Should I buy an Apple laptop?

okay lol, students save a whopping $100 ZOMG

Yeah, i'm not sure how much of the screen issue is echo chamber, adimttedly. But as you probably found out it's all over the Mac news sites right now. So the next point is going to sound contradictory...

You probably should go with the 27' over the 21'. I thought 24' was too big when I ordered it - now there's no way I can ever step down again, the real estate is just so DELICIOUS. Being an iMac, you're stuck with this monitor for good when you buy it, so get the better one if you can afford it. Also, the 27' has a video input, which is new to iMacs (took them long enough!) so that might be worth it, assuming something in the future besides an MacBook can actually use the DisplayPort in.

And I agree with the sentiment to just go with the Apple site and ignore the store except for tech support. Had no problems with my refurb ordered direct.

make sure you look at the academic staff or, if possible, institutional buyer discount.

Dell are my go-tos when people ask me what PC to get. They are pretty great ime.

If the _only_ reason you're going to Mac is for maybe development in the future then get a mini and a Dell 20/24" screen. Ah, but you also want a machine that has the power/extensibility/upgradability to do music stuff in the meantime? a mac pro is even more powerful and upgradable and, especially if you get into serious music stuff, extensible with PCI. people better qualified than me will be able to tell you in more detail what potential you're sacrificing without PCI. but also bear in mind that macs hold their value very well and if you really to start to be constrained by the imac then you can always sell it. so i would get that.

i think it's a shame they've dropped the 24". 27" is verging on sociopathic in a home environment i think ;)

Just got an Apple 24" screen to replace my old monitor...a Sony Trinitron from 1996. So yeah, an upgrade.

haha, remember to wear sunscreen

Blinded by the light etc. (Had to turn the brightness WAY the hell down.)

Mostly I'm happy just because I now finally have room on my desk to rest my arms.

Comparing and contrasting, it looks like if I go with the processor I want and leave it at 4GB of RAM (which is upgradeable easily enough to 8GB via MacMall prices for like $200 if it turns out to be unlivable) I can et it from Apple for like $5 cheaper than MacMall.

Hmm, must chat with the wife tonight.

I think for music stuff you're okay as long as you've got a Firewire port on there, which I believe all the iMacs have, and 4GB is plenty of RAM for that. Not sure how beefy it needs to be for a programming environment. I wish the Mac Pro was a better option but pricewise it is kinda crazy right now (and much of the time).

Ordered a 27" i7 for my father today.

I'd jump on one (and sell my MBP) in a heartbeat if they offered some kind of matte screen option.

one benefit of buying from apple is that (at least true of their laptops) it's assembled and shipped straight from their factory in china. the 27" problem has been out for long enough that I'm sure they've done some kind of QC check at their factories to check for it by now. if you buy from a third party you may be buying old stock..

lol looks like you should wait a while:

http://www.hardmac.com/news/2010/02/01/production-of-all-imac-27-core-ix-models-stopped-by-apple

Thinking of getting a used iBook offa CL for somewhere between $200-300 bucks. Hopefully will work better than this Acer shit I've got now.

See if you can find an early Intel model instead. Going PPC these days (especially G4) is just going to be painful.

get a 13" macbook pro and a 21"+ Dell monitor. Once you go dual monitor, you never go back, you get the benefit of big screen(s) at home and having a laptop. win-win.

Hmmmm

get a 13" macbook pro and a 21"+ Dell monitor. Once you go dual monitor, you never go back, you get the benefit of big screen(s) at home and having a laptop. win-win.

Agreed with this (only I have 15" MBP and am picking up 24" Apple LCD)

Another for dual monitors here. I've been using my 15" MBP with a 23" Samsung LCD since August, and it's fantastic.

I've got a G4 and my only problem with it is that it can't do web video (it used to, but the codecs everyone's using now are too high bit-rate). If you're not doing anything too heavy duty it's just fine.

On the subject of monitors, Costco have some truly great 24" monitors right now for $140, we just got a bunch of them for the office and I am continually impressed by how good they are.

What brand?

I already have a 20" monitor for my Dell (which I am not giving up btw, this is in addition to my other desktop computer) so if I went that route, I'd get a KVM switch and share the monitor. I use dual monitors at work and love it.

My main concern is machine power per dollar; if I am shelling out more than $2K for a computer, I want the most powerful processor I can get for the money. There is no way in hell I'm paying Mac Pro prices and the performance benchmarks I'm seeing on the quad core iMac vs the dual core MacBook Pro are making me lean very heavily towards the iMac; if I'm getting the same processor either way, that MIGHT push me towards Macbook Pro as long as there aren't also memory issues to contend with. Like I said earlier, portability is not my main concern.

you get more flexibility for upgrades with a pro too, but if you don't care about that for now then yeah, imac.

But what upgrades though? Its not going to be a gaming (LOL its a Mac) rig so graphics card is out. Most audio stuff is USB or firewire nowadays unless you want to pay big bucks. There's extra drive bays but Firewire 800 is plenty fast. Dual monitors, you can have it.

I can't see expandability making much of an argument.

Ed, what brand were the Costco monitors?

so lol some of my bitching may be moot anyway since I'm not 100% sure that the 27" iMac will fit in the desk area I've prepared for it

srsly if they put that fuck-off awesome processor in the 21-inch iMac, that would be perfect

yeah, like i say, i don't know much about what you might put in a home studio machine these days. if everything is usb or firefire then don't worry about it.

competition comin' up now
load up aim firefire pow

Can they update the Macbook Pro sometime soon, please? I want a quad core laptop with like... something else my current one doesn't have, maybe a blu-ray drive?

hah hah, I implied Apple will install a blu-ray drive in one of their systems

Mac Pro and MB Pro updates are probably right around the corner.

I'm tempted to go back to a Mac Pro if edu pricing puts them roughly even w/ the big iMac at update time.

Mr Steve thinks blu-ray is almost as bad as flash.

I really hope around the corner means this month

what the fuck, are my posts not showing up on this thread?

Sorry, I din't notice your question. I think they were Asus, however ask me again next week when I back in the office.

when's the most likely date for update mb pros? I'm in the market

any...second....now

or a few months.

I'd like one as well. Get rid of the optical drive alltogether. There's a company that will replace it with another hard-drive but it's a battery hog and heat generator. I basically would like a macbook air pro.

My friend estimates March-ish, supposedly other companies (Dell) are getting the new chips from Intel in March-April timeframe, so it'd make sense if Apple gets them a little early as per usual.

march wd be perfect *fingers crossed*

no blu rays tho right? ;_;

u know u can just buy an external bluray drive

wait, can u? how do you play it through the Mac?

Yeah, i don't think there is any good player that can actually output Blu-ray - the full works, surround audio too - on Mac OS X. Even VLC is in trouble, I think.

I want legit HDMI-out too and not just DVI. The newer laptops probably have this, but mine doesn't, and my tv doesn't play well with the laptop and I end up with weird scaling.

http://reviews.cnet.com/blu-ray-drives/lacie-d2-external-blu/4505-6512_7-32330473.html

but ya, dont know if u can play them

get a 13" macbook pro and a 21"+ Dell monitor. Once you go dual monitor, you never go back, you get the benefit of big screen(s) at home and having a laptop. win-win.

― dan selzer, Tuesday, February 2, 2010 12:21 AM (15 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

OTM --- this is what i want.

I've got a 17" MBP (no external, my 20" ACD isn't large enough to bother) and I don't like it. I thought I could live with my iTunes directory on a separate HD, but since that runs video from there too it's kind of a pain. Maybe when I can stick a 2TB disc in my laptop it would be okay, but for right now the space limitations and having to use an external aren't worth it for me.

I don't like it being my only computer, that is. The MBP itself has been fantastic.

yeah, suck it suckstsky!