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Desperate need of a MacBook NOW...but should I wait until the end of the month?

J

justinlt99

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Sep 12, 2006
7
0
Houston, TX
Sorry if this has already been beat to death by others, but I am in desperate need of a MacBook. I am a relatively new Apple user (Bought the new iMac when it came out...so a month or two, lol)...so I'm not familiar with their upgrade process for OSes.

If I go buy a MacBook today, I heard that I can upgrade to Leopard at a later date for 9.95. Would this mean I would have to take the MB in to the store for them to do it, or would they give me the install disks? Also, is Mac similar to Windows in that they have "full" and "upgrade" editions of OSes?

If I will have to just do an upgrade on top of Tiger, I want to just try to hold off until it comes pre-installed.......although my crappy HP laptop is dying...the bottom 1/3 of the screen is not working, lol.
 
All retail installer discs are full versions of OS X. You'll get the discs in the mail.

I'd wait as long as possible as well.
 
Waiting May Also Garner You A New Model Soon

MacBook needs to go Santa Rosa and better Integrated Graphics (IG) really soon so I would wait to see that happen before I bought a new MacBook. It may be announced as soon as next week - certainly by mid November. :)

Santa Rosa will let the MacBook see and use all 4GB of a pair of 2GB ram sticks instead of only 3GB in the current models. Completes the 64-bitness package. The next IG chip X3100 (I think it's called) will be much better than the current one. Since MacBooks don't have dedicated graphics cards inside to keep the price low, they rely on what Intel provides on the motherboard which shares ram from the main ram rather than having it's own ram.
 
Santa Rosa and IG

Multi-Media:

I am kinda green when it comes to some of the more technical terminology. Could you explain what "Santa Rosa" and "IG" are and how the current macbooks are not as good as they could be if these changes are made? I am eager to buy a macbook and am fine waiting for these changes, I just want to have a better understanding of what I am waiting for :)

Thanks!

-Aric
 
Multimedia said:
MacBook needs to go Santa Rosa and better IG really soon
Click to expand...

But the only other benefit of Santa Rosa than better 3D graphics is 4GB RAM support. I got bitten by this a while back when I ordered 4GB for a pre-Santa Rosa Thinkpad and only 3GB showed up in the OS. But if the OP will only need 2GB (or maybe 1+2=3GB at single channel, or doesn't mind wasting 1GB with 4GB---possibly, as prices drop), than the only other reason to wait is want for sexiness.
 
4GB Is Better Than 3GB When You Start MultiTasking

friarlicious said:
But the only other benefit of Santa Rosa than better 3D graphics is 4GB RAM support. I got bitten by this a while back when I ordered 4GB for a pre-Santa Rosa Thinkpad and only 3GB showed up in the OS. But if the OP will only need 2GB (or maybe 1+2=3GB at single channel, or doesn't mind wasting 1GB with 4GB---possibly, as prices drop), than the only other reason to wait is want for sexiness.
Click to expand...
Although 3GB may seem like enough, 4GB will be happily available when you need it. Why buy now when the 4GB capable model is literally only weeks away? I know in my case 4GB is really not enough. But for mobile computing, it's the top for now.

FYI The price of a pair of 2GB sticks has dropped to $150 on sales now.
 
A*ROCK said:
Multi-Media:

I am kinda green when it comes to some of the more technical terminology. Could you explain what "Santa Rosa" and "IG" are and how the current macbooks are not as good as they could be if these changes are made? I am eager to buy a macbook and am fine waiting for these changes, I just want to have a better understanding of what I am waiting for :)

Thanks!

-Aric
Click to expand...

If you don't know what they are, you probably don't need them.
 
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