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Evening. I find myself in dire need of a new computer capable of editing hd video, and I am contemplating buying a mac book pro 13" @ £999 as it will hopefully do the job okay, and it will serve the purposes of internet browsing and photo editing etc in the living room.
I need it sort of quick and I am contemplating pulling the trigger on one tomorrow night, my main question is this - is there any benefit in buying it from the apple store over curry's, pc world or anywhere else? Has anyone been able to negotiate any discount from the above? Where's got the best after sales support (I am assuming apple but as they seem like a bunch of twunts I avoid the shop like the plague).
My second question is whether anyone has any experience of editing 1080 hd footage on a sort of current 13" laptop. I am aware that it is limited by it's on board graphics card but I cant stretch to £1500 quid and hoping it will suffice?
cheers
John Lewis.
Do you know any students are someone who works in the NHS as you'll get discount that way.
Kandahar, got mine for $989.
Back up and support is the same wherever you buy the machine, as the warranty is with Apple. Unless of course you went for an extended aftercare and warranty package direct from the shop selling it to you.
Pricing is firm from anywhere. If you're savvy, you might be able to negotiate a deal on any software or peripherals when bought with the machine, but you'll struggle to get any money off the machine itself unless you know a Student who can buy it for you.
As far as editing 1080HD footage is concerned, well you'll need an external 1080 screen anyway, as the 13" MacBook only has a 1280x800 resolution screen.
As far as editing 1080HD footage is concerned, well you'll need an external 1080 screen anyway, as the 13" MacBook only has a 1280x800 resolution screen.
I've got two screens that should suffice, I'm more worried about the grunt needed to actually cut.
I would go to either John Lewis, or an Apple Premier retailer, like Farpoint in Walcot Street in Bath. While you may not be able to negotiate on retail price, you may be able to wangle some extras, like some more RAM or something. No guarantee's, but it's possible. When I bought my Mac Mini I had the optical removed and a second HDD installed in the bay. While they were at it they found some RAM on a shelf and stuck it in for free, taking it from 2 to 4Gb.
Drac - ModeratorDo you know any students are someone who works in the NHS as you'll get discount that way.
Damnit I don't.
CountZero - MemberI would go to either John Lewis, or an Apple Premier retailer, like Farpoint in Walcot Street in Bath. While you may not be able to negotiate on retail price, you may be able to wangle some extras, like some more RAM or something. No guarantee's, but it's possible. When I bought my Mac Mini I had the optical removed and a second HDD installed in the bay. While they were at it they found some RAM on a shelf and stuck it in for free, taking it from 2 to 4Gb.
That's good to know and I appreciate the advice. I am in belfast so I am limited to currys/pc world or the apple store as far as I know. I suppose some free ram is not to be sniffed at, or a mouse which I could sell or something.
Reference the Apple Care, as it's internationally warranty you can buy them on Ebay cheap from our American cousins.
Look out fun the Refurbished section of the Apple site. You might find one reduced in there.
Also, the new Thunderbolt Macbook Pros might not support regular Apple displays or others for tea matter. I'm not sure so check that out if you were going to use your own displays.
I've got two screens that should suffice, I'm more worried about the grunt needed to actually cut.
i'm using FCP-x and not bothering with a proxy but editing native 5dII footage, it's only when retiming do you get the progress thingy counting down but it's never for very long, these are only short clips in a 2min short. i'm using 8gb ram and shortly upgrading to 16gb as it's so cheap now.
i do have an SSD in the media bay as a scratch and working files drive so this is speeding performance up (i did edit before the upgrade)
the bottleneck is the 5500rpm HD though, eliminate that and the machine will be even faster.
depending on if your software can use more than 2 cores then look at the 15in with 4 cores from the refurb store, do not be put off by the lower clock speed the current macbookpros are as fast as the macpro towers.
i run a 24in hd monitor with no problems but i tried the Davinci resolve lite grading software and it said the card was not open gl enabled which is odd as open-gl works in CS so i need to look into that. it may need Lion for this to work.
currys have some mac deals on at the mo.
the new Thunderbolt Macbook Pros might not support regular Apple displays or others for tea matter. I'm not sure so check that out if you were going to use your own displays.
no problems, still using the pre thunderbolt min--dvi to dvi adapter with a 24in eizo.
MrSmith - MemberI've got two screens that should suffice, I'm more worried about the grunt needed to actually cut.
i'm using FCP-x and not bothering with a proxy but editing native 5dII footage, it's only when retiming do you get the progress thingy counting down but it's never for very long, these are only short clips in a 2min short. i'm using 8gb ram and shortly upgrading to 16gb as it's so cheap now.
i do have an SSD in the media bay as a scratch and working files drive so this is speeding performance up (i did edit before the upgrade)the bottleneck is the 5500rpm HD though, eliminate that and the machine will be even faster.
depending on if your software can use more than 2 cores then look at the 15in with 4 cores from the refurb store, do not be put off by the lower clock speed the current macbookpros are as fast as the macpro towers.
i run a 24in hd monitor with no problems but i tried the Davinci resolve lite grading software and it said the card was not open gl enabled which is odd as open-gl works in CS so i need to look into that. it may need Lion for this to work.
currys have some mac deals on at the mo.
What model do you have Mrsmith? I'd imagine I'll be cutting mostly dslr footage myself. Are you saying that if you have a fast external drive to work off it'll be okay? Appologies, it's been a few years since I edited professionally and am just not au fait with the current processor models and what they are really capable of.
They ever ask for much proof about whether you are a student or not to shop on the online apple store for education. You just need the special URL......
(email in profile 😉 )
13" monitor is going to be horrible for editing I reckon, would definitely go for a bigger screen model if you can.
They ever ask for much proof about whether you are a student or not to shop on the online apple store for education. You just need the special URL......(email in profile )
Nope, to gain the discounts you need to log on via the university's computer network otherwise it wont work.
it does knock a fair whack off tho! About £140 from the basic Mac PRo I believe.
So If you do know any students, Its well worth it! (Or a University staff member for that matter).
go to san franscisco, look for the shambling drunk with a macbook he definitely found around the back of the apple store. When I was there, he was just by the tramcar turntable.
Apple's refurb store stock changes daily so check there often. Go to.the store online and down the bottom left is a link to their refurb stuff.
ive got an eductaional link,
used it plenty, never attended said establishment
start at £859 for the base model
is a new model not due soon? id wait for the iPad 3 release to see if they do any updates
looking about early March
Have a look over on the refurb store. I have a refurbed macbook from 2008 which is still going strong. The only thing I have changed since buying is the HDD for something bigger.
There is a 13" pro on there just now with £150 off. [url= http://store.apple.com/uk/browse/home/specialdeals/mac/macbook_pro/13 ]http://store.apple.com/uk/browse/home/specialdeals/mac/macbook_pro/13[/url]
You will not get a discount at an Apple store but you will be buying from reasonably knowledgeable enthusiasts with the possibility of unlimited tuition if you pay an extra £78.
Buy elsewhere and you buy from a dozy salesman. Except perhaps in John Lewis where you buy from a good salesman.
What model do you have Mrsmith? I'd imagine I'll be cutting mostly dslr footage myself. Are you saying that if you have a fast external drive to work off it'll be okay? Appologies, it's been a few years since I edited professionally and am just not au fait with the current processor models and what they are really capable of.
the base model early 2011 13in 2.3 (so the first of the faster 2 and 4 core thunderbolt ones)
yes having a 2nd drive as ssd will speed it up, but even just a main ssd will improve it massively. thunderbolt will also give you this option but the availability of external drives is only just becoming available but it does mean that you can add any amount of external drives all at 10gbs (so data transfer is only limited by drive speed) it was the slow roll-out of thunderbolt stuff that made me go internal ssd for a relatively cheap speed bump.
do not underestimate the speed of the new macs, the thunderbolt 2011 onwards models basically doubled speeds with the cheapest (mine) matching the maxed out 17in of the previous generation.
if you want to learn FCP-x then the training thing where you pay £70 would be a bargain, you get 1 to 1 sessions with an expert every couple of weeks so a bit of a bargain.
you do know not to buy ssd's or ram from apple don't you.
do not buy an non thunderbolt mac refurb, waste of money and limiting future connectivity and less oomph for editing.
If you know anyone flying abroad in the next few weeks, the 'Tax Free' at the airport is a good place to get a cheaper UK-spec MacBook (the US ones have a different keyboard layout with a small return key). I got mine there a couple of years ago, and saved about £100.
Back up and support is the same wherever you buy the machine, as the warranty is with Apple.
Not quite.
Buy from John Lewis - 2 year warranty.
Buy from Apple - 1 year warranty.
My MBP died out of the Apple warranty. I took it to the Apple store first to check whether it was something simple to repair. It wasn't - it was a new logic board, RAM and HDD.
They told me it was out of warranty, I said I had 2 years warranty with JL and they said something along the lines of "well, I suppose it's only going to end up coming back to us anyway so we might as well do it now and you can pick it up tomorrow morning, saves you having to go through John Lewis". (i don't suppose he thought about the fact that Apple would be picking up the £600 tab and not JL!!!)
I've used the JL warranty a few days before the 2 year warranty expired on another laptop and they honoured it without any question.
It's like Apple Care, but free.
Plus, there's nothing better than buying stuff from JL (beats standing in a queue with a load of hipsters at Apple 😉 )
timS
its not tax free .... i bought my ipad at the airport - standard price for the dixons travel at airport was 20 quid less than retail at apple store(on a 600 quid bit of kit)
i got it on a special with an extra 100 quid off due to it being oil week in aberdeen when i was flying
i looked into it for a while and education pricing is the best way to get it - i want a MBP or desktop mac for the mrs (whos a teacher with an aging crashing atom laptop) and will be going down the education route at birthday time - but they wouldnt do education on an ipad at the time
Refurbished section of the Apple site
+1
You can edit in a lower res, then export the final film in 1080.
Duty Free - Dixons Dublin was cheaper last time I was there, but that was 18 months ago.
@chrisdw - thats funny coz i've bought loads of apple stuff from home through the education store link and my home computer isn't on the university network.... (to the best of my knowledge)
"Nope, to gain the discounts you need to log on via the university's computer network otherwise it wont work."
when i was at uni the prices were even more favourable from within the uni`s network ....
depends which "Apple store for education" you log on to. There are three each one giving differing levels of discount. The top one you are only [i]supposed[/i] to be able to log onto from your uni network...
aye - my mrs has access to the one for teachers and its no where near as good as i remember it - but i have friends still in uni 😉
Okay, well I just had another look, didn't realise there was other stores, but you get about double the discount again if you do log on through the uni network.
£860 for the basic Mac Pro I believe. Rather than the £940 on the lower levels.
A screenshot from my home computer.... Not on the Uni network (still),
[img] 
[/img]
(Why does no-one on this place ever believe you....)
Depending on where you buy you might also get Quidco cashback for a few percent off.
Okay, I worked it out. The website uses an inviting integer, so you just modify the URL to match that of one of the university's from Apple's list.
I wasn't saying I didn't believe you. Just that I thought you were referring to the lower level of discount available.
So yes, you can do it... Tho its kinda cheating 😛
Do you get education discount in the refurb store or is it just for spanking new stuff?
Thanks guys. I ended up going for 2.3ghz i7 13" and was able to wangle 5% off rrp which I was happy enough with.
you shoulda e-mailed me....
Do you get education discount in the refurb store or is it just for spanking new stuff?
Think you get it in the refurb store too!
@jimjam, you could have had 15% off if you emailed dr_death for the URL (or me as I worked it out now too)
Think you get it in the refurb store too!
no you dont
This works
I bought a MB air using if last month. Technically I qualify as I'm studying with the OU.
Edit: and you get a free extended warranty too!
chrisdw
@jimjam, you could have had 15% off if you emailed dr_death
I needed it on the spot so had to pay full whack anyway.