Need advice on purchasing (some type of) Mac

[struggle4progress]

1. What's the budget? What do most of the student users have? And what does "portable" mean to you?

The MacPro is probably a bit pricey for most student budgets and "portable" wouldn't be a good description of it

If "portable" just means "easily moved," the Mac Mini isn't a bad buy but it's so small it's tempting to move it while turned on -- and you're really not supposed to move it while it's turned on, since gyro forces can gimp the hard drive. But when transporting it, you need to carry the mouse, monitor, keyboard, and the Mini box itself, plus cables. The all-in-one iMac combines the screen with the computer, so transport involves fewer pieces : you haul around mouse, keyboard, and the combined monitor-computer, with fewer cables. The Mini's not nearly as sexy as the iMac, so I'd guess your students prefer iMacs to Minis as desktops. But the new iMacs are all quadcore, and that might give you guys an inappropriately powerful machine to test stuff on, when you're trying to figure out support for students with less powerful boxes

Mac seems to have discontinued the white Macbook. So if "portable" means "laptop", you probably want a Macbook Air or a 13" Macbook Pro. I'd guess the students are probably getting Macbook Airs or the low-end Macbook Pros as laptops

If I were in your position, my bottom line might be: aim low-end rather than high end, as easier on the budget and less likely to over-estimate students' computing power. So I might go for a low-end Mac Mini or Macbook Air -- or maybe even a refurbished older white Macbook