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Things to buy for my Macbook

gan6660

gan6660

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Aug 18, 2008
1,417
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I will be purchasing a 2.4ghz macbook next month and was wondering what to buy for it.

Things I know I will get:
500gb internal hard drive
4gb ram
dvino mini keyboard
windows 7
I am debating on to buy a monitor or an lcd tv to hook the macbook to.
ALso what external hard drive do you recomend?
and any 2.5inch hard drive enclosure for the 250gb hard that comes with the macbook.

What else am I missing?
 
software?

What about software? Not sure what you're using the MacBook for, but I like the following utilities:

Orbicule's Undercover software for help getting it back if it's stolen.

Little Snitch, one of my favorite pieces of shareware.

I also like SecretBox for storing passwords and serial numbers.
 
Scratch Windows 7... It's only available in beta at the moment anyway. If you insist on using Windows on your Mac, go for XP ;)
 
olly666 said:
Scratch Windows 7... It's only available in beta at the moment anyway. If you insist on using Windows on your Mac, go for XP ;)
Click to expand...

An XP license is far from free, but the Windows 7 Release Candidate is a free download good until well into 2010 and feels like a finished product, already more finished than Vista was at its release. The only thing that I would say is that running Vista or 7 with Aero drains the battery more quickly, but you can always drop out of Aero while on battery for pretty good performance.
 
olly666 said:
Scratch Windows 7... It's only available in beta at the moment anyway. If you insist on using Windows on your Mac, go for XP ;)
Click to expand...

I am going to wait for the retail release for windows 7.

Also I forgot to say that I am going to buy the new microsoft blue track mouse with nano receiver. I also will be getting a mini-displayport to hdmi adapter.
 
Stetrain said:
An XP license is far from free, but the Windows 7 Release Candidate is a free download good until well into 2010 and feels like a finished product, already more finished than Vista was at its release. The only thing that I would say is that running Vista or 7 with Aero drains the battery more quickly, but you can always drop out of Aero while on battery for pretty good performance.
Click to expand...
It's "free" because it's still in beta testing. No support, and oodles of security holes. The average Mac user uses Windows simply for running applications that can't be run in OS X. Both Vista and 7 have nothing on XP as far as reliability, performance and security...
 
Internal wise I plan to get a:
OCZ Vertex SSD for the main drive,
a 500GB 5400 RPM HDD in the Optibay for storage,
I think you need a SD card reader, or at least something cool to shove in the express card slot.. Since it doesn't have a card reader I'd get one of those..
There isn't much else interesting to put in there, I think they make crappy SSDs, but I'd rather have another card slot plus a big SD card since it'd be cheaper.

And an external battery if you travel a lot.

Perhaps an anti glare screen 'protector'..

Or a paintjob...
 
Kingcodez said:
Internal wise I plan to get a:
OCZ Vertex SSD for the main drive,
a 500GB 5400 RPM HDD in the Optibay for storage,
I think you need a SD card reader, or at least something cool to shove in the express card slot.. Since it doesn't have a card reader I'd get one of those..
There isn't much else interesting to put in there, I think they make crappy SSDs, but I'd rather have another card slot plus a big SD card since it'd be cheaper.

And an external battery if you travel a lot.

Perhaps an anti glare screen 'protector'..

Or a paintjob...
Click to expand...

There is no express card slot on a MacBook. Only the pros have it.
 
You might want to get a laptop sleeve, there usually anywhere from $25 to $70 dollars depending on where you get it from. Also you may benefit form getting a bigger external monitor for your macbook and not an lcd tv. The reason for this is because its tough to read on the lcd screens since they don't go past 1080p whereas you can have a much higher resolution on a monitor.
 
JamesGorman said:
You might want to get a laptop sleeve, there usually anywhere from $25 to $70 dollars depending on where you get it from. Also you may benefit form getting a bigger external monitor for your macbook and not an lcd tv. The reason for this is because its tough to read on the lcd screens since they don't go past 1080p whereas you can have a much higher resolution on a monitor.
Click to expand...

I was thinking of a memory foam sleeve and I am getting the lcd tv so i can watch the movies that are on my computer
 
gan6660 said:
I was thinking of a memory foam sleeve and I am getting the lcd tv so i can watch the movies that are on my computer
Click to expand...

Would recommend a sleeve, external monitor and the Apple Wireless keyboard. You can see my setup via my YouTube channel (see sig). i've got tons of reviews on gear, hope they help.
 
ahjjones said:
Don't be ridiculous.
Click to expand...

Oh come on, show a little humour!

SDRAM - Slightly Drunk Really Angry Mice
SATA - Super Aromatic Tac Acquisition
USB - Unusually Sensual Biscuit

To the OP, Crucial RAM is always good. You can save a fortune by buying a large computer monitor and a USB television tuner for the Mac and get the best of both worlds but cheaper. Windows 7 runs well but Windows XP will serve you better. Western Digital are usually my hard drive of choice, equalled by Philips hard drives. Philips also make enclosures.
 
I just don't understand why people are still in love with Windows XP. Here's why:

1) I understand that it is a much "lighter" OS, but support is starting to dwindle for it.

2) There's no x64 Boot Camp support for XP.

3) There's no Direct X 10 support in XP. So if you're wanting to do any gaming, you have to be stuck in Direct X 9.

3) Windows 7 is about as fast as XP now and looks a world better; and for now, it's free (until 2010, of course)

Finally, download Windows 7 RC1 x64 and stick with that until the final version comes out.
 
tayloralmond said:
I just don't understand why people are still in love with Windows XP.
Click to expand...

Oh don't get me wrong, by all means yes Windows 7 works charmingly. However, for simplicity's sake, XP is guaranteed (as far as Windows can be guaranteed) to work whereas W7 still has the odd hiccup here and there. Some hardware devices, such as my HP *ahem* feeble excuse of a *cough* scanner, haven't had driver updates since the millennium and so work on XP okayish but collapse in Vista (admittedly W7 has XP mode to combat this. Hey everyone, remember Classic Mode? Wasn't that a breeze? Mmm I can almost smell toasty hot components already!).

XP offers more operability, it has better accessibility features (I'm colourblind), it runs fast on new hardware, and to cap it all, you're likely to find an XP disc lying around somewhere with at least one install left on its license.
 
I believe this will turn out into another windows 7 vs vista vs xp thread :p I havnt found a use for my boot camp install of windows 7. I like to have it there just in case i need to install something. But i am struggling to find a use for it at them moment. If your an average user then there is no point in installing windows, go spend the money on something useful. Although if you like your games then i can understand why the need to install windows is there.
 
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