hey man... i'm a student in the UK too. i think i have a few things to share that might interest you.

- buy online. go to apple.com/uk and choose the 'higher education store'. you probably have to access it from your uni. i bought it at home with my dying windows laptop, but i used VPN to access it. the MB with specs you stated is £730.85 incl VAT in the HE store. cheapest MB is £601 and change.

- no need to buy apple care now. if u want, buy when your default warranty is nearly finished (11th month). fyi, i planned to do that, but to my surprise, i got an email last month saying i get the 3 yr plan for free anyways coz i bought my MB through the HE store.

- apple care is great. ALMOST no headaches. the only headache i got was when i wanted to change my battery which died suddenly, because there are no Apple Stores in Liverpool. i had to book an appointment and go to Manchester. no problem if you live in/near Manchester, London or Birm.

- when i bought mine, i found out that upgrading to 1GB RAM is cheaper straight from the HE Store, but for 2GB, it's cheaper to upgrade it yourself.

i think a MB is cheaper in malaysia, but in the end that little bit extra got me the Apple Care, so i'm not too fussed about it.

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Added on June 28, 2007, 6:39 amignore my RAM comment above. i just realised that the only option available is upgrading from 1GB to 2GB. lol, silly me.

This post has been edited by danfaiz: Jun 28 2007, 06:39 AM

^^ definitely different. you quoted £849 so, i'm assuming that's from the Education Store. in the HE Store, i put in exactly the specs you gave above, and it stated £730.85.

plus, in the email from AppleCare, i was told that i got the 3 yr warranty because it's in Apple's agreement with their HE ministry or something like that.