well u came here in the 1st place to ask about mac mini / imac anyway . enough ler...discussing about pc hardware at least still better than quarrelling here right? i dun see anything wrong if ppl recommending the hackintosh route here

i guess the best way is for u to set a fixed budget for urself. easier to discuss with that

juz get the basic imac n u're done MBP 13" shud be ok too, but 13" screen is pretty limited IMO and u still need maybe ~rm99 for an adapter to plug into ur external display

imac better value of course, since u dun need the portability. huge, better quality screen, better GPU and mouse included

3 years for basic stuff no problem. starcraft2, as the previous post said, shud be ok. cant be sure though.

MBP 15" sure can handle starcraft2. 2k difference cuz u're comparing C2D and Core i5 processor, plus the geforce 330M, and bigger display of course. if u're concerned about games, MBP 15" sure can last longer than the 13". so that's rm2k for maybe 1 or 2 years more relevance

i might be wrong here, but i think bigger display n faster processor would benefit you more than faster GPU (im comparing with the 4.3k imac)

here's a comparison regarding the GPU from notebookcheck.net

3Dmark06 scores:
- iMac 9400M (1733)
- MBP 13" 320M (4754)
- MBP 15" 330M (6492)

and from pcgameshardware.com
- your 9400GT (3124)

so yes the 320M is better than the your 9400GT. important to note that ur 9400gt is very different than the 9400m despite same numbers, the "M" is a clocked down version (integrated, shared memory summore) and "GT" is a higher clocked dedicated version. GPU naming conventions suck

MBP is really cheap right now compared to before. i dun think it will reach rm5k in this year, in fact i dun think will got any major updates. hopefully the base 15" model rm5899 is okay for u. if not, probably can look for refurbished units.

actually got another place to get student discount... go to http://store.apple.com/my n click on the Education Store on the left. they randomly check for identification, sometimes they ask for student ID etc, sometimes they dont ask at all. the education price for the base 15" model is rm5599. free shipping of course.

n for the last two questions
1) even during 'sales' the MBP price wont drop. sales would normally just include freebies or tie-in purchase offers. but personally i find the freebies either useless (cooling balls) or too cheap feeling (laptop sleeves). no idea when, and also which reseller will have the best offer.
2) ACPP hard to say lah. of course there's a chance for u to spend 1k+ for ACPP, but u wont encounter a single problem in 3 years. but there's also a chance for u to NOT buy ACPP, n have a dead logic board / faulty display / faulty battery etc within the 3 years. get ACPP for a peace of mind. if not, just make sure u can afford a new computer after 1 year should anything happen.

oh, and welcome!!!

This post has been edited by dvlzplayground: May 16 2010, 10:44 PM

refurbished units should be cheaper. normally refurbished units dun have any defects lah, but not all refurb units are demo units. they're just not 'brand new' but still in good condition. but the warranty will be shorter la, just a few months. im not sure how ACPP plays in this case

yes, a lot of us here get it when the 1yr warranty almost ends, just make sure u remember la later . or u can sell ur ipad now hehehe jk jk

for protection, at least get a sleeve lah. the debate about invisible skin vs speck casing (both about rm150 i guess) really boils down to personal preference. but a sleeve or proper laptop bag with good padding is a must. keyboard protectors aren't important unless u like to eat in front of ur notebook like me hehe. palmrest protectors no need too, but important if u always forgot to take off ur metal watch when using ur notebook...again, like me +_+

ur question are okay la, this is a place for guidance after all. it's the questions like "whats the difference of MBP and iMac???" that will get frowned upon. plus, i think most of us here never buy something more than 3k without asking any questions at all haha

i doubt got free mouse or keyboard. the rm3299 macbook is still very new, do the resellers have it in stores yet?

u can send to any apple reseller / service centre worldwide international warranty mah

tell ur mom buy online cheaper ma... no need to pay for petrol n parking.. no risks of getting influenced by salesperson to buy expensive but useless stuff.. ;p

plus i've met some resellers simply say "everywhere no stock!" even though other shops have it +_+

for 6k...

- iMac 27" 3.06 C2D, rm5999. probably lowest performance here, but a huge display helps u do work faster too right?
- iMac 21.5" 3.06 C2D, upgrade to 8GB RAM, rm6019. better performance if u dun mind the smaller screen
- iMac 21.5" basic, upgrade to 3.33 C2D, 8GB RAM, rm5696. even better performance, good if u dun need dedicated GPU n if 500gb hdd is enough. the spare rm304 can almost buy an external 1TB hdd

- MBP 15" 2.4 i5, rm5899. im not sure but the processor shud be faster than the 3.06 C2D, but it doesnt matter if ur bottleneck is RAM.

but more important is for u to decide u want a laptop or desktop. also it depends whether u wanna wait for iMac refresh or not

This post has been edited by dvlzplayground: May 20 2010, 09:18 AM

actually i think the i5 is faster not because of hyperthreading.. it's because of turbo boost. it can go up to 2.93 ghz, which i assume to be faster than 3.06 ghz due to the built-in memory chip and other features. maybe someone can find a review for this

tarvalslain87 makes a good point. upgrade the older machine

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Added on May 20, 2010, 9:08 pmloading times is more of a hard drive performance thing. multitasking heavily depends on RAM. try to compare tasks like converting video etc. dun forget to report here!

This post has been edited by dvlzplayground: May 20 2010, 09:08 PM

personally i think the rm600 isn't worth it, only 130mhz difference n extra 180gb hdd space. if u can get extra rm1300 better go for the i7 model, or upgrade to 8gb (depends if u need faster proc or more RAM, n whether u wanna wait til ram prices drop or not). or get ACPP

i would spend rm600 on protection stuff

check for ur printer here: http://support.apple.com/kb/ht3669

anyway office 2008 dun have the ribbon interface. need to wait for office 2011 for that

This post has been edited by dvlzplayground: May 21 2010, 08:27 PM

which also means no "buy MBP free ipod touch" for us

he already said that there's no engraving service for mac. hmm i notice a few times already u replied w/o properly reading the post u quoted. try not to do that okay?

there are some shops who provide engraving services (not jewellery shops). but some of them maybe cannot do engraving for ipod cuz it depends on their engraving machine. i asked one shop before to engrave my ipod touch (that time dun have apple online store yet) n they said the ipod touch is too big to fit in their machine

the car window thing is sandblasting. not a good idea :S

not in malaysia. only certain countries

go here http://www.apple.com/macbookpro/specs.html and scroll down to What's in the Box. make sure everything is there

turn it on, carefully look at the screen to spot for dead pixels.

as usual, check for scratches, dents, etc

btw what do u mean buying from stranger? are you going to buy from ebay / garagesales etc? to be safe just go to an apple reseller or better yet, since ur sis is a student, buy from http://store.apple.com/my

if i misunderstood what u meant by "check", please enlighten me

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Added on June 2, 2010, 7:47 pmoh okay i replied before u posted in that case, get the Serial number and check whether the MBP still have warranty or not. u can do that at https://selfsolve.apple.com/GetWarranty.do

also google the serial number, just in case it's a stolen unit

click on the apple logo at the top left corner, go to About This Mac to verify the processor and RAM installed. Then click on More info to check on the battery cycle count and condition (under Power on the left). if the cycle count > 300 (for MBPs with removable batteries) or the condition is not "normal", u most probably need a new battery soon. u can go through other specs here, juz to verify what the seller claims

COD at a place with wifi connection to test whether the wifi works or not. also make sure the bluetooth works.

This post has been edited by dvlzplayground: Jun 2 2010, 07:49 PM

^ Steam!

epicentre got sell a few

i'm anxiously waiting for StarCraft 2

launching on july 27th for both mac n pc

HL2, HLE1, HLE2 and portal works. since u already own the games, u can just redownload it for free download steam for mac, in library, click on the games n there shud be an Install button if the mac version is out. as for the other games, is just a matter of time for the source engine games la at least. i dun think HL1 will make the jump

not at the moment. possible though