The new iMacs are cute, but I so have my eye set on the Macbook Pro. College refund on the 20th! I’m almost there!
Well, the computer purchase has reached a dead end. My funding fell through, because I had to pay some bills. My 2600 dollar budget turned into about 800, after a rather expensive doctor visit, and having to pay some more money for school than I thought that I would. In addition, it turned out that I had to buy a DSLR for my photography class, as the film camera I had wasn’t adequate. (Well, I didn’t have to buy a DSLR, but if I’m looking at spending the bucks on a digital camera with aperture/exposure settings, etc, I might as well spend the extra couple hundred on an entry-level DSLR…)
So, :
:, it’s back to my old computer (vintage early 2004). I figure if I continue with my current investment plan ($45 from each paycheck, 15% matched into Wal-Mart stock), then I will be able to afford one in about a year and a half. I’m not optimistic, but oh well.
If any dopers has an extra $2k Apple gift card laying around… 
Thanks for answering all my questions though, and when the next MBP revision comes around, I’ll probably be starting another thread.
Everyone!
I ended up going with a high-end MacBook, which I’ll receive anywhere from Feb 27- Mar 3. I got my tax refund back, and knew from experience that I’d just slowly piss it away if I didn’t go ahead and get something I wanted/needed up front with it.
(excited!)
Rumour has it that Apple is just about to release a new version. Will you be getting that one? Do you know the model number?
They just updated them before Christmas, didn’t they? That would make me angry if they updated them again, because there won’t be any refurbs of the new edition, but I’d probably spend the extra money on one if they did it tomorrow. I do get a student discount, after all.
ETA: I didn’t specify earlier that I am actually getting a refurb. Oops.
No big deal about the upgrade. Apple upgrades their computers, and whingeing about it is pointless. Your Mac, if it’s recent, should last you three years. We’re talking speed bumps in Macs for the most part - the Intel transition was the upgrade that you wanted to wait for.
I have a 17" MacBook Pro, rev A, and one of the second generation MBPs for work (the 15" model). Both are great. I still use my 15" PPC Powerbook for downloading torrents and movies, and I’ve even been known to fire up the G4 Sawtooth tower every now and then. Macs are great machines and they last (except for that refurb iBook I bought in 2001. Biggest POS I ever bought from Apple)!
Oh. Well goddammit, they did upgrade. I guess I’m going to just have to get one of those instead. They upgraded the graphics, the processor, hd and ram! I haven’t bought a laptop in 4 years, so I might as well go all-out on this one.
Unless you have a pressing need to run Windows apps on it, or you just think it would be a lot of fun to be able to do that, I’d try to stick to native Mac OS and software - I can’t see anything in your list of requirements that suggests you’d need anything but a pure OSX machine.
And I’m saying this as primarily a Windows/Linux user.
Aha! I called them today and they said that they actually are shipping me the 2.4 Ghz model that just launched today. Saving me effort!
I don’t really plan on running Windows unless there’s just something I really have to do with it. I can’t think of anything right now that might not have a Mac equivalent.
That first CSR lied! I totally got the 2.2 model. Which is fine, but I do wish I had that other gig of ram. I got a price adjustment because the refurbs got marked down, though, so that was nice. I guess I could use that to go guy some more ram…