Advise for Purchasing a Mac at UNT

Here is a fun one. People call me asking for insight into the purchase
process for a Mac at UNT. The first thing I ask, is this purchase for
yourself or for your department. The reason I ask is because there are
two slightly different methods you will need to use depending on the
purchase.

If you do not know, Apple has setup an online presence for UNT
students/faculty/staff to purchase products for their personal use or
for their institutional use. There are two main points that I like to
bring up in either case, and that is how much RAM you will add, where
you will get the RAM, and Apple Care.

Apple Care

I always suggest that people buy Apple Care, though it is a few
extra bucks, it will be worth it's weight in gold if you have to take
it in for repair after the first year, namely years 2 and 3. If this is
a personal purchase, then I say get the Apple Care. If this is an
institutional purchase, then YOU MUST buy Apple Care, though you need
to know this detail.

UNT's Micromaintenance Division is a licensed Apple repair facility,
and UNT has a special "Parts Only" AppleCare license. When you make an
institutional purchase from Apple, you must select the proper "Parts
Only" AppleCare plan for your machine.

Apple has in its online education purchase experience, two sites set up
for Personal and Institutional purchases. Though the prices are the
same, what you will discover is that the "Parts Only" AppleCare only
appears if you go the iinstitutional purchase route. It will often be
the mistake of the purchaser who doesn't make this distinction, to
purchase the full Parts and Service AppleCare agreement at a
substantial price increase.

When you make an institutional purchase, go to this site to access the UNT Apple Store:
http://store.apple.com/AppleStore/WebObjects/HEDCustom?qprm=400634

You will notice in the top right hand portion of the window, a box
named "Special Products", just below the link for reccommended systems.
Under "Special Products" you will find the listing for the parts only
AppleCare. Select the plan that accompanies your computer model and add
it to your cart. At this point you are on your way.

For personal purchases, visit Apple online at http://store.apple.com/us_edu_45469.

Complete your purchase as normal.

RAM

RAM (memory) is super cheap right now, yet Apple does ask more for
its RAM than do other vendors. RAM is considered to be a user
serviceable part, and Apple gives directions in the user manual of the
machines it sells on how to upgrade and install more RAM. I would say
though, that before you install RAM, be sure you have at least read the
directions and understand what you are doing.

As of this writing, Apple is selling 4GB of RAM (2x2GB) withtheir iMac
for $180. OWC (Other World Computing www.macsales.com) is selling their
4GB (2x2GB) kit for $107, a difference of $73. OWC has been a top Apple
upgrade center for as long as I can remember, and I have been a
satisfied customer of their for many years now. All my personal Mac
have always ran OWC RAM, which come with a lifetime guarantee and meets
or exceeds Apple specs for RAM.

Before I'm accused of advertising for this one vendor, I would point
out that there are the other usual suspects when it comes to buying RAM
such as CDW, The Apple Store, EggHead, etc. I've had great experiences
with all these vendors, though I personally find that OWC has a ton of
upgrades at great prices, and all in one place. I've had the
opportunity to visit with them personally at MacWorld and these guys
really know their stuff.

I will say that if you do not want to be bothered with installing RAM,
and do not want to pay someone to install it for you, then I would
heartily suggest that you load up your machine when you purchase it,
and let Apple worry about it. If you make your purchase through the UNT
bookstore, then you will have to make the upgrade yourself, as they
only sell base models in popular configurations.

In my department, most everyone who has an Apple computiner have all
purchased their RAM through OWC. If you plan on outfitting your
department with Macs this coming year, then you might want to think
about the savings 10 or 20 machines would have.

If you are making a personal purchase, $73 could buy you a great steak dinner.

Jason