<p>So I've used a Pro for the past 3 years (on loan from company), and now it's time for me to buy a laptop for college. I'm buying from Princeton SCI b/c they have better deals. I think I'm gonna get a Mac (v. PC), but am so conflicted whether to splurge the extra $1000 for a Pro!</p>
<p>I'm feeling that a 13" screen for the regular Macbook may be a little small, and for someone with as much music/video/editing/downloading as me, mayhaps the extra processing/memory/hard drive might be worth it. I haven't used a regular Macbook before so idk, but...thoughts????</p>
<p>Apple Macbook (white) $1115
* 2.13 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor
* 13" display
* NVIDIA GeForce 9400M, 256 MB
* 2 GB memory, DDR2, 2 DIMMS
* 160 GB hard drive, SATA, 5400 RPM
* Built-In DVD+R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW Superdrive
* Airport Extreme Card (802.11 b/g/n)
* Built in Ethernet, 2 USB ports, 5.0 lbs
* Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)
* Student Software Suite
* Math/Science/Engineering option
* Warranty: 3-yr AppleCare hardware warranty</p>
<p>I used a macbook for all of high school and am thinking about getting the Pro. Only because I’m passing down the macbook to little sister - the regular has been pretty flawless in terms of hefty programs like Maya, mac supported games like Call of Duty, parallel/bootcamp handling 90% of windows games and applications. </p>
<p>I’m getting the Pro only because I like the bigger screen and power. With Time machine, I don’t really need the extra 160gigs. I just know I would slap myself if SC2 or D3 ran chunkily on the macbook regular in the future - that’s my main concern, so I’m getting swindled into paying 1k for the speed and look. I can’t think of any program I’m going to use off the top of my head that i can only do with MBP…</p>
<p>You can get a Macbook Regular with a 15" screen.</p>
<p>IF you can afford the Macbook Pro, I would recommend getting it. I’m a PC user, but really- you should get the highest end computer you can afford. If you can’t afford the Macbook Pro, don’t get it.</p>
<p>re: molliegym, I want to buy the Princeton models, and those are the only 2 they offer
but thanks, I’m just not sure if the difference warrants the price tag…I can afford it, but that doesn’t mean that $1000 can’t go towards something else! kwim?</p>
<p>Note that the Princeton offers the second tier MacBook Pro, not the entry level Pro – unless they are offering the ones that they just discontinued. (You can tell by the price and the addition of the extra graphics chip.) And if you were not bound by what Princeton offers, you could get a 13" Pro now.</p>
<p>My daughter (who is ironically at Princeton for the summer) just swapped her white MacBook for a MacBook Pro, the entry level one. At least among graduate students in the Princeton lab where she is working, everybody has a 15" MacBook Pro. Her old white one – note that it’s different than the current MacBook because it’s older – was not powerful enough for the lab tasks.</p>
<p>The aluminum body Macs (including the MacBook aluminum, not one of your options) resist fingerprints/dirt better and are slimmer. If you think it would be a pain carrying around the 15", and it IS substantially bigger, then get the white MacBook because it will serve most, if not all, college student purposes.</p>
<p>What will you use your computer for? If you are just using it for internet browsing, typing papers, etc., then you are throwing $900 down the drain by getting the Pro. </p>
<p>If you actually need to do serious computation, your university will have computer labs with powerful desktops (and copies of software that require the computation). If you can’t bother to leave your dorm room to study, then you can remote access into these labs to get your computing done. Expensive, powerful laptops are not really that useful.</p>
<p>I really disagree with this. Most software runs just fine on $1000 laptops. There’s no need to splurge on better hardware when everything runs well on less expensive computers.</p>
<p>if you didnt want to just buy from princeton you could get a regular macbook and upgrade the memory and stuff to make it more powerful, and it would still be less than a pro</p>
<p>and it definitely depends on what you’ll be using the computer for. if its just music, video editing, etc. then you don’t need a pro i don’t think, but if you’re in a math/science field you might want a pro</p>