A few more Questions From a future mac convert

[Blueprint]

Just thought of a few more things I would like to ask you guys

I’ll make it easy and just put them in bullet points

Do they hold there value or depreciate just as fast as PC’s – the reason I ask is because I tend to update every 2 years or so and would want to sell my previous system?

I was under the impression that only the MBP got very hot and that the MB stayed at a medium temperature but after reading a few threads on here its put me in doubt some say they get as hot if not hotter then the MBP and some say they don’t, is anyone able to clear this up for me because I want a laptop I can actually sit in my lap without roasting my nuts!

How good is the wireless network card in the MB, at the moment I have a Broadcom 802.11g Network Adapter in my laptop and a Solwise Sar-600EW Router with a 7dBi Aerial attached and I still can go much further then 10 meters from it or I get no signal, is my problem with the network card or the router?

I’m looking to buy at the release of Leopard but will I need to purchase an external hard drive so I can use things like Time machine? Or can I make an area for it on my existing hard drive?

I also have a large music collection my my existing PC, is there any fast way to transfer this to my new macbook or would it be easier for me to transfer my brothers music collection from his MBP to my new MB (we have the same music taste). And by fast I mean faster then having to put each CD in and save it all to iTunes again?

Is the Black casing on the Black MB robust or as poor quality as the black nano I got a few years back which is more a collection of scratches and marks instead of a black casing?

I noticed that Mac’s come with a program called iCal, can I set things like reminders that will “pop up” when I turn my mac on?

I also own a Sennheiser USB headset, will this work with my new macbook or should I start looking at new ones – and if so which?

I also use a Ideazon Reaper Gaming mouse, will this work with the mac or is it only windows compatible?

Well that’s about it for now

Looking forward to your replies
/Blue

 

[BenHoleton]

Alright. lots of questions. I'll answer the ones I know and let someone else tackle the rest.

They hold their value rather well. I am selling a 15 mo old iBook that all I did to it was add an extra 512 stick of ram (bringing the total to 1 gb) for 75% of what I paid for it ($750 from $1,000.)

As long as you are not doing a lot of huge processing work, the mbp does not get terribly hot. My wife has a 17" C2D MBP that I use and it doesn't get very hot at all. Can't speak for the MB.

The networking card in the MBP (same one as the MB) is great. No issues what-so-ever. I can get a signeal down a flight of stairs and around a couple corners. I am, however, using a Airport Express base station.

Buy an external hard drive anyway. You can get them rather inexpensively. I use a 250 gb Fantom Drive I got from Macmall for $99 plus a $20 mail in rebate. It's a great, reliable drive. Just make sure you get one with firewire.

You should just be able to save the iTunes library to a disk and transfer to your new Mac. Although I have never owned a PC, so I do not know 100%

The new blackbook casing is more robust than the old nano casing. I have a friend with a blackbook he uses for work, and no issues with it

Yes

No idea

No idea

Welcome to Mac!

 

[Hmac]

Just thought of a few more things I would like to ask you guys


I’m looking to buy at the release of Leopard but will I need to purchase an external hard drive so I can use things like Time machine? Or can I make an area for it on my existing hard drive?

I also have a large music collection my my existing PC, is there any fast way to transfer this to my new macbook or would it be easier for me to transfer my brothers music collection from his MBP to my new MB (we have the same music taste). And by fast I mean faster then having to put each CD in and save it all to iTunes again?

Is the Black casing on the Black MB robust or as poor quality as the black nano I got a few years back which is more a collection of scratches and marks instead of a black casing?

I noticed that Mac’s come with a program called iCal, can I set things like reminders that will “pop up” when I turn my mac on?

I also own a Sennheiser USB headset, will this work with my new macbook or should I start looking at new ones – and if so which?

I also use a Ideazon Reaper Gaming mouse, will this work with the mac or is it only windows compatible?

Well that’s about it for now

Looking forward to your replies
/Blue

The Reaper mouse is Windows-only. IMHO the Logitech G5 gaming mouse is a better mouse, but it's about twice the price. The G5 works great with Mac.

Don't buy an external hard drive...buy a hard drive enclosure and put the bare drive of your choice in it. Far more bang-for-buck.

There are many, many ways to transfer your itunes library from PC to mac. Here's a google search.... I just did that, having ditched my 3 PCs for one Mac Pro. It leaves playlists and everything intact. Then I reformatted the iPod for Mac. Likewise, transferring document files from the PC to the Mac was absolutely simple over my home network. The Mac connected to the PC easily...the whole excercise was just drag-and-drop.

 

[Dustman]

Just thought of a few more things I would like to ask you guys .... Looking forward to your replies
/Blue

All laptops get too hot in my opinion, but from the little that i've used apple notebooks, they've all seemed just fine to sit on top of your lap without any permanent damage to sensitive areas. Also, it might be an idea to get something to put between you and the laptop, like a large book or something, just so your legs arent making it acheive the temperatures 1/3 the core temperature of the sun.

Can't answer your wireless question, because my router just plain sucks and it'd be a biased answer

You could probably just partition the notebook's HD so you could use time machine, but, i'd really suggest getting an external Firewire drive. USB drives would work too, but you'd be wasting a usb port, and the speeds arent as impressive.

For the music collection, you could always transfer the music via your wireless router, or if you can't get that to work, use an iPod as an external HD or something in that nature. If you were to transfer the music from your brother's mac, yes, it'd be easier because you can plug two macs together directly with a firewire cable and then do the transfer.

The finish on the "Blackbook" is very sleek (in my opinion) and unlike the previous generation iPod Nano's, it doesnt scratch very easy at all.

Not sure if iCal pops up stuff like that when you start your computer, but OS X also comes with a program called "Stickies" which are sticky notes (not physically) that pop up every time you start your computer and they just kinda sit there in the background (like the real thing) until you delete the note or whatever.

Not sure about the headset, try google if no one here knows.

As for the mouse, even if OS X doesnt support it, 9/10 of the features will probably still work anyway and at the very least, you will just have a very expensive, basic functioning mouse. That being said, google will probably find you some OS X based drivers to get your mouse goin.

Enjoy having a Mac. I'm using a 5 year-old iMac G3 right now (with heavily upgraded ram and HD) and it runs beauuuutifully. It's been so nice not having to worry about spyware, adware and ***** like that. I love being able to surf a virus ridden site, (and purposely download a virus if i wanted to) and it would have no effect on my mac. heck it wont even run on a mac. Again, congratulations on joining the mac world in the near future.