Thoughts on my potential upcoming purchase(s)

[DrMacintosh]

Hello, so as 2019 is coming around the corner, that means new financial aid applications. For my specific case tuition for 2 semesters is substantially lower than the amount of aid I can get. Because of my living situation the extra money that is left over is not needed for living or travel expenses either, so I'm looking to make a few tech purchases and would some of your input

 

Options:

1. Purchase a refurbished MacBook Pro
   • 2.6GHz 6C/12T i7, Radeon Pro 560X w/4GB VRAM, 16GB DDR4, 512GB SSD 
     • Total: $2,593.16 after taxes
2. Upgrade my PC
   • Parts to be replaced: 4690K, Z97M-WiFi mITX mobo, 8GB DDR3
   • Parts to be bought: Ryzen 5 2600, MSI B450 MORTAR mATX mobo, 16GB DDR4
     • Total: $464.05
3. Upgrade to an iPhone XR
   • Total ~$800

I'm not really liking option 3 at all tbh. My 6s Plus is fine. As for option 2 it would really be nice, though my current rig is used mostly for gaming and its fine the way it is. Option 1 would give me the best performing CPU I would own, plus in Windows I can power limit the i7 in there to give the GPU its full clocks under load, making it a nice little gaming machine also. 

 

What I also must add is that I can sell my current MacBook Pro (2C/4T i5, Iris 540, 256GB SSD, 8GB RAM,  to help offset the cost. I'm not dead set on the Mac but keep in mind when suggesting alternatives that my current Mac will take about $1,000 off the price of any machine. The reason I'm wanting to upgrade my Mac is because of a lack of a dGPU. Its not the most important for what I'll be doing in College, but I do want that power on the go and this current Mac, while great at everything else, can't perform in graphically demanding workloads. Also I want more internal storage. 

 

Talk me out or talk me into anything! 

[huilun02]

Tldr; save money for stuff you actually need

[dizmo]

I'd vote for the first one but if your current laptop is fine then it's kind of a waste.

I agree with @huilun02; I'd just save the money.

I wouldn't get Ryzen 2000, I'd wait for the actual Zen 2 stuff.

[DrMacintosh]

1 hour ago, huilun02 said:

Tldr; save money for stuff you actually need

I defiantly don't need anything in the list, but I also don't need half the money that I could be getting in the next financial aid year. Hence my position.

 

1 hour ago, dizmo said:

but if your current laptop is fine then it's kind of a waste.

I'ts fine in the sense that it works for everything that isn't trying to do anything GPU intensive. Plus I'll sell this Mac which will defiantly offset the cost of anything being bought. 

[Kaita]

I used to be in the same spot (nTB MBP16, IP7, 1700X/GTX 1070) and ended up upgrading my phone because I thought "it's the thing that I use the most throughout the day", so I went ahead and got the XS. 

[huilun02]

3 minutes ago, DrMacintosh said:

I defiantly don't need anything in the list, but I also don't need half the money that I could be getting in the next financial aid year. Hence my position.

In that case go with the option (not necessarily limited to the ones you mentioned) that nets you the most improvement to quality of life. And try to limit the overall expenditure to the leftover of the aid you can get. Free stuff isn't really free if you end up being poorer.

[DrMacintosh]

1 hour ago, Kaita said:

so I went ahead and got the XS.

I would defiantly like a XS Max, but the price is a little hard for me to justify and the XR has a larger display than my 6s Plus while the XS does not. What irks me is the lack of a headphone jack on either though. 

 

Plus I mean, what can't my 6s Plus do that a XR/XS can? memoji? animoji? XD 

 

1 hour ago, huilun02 said:

And try to limit the overall expenditure to the leftover of the aid you can get

Yeah, that is defiantly a major concern. The point of the aid is to pay for 2 semesters of tuition (which is only like $1-1.3k I think) and I defiantly don't want to end up not having enough to pay for school by spending too much of it. 

 

1 hour ago, Max_Settings said:

-snip-

Are you sure :3 

[Kaita]

4 minutes ago, DrMacintosh said:

I would defiantly like a XS Max, but the price is a little hard for me to justify and the XR has a larger display than my 6s Plus while the XS does not. What irks me is the lack of a headphone jack on either though. 

 

Plus I mean, what can't my 6s Plus do that a XR/XS can? memoji? animoji? XD 

Animoji and Memoji suck imo Sure they're fun for like an hour but then you're probably never using it again. I got mine for the OLED display, FaceID, Wireless charging etc just to satisfy the nerd inside. 

[huilun02]

5 minutes ago, DrMacintosh said:

Plus I mean, what can't my 6s Plus do that a XR/XS can? memoji? animoji? XD 

It cant be easily unlocked against your will, if you happen to be kidnapped by baddies or apprehended by the police

[Mr.Meerkat]

Hehe, I'm in a similar situation as in how much student loan+bursaries I'm able to get however, unlike your situation, I have a hobby that gobbles monies faster than a SR-71 can do a lap around the earth: flying. Considering all the training I'll need to go commercial would be in the neigbourghood of £100K (CPL, ME-IR, APC-MCC, type rating ect.), I guess it shouldn't be surprising that my excess/flying bank account usually sits on nada after the second week of the month . 

 

Anyway, is there anything that interests you? Maybe a fixed-term saving account? Or...just save it for a rainy day? Emergencies are unpredictable so its never a bad idea to be prepared. 

[DrMacintosh]

2 minutes ago, Mr.Meerkat said:

Maybe a fixed-term saving account? Or...just save it for a rainy day?

What I planed to do with anything I had left over was just to keep it for anything that might come up. Maybe we haven't gone to the store to puck up food I can cook, I could just stop by and pick up a pizza from my local shop or something. 

 

Sadly though it would appear that Apple was just cleared out of their 2018 refurbs  

 

There are a few months until I even know if I got approved for aid, so by then there should be better deals and more stock. Its really no rush. 

[Mr.Meerkat]

3 minutes ago, DrMacintosh said:

What I planed to do with anything I had left over was just to keep it for anything that might come up. Maybe we haven't gone to the store to puck up food I can cook, I could just stop by and pick up a pizza from my local shop or something. 

 

Sadly though it would appear that Apple was just cleared out of their 2018 refurbs  

 

There are a few months until I even know if I got approved for aid, so by then there should be better deals and more stock. Its really no rush. 

May I ask, why are you in such a desperate rush to spend it? You could always save it up and although it may not be that much, it is still a decent start to a deposit towards a future house or maybe a car. If it wasn't for my flying and investing towards my dream job, all my excess monies would actually be slapped into something called a "help to buy ISA" which have absolutely superb interest rates and the Scottish government would also give you an additional 25% of whatever the number is on your saving account. Try thinking about the future rather than just this very moment. 

[DrMacintosh]

9 minutes ago, Mr.Meerkat said:

Try thinking about the future rather than just this very moment. 

FAFSA money is intended for the very moment and for "education expenses only" aka housing, books, computers, etc. Its not like they give you straight cash, sometimes they do, sometimes they don't. 

[Mr.Meerkat]

21 hours ago, DrMacintosh said:

FAFSA money is intended for the very moment and for "education expenses only" aka housing, books, computers, etc. Its not like they give you straight cash, sometimes they do, sometimes they don't. 

...well if you have leftover monies and if they don't check how you spend it, does it really matter whether you spend it now or in a couple years time?