Convince a gamer to buy a mb. tons of questions (noob to complex)?

[mmark]

hello all, i am a gamer, playing cs 1.6 pro cal-i, and i also currently use ubuntu 7.10.

however i am going to quit gaming since i am going to college soon, so i was considering buying a black macbook for multiusage. i also do not want to shell out ~1700+ for a mbp. i'm just wondering--

1. how are the specs on the high end white macbook/black macbook? how will they hold up playing games such as cs 1.6/cs:s, tf2, and C&C3?

2 how problematic is it to maintain a mb? i've had my desktop for 6+ years and its still amazing, but when i look around the forums there are so many people with problems.

3 what do you think (pricewise) of the high end white compared to black, because it seems like alot for just a color/HD upgrade and i only consider the blackbook because of the metal finish (the white one leaves yellow marks?)

4 Do you think the rumored july update will change the finish on the white books? Also, do you guys think there will be a spec upgrade (ram, video card, processor)? should i wait to buy one?

5 What, exactly, is the genius bar? for all i know its to answer all the advanced apple questions. When i went to the apple store (roosevelt field mall, long island new york) and asked them about if you could crosstransfer files between leopard and a dualboot partition of ubuntu on the same machine, they thought i was talking about ipods or something
5.2 how do i make an appointment with a person at the genius bar?

6 i have a 15% discount with all apple products (employer), can i use it at the apple store?

7 is there anything i should get with the mb puchase? (apple remote, .mac, ilife, etc.) does any of this come for free?

8 leopard does not have a right click, what replaces this in apple prducts? also, what does the option key do?

although there are probably alot of apple fanboys on this site, please provide an unbiased answer if you can,
thanks for all of your time in advance people.

 

[iToaster]

The MacBook is not ideal for gaming due to the underpowered integrated graphics chip, but it will be good to break you from the habit. A MacBook should hold up for quite a while, forums have a large distortion effect with problems (because you won't complain if you have a working machine). Apple doesn't really support any other operating system on its hardware aside from OSX (naturally) and Windows via bootcamp, but there isn't much they can help you with if you are using Ubuntu (don't fret, they still work). The 15% discount is only good at wherever you work, not the Apple store (you can buy a MacBook from your place of employment I take it). The right click is replaced by a two finger tap on the trackpad or by placing two fingers on the trackpad and clicking the button (you'll need to enable this in system preferences first). The option key is a modifier key like command and control are, it's the alt key of the Mac. Anyway, ILife comes with every Mac, but I would recommend you get iWork to go along with it, just so you have something to type papers and stuff in.

By the way, go for a white MacBook, discoloration is really not an issue anymore, as well, black shows pretty much every fingerprint you leave on it.

 

[cwheatley]

it is no more or less easy to maintain a macbook (hardware-wise, anyway) than it is a pc. you read about problems on forums because that's what people post in forums about. you don't ever see anyone posting because things work correctly. a mac is a pc, they both use the same parts. leopard has its problems, just like every os, but imho, the pros far outnumber the cons. the only problems i have deal with samba.

personally, i wouldn't get a black macbook because i am unwilling to pay the premium for the black case and an upgrade i could do myself. however, it is your choice, and you shouldn't be swayed by the opinions of others. i like my computers to work, but having a computer that looks good while working doesn't hurt, either. oh, and i haven't had any problems with the yellow marks on my white macbook (late 2007).

i'm not a gamer, so i can't really answer your questions about that.

personally, i don't think there's going to be an upgrade on the video card or ram, but i could be wrong. i'm doubting a ram upgrade because they just upped it to two on the last revision. in the event there is an update in july, my money's on the processor, and the processor only.

you're not going to get anything for free with your macbook except if you catch them in some type of special promotion.

i don't know where you got the idea that leopard doesn't have right click. there isn't a right click button under the trackpad, but there is an option to set a two finger tap on the trackpad to right click.

i've tried ubuntu on my macbook. it worked, but not very well. it took a lot of bs-ing around to get the sound to work, and i wasn't ever able to get the trackpad fully functional, much less the isight. in my opinion, installing ubuntu on a macbook ruins the experience.

about the apple store: i've never had a personal experience with the genius bar or anything, so take my opinion with a handful of salt. the apple store is a STORE. it is full of salespeople. it may not be as bad as most places (by far), but first and foremost it is a store, and they are trying to sell things, which means they're going to hire salespeople with a rudimentary knowledge of computers over people with poor social skills who know a lot about computers. again, this is just my opinion.

hope i've helped.

 

[iknowyourider]

Using a macbook you can control-click and that is right-click. You can also use a two-button mouse with a macbook, therefore right-click works. I use an apple mighty mouse. It has right-click capability but I set it for one button operation. This works great for me. Good Luck.

 

[mmark]

ok thanks, i had NO idea that there was a two finger thing.
then again, i havent really used leopard at all, but i know its a pretty solid OS for casual computer use.
i probably won't use ubuntu on it because it really isnt needed,
and ill probably still try to get games to work so that i can play casually, although i won't have as much time to play anything seriously.

+2 questions --
1 would a mb hold up for, say, 4-6 years?
2 does leopard have viruses/spyware/popups, do i need virus protection?

 

[dvince2]

1. how are the specs on the high end white macbook/black macbook? how will they hold up playing games such as cs 1.6/cs:s, tf2, and C&C3?

They're fairly decent now. I'm sure you'll be able to play the games... just not at maximum settings. Macbooks don't have dedicated graphics cards.

2 how problematic is it to maintain a mb?

Like others have said, basically everyone who posts here is because of a problem, not because of how well it works. If you're worried, you can always get the extended care (which I reccomend. I got a rev. A macbook, and have had some problems with it. It's all been repaired, no questions)

i only consider the blackbook because of the metal finish (the white one leaves yellow marks?)

Both black and white are made of plastic. The first Rev. A macbooks had yellowing problems, but I havn't heard of any for a long time. It's basically a preference.

4 Do you think the rumored july update will change the finish on the white books? Also, do you guys think there will be a spec upgrade (ram, video card, processor)? should i wait to buy one?

I can't see anything happening until October at the earliest personally. They just recently gave them a speed bump.

5 What, exactly, is the genius bar?
6 i have a 15% discount with all apple products (employer), can i use it at the apple store?

I live 200km from the nearest Apple store.. sorry

7 is there anything i should get with the mb puchase? (apple remote, .mac, ilife, etc.) does any of this come for free?

iLife comes free with new Macs. You'll probably want some sort of office applications. If your focus is (Slideshows, design, word processing) then iWork is a must. If you're going into some sort of science, MS Office is a must because Numbers can't do 'basic' things like error bars, while Excel can.

8 leopard does not have a right click, what replaces this in apple prducts? also, what does the option key do?

There is a right click.. just no "right click" button. When you have two fingers on the track pad and click, thats right click. one finger is left click. (and two fingers dragging is scrolling )
option is just like 'alt' or 'ctrl' on a PC.. its just used in key combinations/shortcuts, etc.

1 would a mb hold up for, say, 4-6 years?

Mines coming up on 2 years old. Physically (assuming you don't run over it or something) it will... but in 6 years it will seem ancient compared to what people are using then

2 does leopard have viruses/spyware/popups, do i need virus protection?

Safari (and firefox, and most modern browsers) have a popup stopper, and there is no risk of viruses or spyware.

 

[aaron.lee2006]

What team do you play for?

 

[NAG]

Even though you got a lot of answers I'm going to give you mine. I owned a macbook (switched to an air recently).

1. how are the specs on the high end white macbook/black macbook? how will they hold up playing games such as cs 1.6/cs:s, tf2, and C&C3?

You can play WoW on it with all low settings. You can play old games like Oni and WC3. You won't be able to play stuff like tf2 successfully. There are quite a few shareware games that are very enjoyable and play great on a macbook though. Note: you'd have to boot into windows to play tf2.

2 how problematic is it to maintain a mb? i've had my desktop for 6+ years and its still amazing, but when i look around the forums there are so many people with problems.

The only problems I've seen with macbooks is the early models tended to become yellow and they can be prone to cracking. They may have fixed the cracking problem and they did fix the yellowing problem (the black one obviously isn't effected by the yellow problem). It is purely cosmetic.

3 what do you think (pricewise) of the high end white compared to black, because it seems like alot for just a color/HD upgrade and i only consider the blackbook because of the metal finish (the white one leaves yellow marks?)

There isn't much of a difference between the white and the black. It used to be $200 for the color black, basically. It is slightly less insane these days. Still, it is mostly for the color black.

4 Do you think the rumored july update will change the finish on the white books? Also, do you guys think there will be a spec upgrade (ram, video card, processor)? should i wait to buy one?

The macbook will always have integrated video to cut down on cost. This will be the main factor when it comes to playing games.

5 What, exactly, is the genius bar? for all i know its to answer all the advanced apple questions. When i went to the apple store (roosevelt field mall, long island new york) and asked them about if you could crosstransfer files between leopard and a dualboot partition of ubuntu on the same machine, they thought i was talking about ipods or something
5.2 how do i make an appointment with a person at the genius bar?

Genius bar takes appointments via phone, I believe. They also have lessons and whatnot that you can sign up for. If you know someone who uses a mac they'd probably be just as helpful. (Assuming they're not a jerk.)

6 i have a 15% discount with all apple products (employer), can i use it at the apple store?

You can use it at the Apple Store (both box and online). You just need to make sure you bring your ID.

7 is there anything i should get with the mb puchase? (apple remote, .mac, ilife, etc.) does any of this come for free?

dotmac is nice but I wouldn't recommend it unless you are going to have more than one mac. Get the free printer though (there is a $100 discount off the printers with a new mac).

8 leopard does not have a right click, what replaces this in apple prducts? also, what does the option key do?

Already covered, macs have had right click functionality since before OS X. All macs have some ability to right click out of the box. You can also control click if you don't like doing the two finger on the track pad click. Option key doesn't do anything really. It is mostly used to modify the command key along with the control key. The command key is the one that is mostly used for things such as keyboard short cuts.

although there are probably alot of apple fanboys on this site, please provide an unbiased answer if you can,
thanks for all of your time in advance people.

Just a tip, don't ask for help then half mock people. If you go looking for bad answers you'll find them.

 

[mmark]

Just a tip, don't ask for help then half mock people. If you go looking for bad answers you'll find them.

yeah, sorry. honestly didnt mean it like that.

anyway, thanks every one for the answers. ill probably look into the update and then go for it. also, i'm looking at the new models.

quick question --
how does the fingerprints show on the mb monitor screens? also does it show a glare/reflection?

 

[MacHipster]

+2 questions --
1 would a mb hold up for, say, 4-6 years?
2 does leopard have viruses/spyware/popups, do i need virus protection?

1: Yes.
2: No.