Macbook 1.83 + 1gig ram or 2.0 + 512ram

[farqueue]

Hello, ppl, i am a mac virgin.

I just bought a 1.83 base unit macbook, i was wondering which of the options above are better?


I use itunes heaps, MS word etc, surfing, and urrr... thats abt it

and i want to run parrallels as well so that i can use my macbook in lan parties etc -- like running some old games like Counterstrike 1.6 and warcraft 3, is it possible to do that with the 1.83 base unit?

i dont want bootcamp as it ucks, i prefer parallels.



would there be any SIGNIFICANT performance in like opening safari (its like IE right?) and boot time.... and


whether i should i buy a copy of MS office 2004 for mac or use parallels and run it in windows? which will be faster, i dont want to wait 20s for MS mac office to load...

thnks

sory for my english, i am from amerika

 

[Chundles]

More RAM.

The difference between the 2.0GHz and the 1.83GHz model are fairly insignificant if you don't need to burn DVDs. More RAM is going to provide a much better experience with Rosetta and games etc than a slightly quicker processor.

 

[Deepdale]

i am a mac virgin.

I promise ... this won't hurt, The difference between the 1.83 and 2.0 GHz models is hardly noticeable. I think the sounder choice is the 1.83 with the 1GB memory. I do not have experience with the games you mentioned, but remember MacBooks use integrated graphics. They could be quite acceptable since they are not the most current (and demanding) versions.

As I used MS Office yesterday I can say that it was not all that painful, but I was surprised by Apple's Pages. I plan to spend more time using it in the stores, but it clearly seems like an above average word processing program to me.

Excuse my English because I have been a native New Yorker all my life.

 

[Mitthrawnuruodo]

Standard reply: Get the stock 1.83 MacBook from Apple and as much RAM you can afford from a 3rd party supplier and install that yourself. 2GB RAM from a 3rd party will cost you less than a 1GB upgrade from Apple.

If you want a Superdrive, get an external firewire burner. It will be faster, cheaper and you can get one with dual layer capacity. E.g. LaCie had good, stylish, affordable and compatible burners.

 

[farqueue]

will it lag if i play a game within windows XP using parallel with 512mb of ram.. ? games like CS. 1.6
I am mainly concerned abt performance of parallels

 

[robbieduncan]

will it lag if i play a game within windows XP using parallel with 512mb of ram.. ? games like CS. 1.6
I am mainly concerned abt performance of parallels

Parallels Desktop is not 3D accelerated. 3D games will either be around 1-2fps or will not run at all.

Under BootCamp you are running Win XP directly on the hardware, it could be any other PC. If it would work on another PC with 512Mb of RAM it will be fine here, otherwise you will need more RAM.

Parallels likes lots of RAM as you are sharing your RAM between 2 OSs. 512Mb is probably the minimum for OSX or Win XP, so 1Gb is probably the minimum for running both at the same time.

 

[Mitthrawnuruodo]

You might want to use BootCamp for gaming and not parallels. Parallels is fine if you want to run IE or another "regular" application, but Parallels doesn't use the GPU, so it will not run any "modern" games...

Edit: Way too late... I never should have finished that game of backgammon between hitting the Reply button and actually replying...

 

[dmw007]

The difference between the 1.83GHz Core Duo and the 2GHz Core Duo will be minimal. You will however notice the difference if you add more RAM- buy as much as you can afford.

 

[farqueue]

You might want to use BootCamp for gaming and not parallels. Parallels is fine if you want to run IE or another "regular" application, but Parallels doesn't use the GPU, so it will not run any "modern" games...

Edit: Way too late... I never should have finished that game of backgammon between hitting the Reply button and actually replying...

hhaha,

hmmmm i saw this dude on you tube playing Halflife 2 in parrallels... switching between rthe cube

 

[robbieduncan]

hhaha,

hmmmm i saw this dude on you tube playing Halflife 2 in parrallels... switching between rthe cube

Without a link to this video and some sort of explanation of how he managed to get it working I'm afraid I don't believe you. Parallels describe their video as "VGA and SVGA", i.e. basic unaccelerated 2D.

I have Parallels. It's not for gaming.