraft gets the macbook very hot, fans at full speed after about 10 minutes of play.. plus the graphics kinda suck.. IMO, WoW is not for the macbook, it'll play ok, but I find its not worth the noise, and heat..
 
I'm really new to Macs but i've been doing some crazy reading about them and I just have a couple things to ask. I have heard that if I get WoW for windows and play it on windows that the graphics will be better than on leopard? And I have also read that if I get Windows XP it will not read all 4gb of RAM, instead only 3gb of them?


Another question now: My parents are allowing me to spend $2,000 on this new laptop, I really didn't expect to get the price so low. Now I have about an extra $300 to spend. Where do you suggest I put it? New hard drive?
 
Entourage12 said:
I'm really new to Macs but i've been doing some crazy reading about them and I just have a couple things to ask. I have heard that if I get WoW for windows and play it on windows that the graphics will be better than on leopard? And I have also read that if I get Windows XP it will not read all 4gb of RAM, instead only 3gb of them?


Another question now: My parents are allowing me to spend $2,000 on this new laptop, I really didn't expect to get the price so low. Now I have about an extra $300 to spend. Where do you suggest I put it? New hard drive?
Click to expand...

get a new hd if you feel it's necessary. if you still have money left over, why not just save it for future upgrades... or better yet, beer?
 
I just got my daughter a new blackbook for University yesterday. You should have seen her face when I took out my tools and stripped out the memory and hard drive before she even got to play with it. She's now ready for the next 4 years with 320GB HDD and 2 Gig of RAM.
 
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