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Brother needs a laptop, thinks mac is ok. Help!

E

emoeric

macrumors member
Original poster
Jul 24, 2006
39
0
My brother is a force that seems to be hellbent on windows. This is what he is used to; an operating system that he has used his whole life. He likes the mac, but is not crazy about it. I am almost positive he could get used to the organization of the menu bars and dock if he just tried it out for a week or so. It truly is the easiest desktop system to use, and its going to get better with leopard.

Here is what he uses a PC for and wants to buy a vista laptop for:

Internet
Chatting (AIM and YAHOO)
Homework (microsoft office)
Games (World of Warcraft and Warcraft 3)
Music (very little but enjoys iTunes on PC)

Thats all he uses a PC for. I am trying to convince him that a macbook is just fine for him. Is this true? Can he do some upgrades to make it super solid and future proof for at least 2 years? He feels that he needs a laptop with 4gb of ram and a 2.2 ghz core 2 duo (among other things) to be future proof. He is not taking into consideration, size, weight, operating system maintenance (spyware and antiviruses), and the overall portability of the unit. I am suggesting a macbook (black) with 1.5 or 2gb of ram. For his purposes and with the mac environment, he will be just fine. Can anyone help explain this point to my brother? Either by personal testimony and/or recommendations/facts that would prove my point?
 
If he wants to play WoW he needs a MacBook Pro. I got my girlfriend a macbook as a gift but after she bought WoW she had to upgrade. A Macbook will handle everything except for games, and if your brother plays WoW and wants to do anythign usefull then he needs the Pro line.
 
Everything that you mentioned he wants to do will be perfectly fine 2 or more years down the road....except for gaming. The macbooks have an integrated graphic card that simply...sucks. Might I suggest a Macbook Pro? Since you were planning on getting a Blackbook with 2gb ram the cost will be pretty darn close to the base MacBook Pro. The MBP comes standard with 2gb ram and a 8600m GT 128mb graphic card, which is pretty decent and DX10 capable. WarCraft 3 will probably play fine on the macbook but I wouldn't bother with WoW.

About the learning curve you're absolutely right! Mac OSX is a easy-to-use OS and shouldn't take him longer than a week to be pretty sufficient with it.
 
I play Wow on my macbook with no problems. But the graphics card in the Pro is much better suited for gaming. I plan to get one next time around. Just wanted to let you know it's possible to run it on macbook if cost is an issue
 
emoeric said:
My brother is a force that seems to be hellbent on windows.
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I would venture to say a lot of Mac users used to be that way.

emoeric said:
This is what he is used to; an operating system that he has used his whole life.
Click to expand...

He never used DOS before Windows came out? ;)

emoeric said:
He feels that he needs a laptop with 4gb of ram and a 2.2 ghz core 2 duo (among other things) to be future proof.
Click to expand...

The RAM is overkill for what he wants to do. Has he even priced out a similar PC laptop and compared it to a MacBook?

emoeric said:
He is not taking into consideration, size, weight, operating system maintenance (spyware and antiviruses), and the overall portability of the unit. I am suggesting a macbook (black) with 1.5 or 2gb of ram. For his purposes and with the mac environment, he will be just fine. Can anyone help explain this point to my brother?
Click to expand...

Your recommendation of a MacBook sounds good for him other than the possible issues with gaming as others have pointed out. I assume you have a Mac - can you loan it to him for a few days to try out? Let him install his IM clients, games, whatever else. It doesn't take long for someone to get hooked once they open their mind to using a Mac these days.
 
But macbooks will play wow...in fact that will play games, just not the graphic intense ones..

There are plenty of youtube vids showing people playing wow. I can play it and I haven't even got the latest intel integrated graphics.
 
I think when a lot of people switch over it usually is for a reason.
When i bought a Mac i was fine with Windows but i was bored by the platform so i wanted to
change. Other people may want the added security that Mac OSX offers.

Maybe some people though can be convinced though who are happy with what they are currently using.

As been said if you own a Mac let your brother test drive your own and see if he likes it. If that is not possible
then i do recommend that he should go and test one out maybe an the Apple shop or something.

Some people after trying a Mac out will love it and prefer the software and some may prefer what they are currently using maybe because they are more used to it and do not really like a change and some may not just really care what they use it does happen.

I would definetly recommend that your brother should try one out for himself first before he buys.
 
MB or MBP, either way, get a Mac

Our son was going to buy a laptop for his freshman year at college. He never did much on the computer except the very things you are saying your brother uses the computer for. He was SOLD on buying a PC. I suggested that he stop by our local Mac retailer (Not an Apple Store). The guys there let him use a MacBook and showed him some of the things that he could do with it that he could not do on a PC laptop. He came home sold on a Mac. A month later, that's what he got and he's completely happy with it. Gaming - he does not do so I cannot speak for that. As for anything else, you can't get something better, IMO.
 
crazycat said:
If he wants to play WoW he needs a MacBook Pro. I got my girlfriend a macbook as a gift but after she bought WoW she had to upgrade. A Macbook will handle everything except for games, and if your brother plays WoW and wants to do anythign usefull then he needs the Pro line.
Click to expand...
Holy not true batman! :eek:

I play WOW on my Macbook all the time, and I haven't run into a single hitch. Unless you're a hardcore player doing huge raids, you shouldn't have a single problem.
 
4 gb of ram in a laptop isn't smart for a few reasons...1) it's prohibitively expensive for most people and 2) because most applications will work great with 2 (I could be wrong on this point, but I'm not even sure some apps support that much ram).

the mb is a great idea, but he'll be more easily convinced after test driving it first. It's hard to "describe" to someone how great OS X is as opposed to them trying to use it.
 
If hes serious about playing games on a laptop then he should definately not get a macbook. It may beable to play old games at low settings but any new games that come out will be out of the question.
 
I find the best way to convince people is to just let them play around with it. My mom, who isn't very tech savvy, learned how to do stuff much faster on my mbp than she did on her work computer (a PC). Just let your brother play around with it, and explain that even if he doesn't like OS X (not likeley) that he can always buy Windows.
 
CalBoy said:
I find the best way to convince people is to just let them play around with it. My mom, who isn't very tech savvy, learned how to do stuff much faster on my mbp than she did on her work computer (a PC). Just let your brother play around with it, and explain that even if he doesn't like OS X (not likeley) that he can always buy Windows.
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Thank you everyone for your words of wisdom. I think I ate away at his conscious a little more with your guys help. I told him to wait until August for the next Apple Event. Apple Paris. When that comes, then see if the MB gets a video card increase. Problem is he is a very intensive raid WOW player. Huge deal for him. Someone here mentioned the MB is not good for that. He'll wait and see what happens. Anyways thanks everyone!
 
emoeric said:
Thank you everyone for your words of wisdom. I think I ate away at his conscious a little more with your guys help. I told him to wait until August for the next Apple Event. Apple Paris. When that comes, then see if the MB gets a video card increase. Problem is he is a very intensive raid WOW player. Huge deal for him. Someone here mentioned the MB is not good for that. He'll wait and see what happens. Anyways thanks everyone!
Click to expand...

When does he start school? August might be a little late. Also, don't count on much in August. Apple won't update notebooks (esspecially their bread and buter macbooks) while the free ipod deal is going on. Also, it would be a few months premature, seeing as how the macbooks were updated in late May.
 
emoeric said:
Thank you everyone for your words of wisdom. I think I ate away at his conscious a little more with your guys help. I told him to wait until August for the next Apple Event. Apple Paris. When that comes, then see if the MB gets a video card increase. Problem is he is a very intensive raid WOW player. Huge deal for him. Someone here mentioned the MB is not good for that. He'll wait and see what happens. Anyways thanks everyone!
Click to expand...

Apple expo in paris starts 25th September
 
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