Is it a good time to buy an Apple Computer?

Life Technology
1

My stepdaughter wants an MacbookPro. I can give my blessing but as we are now mid of September and the Summer versions are due, what are the risks Apple comes out with new models for upcoming Autumn/Winter 2009?

Any insiders close to Apple whom can reveal anything? I simply do not want to buy something which becomes old a few weeks later. (would not mind if it is a few MONTHS later though)

We got our eye on the 2.26 Ghz 2 GB memory model. Would that be OK for her if she needs to run Autocad or other smilar Software ?

2

Within the Apple company only a few people know when a new product is released. So looking into the future when a new version is released is not possible for this.
However Apple has about 3 or 4 times a year (can someone fill me in for the exact dates?) an Apple note by Steve Jobs or other Apple employees with high positions. In those Apple Notes you can mostly figure out what’s coming up about new products.

However if your in doubt… Just buy one.
Although cars and computers are the worst investments, an Apple computer can hold his value pretty long. And a MacBook Pro has lots of power. For running AutoCad and similar programmes I would buy the most heavy Mac you can buy. If she wants to run AutoCad and other similar programmes a computer that can do the heavy lifting is needed.

Good Luck!
btw: be prepared when you receive the bill though :wink:

3

Apple just released a new operating system, and the iLife products are pretty new, so those likely won’t be updated anytime soon.

New iMacs came out back in the spring - they’re probably due for another rehaul early next year. Macbooks were updated about three months ago.

This site should be pretty useful for you:

http://buyersguide.macrumors.com/#MacBook_Pro

My PowerBook G4 - pretty much Apple’s high-end notebook computer when I bought it five years ago - is still going surprisingly strong. It’s almost annoying, actually - I haven’t updated software in a while because I figure the machine can’t have that much life left on it, but it just keeps on going. Anyways, the apparent durability should reassure you.

4

[quote=“lostinasia”] This site should be pretty useful for you:
http://buyersguide.macrumors.com/#MacBook_Pro
.[/quote]

Thanks for the link. I googled a bit further and found this on Appleinsider… that is why I have even more doubts. Those sites are mostly well informed. :ponder:
We’ll see mid October when I am in Hong Kong. Taiwan is too expensive on Apple products anyway so I would not buy it here (averag of 10% up vs. HK all products mixed)

[quote]09-16-2009, 06:43 AM
AppleInsider
Kasper’s Automated Slave

A new report alleges that Apple intends to release new iMacs and MacBooks very soon – in a matter of weeks – to refresh its lineup before the holiday season.
Financial publication Barron’s said a new report from Wedge Partners claims that Apple will introduce new hardware “in the next several weeks.”
The report said that the new iMacs will sport a thinner design with smooth edges. However, the MacBook refresh is said to be “limited.”[/quote]

@laura&Jackson… wow , that is not what I expected to read - to much dinero’s… Would she be OK to work with Adobe at least on a basic “pro” model with a 2.26Ghz CPU? ?

5

The next time Apple has a product refresh will probably be around late Dec/early Jan. I was going to say during Macworld but Apple isn’t going to participate at the next one.

The best time to buy a Mac is right when it comes out. The newest stuff is very competitive in price to other manufacturer’s offerings and they will also place discounts on the previous gen stuff, usually USD$100-$200 off.

As long as you buy the aluminum Macbooks I think the base model should be sufficient for Photoshop or AutoCAD because the integrated graphics card does pack some punch; the plastic white Macbook won’t do it though.

6

Any particular reason it has to be a mac? You can get a lot more raw processing bang for the buck if you consider the entire stable of x86 computers and avoid calling yourself out as someone who has more money than sense.

7

Don’t talk nonsense. The current white 13" MacBook and 13" MBP are identical in terms of integrated graphics.

The AppleInsider quote seems to be a fairly educated guess. Intel is about to release its new notebook platform which implies we can expect a refresh of the iMac line sooner rather than later, but the MacBooks were refreshed in June so it’s unlikely Apple will make any significant changes other than perhaps bump up specs a bit to take advantage of price-cuts for “last-gen” parts.

Also switching back to Intel chipsets will mean a step down in integrated graphics performance, which isn’t so bad for the iMacs (other than the 20") since these all use an additional graphics chip, but for the MacBooks, Apple will struggle to find room for a discrete GPU in the 13" models, and the larger models will take a battery-life hit if they run on the discrete GPU all the time.

AutoCAD currently isn’t available for OS X, so I presume either she doesn’t need to run AutoCAD, or she plans to mostly use Windows on the MBP, in which case she’s is wasting her money, most likely just for the pleasuring of having an Apple logo on her notebook. You can get much a better speced notebook for much less* from other vendors. Most of the things that make the MBP what is, comes from the software. The Windows experience on Mac hardware is about as good (bad) as from any other vendor.

*Note: I own a 13" MBP so any Mactards wanting to start arguing “total cost of ownership” or “price/performance” of Macs vs other premium brands, can STFU, it’s bullshit.

8

[quote=“Rik”]
*Note: I own a 13" MBP so any Mactards wanting to start arguing “total cost of ownership” or “price/performance” of Macs vs other premium brands, can STFU, it’s bullshit.[/quote]

STFU yourself.

bought two computers three months ago: one Mac Powerbook, one HP running vista.

What a piece of crap the HP is: supposedly faster, but way slower, crashprone, and an absolute cantankerous piece of crap.

for the same specs, the Apple always outperforms the PC. Sure, you can spec a PC much higher than most Apples come in the box, but then you end up with what you start out with on the Mac. The only reason to run a PC is for the vast number of puerile and poorly programmed websites out in Taiwan that only run Internet Explorer. and Autocad, if you don’t like the mac-compatible rival programs.

9

For Autocad, you may also want an external screen unless you can afford the larger Macbook Pros (and accept the portability trade-off)

10

[quote=“urodacus”]I bought two computers three months ago: one Mac Powerbook, one HP running vista.

What a piece of crap the HP is: supposedly faster, but way slower, crashprone, and an absolute cantankerous piece of crap.[/quote]

The PowerBook isn’t running Vista, so it’s not an apples to apples comparison, nor can you compare the old PPC models with the newer Intel-based Macs. Also was the HP also 2nd hand, maybe the previous owner shitted it up before selling it. Try getting a friend who knows what he’s doing to help you configure things.

Once you stick Windows on a modern Mac, you get the same brand of issues that everyone (who doesn’t know how to set up and configure a Windows PC) always seems to complain about, software instability, crashes etc. Additionally, when switching to Windows on MacBooks you get a shitty trackpad, lose dynamic keyboard and LCD backlighting, and lose out on load-based GPU switching which is pretty much standard on every other NB with dual Nvidia or AMD GPUs.

[quote=“urodacus”]for the same specs, the Apple always outperforms the PC.[/quote]Citation needed.

[quote=“urodacus”]Sure, you can spec a PC much higher than most Apples come in the box, but then you end up with what you start out with on the Mac.[/quote]No you don’t, you then end up with a system speced much higher than a Mac.

Find me a 13" MacBook with a screen resolution higher than 1440 by 900.
Find me any MacBook with a Blu-ray drive.
Find me any MacBook with 9h battery-life.
Find me any MacBook with a PCI Express slot and built-in card reader.

Macs are nice provided your needs fit within a certain scope that aligns with Apple’s limited range of hardware choices. Since the only stated need in this thread is the ability it run AutoCAD, Macs do not meet this need out of the box, and meeting that need means you miss on out several of the OS X only features that make Macs nice to use.

[quote=“urodacus”]The only reason to run a PC is for the vast number of puerile and poorly programmed websites out in Taiwan that only run Internet Explorer. and Autocad, if you don’t like the mac-compatible rival programs.[/quote]The only reason to run a Windows PC is for looking at the vast number websites and using everyday software apps, most of which don’t have Mac-compatible alternatives. T;FTFY :raspberry:

11

A lot of Windows PCs have somewhat laggardly performance “out of the box” due to preinstalled crapware. This isn’t necessarily a problem with Windows OS, and is largely ameliorated by selecting the “clean install” option for those manufacturers that do offer it.

Wow where to begin? 1) Not sure if you got the memo but Macs are also Personal Computers. And they even fit the bill under the x86-compatible definition. 2) Are you saying that Mac users don’t visit “puerile and poorly programmed” websites?! Boy do I have news for you. 3) “and Autocad” Huh. Well you might as well just have said, “the only reason to run a [Windows] PC is to conform to one of the basic requirements you stated in your post”.

12

I have a Mac, and puerile is what the internet is all about!

13

If the OP is looking for the best way to run Windows apps on a Mac, then I’d strongly recommend VMware Fusion.

I’ve used it on the iMac at work so I could have access to Outlook and numerous other applications, as well as on my MBP at home for tinkering with Linux. Sharing hardware between guest and host OS is dead simple and I’ve never had a problem with drivers, networking, sharing, etc. Don’t ask me how it works, it just does.

I think Taffy also mentioned that he uses VMware Fusion as well so it must be good la. :slight_smile:

14

Sorry, anyone nasty enough to lead off with the first post has no standing in a follow up to call for anything that requires more effort than a flip of the bird.

ceevee369, it’ll cost more upfront, and last far longer down the road. There are a few specialist programs that won’t run on a Mac (even one running Windows); aside from those, you’re golden. Don’t worry about waiting on the latest model. But do get all the RAM you can.

15

The Mac owners over at appledefects.com might beg to differ. YMMV.

Edit: Just so no one gets the wrong impression: I am not saying Apple computers are necessarily more prone to failure than other makes. I’m merely pointing out that Apple hardware is not immune to problems, isolated or by faulty design. Macs are churned out of a contract manufacture factory in China like most other consumer electronic goods. Do not expect them to be far above industry norms. That is except for the price.

16

Well, I understand the different view points some have between PC/ Apple .
We currently have 4 PC’s for 3 people here (2 ASus 15 inch laptops , not more than 2 years old, 1 E-PC, and my own Desktop Turbo Quad4 :laughing:
They all run slower after a while and needs defrag - updates - Win 7 upgrades just as a car needs maintenance.

My 17 YO stepdaughter however has this iMac in mind - and she won’t give in on any (founded or not) rational :stuck_out_tongue:
the bugger has a stubbern mind though if she wants it - she’ll get it. She knows it is her Laptop for the next 3 years or so, so only 1 chance to get it right or wrong :wink:

I noted your advises and we’ll look for a current / new model in HK - or jump on an offer we received.
Thanks again to ya all.

17

Hong Kong may be cheaper in price, but need to consider what software you will get with it. I took my shopping list of all the possible software I would ever need to create and maintain a website into the dataexpress branch in Tainan. I got it all at no additional cost. Plus, I was upgraded to 4GB memory. I have windows parallel, but never use it.

Hardware Overview:

Model Name: iMac
Model Identifier: iMac8,1
Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed: 2.66 GHz
Number Of Processors: 1
Total Number Of Cores: 2
L2 Cache: 6 MB
Memory: 4 GB
Bus Speed: 1.07 GHz

My advice, expect to pay the in store retail price. Expect to get heaps of software for free!

18

[quote=“ceevee369”]My 17 YO stepdaughter however has this iMac in mind - and she won’t give in on any (founded or not) rational :stuck_out_tongue:
the bugger has a stuubern mind though if she wants it - she’ll get it. She knows it is her Laptop for the next 3 years or so, so only 1 chance to get it right or wrong :wink: [/quote]
Fair enough. The only other advice I can give you is the same as with any other notebook costing in excess of $1k: buy Extended Service coverage. When things like the cooling fan and/or hinges start dying after the 1-year limited warranty lapses (and trust me, they will), you’ll be glad that service is already paid for. I believe with Macs it’s called AppleCare Protection Plan.

19

[quote=“Jaboney”]Sorry, anyone nasty enough to lead off with the first post has no standing in a follow up to call for anything that requires more effort than a flip of the bird.[/quote] :boo-hoo:

You mean that first post that not only answered the OPs questions but also pointed out a critical error in his current plans which could save him hundreds of US$? Don’t worry, if ever you find yourself needing to ask for technical help in this sub-forum, I won’t be posting.

The whole point of the slightly abrasive final comment was to communicate that I wasn’t interested in getting in a discussion with anyone high off the Apple koolaid who wants to continue spewing the old rhetoric about Macs being god’s gift to the PC world, since it doesn’t further elucidate the OPs questions and I can’t be bothered. And still some twat went and replied directly to me!

Seriously, some people will argue the sky is purple, just for and excuse to post something.

ceevee369, it’ll cost more upfront, and won’t necessarily last longer since its made from the same parts, in the same factories as every other PC. There are lots of programs that won’t run on OS X including the one you specificlly want to, and you’ll therefore need spend more money to get Windows, while trading off several of the main features that make the Mac what it is. Aside from those issues, you’re golden.

[quote=“Jaboney”]Get all the RAM you can.[/quote]This I agree with.

20

The sky is purple! :cactus: