Sorry to ask again... but need to be sure

Pablo72

Pablo72

Pablo72

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13 Oct 2006
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756
OK... as a total noob to Macs, I'm now having some commitment issues on which mac to plump for.

Just a quick question. As I am now not too bothered about playing games on my MacBook Pro, should I just go for a MacBook, and stick 2 gig of ram in?

I'll be using the thing mainly for internet/mail/word processing/downloading photos and MP3's, and very rare instances of watching the odd movie. Would the additional gig of ram help all the above, or should I stick to my guns and go for the MacBook Pro, with the graphics card?

Help, you wise old birds!
 
I was going through this dilemma last week...

some points to bear in mind:

• if you look at benchmark results (and i scoured the internet for these!) performance-wise the macbook suprisingly is only a bee's dick behind the macbook pro for most purposes bar gaming and 3d work (to the point in fact i hightly doubt you'd be able to tell) - in fact, on some of the processor calculation tests it beat the mbp!

• you can upgrade the hdd on a macbook, not a mbp (i.e. a nice 7200rpm hitachi or summat).

• its a LOT cheaper.

• (i think) it looks better.

• i didn't need the big screen as it is spending most of its time plugged into a 22" samsung monitor.

so... guess what i got :) none of the mcp's advantages really appealed to me, except the graphics card, but i aint paying 600 odd quid for a graphics card ;)
 
As said by Quicksilver,

MBP has it's own niche of appeal with the bonus of a bigger screen, a dedicated graphics and some trimmings (Xpress Card, Firewire 800 e.t.c.) you may like over the MacBook.

IMO, the MacBook pro's (the 15" variety) greatest rival is the MacBook itself.

If what you've listed there is what you'll be doing 99.99%, save the bucks, get the Bog standard MacBook + RAM Upgrades + HDD Upgrade (check around MM For Sale, Ryan sells some cracking SATA HDD 2.5").

Mac Loves RAM, if you can afford it, max out the RAM (or go at least 2GB) for a much faster smoother system when running lots and lots of processes - I'm on 2GB and I'm running Safari, iWorks, iPhoto, iWeb, Azureus and iTunes at once and there's still enough head room for me to run VMWare XP at 512MB RAM without, IMO, feeling sluggish
 
One other thing.

If I go for a MacBook with 1 Gig of Ram... can I upgrade to 4 gig, and what type of ram do I need to get?

Cheers
 
Justin said:
Yep, 4GB is the max.

Avoid upgrading through Apple like the plague.

Buy this kit, very good price and quality :)
Click to expand...
+1

thats the kit i bought (not arrived yet tho), its supposed to be just as good as the apple stuff for a good 1/4 of the price...

plus you will get the macbook next day delivery if you dont change any options.

(as a side note, i have mentioned before that based on benchmarks that i saw here, if you do go to 4 gig of ram, it kindof negates the performance advantages of having a 7200rpm HDD, of course if you want to upgrade because of space thats a different matter)

see how easy upgrading the ram is here
 
A certain manufacturer has a 10% discount on (for the next two days), so you could get a 4GB set of sticks for £77 :) Bargain.
 
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