When buying a new computer, I have always looked at PCs. They have always fit into my budget better.
However, I have always been a huge fan of Apple products. I think they are great for website designing, any sort of graphical designs, pagination and layout and video and photo editing. Word processing is word processing on any platform, but these other tasks are important to me because I do them a lot.
I have often worked with Macs in the world of newspapers, but again, I have never been utterly convinced I need to own one myself.
Then I was assigned a MacBook for my current job as a teacher.
I think I’m falling in love. Why? I don’t know. I wish I could put my finger on it. Things just seem to run right on a Mac, and there are a few other services I would like to use, such as Skype, that I feel would be a waste of time on a PC.
Weird, I know.
So as I find myself preferring my work’s MacBook over my personal PC laptop more and more everyday, I started to do a little looking into what it would cost for me to get one.
And since I’ve never owned and iPod but have a substantial music collection from my life as a dj, I threw one of those into the mix as well.
Here is the initial price I was given:
As you can see, I went with the iPod Classic because it has a 160GB capacity. The iPod Touch would be pretty cool, but the number of songs I could have just isn’t enough I guess. Also, I souped up the MacBook with 4GB of RAM and a 500GB hard drive. Plus, I opted to have iWork preinstalled to go along with iLife, which is included.
Am I making the right decision? Did I select the appropriate upgrades? Would I be happy with this computer? Should I go with the MacBook Pro or the MacBook Air? Are these prices reasonable? What other software am I going to want (besides, Adobe Creative Suite 5, which I will have to save up for regardless of the machine I purchase)?
I really need some advice here. I think I really want to take the plunge into the Mac-ownership world, but should I? I mean, my PC is still running fine, but I really like the sleek, clean design of Macs. Should I wait to buy something until I need it instead of just wanting a fancy, new toy?
Please let me know in the comments. I would really appreciate it.
Oh, and I did some checking on that price I was quoted. I got it down a decent amount because I’m an educator and am eligible for the educational discount. Score!
Here’s that price with the same computer configurations:
Again, please let me know what you think. I could really use the advice, and I look forward to reading it all in the comments.
Thanks in advance for all your help!
I got a macbook from a friend 2gb ram and the 2.4ghz intel dualcore. I love it. Accidentally dropped it down some stairs and there wasn’t a scratch on it. Also I have a “hacked” cs5 suite and it runs just fine without the extra 2gb of ram. Don’t get the air they don’t have a DVD drive and not that I use mine often I just like the ability. For those occasional windows programs you can install parallels or even dualboot with refit. If you need help or anything else let me know. Ill try and find that dual boot guide so you wont even have to pay for parallels. (Don’t worry it’s not a hack or pirated software)
-dustin