I agree, i cant understand all the gnashing of teeth over the lack of firewire on the unibody MB's....
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the white Nvidia MacBook thread
- Thread starter ThomasJL
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I agree, i cant understand all the gnashing of teeth over the lack of firewire on the unibody MB's....
I can only speak for myself, but I have a camcorder that only has a firewire plug, so I decided to go with the white Macbook. I didn't really want to dish out a few more hundred dollars to buy a new camera at the same time as a grand on a laptop.
Firewire fading or not... most of the video cameras I've seen recently at the local chain stores (as a "happy home user" costing 2-300$) still have the 4pin firewire plug. I'm not looking to produce movies, I just like shooting the occasional family outting or experiment with a little video editing (yeah teleport effect!).
So back to the topic, if the alum unibody had the FW port, I would have spent the extra couple hundred bucks to get it...
--rob
I wish could get some worthy benchmarks on the white vs the alum. The ones in here do not tell much a story. And the answer of Final Cut Pro has not been fully answered. Is there any one who can give us some concrete answers?
I wish could get some worthy benchmarks on the white vs the alum. The ones in here do not tell much a story. And the answer of Final Cut Pro has not been fully answered. Is there any one who can give us some concrete answers?
http://www.macworld.com/article/136214/2008/10/macbookbenchmarks.html
this is the previous generation of white macbook benchmarks, since they updated the chipset to nvidia, added nvidia gpu, and increased fsb of the c2d to 1066, the benchmarks should be almost exactly the same, except for graphics performance where the aluminum unibody macbook did better.
Actually the benchmarks should be closer to the 2.0 Ghz unibody macbook as they have the same chipset and processor, however the unibody has DDR3 ram where as the white nvidia macbook uses DDR2.
Also, the previous generation used an intel chipset and a 2.1 Ghz processor, so it's not just the graphics that will be different...
the xbench info here show that memory is certainly faster on the alu macbooks, can't comment on program benching.
i just bought one for my girlfriend the other day. her dell was a POS. and she loves my iMac. now she LOVES her macbook. i was gonna get the aluminum one for her but for what shes going to be doing with it, and with my wallet right now, the white one is just fine. everything runs very smoothly on it so far.
White NVIDIA MacBook since Wednesday
I got the White NVIDIA on Wednesday, and I've spent the last few days messing around with it and comparing it to my early 2006 MacBook. I've noticed that the screen has a bluer tint than my 2006, the fit and finish is a little nicer, the fan is a little quieter, and the SuperDrive makes a different noise.
I would not have picked up another MacBook had Apple not come out with the NVIDIA in the white Macbook, because I use Firewire for everything, and I can't justify paying $2000 for a MacBook Pro just to get a Firewire port. My $3500 camera uses Firewire, and all my external hard drives use it. For the money, the white MacBook was a great deal. I am also curious about Final Cut Studio 2 running on it. I have been running the previous version of Final Cut Studio on it with no problems, but I haven't noticed much of an improvement in regard to render times. As far as upgrading the RAM goes, I've read stuff that says that the OS won't support four gigs of RAM even though I could put that much in it. Is that true?
Does anyone know where to get an iSkin keyboard cover that will fit it? I've seen the keyboard covers that have the old configuration for sale, but I want one that has the correct key names on it.
I got the White NVIDIA on Wednesday, and I've spent the last few days messing around with it and comparing it to my early 2006 MacBook. I've noticed that the screen has a bluer tint than my 2006, the fit and finish is a little nicer, the fan is a little quieter, and the SuperDrive makes a different noise.
I would not have picked up another MacBook had Apple not come out with the NVIDIA in the white Macbook, because I use Firewire for everything, and I can't justify paying $2000 for a MacBook Pro just to get a Firewire port. My $3500 camera uses Firewire, and all my external hard drives use it. For the money, the white MacBook was a great deal. I am also curious about Final Cut Studio 2 running on it. I have been running the previous version of Final Cut Studio on it with no problems, but I haven't noticed much of an improvement in regard to render times. As far as upgrading the RAM goes, I've read stuff that says that the OS won't support four gigs of RAM even though I could put that much in it. Is that true?
Does anyone know where to get an iSkin keyboard cover that will fit it? I've seen the keyboard covers that have the old configuration for sale, but I want one that has the correct key names on it.
The 2006 MB is limited to 2GB. Your brand new White 2009 MB maxes out for at least 4GB. It has nothing to do with the OS. As for the iSkin I wasn't aware that the White MB looks any different than the previous model. As for the bluish color you are seeing maybe you need to calibrate it if you haven't already. Use the built in calibration in system prefs or something like Supercal.
The keyboard configuration on the MacBooks was changed in late 2007 to match the keyboard on the iMacs. The hotkeys are in a different spot than on the original MacBooks. For instance, the volume keys on my older MacBook are F3, F4, and F5. The more recent MacBooks have the volume keys set to F10, F11, and F12. I haven't had any luck finding iSkins that are labeled to fit the newer MacBooks.
That's since 2007 though. I was talking about the ones just prior to this release. On iSkin's website they say the eclipse and ghost colors aren't compatible with anything after 2007.
So by looking here I think it is safe to say these are all compatible.
Got my new white Macbook on Wednesday and I almost totally love it.
- It's noticeably snappier than my 2.16 Macbook
- came with iLife 09, which surprised me. Thought I was going to have to shell out an extra $10.
- The machine only had to run one update
- I was thankful for mobile me. I didn't want to reinstall all my software and conveniently adding my stored info was great... especially favs in transmit.
The only disappointment was the lack of support for my mini DVI to video connector. I found out the hard way in front of my students that this was an issue. A little embarrassing. Actually, the more I think of it, the more I realize how valuable this tool is.
- It's noticeably snappier than my 2.16 Macbook
- came with iLife 09, which surprised me. Thought I was going to have to shell out an extra $10.
- The machine only had to run one update
- I was thankful for mobile me. I didn't want to reinstall all my software and conveniently adding my stored info was great... especially favs in transmit.
The only disappointment was the lack of support for my mini DVI to video connector. I found out the hard way in front of my students that this was an issue. A little embarrassing.
Actually, the more I think of it, the more I realize how valuable this tool is.Macbook and FCP Studio 2
I use FCP Studio 2 everyday on my Santa Rosa Macbook 2.2. It is maxed out with 4 GB of Ram and a 320 GB hard drive. I use a 22" 1680 x 1050 monitor for playback. It sits on a laptop cooler at all times when it is in use. We shoot with HD video with an HVX200. The resolution is 960 x 720. The capture scratch is on an external drive with FW400. The footage will plays back smooth 99.9% of the time. Once in a great while, a certain sequence won't play smoothly. Shutting down the computer and FCP doesn't resolve it. I don't think the Macbook is the problem.
In other words, my older Macbook runs FCP great.
That said, I don't use Color or Motion. Those are GPU intensive, which my Macbook doesn't do well because of integrated graphics. This new one should do better with those, but not as well as the Pro.
From strictly a performance POV, this Macbook is a steal! If you mainly want to use FCP, buy it! $1,000 ticket and you are in the game. You can't run FCP on the aluminum Macbooks, so you would have to spend at least twice as much on a Pro to run it.
Where I work, we also have 2 G5 towers (PowerPC). My Macbook smokes 'em!
I use FCP Studio 2 everyday on my Santa Rosa Macbook 2.2. It is maxed out with 4 GB of Ram and a 320 GB hard drive. I use a 22" 1680 x 1050 monitor for playback. It sits on a laptop cooler at all times when it is in use. We shoot with HD video with an HVX200. The resolution is 960 x 720. The capture scratch is on an external drive with FW400. The footage will plays back smooth 99.9% of the time. Once in a great while, a certain sequence won't play smoothly. Shutting down the computer and FCP doesn't resolve it. I don't think the Macbook is the problem.
In other words, my older Macbook runs FCP great.
That said, I don't use Color or Motion. Those are GPU intensive, which my Macbook doesn't do well because of integrated graphics. This new one should do better with those, but not as well as the Pro.
From strictly a performance POV, this Macbook is a steal! If you mainly want to use FCP, buy it! $1,000 ticket and you are in the game. You can't run FCP on the aluminum Macbooks, so you would have to spend at least twice as much on a Pro to run it.
Where I work, we also have 2 G5 towers (PowerPC). My Macbook smokes 'em!
Does anyone here use Color or Motion on a Macbook with the 9400 - either White or Aluminum - I'm curious on performance, too. X-bench scores on the white one would help, too. (the ones posted earlier by someone seemed slow according to the poster - just want to verify)
Not sure what you mean by this - why would it not work? Do you just mean firewire?
Also, someone posted earlier that there were compatibility problems with the ports - can anyone verify?
I'm torn between the AL book and the White Book myself (just sold my older Core Duo Macbook).
Thanks!
About this picture (download the larger version to better see it).
I just got my nvidea white macbook today and I checked it... my spacebar looks bended in the middle. Lots of keys are uneven (left or right lower then the other side, like the slanted keys with the aluminium macbooks but then more randomly across the whole keyboard). I also noticed most keys were closer to the right edge of the "hole" they're in than to the left. I'm a little bit picky so I took it into an apple repair center and should have it back later this week (I have an apple repair center in bicycle distance, no apple stores here in Belgium and returning the online bought laptop would probably take longer).
I don't know why it is so difficult for apple to make a straight keyboard.
A friend of mine (from Belgium too, as me...) wanted to sell his completely flawed macbook alu (+ he doesn't like the screen, etc...) and then get the new white one because he thinks there's no widespread cosmetic flaws with it... but now he will be disapointed...
I looked at the picture... it is clear that a lot of keys are slanted.
Today I went to an apple resseller... The whole keyboard was slanted.
I just pulled the trigger on mine last Friday, I'm really excited. It took me a while to decide if I wanted the Alu or the white and I really like to still have my FireWire as I still have my sony dv cam. I'm not really concerned about the slanted keys issue the keys on my old 12 in PowerBook are slanted and were when I got it 6 years ago. This machine will be replacing that old PowerBook and I can't wait! I love and hate waiting for new macs!
i just bought the new white macbook two days ago. it's my first mac! i love it. the sales people at the apple store rave about what a deal it is, it's almost exactly compatible to the aluminum internally; the alu is just a BIT faster.
i love my new macbook
i love my new macbook