Which Mac?

Jaynee123

Hi my son starts Uni in Sept (Digital Media) and has decided he wants a Mac but any we are unsure on the best one for his degree? We also want to spend as little as poss on it. Anyone doing the same degree have any advice on which Mac would be most suited and any websites that offer good prices on Macs?

J:D

Alcmene

Hi

It might be an idea to wait until he starts his course to decide which computer to get. See what system the course tutors are using, there's no point in getting a Mac if they are all working on PCs or *nix-based systems.

The place to buy Macs is from the Apple shop. He will get an educational discount if he accesses the shop online via his university account.

Hope that helps.

Jaynee123

Thanks Alcmene - The info from the course states that they use Macs. i will tell him about the educational discount, thanks :-)

J

Helix

Does he know if he wants a laptop or a desktop? Desktop wise a Mac Mini should be fine and they start from around £450. If he wants a laptop then he will probably want a MacBook Pro as they have scrapped the MacBook now and the Airs don't have much hard drive space unless you go for a higher end model. MacBook Pros are about £860 for the base model. (These prices are including the student discount)

Make sure you buy online or over the phone when using the discount not instore, as online you get a 3yr warranty included - instore you have to pay £50 extra.

Kitty_Ears

I'm a totally mac freak, I would recommend for what your son needs is a desktop as the battery life on macbooks aren't great. (Around 2 hours if playing videos/games).

I've bought every mac I've had through the apple refurbished store. My iMac was £500 with 200gb space, 4gb of ram... was definitely the best offer on the market.

The_One_Who

Something to keep in mind is that you/he is going to have to budget for all the extra software that you will need to buy.

Helix

Kitty_Ears wrote: »

I'm a totally mac freak, I would recommend for what your son needs is a desktop as the battery life on macbooks aren't great. (Around 2 hours if playing videos/games).

Not true, the MacBook Pros (MacBook non pro line has now been dropped) give upto 7hrs battery life (non gaming but under everyday use not with absolutely everything turned off) and that is a true representation as I have one, very few Windows laptops (excluding Netbooks) come anywhere close.

Refurbished store is not always cheaper when taking into account student discount as they don't offer the discount on the refurbished models.

TheEffect

I'm studying Computer Science and have been using macs for years. As your son is doing Digital Media, he will need a laptop that has a half decent graphics card. All the MacBook Pro laptops have decent hardware, however some have 'shared' graphics which means there is no dedicated graphics card inside which is solely responsible for handling graphics.

All the 13'' MacBook Pro's have shared Intel graphics which while they will run graphic intense applications (Like Adobe CS5, Final Cut, Photoshop), they will be quite a bit more sluggish and slower than the 15'' and 17'' MacBook Pros that have 'dedicated' graphics which means they have their own graphics card which is solely responsible for running the graphics.

http://store.apple.com/uk/browse/home/shop_mac/family/macbook_pro?mco=MTAyNTQzMjc

I recommend the 15-inch:
2.0GHz quad-core
Intel Core i7
4GB 1333MHz
500GB 5400-rpm1
Intel HD Graphics 3000
AMD Radeon HD 6490M with 256MB GDDR5
Built-in battery (7 hours)

Which is £1549 without student discount.

If you wish to spend a little more but have something that's extremely fast and very capable, I'd recommend the

15-inch
2.2GHz quad-core
Intel Core i7
4GB 1333MHz
750GB 5400-rpm1
Intel HD Graphics 3000
AMD Radeon HD 6750M with 1GB GDDR5
Built-in battery (7 hours)

This is £1849 without student discount.

Hope this helps.

mmmsnow

Just a quick note:

Apple student discount is 15% and they usually have an offer running at this time of year to the effect that if you buy a computer or laptop from them, you get an iPod for £20 (I think it's £150 rebate on an iPod when bought with a computer).

atypical

mmmsnow wrote: »

they usually have an offer running at this time of year to the effect that if you buy a computer or laptop from them, you get an iPod for £20 (I think it's £150 rebate on an iPod when bought with a computer).

The offer has now changed to a £65 voucher to use on the Mac App Store. Worse than the iPod offer I think.

http://store.apple.com/uk/browse/campaigns/back_to_school?cid=AOS-EMEA-BTS11-com-home-UK

Helix

TheEffect wrote: »

I'm studying Computer Science and have been using macs for years. As your son is doing Digital Media, he will need a laptop that has a half decent graphics card. All the MacBook Pro laptops have decent hardware, however some have 'shared' graphics which means there is no dedicated graphics card inside which is solely responsible for handling graphics.

All the 13'' MacBook Pro's have shared Intel graphics which while they will run graphic intense applications (Like Adobe CS5, Final Cut, Photoshop), they will be quite a bit more sluggish and slower than the 15'' and 17'' MacBook Pros that have 'dedicated' graphics which means they have their own graphics card which is solely responsible for running the graphics.

http://store.apple.com/uk/browse/home/shop_mac/family/macbook_pro?mco=MTAyNTQzMjc

I recommend the 15-inch:
2.0GHz quad-core
Intel Core i7
4GB 1333MHz
500GB 5400-rpm1
Intel HD Graphics 3000
AMD Radeon HD 6490M with 256MB GDDR5
Built-in battery (7 hours)

Which is £1549 without student discount.

If you wish to spend a little more but have something that's extremely fast and very capable, I'd recommend the

15-inch
2.2GHz quad-core
Intel Core i7
4GB 1333MHz
750GB 5400-rpm1
Intel HD Graphics 3000
AMD Radeon HD 6750M with 1GB GDDR5
Built-in battery (7 hours)

This is £1849 without student discount.

Hope this helps.

I have just completed a degree in digital media and my MacBook Pro 13" did me just fine tbh. Haven't had any issues with it only having integrated graphics, and prefer the smaller screen as it is easier to carry.