Potential PC-to-Mac convert: Which Mac notebook to get?

[icvicvicvicvi]

I've never owned a Mac notebook, but am potentially interested in flipping for one rather than the Dell Inspiron or HP Pavilion options I'm otherwise entertaining. Things I would be using my laptop for, and other things I'm looking for:

- Heavy music use; will probably store and listen to upwards of 60 gigs of mp3s at peak usage.
- Moderate music editing/recording needs; will probably opt for a more memory-intensive application than GarageBand (probably Logic)
- Heavy internet research; want optimal web search capabilities while running other applications
- Probably going to spring for a refurbished notebook so as to be competitive price-wise with the other PC's -- would like to keep my purchase under $1400 MAX (ideally $900-1200)

Does anything specifically come to mind? Don't hold back if you think my needs would be better suited by a (gulp) PC instead.

I'm currently entertaining a Craigslist offer for a newly refurbished Macbook at $950. Specs: 2.16GHz Core2Duo, 2gs Ram, Superdrive DVD burner, Wireless N networking, 120g hard drive

For me, the DVD burner is nice but not necessary, and I would probably prefer a little more disk space. But it still seems like a pretty good deal to me. In this case, are there any specific questions you think I should ask the seller? And do any better deals come to mind?

Thanks

 

[kornyboy]

Wirelessly posted (iPhone: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU like Mac OS X; en) AppleWebKit/420.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.0 Mobile/4A102 Safari/419.3)

Considering your price range and the things you mentioned, the MacBook will do fine on everything you mentioned, I believe. The only thing that i don't really know about is Logic. I've never used it on a MacBook before so I don't know if it will even run on one. Hope this helps.

 

[TSE]

I would personally get a refurbished, current generation, black macbook from Apple when they get them in stock. Logic will run just as good on it then a MacBook Pro, since it is not a graphic intensive task. Here is the Black Macbook specs ou should be looking for in the refurbished store:

2.4 Core 2 Duo Processor

2 GBs of RAM (might need to upgrade it if you run multiple apps + logic at once)

250 GB 5400 RPM Hard Drive (Big enough for most people, plus you can easily upgrade it on the macbook and use the old hard drive as an external, but 250 GBs should be enough)

Those should be great for you. The only problem is, things get sold out in the refurbished store within a couple hours of when they get put out. Make sure to look out every couple days. Or you could spend 200 more dollars and get a brand new one. It's up to you.

 

[dal20402]

Logic will run fine on a MacBook. But forget about 2GB of RAM and paying the black tax. Buy the best refurb white MacBook you can find and use the extra money to jump to 4GB RAM. Logic doesn't care about GPU, but wants all the CPU and RAM you can throw at it.

 

[iknowyourider]

FYI, That 2.16 will not support 4gb ram.

 

[magiic]

Also keep in mind if you are going to school you can always take advantage of the student discount and the free iPod!

 

[TSE]

Logic will run fine on a MacBook. But forget about 2GB of RAM and paying the black tax. Buy the best refurb white MacBook you can find and use the extra money to jump to 4GB RAM. Logic doesn't care about GPU, but wants all the CPU and RAM you can throw at it.

If he goes the refurbished way, you cannot add a bigger hard drive into the macbook, so a blackbook would have a 250 GB Hard Drive compared to a 160 GB, quite a big difference.

If you go new, go to an apple store and see which one you like more, personally I think the white looks corny.

2 GBs of RAM should be enough for Logic, I have Logic Express on my MacBook Pro and can run that with iChat and Safari up with absolutely no problems, but when I have iTunes up and iPhoto up too it starts to lag, I have 2 GBs of RAM.

I would personally vouge for the macbooks that can clearly support 4 GBs of RAM unless you find a good deal otherwise.

 

[illidian]

If you have to ask, you're probably fine with the MacBook.

The key difference between the two, other than screen screen, is the MacBook Pro has a graphics card while the MacBook only has an integrated chip.

Other minor benefits to the Pro model include an LED screen, keyboard backlighting, mutli-touch trackpad, slightly faster processor, and aluminum casing, among others.

 

[surferfromuk]

Logic will run great on a core 2 duo intel macbook. 2Gb ram is plenty.

 

[amac4me]

a MacBook will suit your needs just fine. Congrats on the decision to make the switch.