I'm planning on getting the 15" MacBook, and I am thinking of completely maxing it out, with apature Anf final cut express preinstalled. This will cost £3856.00. I need it mainly for photo editing/ movie editing as I'm doing a photography course at college. However I will be running games on it. Is this overdoing it? Is there anything I shouldnt max out to save money etc?
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Would I be overdoing it?
- Thread starter Apple-NoEscape
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
If you are a student, buying the professional software will be much cheaper separately, as for some strange reason the higher education discount doesn't apply to preinstalled items. Just buy the boxes along with your laptop and that will be much cheaper.
When i I look at preinstalled and when I look at the box they both say $179.
Also whats maxed out? Obviously if you have the money you can't go wrong with the highest specs. Fastest processor, largest video, and most RAM. Be aware it is much cheaper and more than likely faster to buy your own intel SSd and install it in your MBP. Faster I mean the intel SSD being faster than the Apple one, because I've read the apple on is horrid. What ever you do make sure you get Apple Care and it sounds like you have a machine that will handle just about anything very well and may not reach its full processing power.
Also whats maxed out? Obviously if you have the money you can't go wrong with the highest specs. Fastest processor, largest video, and most RAM. Be aware it is much cheaper and more than likely faster to buy your own intel SSd and install it in your MBP. Faster I mean the intel SSD being faster than the Apple one, because I've read the apple on is horrid. What ever you do make sure you get Apple Care and it sounds like you have a machine that will handle just about anything very well and may not reach its full processing power.
I was thinking about not upgrading the ssd whatsoever and buying my own, however I'm not sure where to buy it from or what price I should be paying without getting too ripped off or even how powerful I can go?
Also really really stupid question here: If I bought the mac with a ,500GB Serial ATA Drive @ 5400 rpm, card in it would I be able to buy an SSD and swap it over, or do I have to buy a mac that comes with an SSD to be able to use one? Hope I have made that clear.
Thanks
I've never really bothered with upgrading things myself, so I'm still abit, well completely, noobish with it all.
No, you do not need to buy the machine with an SSD drive in it, in order to install one later. Buy the SSD from another source and install it yourself, maybe putting the stock drive in a cheap USB case and use it for backup, etc.
Installing the drive is easy but you do need a No.6 Torx screwdriver, its a must! OWC has toolkits forsale online and your local heardware store should have them too. Keep the original drive and swap it back in if you ever have to send the machine back to Apple for repair, they like it in the original stock configuration, and have been known to swap put user parts, even lose them, replacing the part with a stock part! (Yes, I know, that's horrible, but true)
Another thing to consider is the lack of TRIM software on the Mac platform at the present, making longterm use of an SSD questionable. Search on the forums here for more info, but basically the SSD drives will slow down over a year or so, and it is not easily fixed. I would personally stay with a fast HHD for now, just my opinion.
I pretty much maxed out my MBP 15" (no ssd tho) was £2074.18 with case, dvi adapter, magic mouse, apple care (£50 for student), and remote. No software tho.
Just 3856 seems crazy expensive to me. I called apple for mine tho (off campus).
Also i've tried FCP Express. It feels very old (i think 2007). And it cant handle 1080p hd video. (it converts it to a less wide, anamorphic (i think thats the word) size. Then when you export to quicktime in 1080p, it stretches it back out. So quality is lost. (Not much but hey). If you can buy the full version of FCP(i don't know if its up for an update soon, but i doubt it.) I think the education discount is hefty (but with no discount for future upgrades). Do your research, basically
Just 3856 seems crazy expensive to me. I called apple for mine tho (off campus).
Also i've tried FCP Express. It feels very old (i think 2007). And it cant handle 1080p hd video. (it converts it to a less wide, anamorphic (i think thats the word) size. Then when you export to quicktime in 1080p, it stretches it back out. So quality is lost. (Not much but hey). If you can buy the full version of FCP(i don't know if its up for an update soon, but i doubt it.) I think the education discount is hefty (but with no discount for future upgrades). Do your research, basically
Realisticly what's the largest SDD/HDD that you can buy for a mbp?
Also (and I'm sorry for being such a noob but we all have to learn somewhere
) does changing these void your warranty? If not is it just a simple pull one out insert the other?Seems like a bit of a bad buisness practice to not return what drive you send in with your machine, suprised that apple havnt got in any trouble due to that.
I have looked up the SDD deteorating quickly, and it seems that maybe the slight speed increase may not be worth it, however I like the idea of it being silent.
Wow I've just went to see how much the mbp would be with just the base HDD and without the software (which I have decided to buy sepeeatly, thanks everyone ) and it's like £1000 cheaper, leaving me awhile lot of money for extras, and for buying either an SDD or HDD, if anyone could reccomend one it would be a great help as I'm rather lost
Edit: sorry for double posting :/
) and it's like £1000 cheaper, leaving me awhile lot of money for extras, and for buying either an SDD or HDD, if anyone could reccomend one it would be a great help as I'm rather lost Edit: sorry for double posting :/