Needing some Macbook advise please

stickroad

stickroad

stickroad

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Hello everyone, at the moment i have a desktop pc, it consists of a Intel E2140, 2GB of Memory and a ATI X1950XT Graphics Card along with a Dell Ultrasharp 2407WFP 24" Widescreen LCD Monitor.

To tell you the truth all i ever use the system for is MSN, browsing the internet and college work. I dont play game's at all so this is why i am considering selling the whole system and buying lovely, beautiful Macbook. :p

Macbook.

The Macbook i am looking at is the 13-inch: White 2.0GHz. Main Spec's are as follow's.

http://store.apple.com/Apple/WebObj...co=7B723643&node=home/shop_mac/family/macbook

Model - 13-inch: White 2.0GHz

Price - £699.00

Processor - 2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo 4MB shared L2 cache

Display - 13.3-inch (viewable) glossy widescreen 1280 x 800 pixels

Memory - 1GB (two SO-DIMMs) Option: Up to 2GB

Hard drive - 80GB Serial ATA, 5400rpm

Optical drive - 24x Combo drive (DVD-ROM/CD-RW)

Graphics - Intel GMA 950 graphics processor with 64MB of DDR2 SDRAM shared with main memory

(Sorry about writing it all out, not quite sure of the exact model number)

Right just a few question's now.

The Macbook i have listed above, would it be worth considering changing the Memory from 1GB to 2GB, taking into account what i will be using it for? (MSN, Browsing the Internet and College work)

People with a Macbook that has the Hard Disk Space of 80GB, do you find this is enough for yourself or is it worth getting a 120GB Hard Drive?

Taking note of what i have said above, would you say the next model up, the 13-inch: White 2.16GHz is worth considering or isn't it really worth the extra for what i will be using this for?

People that have gone from a Desktop system to a Macbook, how have you found it, was it the best thing you ever done or do you have some regrets about it?

Thank's for everyone's time, look forward to hearing your replie's. Thank you. :)
 
It depends on what college work is. If its just word processing then the above model should be fine for you.

I just bought my wife the model above and it runs everything fine. As for storage, I bought an external HD so I can keep all my files and still have a portable computer when I need it (can't remember the last time I needed for all my films to be portable)
 
stickroad said:
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That spec would be perfect for your use, nice small screen, light laptop and stylish :)

Don't worry about upgrading the RAM to 2Gb or upgrading the CPU to the 2.16Ghz, as you will see little improvement performance wise in what you are doing.

As said before 80Gb should be fine, although when you say college work, if it is a lot of saving etc, then 120Gb may be better.

Hope that helps.
 
Thank's for the replie's TheKnat and Justin.

Im pretty set on the Macbook i have listed above, just not quite sure about the Hard Drive yet.

My work for college isnt demanding to say the least so 80GB should actually be fine.

People that have a Macbook, with all your program's installed, how much disk space have you got left (If you dont mind me asking)? :)
 
I split my HD for OS X and Windows Vista. I have 25GB left on my OSX partition and 5GB left on my Windows partition.

Bear in mind I stream most of my music from my iMac which is always on (folding@home) so the demands on my MacBook hard drive arent massive, but I have all the apps I want. Besides, installing a larger hard drive is easy.

Personally, I would go for 2GB (buy your own, dont make it a build to order option) because I think the more ram the better. 1GB well generally be fine for your use though.

Aside from that, you've made a good choice. I've had my MacBook nearly 12 months and its probably been the best laptop I've ever owned.
 
Thank's theheyes.

One last thing, how easy is it to reinstall OSX and does the Macbook ship with all the necessary installation discs etc?

Thanks again.
 
stickroad said:
Thank's theheyes.

One last thing, how easy is it to reinstall OSX and does the Macbook ship with all the necessary installation discs etc?

Thanks again.
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It comes with the OS X install disks.

It is extremely easy to install OS X :) Everything is simple with Mac.
 
I have to disagree with others, get the 2GB if you can at all (obviously get it yourself rather than the built to order option). OS X is a bit of memory whore to be honest and I doubt a new version coming up will reduce that any, so the more memory the better....

alternatively I guess you can fit it any time so you could wait and see how it goes with 1GB first, but I think you'll want 2GB sooner rather than later..
 
stickroad said:
Hey anewbe4u, what's the difference exactly comapraed to the standard combo drive?

Is it just, with the superdrive you can write your own cd/dvd's?

Thanks Justin.

Oh man, cant wait till i get one of these. :D
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Hiya mate.

Yup, thats pretty much it, I find DVD backup pretty usefull though. Also like to burn films :o

I love my Macbook. I have just ordered 2gb ram off OcUK, I currently have 1gb, its fast but I want it faster!
 
I have the superdrive but the combo drive still burns CDs, just not DVDs. And to be honest, I can count on one hand how many DVDs I've burnt in my life and if the need ever did arise I'd use my desktop. Its something to consider.

Try it with 1GB, I found 1GB fine for me with similar usage to you but the RAM is such a cheap upgrade I couldnt resist. If you do upgrade, be sure to keep the old RAM sticks handy in case you have to return it for whatever reason. :)
 
Well with a student discount i can either get the Macbook i listed in my first post for £694.43, that's with a 120GB Hard Drive instead of a 80GB Hard Drive.

Or i could get the 13-inch: White 2.16GHz that come's with a 120GB Hard Drive already but also comes with the Superdrive for £779.03. :)
 
Well it depends what you want to do?

The extra cpu speed doesn't make a huge difference to be honest. Do you want to burn dvd's? Do you download things you like to watch on your tv. If you do then a dvd drive is pretty important. If you don't plan on burning many dvd's stick with your original plan.
 
Well, i've got a mac mini and a macbook at the moment and the macbook was the best purchase ive made recently. i really never use the mini at all unless as a download box, as although its got a bigger screen (19" TFT), i realised how much i hate having to sit in one place. Thats the biggest plus for me.

I just upgraded from 1gb to 2gb. To be honest, although istat says its using more ram, i only notice a very small speed increase. Although worth it at the mo with the low ram prices, so i'd do it. I dont have a superdrive in the macbook, but i do in the mini, but i hardly use it (in fact, im going to sell the mini and buy an external dvdrw, problem solved as i dont need a dvdrw with me everywhere i go). Oh, if your going to run any virtual machines through vmware or parallels, 2gb is a must. 1gb is horrible to run xp or vista on, 2gb is smooooooth!

The macbook has 120gb, which is just the right size. i run a 10gb Vista partition, with XP on VMWare Fusion, download a bit and still have tons of gbs left. i have 80gb on the mini, although thats fine, as i have an external hd, if it was my main machine and i didnt have an external hd, it would be too small. i'd go for 80gb and buy a 500gb external, for the money you save to up the macbook to 120 if you dont already have an external.

Trust me, youll love the macbook! Pros and cons for all specs, depends if you can afford it in one go. If you can, cool, if not, add ram later and buy an external dvdrw later :) even upgrade that hd to a 250gb later if you find 80gb is too little! :)
 
If you want to save even more, just get the base spec MacBook and upgrade it yourself.

By getting a bigger hard drive and more RAM elsewhere you'll save yourself Apple's ridiculous prices, but the best thing is you could get the MacBook on education discount WITH A FREE iPOD NANO and save even more!!

http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Mac/MacBook/86

Here's the guide showing you how to change the Hard drive and RAM.. as you can see, it's soo easy.

http://store.apple.com/Apple/WebObjects/ukInd

Here's the link to the Apple store for Students, to show you roughly what you'll save, although to get an exact price you'll want to call 0800 039 1010.

Any other questions just ask! :)
 
Brilliant, thank's for the replie's. :D

At the moment, im leaning towards the 13-inch: White 2.16GHz, mainly becuase of the Superdrive, which i would find usefull.

EVH, thank's for the links. The base spec Macbook doesn't come with a Superdrive does it?

If not, im guessing their really isnt much point trying to find one and changing it? :)

Where about's can you find the Hard Drive's that you can put into the Macbook, cant seem to find any on OCUK?

One last thing, you said you get a free iPod with the discount, how does it actually work?
 
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