Originally Posted by Zachary

Funny you'd say that. My friend was actually extolling the virtues of the Thinkpads in general a while back, and how they are superior to most laptops in all their many mysterious ways. Durability check? I was simply pointed towards a commercial where a Thinkpad is used as a cutting board, washed, and then used as a baking tray - and it still worked despite all that.

The only reason I knew about the other line of less durable notebooks (the Idea Pads, that is) was because I stumbled across them whilst customising a Thinkpad. In retrospect, I think I was convinced a long time ago, or it seems ...

I have a reaaally old thinkpad that's rather netbook sized, and that thing is a beast. Specs weren't fantastic, but they're really not exaggerating with the claims of it being able to survive being dropped.

Perfect time to buy a Macbook Pro. There is one on sale in the Bargain Bin.

if your thinking of getting a mac, check out the refurbished mac deals, some are quiet decent and are as good as new

http://store.apple.com/ca/browse/home/specialdeals/mac

I have owned my white macbook core2duo for approximately 3 years now and it has been a pleasant ride and lasted me quiet well.
My macbook, although I upgraded the Ram and Hard drive, still feels brand new and I still manage to get about 4-5 hours of battery life. I can definitely see this laptop lasting me another 3 years with no problems ( Although those retina macbooks look tempting )

If you are looking for a budget one go for the 13in Base Model. It is a great machine and is quiet upgradeable. If you want better specs than the base, you can upgrade the RAM yourself to 16GB for under 100$ and can put a SSD in there for another 100$ (Much lower than upgrading it through Apple).

As for price wise, if you dont need a Laptop right away, I say wait till the summer so you get a bit of a better deal. 100$ off + 100$ iTunes GiftCard

Originally Posted by Crzyrio

if your thinking of getting a mac, check out the refurbished mac deals, some are quiet decent and are as good as new

http://store.apple.com/ca/browse/home/specialdeals/mac

I have owned my white macbook core2duo for approximately 3 years now and it has been a pleasant ride and lasted me quiet well.
My macbook, although I upgraded the Ram and Hard drive, still feels brand new and I still manage to get about 4-5 hours of battery life. I can definitely see this laptop lasting me another 3 years with no problems ( Although those retina macbooks look tempting )

If you are looking for a budget one go for the 13in Base Model. It is a great machine and is quiet upgradeable. If you want better specs than the base, you can upgrade the RAM yourself to 16GB for under 100$ and can put a SSD in there for another 100$ (Much lower than upgrading it through Apple).

As for price wise, if you dont need a Laptop right away, I say wait till the summer so you get a bit of a better deal. 100$ off + 100$ iTunes GiftCard

Is there a specific place in mind where one can purchase RAM to add into their MBP? Online or in person, either one should be fine. I have MacBookPro8,1 model..if that means anything.

Originally Posted by herBs

Is there a specific place in mind where one can purchase RAM to add into their MBP? Online or in person, either one should be fine. I have MacBookPro8,1 model..if that means anything.

I have bought RAM for myself and my sister at Canada Computer. For 8.1, Apple officially supports 8GB but the hardware it self supports 16GB. My sister has the same macbook as you and she just installed 16GB on hers.

You can run this scan to find the exact specs of ram you need, then simply take a print out to Canada Computers and they will give you the best for the price at that time.

If you really want to boost the performance of your mac get a SSD, it makes a HUGE difference

Originally Posted by herBs

Is there a specific place in mind where one can purchase RAM to add into their MBP? Online or in person, either one should be fine. I have MacBookPro8,1 model..if that means anything.

Get Crucial RAM from newegg

Originally Posted by Crzyrio

I have bought RAM for myself and my sister at Canada Computer. For 8.1, Apple officially supports 8GB but the hardware it self supports 16GB. My sister has the same macbook as you and she just installed 16GB on hers.

You can run this scan to find the exact specs of ram you need, then simply take a print out to Canada Computers and they will give you the best for the price at that time.

If you really want to boost the performance of your mac get a SSD, it makes a HUGE difference

What scan are you referring to? Also, since Apple officially supports 8GB worth of ram, can one expect to run into problems utilizing 16GB? I would assume not, so that makes me wonder why they do not officially support 16GB then. Though, I think 16GB of RAM would be an overkill..at the very most I'd need 8GB. I barely do anything resource intensive haha. How is her MBP running now though compared to her previous build (4GB of RAM?).

@nikJ,

Thanks, I'll look into it. Looking to upgrade the RAM slightly over the summer time.

Originally Posted by herBs

What scan are you referring to? Also, since Apple officially supports 8GB worth of ram, can one expect to run into problems utilizing 16GB? I would assume not, so that makes me wonder why they do not officially support 16GB then. Though, I think 16GB of RAM would be an overkill..at the very most I'd need 8GB. I barely do anything resource intensive haha. How is her MBP running now though compared to her previous build (4GB of RAM?).

@nikJ,

Thanks, I'll look into it. Looking to upgrade the RAM slightly over the summer time.

Hmm I forgot to link it --> http://www.crucial.com/systemscanner/
Or if you want, when I have access to my sisters computer I will give you the exact specs.
To be honest I have no idea why they dont support it.

But everything runs perfectly, my White Macbook officially supports 4GB but the hardware supports 8GB. I have had 8 in there for more than a year and no problem so far. She loves it, she uses Photoshop a LOT, and some of her projects easily take up 6GB of ram, so she definitely needed it lol.

You should be able to find 8GB for less than 60$ no problem, but like I Said if you really want a performance boost get a SSD. I prefer using my Core 2 Duo over her i5 any day simply because the SSD makes everything sooo much snappier.

48$ for 16GB ram ---> http://www.amazon.com/Patriot-Memory...c+1333+patriot

Doesnt get better than that! lol

PLEASE NOTE:
on new macbook pro models the ram is soldered to the motherboard effectively making upgrading impossible. Just a heads up to anyone looking to buying a new one and saving money figuring they can buy 16gb later super cheap.

And comment on the SSDs. Agreed SSDs are by far the best upgrade possible.

Originally Posted by qwerty91

PLEASE NOTE:
on new macbook pro models the ram is soldered to the motherboard effectively making upgrading impossible. Just a heads up to anyone looking to buying a new one and saving money figuring they can buy 16gb later super cheap.

And comment on the SSDs. Agreed SSDs are by far the best upgrade possible.

The new Retina Macbok Pro Models have their ram soldered in but the new Regular Macbook Pros are still the way they used to be and can easily be upgraded like any other computer

Originally Posted by herBs

That point is a valid one which I can agree with and respect. Though, if you get a pirated version of Mac OS X to install on your Windows machine would that suffice as well or no?

I dunno, I tried hackintosh on two of my older computers. It's just one thing or the other, it's like maintaining a linux distro all over again, which is what I ended up having on those computers.

Originally Posted by Afzal

I dunno, I tried hackintosh on two of my older computers. It's just one thing or the other, it's like maintaining a linux distro all over again, which is what I ended up having on those computers.

lol I tried the hackintosh thing too a few years ago. It works really well if you have supported hardware and, well, don't ever update anything. Ever.

I actually recommend the HP envy 4 !! worth checking out (:

I used to be 100% PC fan in my first year at Mac but then after taking the Multimedia Program we were forced to start using some software on iMacs and I quickly converted to using MacOS. Buying an iMac and MacBook Pro was the best decision ever. I use Windows XP and Windows 7 at work and find it much less productive, slow, and just not as polished and friendly as MacOS. Hassle free not having to worry about virus checkers defrag firewalls and windows updates.

Anyways, I recommend getting a MacBook Pro (either one, doesn't need to be retina) and then go and buy a killer large monitor you can hook your laptop up to when at home to work on a much larger screen.