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The perfect mac - does it exist?

J

jackmoney

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Aug 10, 2008
12
0
As many before many, I'm looking to switch to apple because I dread going to vista (partly) and wanna be part of the cool crowd. :)

Anyway, here's what I'm looking for, but not sure it exists, and would like any recs:

-portability (though it doesn't have to be super duper light - but definitely something like a notebook/iphone/etc - not like a macmini)
-constant internet access (wifi, 3g, whatever)
-lots of ram for a very fast internet experience
-nice sized harddrive (over 100gig) - lots of files/videos
-ability to take notes - i.e. in class
-bonus: a dvd drive to play movies on the airplane

That's pretty much it. I don't really need the fastest processor or the best graphics card (so long as it doesn't affect the above necessities), or even a big screen (in fact, i'd prefer a smaller screen).


I was going to get the iphone - but I didn't because
1. didn't qualify and have to wait 'til october
2. not sure if I could use it to take notes or not with touch keyboard (though I'm sure somebody's going to make some foldable portable keyboard for it).
3. 16 g is a little bit on the shy side for a drive (I could probably manage with an external drive)


Thanks.
 
Sounds like a MacBook Pro or MacBook with an ExpressCard or USB 3g data modem. Both can have large hard discs, and up to 4 gigs of ram.

(Santa Rosa macbooks and macbookpros should be able to use new 4 gig sticks of ram that are appearing, but those are prohibitively expensive at this time.)
 
Perfect Mac for you sounds exactly like a normal Macbook.

It's portable, has Wifi (like any other laptop out there on the market..:p), stock option has 2GB RAM (which should be enough for your purposes), large HDD up to 250GB, can take notes (there's some decent student apps for mac), and of course it has a DVD drive.

The screen is small too so yeah...

The Macbook will suit your purposes perfectly. I think Macs are wonderful computers, but from what you said you needed, you could pretty much do all you want on almost any Vista notebook out there. So if you want to save about 500 bucks or so, you could just get a cheap notebook around $400-$700 and have it able to do all of those things.

---

Cory5412 said:
(Santa Rosa macbooks and macbookpros should be able to use new 4 gig sticks of ram that are appearing, but those are prohibitively expensive at this time.)
Click to expand...
Eh, don't bother trying to put 8GB in a MBP. :p http://blogs.technet.com/keithcombs...n-t-like-8gb-of-memory-in-my-macbook-pro.aspx
 
i've looked at the macbooks, but they're not quite small enough ........ (not talking about thin). ....

I'm looking for something that's got like at 7 or 8" screen size, so it's the size of a small paper notebook, so i can carry it around and such all day.
 
jackmoney said:
i've looked at the macbooks, but they're not quite small enough ........ (not talking about thin). ....

I'm looking for something that's got like at 7 or 8" screen size, so it's the size of a small paper notebook, so i can carry it around and such all day.
Click to expand...

The MacBook has the smallest screen of the portables Apple currently sales. You can try to look around for an older 12" Powerbook/iBook
 
perfect mac for me would be:

mac notebook with a price range of $1000/1299 with a dedicated GPU. serious. even if it was a low-performing 9300M / 8400M. give me that and i'd be set ;)
 
a perfect mac = 3.2 ghz octo core
32 GB of ram
4x VelociRaptor 10,000 rpm(version b)
2x 3870 512 ram(for crossfire x in windows)\
one blue ray burner
one superdrive
two ACD 23" displays (with HDCP support of course)
AirPort Extreme Card (Wi-Fi)
AppleCare Protection Plan

and of course 10.5.4
 
Wait for the Dell E Slim, which comes out in Sept or later this month. It should easily be the best subnotebook on the market with a great price. If you dont want to wait for the Dell then the MSI Wind is the best alternative.. if you can find one.
 
The Macbook is very portable despite its large screen. If you bought a 7" screen you'd most likely regret it anyway as its just totally unusable.

If you really need it, buy an Eee PC.
 
stainlessliquid said:
Wait for the Dell E Slim, which comes out in Sept or later this month. It should easily be the best subnotebook on the market with a great price. If you dont want to wait for the Dell then the MSI Wind is the best alternative.. if you can find one.
Click to expand...

checked out that Dell E Slim. looks pretty cool. thanks for the info.
 
For me, my 17inch, 2.5 GHZ Penryn MBP is the proverbial perfect computer. The research and decision took me 1 year.
I can edit full hd, make 4k digital matte paintings, it runs shake because its a mac, uses a very smal amount of electricity. I'm incredibly amazed of this computer. If car's woul'd have developed as fast as computers, Hoover Cars using hydrogen would've become standard in 1980.
Doc
 
Every mac is perfect in e v e r y way. :eek:
Steve Jobs is your friend, and he loves you. :eek:

*shakes head* wait...noo... i mean.. what? Yeah.
 
Browsing the web on an 8" screen is not going to be pleasant, the 12" PowerBook was restricted enough.

From what I can tell, the MacBook sounds most like what you want from Apple's laptop lineup, but maybe the iPhone would suit your needs overall better? An iPhone + MacBook does pretty much everything you want collectively. You can now access the complete contents of your MacBook from anywhere in the world with an iPhone.
 
I say go MacBook Air! It would fit the bill perfectly and since you mention the optical drive use as a bonus, you could buy the external drive and only use it when you need it. All of their machines are very cool but since you are also looking for a cool factor, the MBA will suit you perfectly. It definitely has the spot light in the world of notebooks. No apple notebook will disappoint though, GOOD LUCK :D
 
Thanks for the all the replies, folks.

I've looked at the Dell-E and Eee-PC 1000 on cnet/zdnet/crave/endgadget, and it seems (to me) that the Lenovo outdoes these - first, it's 450$ for the 150g/2g ram version - and second, it seems to have more to it - bluetooth, expresscard (for 3g), etc.


In terms of the macbook, it does seem real close to perfect, and I may just end up getting something like that - but a 13" inch screen is still big - it's like carrying a chemistry book around with you all day (albeit it's thinner). don't get me wrong, i'm a big fan of big screens (and as you all are, I'm jealous of our friend with the 2 30" Dell monitors), but for my purposes for a portable computer, all I need is a screen small enough to make the whole package really easy to drag around.

Internet surfing will definitely get cramped - but hey, people love surfing on the iphone - also people love watching videos on the iphone - so, with that reasoning, a screen twice as big should also suffice.


In the end, I'd love to buy a mac, not just because of the "cool" factor - but because of the "oh-so-pretty" factor, as well as, of course, the "everything-flows-like-water" factor. I just wish they had a smaller macbook or a bigger iphone - - -


i kno i kno - wait 'till 2009 - bah humbug.
 
i actually saw that projector keyboard and was considering it...i just don't know if it would with the iphone.

the asus eee pc is like 800$ - not worth it.
 
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