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aluminum 2.0 macbook or white 2.1???

C

cjsmx65

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 29, 2008
21
0
PA
sorry if this has been asked before but im new here:D I am currently trying to decide between a new aluminum macbook 2.0 or the white 2.1 for $999. price isnt much of an issue. it will be mostly used for papers written for school some minor video editing and needs to contain a rather large library of songs on itunes. Thank you in advance. Oh and the laptop would be purchased at Best Buy.
 
Agreed, I can't emphasize it enough.

Saying it's sexy is true, but that's not the only advantage of aluminium. It's more scratch resistant, better build quality (no gracks, a lot stronger) and of course, the big deal: thinner and lighter (a fair bit at that).

Upgraded processor and video card will come in handy also.
 
The white one will do you just fine. Although the newer revisions are better computers, there's also a significant price gap. Based on the power for the price seeing as to what you'll be doing with it, the difference for the money is a lot more than negligible. The more expensive one won't really be giving you any advantage in terms of computing power for the aforementioned tasks.
 
thanks for the replies. i have another question. my only concern is will the aluminum be way more than i need? i said price isnt an issue because i can afford both but that aluminum one is $300 more. is the performance difference that much greater and worth the $300 more? again thanks for all of the help. and i also forgot to mention that i would like to keep this laptop through the rest of high school and college
 
cjsmx65 said:
is the performance difference that much greater and worth the $300 more?
Click to expand...
No, you really won't see a performance difference for the tasks that you mentioned. The build quality of the aluminum ones seems to be worse than the current white ones; I haven't really heard any quality issues with the latter.
 
I was in your exact same shoes this past friday and I went with the Alum macbook. Reasons?

1: hard drive space
2: memory
3: LED Screen...this was a big reason, I love the new screen compared to the other.
4: Graphics Card
5: wont look nearly as dirty as the white one over time and not plastic!
6: just looks a whole lot sexier!!
 
They are both wonderful machines and will do pretty much everything you need to do. It's up to you if you want to spend the extra or not.
 
I have owned both the previous white 2.2Ghz and the current aluminum 2.0Ghz. My previous one was stolen, but I got reimbursed from my insurance agency minus a $500 deductible. I went out and bought the aluminum one on release day. It was well worth it. In fact, I would gladly have paid $500 to upgrade from the white to aluminum.

I can't believe that anyone who has used both the plastic and aluminum versions could possibly say that the aluminum has worse build quality. The screen quality the same but with LED backlight. The case is rock solid instead of the creaking, cracking plastic (I had my topcase replaced once already on the plastic version). The trackpad is amazing. The speakers are actually usable instead of the tinny crap in the plastic version. By far the biggest difference is the Nvidia video. Even simply stuff like the "genie effect" on the old Macbooks wasn't smooth. On the new one, all of the video effects are silky smooth. You can watch Youtube and other flash-based video without the fan coming on full blast (or in my experience, coming on at all). Heat is almost non-existent on the aluminum. The plastic one cooked my balls even with just light use.

Aluminum all the way.
 
dcorban said:
I have owned both the previous white 2.2Ghz and the current aluminum 2.0Ghz. My previous one was stolen, but I got reimbursed from my insurance agency minus a $500 deductible. I went out and bought the aluminum one on release day. It was well worth it. In fact, I would gladly have paid $500 to upgrade from the white to aluminum.

I can't believe that anyone who has used both the plastic and aluminum versions could possibly say that the aluminum has worse build quality. The screen quality the same but with LED backlight. The case is rock solid instead of the creaking, cracking plastic (I had my topcase replaced once already on the plastic version). The trackpad is amazing. The speakers are actually usable instead of the tinny crap in the plastic version. By far the biggest difference is the Nvidia video. Even simply stuff like the "genie effect" on the old Macbooks wasn't smooth. On the new one, all of the video effects are silky smooth. You can watch Youtube and other flash-based video without the fan coming on full blast (or in my experience, coming on at all). Heat is almost non-existent on the aluminum. The plastic one cooked my balls even with just light use.

Aluminum all the way.
Click to expand...

I agree. One you try they new track pad, it's hard to go back to the older one. My wife has the whitebook and I hate using hers now lol.
 
The aluminum is the way to go. The reason for the white one still existing is because Apple needed to meet an entry level price point for "certain" customers. If price is not an issue then get the aluminum Macbook. In terms of performance you will have less bottlenecks due to the much higher system bus in the aluminum model and the faster DDR3 ram.
 
dcorban said:
The plastic one cooked my balls even with just light use.
Click to expand...

Amen to THAT! lol. I love how cool my aluminum MB runs.

That's a good point mentioned above: the new trackpad. That alone is worth the $300, IMHO. Also, since you're a student you will love the thinner, lighter aluminum MB, and the new one feels much more sturdy than the old plastic ones as well.
 
cjsmx65 said:
sorry if this has been asked before but im new here:D I am currently trying to decide between a new aluminum macbook 2.0 or the white 2.1 for $999. price isnt much of an issue. it will be mostly used for papers written for school some minor video editing and needs to contain a rather large library of songs on itunes. Thank you in advance. Oh and the laptop would be purchased at Best Buy.
Click to expand...

Aluminum
 
Aluminum.

I own the Aluminum and do some minor video editing myself. I have used a white one before and after using the Aluminum for a couple of months now, I couldn't imagine editing video on the white one. Both are capable computers; however, the video editing experience is far more enjoyable on the Aluminum's very bright display. For me, this would be enough to choose the Aluminum but there are other benefits including:

Aluminum Pros:

Faster DDR3 memory (1066MHz) vs. Slower DDR2 memory (667MHz)
Faster 1066MHz frontside bus vs. Slower 800MHz frontside bus
Capable NVIDIA GeForce 9400M vs. not capable Intel GMA X3100 graphics card

^Important for video editing^

4.5 pounds vs. 5.0 pounds
Multi-Touch trackpad vs. basic Scrolling trackpad
Unibody (sturdy) vs. non-unibody (does not last as long and cracks near edges)
Better sound (I've heard there's a small subwoofer)
Better battery life in certain situations
Runs cooler (already mentioned in other posts)
GREEN(ER)

Aluminum Cons:

No Firewire (only a con if you have firewire devices)
Requires an adapter to use a monitor/tv (both do actually)
 
MacBook08 said:
Faster DDR3 memory (1066MHz) vs. Slower DDR2 memory (667MHz)
Faster 1066MHz frontside bus vs. Slower 800MHz frontside bus
Capable NVIDIA GeForce 9400M vs. not capable Intel GMA X3100 graphics card

^Important for video editing^
Click to expand...
This is light video editing. Light video editing is more than fast enough on a rev B...
 
wow thanks for all of the answers guys. i am now leaning more towards the aluminum, before i was leaning towards the white one because i didnt see that $300 was worth aluminum casing. I have played around with both but it was about a week after the aluminum came out at a best buy and it was for maybe 3 minutes. ill try to go after new years and use both side by side. again thanks!
 
Now that you've settled on the aluminum, you need to decide if it's worth $300 for the hard drive upgrade, faster processor and backlit keyboard :D
 
Ha! i thought someone would say that but it took convincing to have my parents help me pay $1299 and i dont see another $300 happening. besides the way i see it the 2.0 already is more than i need so getting a 2.4 would be just overkill in my eyes:D
 
dcorban said:
I have owned both the previous white 2.2Ghz and the current aluminum 2.0Ghz. My previous one was stolen, but I got reimbursed from my insurance agency minus a $500 deductible. I went out and bought the aluminum one on release day. It was well worth it. In fact, I would gladly have paid $500 to upgrade from the white to aluminum.

I can't believe that anyone who has used both the plastic and aluminum versions could possibly say that the aluminum has worse build quality. The screen quality the same but with LED backlight. The case is rock solid instead of the creaking, cracking plastic (I had my topcase replaced once already on the plastic version). The trackpad is amazing. The speakers are actually usable instead of the tinny crap in the plastic version. By far the biggest difference is the Nvidia video. Even simply stuff like the "genie effect" on the old Macbooks wasn't smooth. On the new one, all of the video effects are silky smooth. You can watch Youtube and other flash-based video without the fan coming on full blast (or in my experience, coming on at all). Heat is almost non-existent on the aluminum. The plastic one cooked my balls even with just light use.

Aluminum all the way.
Click to expand...

How true................

My old plastic MacBook was a disaster,fan failed,multiple case cracks,hard drive failure, screen backlighting dimming to allmost 40% of the original brightness after 14 months.............

My unibody seems to have solved all of these issues.....

Ally all the way, i would not have a plastic Mac if it were free.....
 
I went with the Whitebook. I saw the Alum MB in person and I
was not impressed. This is my 1st Mac and to me the Whitebook is a Mac. Also I only use the laptop for the basics. Go for the Whitebook or not.
 
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