MacBook Buying Questions
Ok, I currently have use my Mom's dell and have been using it since Decemer when my 4 year old Alienware desktop broke. I will be going away to college in September (Lafayette) and am set on buying a MacBook. I will only use this MacBook for about a year and then give it to my mom and buy a MacBook with Merom and hopefully a discrete video card. I have a few questions however.
When I try to log onto Lafayette in Apple EDU Store it takes me to Lafayette where I am prompted for an network id and password. Since I have not moved there yet, I do not know these. Should I just order from another school because technically I am in college just not ordering from the right one but that is apple's fault?
I am set on the Black 2.0 ghz Macbook but I was wondering if I should upgrade the Harddrive to 100gb from 80gb. How much room does OS X take up and how much do room do you guys think I need. Also I would be able to go to Apple Store to buy it if I go stock and then can prove I go to college and can also return it if it is faulty.
Ram wise I will be getting 512 from Apple. But I want to upgrade to 2gb immediately and I was thinking about going Crucial but I have heard that I can get it somewhere else for cheaper but I would rather get better quality and pay more. Could anyone enlighten me about these retailers.
I will be purchasing Apple Care as well.
Finally, I am thinking of holding off my purchase until later in the summer for 2 reasons: I have heard that Apple has a back to school sale and could someone enlighten me further about that. The second reason is that maybe some of the problems such as heat and noises can be ironed out if I order it later. But I also want to get OS X ASAP.
First Post but I have been reading this site since December! Thanks so much for your time,
Julian
When I try to log onto Lafayette in Apple EDU Store it takes me to Lafayette where I am prompted for an network id and password. Since I have not moved there yet, I do not know these. Should I just order from another school because technically I am in college just not ordering from the right one but that is apple's fault?
I am set on the Black 2.0 ghz Macbook but I was wondering if I should upgrade the Harddrive to 100gb from 80gb. How much room does OS X take up and how much do room do you guys think I need. Also I would be able to go to Apple Store to buy it if I go stock and then can prove I go to college and can also return it if it is faulty.
Ram wise I will be getting 512 from Apple. But I want to upgrade to 2gb immediately and I was thinking about going Crucial but I have heard that I can get it somewhere else for cheaper but I would rather get better quality and pay more. Could anyone enlighten me about these retailers.
I will be purchasing Apple Care as well.
Finally, I am thinking of holding off my purchase until later in the summer for 2 reasons: I have heard that Apple has a back to school sale and could someone enlighten me further about that. The second reason is that maybe some of the problems such as heat and noises can be ironed out if I order it later. But I also want to get OS X ASAP.
First Post but I have been reading this site since December! Thanks so much for your time,
Julian
Comments
I have 2GB in my MacBookPro that I bought from RamJet.com, I buy all my my mac notebook ram from them.
If you need it now get it now.. I don't think apple has back to school sales, other places like amazon will but not apple. You can wait and buy a refurbished one.
If you just show a college ID at the apple store you will get the discount. I'm not sure if any apple stores have the black model in stock now, so you might have to wait.
I have used 23.36 gigs (actually less since it isn't really 100GB). I have MS Office, Studio 8, FileMaker Advanced 8, and some other small programs currently installed. I will be installed Windows soon, which will take another 20 (my preference). I have a quad so I don't keep much on it, and even I got the 100.
If you reinstall you can drop it down to about 8gb. All you need to do is go through the custom set up and remove all the silly language packs (unless you need 3gb of foreign language files), the garageband podcast jingles (another 3.1gb) and some of the promotional junk like iWork and some other unneeded 'try before you buy' apps, depending on what you want on your macbook. You can also remove all the printer support which is about 1gb and only install the specific printers you personally have.