Which macbook

Bass Creator · Post by **Bass Creator** » Sat Feb 02, 2008 1:39 am

Ive been thinking the low end white... be cause all thats diffrent is 0.2 ghz
HD space(externel can be used) and dvd rw drive (I still got my pc for that)

but would a high end be wroth the 200$

Dr. KillGood · Post by **Dr. KillGood** » Sat Feb 02, 2008 2:00 am

(D)Not enough information provided.

sgtpepper · Post by **sgtpepper** » Sat Feb 02, 2008 2:54 am

Yeah I agree, you need to give us some more info about your computer usage. If you're only using it for web browsing, email, word processing, and other simple tasks, then there's no reason to upgrade. Regardless of whether you choose the $1099 or the $1299 option, keep in mind the RAM and also the hard drive (might not have known that one!) are user-replaceable and serviceable. So if you want to go with the $1099 option because you don't want the Superdrive or extra .2 GHz, then you can still upgrade the HD or RAM without having to pay Apple's admittedly overpriced upgrade costs.

I would recommend Other World Computing for all your Apple-related upgrades. They are a great company that I've been using for a couple years, and my dad has used them since 1989.

If you're going to be doing anything past web browsing and such, I would go with 2GB of RAM ($50 from OWC) and if you're doing more intensive things like photo/video editing, then I would go with 4GB ($100 from OWC).

As far as HD options, the amount of space is up to you and what you require, but keep in mind that Leopard, and all of the included software such as iLife take up about 10 GB of space (this can be trimmed down if you don't want Garageband or iDVD). If you want more than the default 80 GB, Newegg has the best HD prices around. Their best deal right now is one that I just recently purchased for a friend's Macbook - a Samsung 250GB 5200 RPM drive. On the subject of RPMs, I wouldn't go 7200 RPM unless you don't mind the decrease in battery life, and would like that extra speed in media editing!

Hope all this helps! I do a lot of consultant work with people, so I've done quite a bit of research. If you need more help, just ask!

Disclaimer: I'm not affiliated with OWC or Newegg, I'm just a nerd that likes to get a good deal

Post by **Black Six** » Sat Feb 02, 2008 9:45 am

As far as battery life goes, the 7200 RPM drive does not decrease battery life. I did research into this before I bought my MBP. A faster drive means it doesn't have to spin up to full speed as often, so even though it uses more power when it's spinning at 7200 RPM, it does it for less time than a 5400 RPM drive would.

I got the 7200 RPM drive for my MBP as get around 5.5 hours of battery life.

As far as which you should get, as was said, it all depends on what you're using it for. If you plan to use Boot Camp or Vmware Fusion or Parallels, you're better off getting the faster processor since we all know Windows is a resource hog.

Edutainment · Post by **Edutainment** » Sat Feb 02, 2008 11:37 am

Not Air. I'd just go with the Macbook (as opposed to Pro).

sgtpepper · Post by **sgtpepper** » Sat Feb 02, 2008 1:45 pm

Black Six wrote: I got the 7200 RPM drive for my MBP as get around 5.5 hours of battery life.

That's awesome! How does it compare performance-wise?

vskid · Post by **vskid** » Sat Feb 02, 2008 2:39 pm

If you were planning on installing Windows on it, I think you'd probably be better off getting a Dell XPS M1330, especially if you want to play games on it. For about $1400 you can get a 2.2GHz CPU, 3GB RAM, 160GB 7200RPM HD, 128MB GeForce 8400M GS, DVD burner, LED backlight (makes it thinner, lighter, and adds battery life), and a 9 cell battery. The cheapest MBP ($600 more than the M1330) can barely even shake a stick at that, the GPU is the only thing that is better.
So if you want a Windows machine, theres better options. I'd only get a Macbook (which are pretty nice) if you just absolutely have to have OSX (well, legally).

Bass Creator · Post by **Bass Creator** » Sat Feb 02, 2008 6:01 pm

god Iam sick of dell and tosiba and all that its just... not good..
windows slows down like crap.. Those laptop over heat the only notebook ive ever used without it failing epicly is a mac...

Dont take this the wrong way.
But i think i just wannna mac...

Post by **bicostp** » Sat Feb 02, 2008 6:13 pm

The regular MacBook should be fine for your needs. Price out the larger capacity hard drive (if you really need a lot of space on a laptop, that is), and see if it's worth the $200 to get the upgraded model. (Remember that it also comes with a burner and a slightly faster processor.) Looks like all of them come with 1 gig of RAM. It would probably be best to get the base model, and buy extra RAM from a third party vendor like NewEgg or Tiger Direct. (More RAM is always better.)

I say go for it. I've played around with some of the bundled apps and they're pretty fun, and Apple generally builds solid hardware. (There's a guy in one of my classes with one and it's held up better than most of the piece of crap Dells people bought through the school.) Plus I really like 13" laptops. They're big enough to comfortably use without feeling like you've got a Monopoly board on your lap.

The only thing is that it has Intel integrated graphics, so most big games will be out of the question. (Older stuff should have no problem.)

Do these have TV-out capabilities? TV out on laptops is great for impromptu emulator sessions at friends' houses.

vskid · Post by **vskid** » Sat Feb 02, 2008 6:51 pm

Not that a Mac isn't a good choice, but not all other laptops are crap. My dad's Toshiba Tecra M5 took a 5 foot drop to concrete while open and running, killed the hard drive (would've happened with almost any laptop), but everything else still works (just some cosmetic damage). It has a Centrino Duo @1.8GHz and 1.5GB of RAM, it runs cool as ice on the "optimized cooling" setting. Really, a N64 probably runs hotter.

Edutainment · Post by **Edutainment** » Sat Feb 02, 2008 8:24 pm

vskid wrote:took a 5 foot drop to concrete while open and running, killed the hard drive

The Macbook's hard drive locks up when it senses it's falling so even if the laptop doesn't work, you can salvage your data.

vskid · Post by **vskid** » Sat Feb 02, 2008 8:38 pm

Edutainment wrote:
vskid wrote:took a 5 foot drop to concrete while open and running, killed the hard drive
The Macbook's hard drive locks up when it senses it's falling so even if the laptop doesn't work, you can salvage your data.

So did my dad's laptop's. Its even pretty sensitive, bump the side and the little icon in the tasktray would change to the locked symbol. Problem is, when the laptop was sitting on an engine, which got turned on as he went outside to take a call, the poor thing probably doesn't know what the crap is happening. I bet it though it was all clean when it fell off, because the vibration stopped. The hard drive was still alive enough for my dad's documents to be recovered, but it wouldn't boot XP. Turned out that the part made to take a fall was the only one that died, which says something about the quality of the machine itself.

Bass Creator · Post by **Bass Creator** » Sat Feb 02, 2008 9:13 pm

meh For 0.2 and some other reasons iam gonna get the high end...

Post by **Black Six** » Sat Feb 02, 2008 9:35 pm

sgtpepper wrote:
Black Six wrote: I got the 7200 RPM drive for my MBP as get around 5.5 hours of battery life.
That's awesome! How does it compare performance-wise?

Compare to the 5400 RPM one? I wouldn't know from experience, but from what I read there can be a noticeable improvement when booting up and opening larger files.

Jongamer · Post by **Jongamer** » Sat Feb 02, 2008 9:47 pm

Honestly I can give less than a shi* about macs

Yeah I am really helping arnt I. *sarcastic*

*Raises FLAME sheild*