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Which Mac would you recommend?

K

kaydewith.uh.d

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Sep 3, 2009
3
0
I'm turning 16 pretty soon, and I was looking to ask my parents for a Macbook for my birthday, I just don't know anything about Mac's.
Hardrive, and memory space is a huge thing I do know that for sure, I'm a aspiring photographer, and I have an easy six to seven thousand photos, alone, and a rather large iTunes library. Also can I get certain programs like CS4 and Dream Weaver on the laptop for an extra cost? Or do I need to buy the programs separately and install them that way? Also what is the iLife program? Does it come on all Mac's? Or is it something separate? Thanks in advance for all of your help.
 
iLife is a great program that comes with every Mac. The other programs need to be bought separately. How much (and what currency), are your parents willing to spend?
 
I'm honestly not sure how much they are willing to spend, I can give you probably an estimate of maybe 1500-2000 (US so dollars).
 
If you want a 13" screen, the MacBook and Macbook Pro are options. If you want 15" or 17" screen, then MacBook Pro.

You should be eligible for educational pricing from Apple (about 5-10% off; other sites like MacMall/Amazon might save you taxes, but ... look up your state laws), and also from Adobe (higher % off) for CS4/Dreamweaver etc. If you are going to be doing a lot of photography work, I'd suggest a minimum of 2GB of RAM, preferably 4GB.

They come with at least 160GB hard drive, which should be fine for at least a while (or upgrade to 320 or 500 GB). Also consider getting an external USB or Firewire hard disk for back up purposes. I'd also recommend an external (USB), multi-button mouse if you are used to those now. There are other smaller things you can buy, those will occur to you later! :)

If you are new to the Mac world, get "Mac OS X Snow Leopard: The Missing Manual
by David Pogue" that will answer many questions.
 
BlueRevolution said:
Only university students are eligible for educational discounts, from Apple at least. I'm not sure what Adobe's definition is.
Click to expand...

Too bad they both give discounts only to "higher education" students ... so unless OP is in college at 16 ...

[Apple Store (phone) has been known to give some discounts off retail prices if you explain the situation. Also Apple Certified Refurbishedis an option, depending on personal taste to those.]
 
A MacBook will do just fine; if you need it, you can always get a nice 20" monitor.
 
Definitely go for one of the laptops. 13.3" MB or MBP are the most mobile.
 
If you go with a 13" screen then it is worth the difference to go ahead and get the 13" MacBook Pro. It is a $200 difference but well worth it IMO. Much better screen, longer lasting more advanced battery, illuminated keyboard, faster processor, faster RAM, aluminum body, firewire 800, SD card slot, multitouch trackpad.

Well worth $200.
 
In the netherlands we have a nice website for pupils on high school. I checked it, and you can get adobe even cheaper than on the university, so I would definetely research whether there is such a facility in us as well.

(my little brother didn't knew that site yet, so he made my sister buy it and paid her, but he wasn't happy he paid to much. He got an excuse though because the university one is dutch, and the high school site only english).

I would definitely get an external hard drive. I have 3, one 1TB for time machine and film (dv takes 8GB an hour), and one for all my music and movies (500 gb) and I had one more disk laying around so I connected that one as well, but the 1Tb is FW800, the 500GB usb2.0 and the 250GB very slow because of a splitter box, sharing it with the printers and tablet).

What do you actually want to do with photoshop? If it's more changing the lighting and white balance you could research aperture, you can get it with your mac when you order it on apple.com. If you only get aperture but do want to play around with compositing and cutting things out, you can try gimp. It's free.
 
BlueRevolution said:
Only university students are eligible for educational discounts, from Apple at least.
Click to expand...

Not so. Elementary and Secondary school teachers qualify as well, and so do University instructors, professors, others? There are limits only on the number of items purchased per year, no questions asked. A teacher can buy a Mac for a relative or for personal use.
 
I would recommend the low end 13" since your parents are willing to spend ~2000 (USD, right?). If you're doing photography, up the RAM to at least 4GB and the HD to 500 GB. That'll bring the total to about 1500 USD with taxes. Then the other 500 can be spent on some nice photo editing software. Happy birthday, and good luck on your purchase!;):apple:
 
Gregg2 said:
Not so. Elementary and Secondary school teachers qualify as well, and so do University instructors, professors, others? There are limits only on the number of items purchased per year, no questions asked. A teacher can buy a Mac for a relative or for personal use.
Click to expand...

Well, yes. I should properly have said that the only students for whom educational discounts are available are those in university. Since the OP is clearly not an educator, I figured it wasn't particularly relevant to the discussion.
 
Okay, thank you all so much for your information. I looked up the laptops at our local best buy (it's all we have in town) and I also talked to my parents about it, and they said they would be willing to spend about 1500-2500, but they also implied that they are very willing to spend less. There is one at best buy it's a "Apple® - MacBook® Pro with 13.3" Display - Aluminum" and it's going to cost 1500, there is also a "Apple® - MacBook® with 13.3" Display - White " and that one is 999.99. Now with that, should I be looking straight at the apple website or could I have my parents look at the local electronic store? Thanks.

Here are the links for the two laptops
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=9375179&type=product&id=1218093608129
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=9375124&type=product&id=1218093608396
 
kaydewith.uh.d said:
Okay, thank you all so much for your information. I looked up the laptops at our local best buy (it's all we have in town) and I also talked to my parents about it, and they said they would be willing to spend about 1500-2500, but they also implied that they are very willing to spend less. There is one at best buy it's a "Apple® - MacBook® Pro with 13.3" Display - Aluminum" and it's going to cost 1500, there is also a "Apple® - MacBook® with 13.3" Display - White " and that one is 999.99. Now with that, should I be looking straight at the apple website or could I have my parents look at the local electronic store? Thanks.

Here are the links for the two laptops
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=9375179&type=product&id=1218093608129
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=9375124&type=product&id=1218093608396
Click to expand...
apple store
 
man, i wish i got a computer for my birthday:)
congrats!

Now, if you are willing to wait, i would order online from apple.com .
You can get the student discount. When i ordered mine online, it just asked what school i was attending. Now I am sure people will say it is unmoral to get the discount when you are not in college, but you are already in school, so i don't see a problem..

That way you can save about $100 or so.

I am in school for photography, and i use Adobe CS4 (PS4 and lightroom) and also have Aperture. You will probably need an external HDD eventually, as I know first hand how out of control photos can get!
 
BlueRevolution said:
Well, yes. I should properly have said that the only students for whom educational discounts are available are those in university. Since the OP is clearly not an educator, I figured it wasn't particularly relevant to the discussion.
Click to expand...

You never know. I supplied the additional information on the hope that a relative would be able to buy it with the discount.

Prices from Mac Mall (including shipping) are usually about the same as Apple's Education Discount. You just have to wait for it to arrive vs. picking it up at a store.
 
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