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      12-30-2007, 08:44 AM   #1
scooba0010
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Apple Macbook Pro 17"

I have been toying with the idea of buying one in the so called sales £1799 does any one know where i may get a deal or what i can expect to pay for one of these beautys failling that how about the mac pro desk top with 20 hi def screen cost 1699 plus 399 for the screen any suggestions would be great thanks
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      12-30-2007, 08:52 AM   #2
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Quote:
Originally Posted by scooba0010 View Post
I have been toying with the idea of buying one in the so called sales £1799 does any one know where i may get a deal or what i can expect to pay for one of these beautys failling that how about the mac pro desk top with 20 hi def screen cost 1699 plus 399 for the screen any suggestions would be great thanks
Hi scooba.

I bought an iMac direct from Apple last week, after trying to find one in the sales. I couldn't find anyone discounting it anywhere.

Luckily, I remembered I was on a postgraduate course at University, so I ended up getting a Higher Educational discount.

The discount worked out at about the VAT equivalent (17.5%), which included 3 years of AppleCare for about £44.

They asked me if I'd email them a scan of my student union card, which I managed to do without too much problem.
They didn't seem too bothered about any other evidence of being a 'student' & they didn't ask about any evidence on the previous ocassion, when I bought my Macbook, last year.

Ridiculously, they wouldn't give me any discount off an iPod Touch at the same time, even though I tried to persuade them that I'd only be using it for 'student-related' activity.

I'm going to claim the whole lot as 'business-related IT' & 'professional training-related' expenses, anyway, so I wasn't really bothered.

All the best.

Viv
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      12-30-2007, 03:44 PM   #3
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Hi Scooba.

Bought my first Imac 2 years ago direct with Apple. I call them though and got free applecare I think, but remember that It was easy enough to bargain a little with the guy then.

Now, as a student at university I get a discount under Higher Educ scheme like Viv. In fairness they did not seems too bother about the proof that I was student. Just emailed a scan of my student card.

Would love to put the expense through work, can only picture the face of my Regional Manager though lol

RE advice, I got an Imac and a MacBook. I think that the latest Imac 2.8Ghz and 24" screen are a good value for money and powerful.

If you need something portable, then MacBook if you do not use any software requiring video (the video card in the MacBook is quite limited), or indeed the MacBook Pro for a more versatile use.

Have to say, I made the switch from PC to Mac 2 years ago and would never go back..... and no I am not working for Apple in case you wonder lol...... but saying that I would love to

Oh, and got an Iphone too and 2 Ipods

A couple of web site:

www.macformat.co.uk
www.icreatemagazine.com

Happy reading

Steph
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      12-30-2007, 03:47 PM   #4
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Got a 2.4g 20" iMac in November and its great!! If you have got a
Mac already you will like the firewire transport!
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      12-31-2007, 04:40 AM   #5
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Ignoring the fact that OSX is a classy bit of work but just looking at the hardware side of things its such a pity Apple still insist on supplying massively overpriced underspecced hardware - still I suppose they have to make a profit somehow.

Macs use PC bits these days, there is no reason the same bunch of bits in fancy case should cost vastly more cash!

As an exercise I priced up a two similar systems from Dell and Apple based on the Mac Pro and Dell Inspiron just to get a feel for the difference in price.

I wanted 2*500GB drives in a mirrored raid array, 4GB of ram, Wireless network, a single cheap graphics card and a 20" monitor.

To get the processors roughly similar in performance (tricky one) I selected 2 dual core 2.6GHz Xeons on the Mac (total of 4 cores) and a single 2.6GHz Core 2 Duo on the Dell (also total of 4 cores I think). This is a bit of a grey area but for most people actually matters very little.

For the graphics: the Mac's NVidia 7300 and the Dell's Radion 2400 both have a similar level of 3D performance and are both totally obsolete. A good comparison methinks.

I added £80 to the Dell price as there site wouldnt let me add a second drive even though the box has spare bays and comes with a built in raid controller. £80 is the price of a 500GB SATA disk from PC World.

The result for pretty much similar systems:
Dell slightly ugly system: £689.01 Inc VAT
Apple beautiful looker: £3523.99 Inc VAT

Thats one heck of a difference in price for the good looks.
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      12-31-2007, 05:28 AM   #6
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I guess you went for the Mac Pro... which really is more comparable to a 'workstation' rather than a PC. If you spec'd a Dell workstation with the same (or similar) processors to the Xeon in the Mac Pro, I would guess the price might be a bit more comparable. 2 separate physical processors isn't really comparable to 1 processor with 2 cores (in price terms anyway!)
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      12-31-2007, 06:22 AM   #7
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At the end of the day, I suppose the choice of Mac / PC comes down to personal choice & how happy it makes you feel.

Based on my own personal experience, I'd rather pay more for a computer I'd be happier with, than less on one I'd be less happy with.

So....it's MAC all the way for me.

Viv
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      12-31-2007, 06:56 AM   #8
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Quote:
Originally Posted by vivekk View Post
At the end of the day, I suppose the choice of Mac / PC comes down to personal choice & how happy it makes you feel.

Based on my own personal experience, I'd rather pay more for a computer I'd be happier with, than less on one I'd be less happy with.

So....it's MAC all the way for me.

Viv
Viv, sorry you are wrong. You should have bought the Mac 335d oops... sorry, got a bit muddled there.

Noticed you mentioned about installing Linux on it... didn't realise you were a Linux geek Viv!
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      12-31-2007, 07:37 AM   #9
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Apple hardware looks nice, and now that it runs Windows it's even more appealing. I looked at getting a Mac Book Pro earlier this year, but ended up with a ThinkPad T61P instead!

ThinkPad won in the end because it has a much better screen, keyboard, fingerprint access, WiFi, and I also have the mobile data access thingy so I can get online anywhere in the US with cell phone coverage.

Oh, and it was a factory order job so everything is bang up to date!

Andrew
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      12-31-2007, 08:09 AM   #10
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Originally Posted by Z4 Beemer View Post
Viv, sorry you are wrong. You should have bought the Mac 335d oops... sorry, got a bit muddled there.

Noticed you mentioned about installing Linux on it... didn't realise you were a Linux geek Viv!


I'm not actually a Linux geek, Gordon; I just fancy trying a different OS, just for a change.

Just received my Macbook's 2GB RAM upgrade from Crucial, so I'm off to 'play'.



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      12-31-2007, 08:20 AM   #11
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I'd take a look at the Macbook, the pro only has a slight performance difference for a lot more money.

As for price, its not that different, the Macs are highly spec'd and similar configs with windows are much the same.

The gadget show did an interesting test recently, they took some HD footage and tried to edit it on a top of the line Sony laptop and a standard Macbook using some purchased software on the PC and the free stuff on the Mac. Despite costing twice as much the PC couldn't cope and edit the footage, whereas the Mac worked fine. Interesting stuff.
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      12-31-2007, 08:22 AM   #12
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Z4 Beemer View Post
I guess you went for the Mac Pro... which really is more comparable to a 'workstation' rather than a PC. If you spec'd a Dell workstation with the same (or similar) processors to the Xeon in the Mac Pro, I would guess the price might be a bit more comparable. 2 separate physical processors isn't really comparable to 1 processor with 2 cores (in price terms anyway!)
Oh indeed indeed - but it is Apples only offering that would allow even a simple mirrored array. Granted the Pro has individual busses for each physical processor so it's definitely more 'high end'. Trouble is if I were a person who needed high end multiprocessing performance I'd have wanted to spec it with twin quad core 3Ghz Xeons - which pushes the price up to £4.5k

If I wanted to spec something similar I'd have to build it myself - so here we go: 1 5000x series Intel motherboard, 4 *1GB sticks, 2 500GB drives, a cheapo 7300GT card and anice pair of 2.66GHz Xeon Dual Core - which is the bare bones of the Mac Pro (they have no option other than using the 5000x motherboard, they cartainly dont make their own) and a 20" display...

That little lot I can get at end user component prices for around £1530 Inc VAT so the remaining £2k is buying me a case, copy of OSX and a keyboard/mouse combo. Bear in mind the single biggest cost to me are the processors as none of the cheapo retailers sell enough of them to get good prices - I bet Apple pay far far less than the almost 1k they would cost me.

In the end, they have a nice operating system, nicely designed cases but terrible price / performance ratios. I'd still take a free one though.
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      12-31-2007, 08:25 AM   #13
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In the end, they have a nice operating system, nicely designed cases but terrible price / performance ratios. I'd still take a free one though.
I think with the Pro you are right, its horribly expensive. But I think the Macbook s and iMacs are more reasonable. As the test showed, its more than just the cpu speed that determines how well it will perform.

I'd also take a Pro for free

Last edited by scotw; 12-31-2007 at 08:51 AM..
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      12-31-2007, 08:46 AM   #14
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Start adding one or two 30" cinema displays and additional memory and the price really goes through the roof.

Interesting fact about the Mac Pro is that it is whisper quiet when operating... the fans only turn at about 500rpm.
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