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atiffarooq

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
May 27, 2006
646
611
Hi all. I thought I would post this in a new topic because the questions are going to be specific to my Macbook and the needs I will have for it.

First of all, a little background about myself. This may not be important, but may help in answering the questions I have. I am going back to university at the end of September to study for my Masters degree in Internet programming. I have been out of education for over 4 years now, but was sick of my last few jobs and felt I needed a career change. Anyway, I have been in touch with the programme director regarding any background work I can carry out before I start to give me a bit of a head start, and he has recommended a couple of Java books (since the language I will be predominantly using will be Java).

I currently have a Macbook and a Windows PC, but the latter is being sold shortly. When Apple run the Back to School promo in September I am going to be getting an iMac 24" 3.06GHz as well (hopefully!). In the meantime I want to go through these books on my MacBook. Now the books both concentrate on using Java SE6, and I believe that the best (most viable?) option to complete the tasks in the books are on a Windows machine. I have therefore decided that I need to have my MacBook load Windows Vista as well as OS X. I currently have Tiger and am obviously looking to buy Leopard so that I can use the Boot Camp feature. Could someone please help in answering the following questions:

1. I have a June 2006 White MacBook Core Duo 2.0GHz, with 60GB HDD and 1GB Ram. Will this be sufficient to run Vista? Currently I have 28GB free disk space. I am thinking of upgrading to 2GB RAM as this is available from crucial.com for only £30 at the moment.
2. What version of Vista is recommended for my needs? Will the OEM version of Home Premium be sufficient, or should I look for the retail package/a different version of Vista?
3. Is there anything else I will need to look out for, or will buying Leopard and Vista be the only two requirements?

Just in case anyone is wondering, the Java books I am going to be working through are Core Java Volumes 1 and 2 by Cay S. Horstmann and Gary Cornell.

Thanks for your advice/suggestions.
 
1. I would get the extra 1GB RAM for better performance
2. Home Premium OEM will be just fine IMO
3. Boot camp will be the best option for your needs so that should have it covered.
 
1. I would get the extra 1GB RAM for better performance
2. Home Premium OEM will be just fine IMO
3. Boot camp will be the best option for your needs so that should have it covered.

Pretty much summed up what I would've said too. As always (with any OS), the more RAM the better. Home Premium is fine.
 
Thanks for your replies. Should I go for the 32 or 64 bit OEM package?
 
Don't worry about this - just ordered the 32-bit version which I have been informed would be the best for my requirements.

You have a Core Duo processor, so 32-bit is all it's capable of. Core 2 Duo processors, on the other hand, are all 64-bit.
 
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