<p>Basically give me the best Macbook Pro for 2,200. There are no standarts that have to be met. If it helps I am going into engineering and am heading to college so I should get a minor discount from apple. Just give me the best Macbook Pro spec wise that I can get for 2,200 dollars max. Please don't try to convince me to switch to a regular Laptop because this money is coming from a scholarship and I have always wanted to get a Mac.</p>
<p>Make sure to let your scholarship provider know that you’ll be buying a Mac with the money they saved you, I’m sure they will take that money back. Unless they are Mac fanboys too, which in that case I’m surprised they have spare money.</p>
<p>the only choice is 15 in or 17 inch.</p>
<p>Don’t buy now don’t buy now DON’T BUY NOW!</p>
<p>Wait until the summer when Apple offers the free iPod, and MBPs are due for an update sometime soon anyway.</p>
<p>Reach thanks for your bias but if it makes you feel better the school has an on campus Mac Store…oh wait…</p>
<p>Anyway what I mean when I say best is I mean customize the best macbook that you can with a budget of 2,200 in mind. You know memory, HD, processor, etc. Also this won’t be given to me until I arrive on campus so when it’s bought has no affect on the situation. All I want is you guys to look at the customize a Macbook Pro on the apple website and write down what you think is the best package for 2,200. Software can also be included.</p>
<p>Virginiafan13,</p>
<p>Get the 15 inch 2.66 Ghz, with 4gb of RAM and a 128 GB SSD (solid slate drive). SSDs are much faster than regular hard drives and you can load programs and Mac OS quickly. Alternatively, if you need more space than 128GB, you can get one the 320GB or 500GB SATA hard drive @ 7200 RPM for a bit less. Total if you go by the first build is 2,299</p>
<p>Thanks for the help reach. Anyone else got advice. Will probably compare them all and decide on which one sounds best. Also it’s ok to go over a little, but I will have to make up the difference so don’t go overboard.</p>
<p>Once you go SSD, you never go back.</p>
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<p>haha you are spending 2.2K on a laptop</p>
<p>The money is set aside by the scholarship for the laptop. I didn’t choose 2.2 K, the college did. Can someone please just give me the advice instead of questioning every little part of my origionaly statement.</p>
<p>To the people suggesting SSDs: I’m not too familiar with Macs and SSDs, but how great is the Mac OS’ maitenance of SSDs? I know Windows 7 recently started supporting TRIM, and if Macs don’t have something similar, Virginiafan13 will definitely see a gradual slowing down of her SSD over time as well as a decreased life span.</p>
<p>Not a smash on Macs, just a genuine concern I have.</p>
<p>Um you mean “his”, I’m a guy…</p>
<p>Tell the scholarship your building you own windows desktop…and then hit up newegg and lian li.</p>
<p>That 2.2k will be gon in no time, with an i7, BRD’s, SSD’s, and ~16 gigs of memory.</p>
<p>Never mind that mac laptop.</p>
<p>Wow I don’t know how hard it is to believe that I just want a Mac for once. I have always used Windows and just want to switch to Mac at least for now. Heck this money is all part of a full ride so if I end up hating the Mac i will just go out and buy another laptop with Windows with my own money.</p>
<p>Why do you want to switch? From the way the thread reads, I’m assuming you have a hard time with computers.</p>
<p>Either way, a Mac may help with that, but then how will you know that you really are getting such a good deal out of the suggestions? Also, why not get two different laptops for that budget? Or a laptop + a netbook?</p>
<p>Not many good listeners here, eh?</p>
<p>I agree with a previous poster that the big decision is 15-inch or 17-inch. I guess a lot of that depends on how much CAD you will be doing. Many of the MEs at our school spend a lot of time in SolidWorks, which requires the most screen real-estate possible. So, if you are going to be doing a lot of SolidWorks or AutoCAD, you might want to consider the 17-inch, even though it makes the laptop harder to lug around. If your are headed in a different direction (e.g. EE), this is less of an issue. Of course, a 17-inch is a little outside your price limit - I think that even with an academic discount, it goes for $2,400.</p>
<p>Some engineering applications (such as SolidWorks) only have Windows versions, so you will probably need to run Windows on occasion. Probably Parallels Desktop will be more helpful to you than just running BootCamp to do this.</p>
<p>No matter what, you should get more RAM to speed up multi-tasking. </p>
<p>Bottom line, if someone gave me $2.2K for a laptop, I guess I’d buy the 2.8GHz 15-inch model, which is probably exactly that amount with an academic discount. I might then spend my own money at a later time to get more RAM.</p>
<p>Good lord I was just told that I have a hard time with computers. I might just go KMS now. Also I asnwered your question on why I want a mac in the post above yours Physco. Also I’m not sure if I can get two or not because I basically tell the college what I want in the laptop and then they Will get the order processed for me and have the laptop ready when I arrive on campus in the fall.</p>
<p>ALF thank you for listening. That is all I wanted to know.</p>
<p>Highend PC laptop with an i7 8GB DDR3 RAM and with OSX hacked on.</p>
<p>some advice, if you’re going to be using a laptop a lot around campus, go for the smaller screen, smaller units are generally more convenient. If you need to do some heavier work, hook up a second monitor in your room.</p>
<p>Guess like there’s some bureaucracy with the laptop, where it’s truly use-it-or-lose-it?</p>
<p>I’d first see if it’s possible to get two laptops - a powerful Macbook Pro and a separate Macbook Air. This makes things so much easier when it comes to lugging items around.</p>
<p>Or, better - sell the laptop on eBay and use the money to get much better deals on PCs. Sure, Mac is nicer than Windows, but it’s hard to beat *NIX + price savings.</p>
<p>I always recommend a smaller laptop and an external screen / keyboard / mouse over a honking big laptop. I’ve toted around a 17" thing and it’s not fun.</p>