MacBook or MacBook Pro?

sticks-stones

sticks-stones

sticks-stones

Associate
Joined
8 Feb 2004
Posts
672
Hi guys. I'm sorry to be a pain. My Dad wants to get either a MacBook or a MacBook Pro as his chief work laptop. His work mainly consists of general wordprocessing, spreadsheets, Office-type stuff. But he would need it to run Windows.

Would a MacBook cope with this fine? Or should he opt for a MacBook Pro? For what he would use it for, would there be a noticeable/worthwhile difference between the two machines?

Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks and rgds.
 
Nope, no discernable difference at all for his requirements apart from the higher resolution of the screen on the Pro as more 'screen real estate' is *always* better isn't it :)

It's a big price difference to pay for a just few more pixels however, unless he really doesn't like the MacBooks' glossy screen as the more traditional matte screen surface is only available on the MacBook Pro.
 
The main spec differences between the MacBook and the Pro are the discrete graphics and the increased screen size. That and the obvious asthetic differences.

The MacBook will be upto running office apps just fine (it's probably overkill to be honest).
 
been using my macbook pro with windows on it for about 2/3 weeks now. Absolutely loving it, it also runs very well. Have been using it for playing battlefield 2 , hl2 and various games such as that. For what you say it would make much more sense for your dad to get a standard macbook as im sure he doesnt intend to use it for games. Installing windows is a pretty simple process , you just download bootcamp from the apple website and it runs you through the process simple as pie , includes instructions and such and makes it really easy
 
ah thanks guys :) thinking of the basic macbook, with 1gb ram and 80gb HD. is there much point in getting the 2.0ghz intel over the 1.83?

re: playing the games (bf2, hl2 etc), out of pure interest, how does the mackbook pro fair? do they look gd, play well?
 
sticks-stones said:
ah thanks guys :) thinking of the basic macbook, with 1gb ram and 80gb HD. is there much point in getting the 2.0ghz intel over the 1.83?
Click to expand...

Only that the 2.0Ghz model has a DVD writer instead of CD writer in the low end model.. is that and the extra speed worth £150 extra ? In my opinion he wouldn't notice the speed difference in office apps so it really comes down to whether he needs to burn DVDs or not ?
 
Why buy a MacBook if your #1 priority is to run Windows? I'm not bashing MacBooks but they aren't the answer to every laptop question ever asked. If it's a job thing and Windows is a requirement, you'll be much better served with a Dell Latitude and a decent CompleteCare package for it.
 
Last edited:
Caged said:
Why buy a MacBook if your #1 priority is to run Windows? I'm not bashing MacBooks but they aren't the answer to every laptop question ever asked. If it's a job thing and Windows is a requirement, you'll be much better served with a Dell Latitude and a decent CompleteCare package for it.
Click to expand...

I do see your point. They are not the answer to everything. I think he just fancies a change. He'll use OSX mainly, just wants the reassurance of Windows there too.

Also, I've had my iBook nigh on 2yrs now and never had a problem with it. Has never crashed, everythings been plug n play etc. I think he just wants that.
 
Point him towards Parallels (look at the many threads on it here), it's far more convenient than having to reboot into windows. :)
 
boot camp is free, but you have to pay for parallels $49.99 I believe

but a macbook should be fine for running windows and doing basic office tasks such as word processing and spreadsheets
 
How does Parallels run on the 1.83ghz with 1gb RAM though? I'd loive to be able to use it on my machine (i only use Windows for .NET dev), but i'm not at all convinced it'll be fast enough, compared to BootCamp.
 
I only have 512meg assigned to my virtual window running vs.net and I find it fine to work on, and OSX zips along happily in the background. I combine it with Virtue Desktops and have OSX on the 'middle' screen with full screen RDP to home to the left, and parallels full screen for doing the odd bit of work on the other :)

I did an extremly poor quality vid here of the whole schebang in action:

http://www.zenadsl2430.zen.co.uk/images/switch.3gp

There's a trial version of parallels; so if you have a spare hour or so I'd recommend shoving it on, installing XP and seeing what you think. Just make sure you install the parallels tools on XP though or it will feel horribly sluggish.
 
Can Windows through Parallel's see my Mac drive? Are there any restrictions network wise? Or will it just act like a nother computer on the network?
 
stuppy said:
Can Windows through Parallel's see my Mac drive? Are there any restrictions network wise? Or will it just act like a nother computer on the network?
Click to expand...

You setup shared folders in parallels that appear as drives in the guest OS. And network wise you can either have it so it can only connect to the host machine, or bridged with the host's network adapter so it appears as a separate machine on the network.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom