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Yet another decision thread... Laptop or Macbook?

S

surftex363

macrumors newbie
Original poster
May 24, 2009
12
0
Please convince me to get a macbook ha...

Im graduating High school and have around 1500$ to get a computer. I have a solid Gaming PC already. But i want something i can bring to friends houses and crap and around campus to play games.

What I want this computer to do.
Record/Encode/Playback music - I do alot of recording, would be nice if i could on this also.
Long Battery Life
Photoshop
Games - I really just play blizzard games (warcraft, starcraft...) and they are really compatible with mac so im not worried really.

Problem, I need a firewire Port for my recording interface. There is no FW port on the MB. Is there anyway around this?

Another thing, which MB do i need? Do I really need the 2.4? Im going to be pushing the boundries with this thing. Can someone link me to benchmark tests of a 2.4 vs a 2.0?

Lastly, Is it worth the 2 to 4 gigs upgrade of ram? I was planning on it. BUT, if i customize it, i cant return it if im not satisfied.


Thanks for all the help!
 
surftex363 said:
Please convince me to get a macbook ha...

Im graduating High school and have around 1500$ to get a computer. I have a solid Gaming PC already. But i want something i can bring to friends houses and crap and around campus to play games.

What I want this computer to do.
Record/Encode/Playback music - I do alot of recording, would be nice if i could on this also.
Long Battery Life
Photoshop
Games - I really just play blizzard games (warcraft, starcraft...) and they are really compatible with mac so im not worried really.

Problem, I need a firewire Port for my recording interface. There is no FW port on the MB. Is there anyway around this?

Another thing, which MB do i need? Do I really need the 2.4? Im going to be pushing the boundries with this thing. Can someone link me to benchmark tests of a 2.4 vs a 2.0?

Lastly, Is it worth the 2 to 4 gigs upgrade of ram? I was planning on it. BUT, if i customize it, i cant return it if im not satisfied.


Thanks for all the help!
Click to expand...
Well, the white MacBook sounds like a good fit for you to me. It'll do what you listed, has a FW port, and is cheaper then the aluminum's.
 
white macbook! or lower end macbook pro since they both have firewire

try refurbished for cheaper
or education discounts ^_^
 
I recommend a previous gen MacBook Pro. They can be had for about the same price as the current 2.4 MacBooks.

It has bigger and better screen, faster graphics card for your games and 2 FireWire ports (400 and 800).
 
Sounds like you know that you want a Mac. I don't think you need any more convincing. GET ONE!

I would also agree with getting a previous version MBP (if you can find one) or a Refurb. If you don't want to do that, then get the best MB that you can afford. Changing the RAM is easy to do and easy to undo if you end up not liking the MB.
 
If you want a computer with good battery life you will have to look somewhere other than the aluminium MacBooks. Apple reduced the battery's capacity (probably to make it smaller so they could continue to pump their "thin" nonsense at consumers) and you are very lucky if you can get over 2 and a half hours using the machine with WiFi on.

While Blizzard's games are compatible with Mac you will get very poor performance running them under OS X. Apple's graphics drivers are nothing short of terrible and you will always notice a significant benefit to performance by running the games in Windows. Whether this is on a Windows laptop or via Boot Camp is up to you.

As for the 2.4GHz vs 2.0GHz there really is no reason to waste your money on the faster processor. It's only slightly better but it is significantly more expensive. Also, unless you intend running multiple applications at the same time which all require a huge amount of RAM you will see no benefit to adding 4GB. I use Photoshop, Dreamweaver, NetNewsWire, Adium, Imagewell, iTunes and Safari all at the same time and I have no problems on my 2.0GHz with 2GB RAM.

eXan said:
I recommend a previous gen MacBook Pro. They can be had for about the same price as the current 2.4 MacBooks.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately the previous generation MacBook Pro is fatally flawed. It contains a GPU from nVidia which is guaranteed to fail at some point in its life. I would avoid this computer at all costs.
 
neiltc13 said:
Unfortunately the previous generation MacBook Pro is fatally flawed. It contains a GPU from nVidia which is guaranteed to fail at some point in its life. I would avoid this computer at all costs.
Click to expand...

Not all 8600 GPUs were defective. And each computer is guaranteed to fail at some point.
 
Ok, so im not really worried about spending 999 or 1500 dollars, partially because this is a gift. Regardless, next time i ask my dad for something hes gonna say "I just spend sooo much money on you..."

MBP just came into view.

Refurb or my friends brother works for apple and can get me the hook ups probably.

Any comments on that?
 
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