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heyhey! 2.4 vs. 2.1Ghz and Iwork vs. Office

C

CBear

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Sep 5, 2008
16
0
Hi everyone. First post/Taking the mac plunge:apple:/Need friendly advice.

As most people i'm off to University and i believe Apple MB's are the way to go...

Ill be using it for the following:
-Assignments, essays usual uni stuff
-making holiday movies, photo albums (editing, retouching etc)
-Some gaming (not heavily)
-Internet, possibly web creation aswell

im currently deciding between a few things and want some opinions and views. I was looking at the white macbooks and was sold on the lower end until i was told i cant burn DVDs, its not too big a deal to me but if im making movies it would be ideal. Given that there's some processor speed from 2.1 to 2.4Ghz and the 120GB to 160GB

Therefore, what given my position and the above would be more suitable?

The next and final question is, i'll be needing to co-work with peers on projects, aswell as using spreadsheets and presentation that i hope will be quite in-depth so what will be more appropriate Iwork or Office (id especially like opinions on them both as i read reviews on the apple website, maybe bias but wern't too likening to Office)

Thanks alot, all help and views would be gratefully appreciated
 
You won't see much of a difference in performance between 2.4GHz and 2.1GHz processors. You'll likely get a lot more benefit from increasing RAM, especially if you frequently have multiple apps open.

As far as iWork vs Office, it depends on a few things. If you're sharing documents with others who use Office, you'll find more compatibility with Office. Some functions and features of iWork don't translate well. Also, if you use more advanced functions of Excel, for example, you'll find Numbers (iWork's spreadsheet) lacking.
 
As far as Office, I had compatibility issues with Office 2008 for Mac with PC users. Not a lot, but there are some issues with it. I just bought the regular MS Office 2007 and downloaded it in bootcamp. I use it with Vista Home Premium and haven't had any problems with compatibility or anything.

Hope that makes sense.
 
Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry8310/4.2.2 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/107)

Hi. I would go for the 2.4. In the long run the DVD burner may come to use, it comes stock eith 2GB ram which is plenty for day-to-day use and 160gb is a plus because once again long-term you may have movies add up esp if you edit your own, etc.
I think the extra 200$ is well worth it if you are planning on keeping the laptop for the next 3 years or so.

As for iWork vs Office, I would go with Office just because a lot of peers and profs and schools still are heavily windows based and you want to make sure your work is compatible. Or you can run Windows in parallels/vmware fusion for office 2007.
 
nidserz said:
Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry8310/4.2.2 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/107)

Hi. I would go for the 2.4. In the long run the DVD burner may come to use, it comes stock eith 2GB ram which is plenty for day-to-day use and 160gb is a plus because once again long-term you may have movies add up esp if you edit your own, etc.
I think the extra 200$ is well worth it if you are planning on keeping the laptop for the next 3 years or so.

As for iWork vs Office, I would go with Office just because a lot of peers and profs and schools still are heavily windows based and you want to make sure your work is compatible. Or you can run Windows in parallels/vmware fusion for office 2007.
Click to expand...

Cheers dude, thats definitely food for thought
 
Why not go with neo office? It's free and compatible with MS office files.

IMHO go with the 2.4. It will hold resale value better.
 
CBear said:
Hi everyone. First post/Taking the mac plunge:apple:/Need friendly advice.

As most people i'm off to University and i believe Apple MB's are the way to go...

Ill be using it for the following:
-Assignments, essays usual uni stuff
-making holiday movies, photo albums (editing, retouching etc)
-Some gaming (not heavily)
-Internet, possibly web creation aswell

im currently deciding between a few things and want some opinions and views. I was looking at the white macbooks and was sold on the lower end until i was told i cant burn DVDs, its not too big a deal to me but if im making movies it would be ideal. Given that there's some processor speed from 2.1 to 2.4Ghz and the 120GB to 160GB

Therefore, what given my position and the above would be more suitable?

The next and final question is, i'll be needing to co-work with peers on projects, aswell as using spreadsheets and presentation that i hope will be quite in-depth so what will be more appropriate Iwork or Office (id especially like opinions on them both as i read reviews on the apple website, maybe bias but wern't too likening to Office)

Thanks alot, all help and views would be gratefully appreciated
Click to expand...

iWork isn't directly comparable to Office. iWork's pages is a bit more free form (or so I've seen) than the more rigid MS Office. If you are an artsy person, I might recommend iWork. Definitely though, try them both. See which one you like better.

hogfaninga said:
As far as Office, I had compatibility issues with Office 2008 for Mac with PC users. Not a lot, but there are some issues with it. I just bought the regular MS Office 2007 and downloaded it in bootcamp. I use it with Vista Home Premium and haven't had any problems with compatibility or anything.

Hope that makes sense.
Click to expand...

I've never had compatibility issues after checking with the MS Office compatibility checker. MS Office 2008 for mac has always worked perfectly for me.

techound1 said:
Why not go with neo office? It's free and compatible with MS office files.

IMHO go with the 2.4. It will hold resale value better.
Click to expand...

MS Office looks better, and is easier to use. NeoOffice is a great, free product with almost no problems.

+1 for the 2.4, if you plan to sell later. If you're one of those people that holds on to computers until they decompose into rock once more, the 2.1GHz processor is fine for you.
 
I am in the same boat as you, tossing between the 2.1 and the 2.4 GHz lower end Macbooks. If you can afford it, go with the 2.4 GHz, you won't be disappointed.

However, I decided to go with the 2.1 GHz and upgrade the RAM to 2GB. It is more important to have the 2GB of RAM than it is to worry about the 0.3 GHz difference between the two models.

Also, as long as you order before September 15th, you will get the free iPod Touch which you can sell for close to $300 on eBay to recoup some of the cost!
 
Although I agree that MS's Excel has more features than iWork's Numbers I really have to step in for the iWork suite which I use and love.

I'm a grad student in biological sciences and all my coworkers and the whole institute in fact are using Windows PCs and thus MS Office. I do a lot of presentations and writing, but only very little spreadsheats. I've never had any trouble to share or use my work or those of my coworkers. IWork offers all necessary export features for documents to get a long in an all MS world. If worst comes to worst you still can save everything as a PDF which everybody accepts. So much for compatibility.

In quality terms I think iWork 08 is superior to MS Office. I refer mainly to Keynote 3. I couldn't live without it. It let's you create the best presentations and posters with. And by that I'm not talking about flashy spectacular slideshows with tons of effects but no message. I'm talking of a set of very flexible tools and features to make a presentation clear and nice to look at.

So my advice is to try Office and iWork and then buy iWork.


By the by, for writing a (PhD) thesis, neither Pages nor Word is suitable. LaTex is the only sound choice.
 
Funny how every bit of this is covered in the Guide article linked above (not to mention, dozens of previous threads). Did anybody bother to read it?
 
IJ Reilly said:
Funny how every bit of this is covered in the Guide article linked above (not to mention, dozens of previous threads). Did anybody bother to read it?
Click to expand...

Yeah dude I read it, it was an intresting read. I posted this to get an opinion from other users that can answer my personal questions - seems like the definition of a forum wouldn't you agree?
 
If you want to burn DVD's on the Macbook but only want the $1099 model, you can:

1. Buy an external DVD Burner for $50.
2. Buy a Macbook internal superdrive and get someone to install it for you (this will void the warranty however, and I don't recommend it).

Most people buy the mid range just in case, then burn maybe 2 DVD's in the whole time you have it.
 
nick9191 said:
If you want to burn DVD's on the Macbook but only want the $1099 model, you can:

1. Buy an external DVD Burner for $50.
2. Buy a Macbook internal superdrive and get someone to install it for you (this will void the warranty however, and I don't recommend it).

Most people buy the mid range just in case, then burn maybe 2 DVD's in the whole time you have it.
Click to expand...

Ok, thanks a lot, any recommendations for some DVD burners, i noticed your in the UK so any websites you'd recommend? thanks pal
 
CBear said:
Yeah dude I read it, it was an intresting read. I posted this to get an opinion from other users that can answer my personal questions - seems like the definition of a forum wouldn't you agree?
Click to expand...

The search function is your friend. Try searching for threads with the words "office" and "iwork" in the the subjects and see what happens. It might turn out that your questions are exactly like the questions that have been asked here almost every day, week after week.
 
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