Mac Laptop Question

by **dubbs11** on Sat Jun 09, 2007 6:24 pm

I know there was a post a few months back about laptops, and quite a few of you recommended buying a Macbook or Macbook Pro. As I am now looking for a new laptop, I have been looking at Macs a lot and have decided to buy one. I was wondering what those of you with Mac laptops have either the macbook or the pro, and what you would recommend. I would be using it for word processing, web surfing, a little graphical stuff i.e. photoshop, editing, presentations, and a little gaming. I am thinking right now between the Black MacBook with the Super Drive and larger Hard Drive, or the 15" Pro with the 160 GB Hard Drive. Any Suggestions?

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by **ineedmorecowbell** on Sat Jun 09, 2007 6:39 pm

right now, i just have an imac, but i am getting a macbook pro later this summer. it will make my design classes much easier.

the macbook is great if you just need a laptop. the mbpro is a much more high end powerful computer and costs quite a bit more. if you've got the money, go for the pro. i love them to death. if you just want to get into the mac market, and save some money, go with the regular macbook. it can do all the stuff you listed just fine. i'm obviously a little bias, but you can't go wrong either way.

by **dubbs11** on Sat Jun 09, 2007 6:46 pm

How much space does the parallel software, and bootcamp generally take up on the Hard Drive?

by **James Foote** on Sun Jun 10, 2007 3:27 am

I have the regular MacBook with the 2.16ghz processor and 120gb hard drive (the 'middle' one). I use it for word processing, internet, and limited graphic projects... mainly just Photoshop. If price isn't an option, the MacBook Pros are great, obviously, but might be more than you 'need' to pay for. My only suggestion would be to hold off until the new Mac operating system (Leopard) comes out. It's scheduled to be released in October.

by **KnoxVegas** on Sun Jun 10, 2007 6:00 am

James Foote wrote:My only suggestion would be to hold off until the new Mac operating system (Leopard) comes out. It's scheduled to be released in October.

I agree. I am looking at the new 13.3-inch Mac Book Pro and will max it out. For what the OP is looking to do, the Mac Book is plenty. Why spend money on what you don't need? Also, remember that to get it is black, you are paying something like an extra $250 to get it in black. IMHO, money well spent.

by **ineedmorecowbell** on Sun Jun 10, 2007 1:09 pm

leapord also comes with bootcamp. i'm not sure how much space it uses, but the parallels software only takes up about 30mb of space on your hard drive. it's some pretty cool software. they just released the latest version.

http://www.parallels.com/en/products/desktop/

by **mholtz** on Sun Jun 10, 2007 4:19 pm

Get at least 1Gig of ram. There is no better way to improve the performance of a computer than increasing the ram.

by **dubbs11** on Sun Jun 10, 2007 6:02 pm

KnoxVegas wrote:
James Foote wrote:My only suggestion would be to hold off until the new Mac operating system (Leopard) comes out. It's scheduled to be released in October.

I agree. I am looking at the new 13.3-inch Mac Book Pro and will max it out. For what the OP is looking to do, the Mac Book is plenty. Why spend money on what you don't need? Also, remember that to get it is black, you are paying something like an extra $250 to get it in black. IMHO, money well spent.

The only problem with this is that I will need the laptop by the end of August so waiting until October isn't an option. Does Mac offer operating systems upgrades the same as windows? Or could I simply buy a 'upgrade cd' for a lesser price? As far as buying the black macbook goes, I am looking for 160 gb HD and the DVD superdrive burner combo.

by **KnoxVegas** on Sun Jun 10, 2007 9:00 pm

Then get it before. I am not due to get a new one until October, that is really why I am waiting. I dozens of people, including my father who is a mac consultant, who are quite happy with their new ones.

I cannot wait for two weeks from now when I can get my iphone.

by **agentogden** on Mon Jun 11, 2007 9:05 am

ineedmorecowbell wrote:leapord also comes with bootcamp. i'm not sure how much space it uses, but the parallels software only takes up about 30mb of space on your hard drive. it's some pretty cool software. they just released the latest version.

http://www.parallels.com/en/products/desktop/

Parallels is not what takes up the space on the hard drive -- it's Windows. Basic Windows XP install is about 4.5 GB.

Leopard will include bootcamp but it's not available at this time.

You CAN NOT buy an upgrade CD or download from OSX 10.4 (Tiger) to 10.5 (Leopard) -- unless you purchase your computer approximately 2 weeks before an unannounced OS release you will have to pay a full price to make the upgrade.

Out.
AO

by **tmatlacrosse** on Mon Jun 11, 2007 9:57 pm

Here to correct a couple of myths and give my two cents:

I have a white macbook:
1 gig ram
2 gig intel core
80 gig hard drive

The macbook has been wonderful to me. Surfing the web, pictures, mail, several new programs, downloading music, itunes and the whole ilife software will run seamlessly on the macbook.

Don't pay the extra 200-250 just to get black unless style is that big of a concern to you.

If you're going to be doing some gaming and you have the money for the mac pro then go for it. If i had the money at the time I would have bought the pro too. The little bit of graphic stuff you will be doing will work well on either, but the graphics card and the larger screen on the pro will better suit your gaming habits.

And lastly...I run parallels on mine specifically this summer for an internship I have right now. Windows xp pro with Microsoft publisher, word, excel, and a filemaker program only takes up 2.3 gigs on my hard drive. I highly recommend parallels since you can run osx and windows at the same time. It is a hassle to reboot to run osx to have access to your mail function or address book etc. Parallels also allows you to check graphics that you work with to make sure they look good on both mac and windows a lot easier.

If you get parallels though, I would recommend more than a gig of ram because I can be running parallels with two programs and about four others on osx and there will be some decent slow down.