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No iMac for me

W

wawanarchist

macrumors regular
Original poster
Oct 19, 2008
148
0
For those of you on the forum who know me (no one? :D) I've spent the past 3 months saving up for a brand new iMac. I sold my powerbook, I've worked 14 hour days, and I've scrimped on everything I can. And... I've done it, I have $1,900 saved up, enough to buy the 2.8 iMac w/apple care after student discount... I was sitting here tonight signing up for twitter updates about macworld, waiting to hear about my new iMac, and I get this...

"From: ------
Subject: What you will need for class (This was sent out in October... I am resending it because I have gotten a few questions )
To: Undisclosed Recipients
Computer:

Apple Macbook or Macbook Pro

4 gig minimum

External Hard Drive 160 gig minimum for storage and backup $100

Adobe Creative Suite 4 Master Collection

Camera:

10 megapixel or greater Single Lens Reflex Camera with lens "


So great! After all of this research and work for a huge 24" imac, I'm going to be stuck with another tiny laptop... How the hell am I supposed to work with a 13" screen? I guess I could buy an external monitor, but I'm just pissed, I've wanted this, and worked for this for months.
 
Refurb last generation MBP can be had from Apple for not too much more than that.
 
That sucks but at least if you get the led display it will look like the iMac:D If you get the new alu macbook you will love them, they are great.

ChrisN
 
Are you studying design?

4 gig minimum, External Hard Drive 160? Harsh requirements! When I was at school (not too long ago, 4 years) I was on a G3 with an 8 gig HD and 768MB RAM! That was my home machine, but it got the job done.

On the bright side, if you have to get a laptop, you've got the money ready. Did you set your heart on an iMac? Maybe email your tutor and ask if you can use one anyway.
 
Technically, you can still get the iMac and get work done if your school has a good computer lab.

If I could do it over again, I would have done that (at that time it would have been the Power Mac G4) and just carried a portable HDD with me back and forth to hold all of my work, and backed it up on my main computer HDD.

If you are going to college, it's okay to have a laptop, but note that they are easier to have taken from you if you aren't careful, and a desktop gives you that luscious screen for a decent price.
 
ChrisN said:
That sucks but at least if you get the led display it will look like the iMac:D If you get the new alu macbook you will love them, they are great.

ChrisN
Click to expand...

No way I can afford all that, its taken me forever just to get the money together for the iMac, another $900 is out of the question for now

irishgrizzly said:
Are you studying design?

4 gig minimum, External Hard Drive 160? Harsh requirements! When I was at school (not too long ago, 4 years) I was on a G3 with an 8 gig HD and 768MB RAM! That was my home machine, but it got the job done.

On the bright side, if you have to get a laptop, you've got the money ready. Did you set your heart on an iMac? Maybe email your tutor and ask if you can use one anyway.
Click to expand...

I'm going for digital photography. I don't know why the requirements are sto stringent, but I guess the teacher likes nice stuff.. I did have my heart set on the iMac though, I've wanted it for years, and i was just 4 days away from having it... I emailed my teacher but she did not respond and she said she is leaving for Egypt tomorrow, so I bet I won't hear from her until I'm back on campus

Digital Skunk said:
Technically, you can still get the iMac and get work done if your school has a good computer lab.
Click to expand...

I don't follow, the point of having the macbook as compared to the imac, is so we can use them in class, so the computer labs wont matter. Although we do have some kick ass mac pro labs
 
wawanarchist said:
I don't follow, the point of having the macbook as compared to the imac, is so we can use them in class, so the computer labs wont matter. Although we do have some kick ass mac pro labs
Click to expand...

If your school has labs, and you use them for class, then you just carry your HDD and work off of that.

But since the school wants you to use your own machines, it doesn't really matter.

But, if a student doesn't have a computer, I guess they are out of luck at your school huh. :(
 
well, what if you had already purchased the iMac? would you then have to buy the laptop as well?

maybe you got the email too late?
 
Digital Skunk said:
But, if a student doesn't have a computer, I guess they are out of luck at your school huh. :(
Click to expand...


No kidding. Does anyone else find it unreasonable a school would require its students to own their own high-end laptop (let's face it, a $700 WinBox is perfectly adequate for most other university students), and their own copy of CS, and their own SLR camera? The camera, at least, make sense, but there's no reason I can fathom that the school can't provide the first two.

These are students, not working professionals, and a fully loaded MacBook with CS doesn't come cheap. :confused:

Fortunately, external monitors that aren't the Apple one can be had cheap. A previous-gen MacBook Pro + External Display would have plenty of computing power and lots of screen real estate...
 
Its crap, luckely I have a friend who gave me a free version of CS4 Master, and I've had all of the camera equipment for years. To make things worse, all education majors require a macbook for junior year.... What a friggen waste!

Well heres the deal as of now. I don't want another laptop, my wintop works great, so I'm going to get a ****** powerbook g4 for like $350 just to have what they want for class, then I'll still purchase the iMac for my powerhouse. Its just such a waste, and my teacher and advisor are both ignoring me
 
wawanarchist said:
Its crap, luckely I have a friend who gave me a free version of CS4 Master, and I've had all of the camera equipment for years. To make things worse, all education majors require a macbook for junior year.... What a friggen waste!

Well heres the deal as of now. I don't want another laptop, my wintop works great, so I'm going to get a ****** powerbook g4 for like $350 just to have what they want for class, then I'll still purchase the iMac for my powerhouse. Its just such a waste, and my teacher and advisor are both ignoring me
Click to expand...

A PowerBook is NOT what they want for class, it clearly states MacBook or MacBook Pro with 4 gig of RAM
 
just get a cheap dell notebook or sth similar and buy the imac. it's the biggest shitbull in the world that design students need macs. there's no advantage at all.
 
Creative suite is cross platform, why does it have to be a Mac?

You could always pick up a cheap white Macbook off ebay and then buy the baseline iMac?
 
What they want is:

1. a laptop I can use in class to learn basic photoshop techniques (powerbook will work)

2. a powerful computer I can use to work on my projects and homework (iMac will work)

I don't want to drop $1,000+ on a laptop, I'm trying to get away from laptops. I want a nice large desktop that will hold its own in power and screen quality. This is the iMac. I'll also need a laptop to learn CS4 techniques on, and any mac laptop with over 1ghz of processor power will do this. I used a powerbook g4 with 1.67ghz of power for years (till i sold it 4 months ago... worst decision ever) and it worked fine for basic photoshoping
 
I'd really have to say, a notebook + external display combo is the best for any college student. You don't have to backup multiple computers, or sync data, worry about multiple computers, etc. I would choose a refurb aluminum MacBook and the LED display. I don't see a point in investing in older technologies unless you have a desire need for collecting purposes. Laptops do hold their power, my polycarbonate MacBook still does fine with stuff such as Photoshop CS4, medium movie editing using FCE or iMovie, etc. An iMac can't be upgraded more than a MacBook/Pro. You can only upgrade memory on iMacs, without resorting to opening it up completely. A MacBook/Pro, you can upgrade the HDD and memory without opening the whole thing.
 
wawanarchist said:
Apple Macbook
Click to expand...

What kind of pro photography/design school is this??? :eek:
The macbook screen has a terrible color gamut, bad black level detail, and viewing angles are terrible even on the new ones. As a macbook owner, I've actually had a client complain that the color they wanted wasn't right in situations when I had to work on it instead of using a color accurate external monitor. Will never make that mistake again.
The minimum should have only been an MBA if they were serious and did their research.
 
I think you'll enjoy the it. Trust me, you'll get used to the size of the screen, or if you want bigger, you can pay a little more, OR you can buy a 24" screen, I believe, and the cable, so you can plug your laptop to the big screen. I think its about $200 more. So just buy a smaller laptop screen, so you'll have enough to buy a second screen for more.
 
SnowLeopard2008 said:
I'd really have to say, a notebook + external display combo is the best for any college student. You don't have to backup multiple computers, or sync data, worry about multiple computers, etc. I would choose a refurb aluminum MacBook and the LED display. I don't see a point in investing in older technologies unless you have a desire need for collecting purposes. Laptops do hold their power, my polycarbonate MacBook still does fine with stuff such as Photoshop CS4, medium movie editing using FCE or iMovie, etc. An iMac can't be upgraded more than a MacBook/Pro. You can only upgrade memory on iMacs, without resorting to opening it up completely. A MacBook/Pro, you can upgrade the HDD and memory without opening the whole thing.
Click to expand...

Very true, and if I had $2,000+ dollars lying around, I'd get a MBP and the 24" display, but I don't. One of the crappy things about being a college student is that the $12,000 a year tends to drain your bank account... And I fall right in that gap where my parents make too much for me to get any financial aid, but we don't have enough to really pay for everything. I have $1,700 saved up after months of working eight hour days, and now I need to start paying off next semesters tuition... But I totally agree with what your saying, I just cannot afford it.

justit said:
What kind of pro photography/design school is this??? :eek:
The macbook screen has a terrible color gamut, bad black level detail, and viewing angles are terrible even on the new ones. As a macbook owner, I've actually had a client complain that the color they wanted wasn't right in situations when I had to work on it instead of using a color accurate external monitor. Will never make that mistake again.
The minimum should have only been an MBA if they were serious and did their research.
Click to expand...

Well I should point out that this is NOT my schools requirement. I attend Penn State and the requirement is just put out by this professer. I don't know exactly why she did this, or what the reasoning is, but from what I gather we need a laptop for class, and she wants the projects submitted through iPhoto, so she combined the need of a mac, and the need of a laptop into one, when in my opinion, they can be two separate things, ie: Toshiba laptop and an iMac.

pyroxp7 said:
I think you'll enjoy the it. Trust me, you'll get used to the size of the screen, or if you want bigger, you can pay a little more, OR you can buy a 24" screen, I believe, and the cable, so you can plug your laptop to the big screen. I think its about $200 more. So just buy a smaller laptop screen, so you'll have enough to buy a second screen for more.
Click to expand...

I've used a laptop for 3 years now and have never gotten used to the small screen for photo editing, 19" is my minimum, and 13" is not even close to enough.
 
Demosthenes X said:
No kidding. Does anyone else find it unreasonable a school would require its students to own their own high-end laptop (let's face it, a $700 WinBox is perfectly adequate for most other university students), and their own copy of CS, and their own SLR camera? The camera, at least, make sense, but there's no reason I can fathom that the school can't provide the first two.

These are students, not working professionals, and a fully loaded MacBook with CS doesn't come cheap. :confused:

Fortunately, external monitors that aren't the Apple one can be had cheap. A previous-gen MacBook Pro + External Display would have plenty of computing power and lots of screen real estate...
Click to expand...

Very true, and like others have said, Adobe apps are cross platform. The OP can get a quad core tower, display, and decent 15" laptop for $1900 if they shop around.

Or, could get the good 15" laptop or desktop and walk away with $900.
 
If you were fine with A Laptop, i would have gone with a Previous Generation MacBook Pro 15", and got an External Display (Not Apple's Own) As it will give you the power you need, and be portable.
 
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