$5000 interest-free financing ... which Mac hardware would you buy?

[robklurfield]

Apple has an interest free credit card through Barclays. Nice high credit limit. My eight-year old Macbook pro's display just died. The PC my company gave me is a piece crap. My wife is actually encouraging me to spend some money (I think the real wife has been kidnapped by space aliens and that this woman in my house is a pod-person).

I'm thinking about a Macbook Pro Retina 15-inch with memory upgrade PLUS a large-screen monitor (maybe Apple's own 27-inch Thunderbolt Cinema).

I spend 8-15 hours a day on a computer between work (I do marketing consulting with heavy-duty writing and phone work; the phone is over a VPN -- Shoretel -- that needs to run off a computer), photo scanning, light photo editing mostly via Aperture with a little bit of PSE (look at my gallery postings; does it look as though I do any editing at all???), and the usual internet goofing off (hanging out here).

I would like to start doing some printing on my much-ignored Epson Photo 2200. I do lots of scanning with an Epson V700. I've got thousands of images stored on a 1-terabyte LaCie drive and most of those backed up to Flickr.

Any suggestions from those of you who are technical wizards?

Other ancillaries I'm considering: magic mouse, wireless apple keyboard (I'm completely addicted to a twelve-yr old Microsoft ergo keyboard; hard to type fast on a tradition keyboard anymore).

I'm looking to buy something that I can live with for six to eight years (again) if I need to.

 

[Roger Hicks]

Interest free for how long?

Cheers,

R.

 

[robklurfield]

Roger, 12 months if the purchase is $1000 or more; six months if it's for less than $1000

Interest free for how long?

Cheers,

R.

 

[splitimageview]

Rob, being a long-time Mac user, what you listed above is a great combination. The Thunderbolt display is a bit pricey compared to the plethora of cheap, plastic-framed Asian displays, but it has all the major ports on it (separately such devices are $250-$350) so it doubles as a dock; and the display itself is gorgeous and much better than the cheapies. One cable from the laptop to the display, and all your external devices can plug into the display. So if you need to take the MBP with you, just unplug one cable. I'd get at least 4GB of RAM, and the largest SSD you'll think you'll need over the next few years. Good luck.

PS>I like the idea of wireless keyboards/mice but they never seem to work that well for me...bluetooth connections have been too flaky. So I use wired...but that's easy, they can plug permanently into the display.

Also, get your desk space back with one of these: http://twelvesouth.com/products/bookarc/

 

[robklurfield]

Robert, thanks for the tips. My thinking exactly re the price/value issue with the Thunderbolt. It's expensive, but it does save on all those other do-dads (some of which aren't even market-ready yet). I'm thinking of maxing out the memory, but maybe not maxing the SSD (it's way more costly for that upgrade than the memory). Good tip on the wireless versus wired. Reminds me of frustration when I last tried wireless years ago (pre-Bluetooth). I was also already thinking about bookarc. Thanks!

For some reason, I am terrified of pulling the trigger to spend the money. I guess that's a function of knowing I'll be living with my choice AGAIN for many years. Anyway, I did put this off while waiting for the retina/SSD combo to come out (thanks to macrumors.com). Not much reason to wait any longer.

 

[splitimageview]

One way you might save some $$ is to get a third party SSD.

http://dealmac.com/OCZ-256-GB-Vertex-4-2.5-SATA-6-Gbps-Internal-SSD-for-180-6-s-h/603812.html

 

[robklurfield]

Pulled the trigger yesterday. Used my wife (who teaches) to get the education discount. Save a few hundred that way. Apple is funny. They are shipping each item separately on different days, different carriers. I have eight or nine different tracking numbers. Keyboard one day, mouse another day, etc. I suppose it works out for them somehow in terms of economics (JIT shipping, etc.), but what an odd way to do business. Of course, the item that will ship dead last is this the damned computer itself. Nuts.