Both halves of the StuffGeeksWant team own Apple’s latest 15.4-inch MacBook Pro. And despite the fact that one of us is on his third (after the first two had hard drive issues) and the other is about to send his in (the display occasionally flickers), we still whole-heartedly recommend them.
When it comes to picking one out, though, what do you go with? The budget 15.4-inch model? What about the pricier one, or stepping up the 17-inch?
The answer: save your money and get the “cheap” $1,999 15.4-inch model. All that extra $500 gets you is a bit more RAM, a bit larger hard drive, and more video memory that you’ll probably never use. Oh, and the processor is a negligible amount faster.
Pick up your MacBook Pro from Amazon, which is always selling them for less than Apple. Currently, it’s available for just $1,868.98 with free shipping.
Now take the money you saved and put $84.99 towards 4GB of RAM from Other World Computing. More is better, period. Buy it from OWC not just because their RAM is cheap and has a lifetime warranty, but because they’ll also give you $25 for your original 1GB RAM sticks.
While you’re ordering RAM from OWC, pick up a 320GB 7200RPM hard drive. This is a $100+ upgrade for either MacBook Pro model from Apple, so you’re getting a deal at just $84.99 after $20 rebate (plus you get to keep your original 250GB drive, just get a case for it like this one for $14.99).
Now you have a fully-decked out 15.4-inch MacBook Pro for about $2020 shipped. Take the $500-$1,000 we just saved you and buy Apple stock. In a few years when it’s time to upgrade your profits will hopefully pay for a whole new system (fingers crossed).
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