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A few questions before I buy my first Mac

KilGil27

KilGil27

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jul 29, 2006
136
0
Philadelphia
I am going to get my first real Mac for school this year (I have an old G3 that my dad got free from work once and I've never touched), but I had a few questions before I bought one:

1. Are the new Core 2 Duos going to be in the Macs by the end of August/begining of September?

2. Should I get glossy or a mat screen?

3. Can the MacBooks handle minor-moderate video editing fairly smoothly, or would a MBP be a better choice?

4. Kind of specific, but does anyone know how well WarCraft III (the only game I really ever play) runs, being as it's not universal?

5. Any tips for my switch from Windows in general?

thanks in advance for the help
 
KilGil27 said:
I am going to get my first real Mac for school this year (I have an old G3 that my dad got free from work once and I've never touched), but I had a few questions before I bought one:

1. Are the new Core 2 Duos going to be in the Macs by the end of August/begining of September?

2. Should I get glossy or a mat screen?

3. Can the MacBooks handle minor-moderate video editing fairly smoothly, or would a MBP be a better choice?

4. Kind of specific, but does anyone know how well WarCraft III (the only game I really ever play) runs, being as it's not universal?

5. Any tips for my switch from Windows in general?

thanks in advance for the help
Click to expand...

4. depends on the mac you choose
 
a black macbook is $150 dollars more expensive than the white one simply because of its color

why 2GB of ram! a waste of money/resouces if your not going to look at the 15" macbook pro's

i've heard of lots of people wanting a black macbook with 2GB of ram, can you post buying tips
 
HGW said:
a black macbook is $150 dollars more expensive than the white one simply because of its color

why 2GB of ram! a waste of money/resouces if your not going to look at the 15" macbook pro's

i've heard of lots of people wanting a black macbook with 2GB of ram, can you post buying tips
Click to expand...


What's wrong with him upgrading to 2GB's of RAM?
 
HGW said:
a black macbook is $150 dollars more expensive than the white one simply because of its color

why 2GB of ram! a waste of money/resouces if your not going to look at the 15" macbook pro's

i've heard of lots of people wanting a black macbook with 2GB of ram, can you post buying tips
Click to expand...
with the black one, you also get the 80 gig hardrive instead of the 60 with the white ones. Also, I would get it with 512 RAM and upgrade to 2 gigs later
 
why would you want 2GB of ram

$150 i accounted for the harddrive

all the accessories are still white
 
HGW said:
why would you want 2GB of ram

$150 i accounted for the harddrive

all the accessories are still white
Click to expand...

Because 2 GB of RAM is awesome? It really does speed things up in OS X.

OP, ignore this guy. 2 GB of RAM is worth it. But do NOT get it from Apple - they wildly overcharge for RAM. Get your MacBook with the base RAM, then buy your 2 GB elsewhere.

The black MacBook is priced at $150 more simply because it's black. It might be worth it to you (I got the black MacBook :D), it might not. But the MacBooks are awesome machines, and will serve you well.

I heard on those boards that WarCraft III runs pretty well even under Rosetta. But even if you're not satisified with the performance, you can use Boot Camp and install Windows on a small partition and use that for games.
 
I don't think I'd be holding out for a Merom based MacBook. Sure you may see the MacBook Pro go Merom soon, but the only things that are sure to happen in the next couple of months is the release of Intel Xserves and a pro desktop machine.
 
The MacBooks and MacBook Pros are too new to get a big update that quickly. It would be like apple releasing OS 10.5 next month and then releasing 10.6 early next year. It won't happen...


In regards to the others.

2. Matte all the way! Glossy is too reflective (I know others will argue against it, but I've had experience with Matte AND Glossy. Matte is infinitely better).

3. Get the MacBook Pro. A MBP with 1 gb RAM 1.83 duo will outperform a maxed out MacBook. The base specs may not make it look as powerful, but the logic board on the MBP is a far better and more refined design. The MBP has larger memory bandwidth, better support for different hard drive buffers etc... Don't forget the MBP also has dedicated VRAM with a better GPU. This means you will get better graphics (due to the faster VRAM and GPU) and the system will be more stable/responsive as the graphics chip isn't trying to constantly access the system RAM. Oh yeah, and the MBP has a higher resolution screen. You'll really need it!!!
 
quote "OP, ignore this guy. 2 GB of RAM is worth it. But do NOT get it from Apple - they wildly overcharge for RAM. Get your MacBook with the base RAM, then buy your 2 GB elsewhere."

strange first the iPod sold almost too well, now black macbooks with 2 gig ram seem to be going that same way. good one apple

"black macbook 2 gig ram"
 
I've had 65 apps running at the same time on my MBP with 1 gb ram. Surprisingly, after it had loaded all the apps fully, it was very useable! I could go onto MR and post with all the other apps still loaded...
 
Killyp said:
I've had 65 apps running at the same time on my MBP with 1 gb ram. Surprisingly, after it had loaded all the apps fully, it was very useable! I could go onto MR and post with all the other apps still loaded...
Click to expand...

Macs are great! :cool:
 
For information on the screen Macrumors is a hard place to find info on. People will beat you bloody before they ever just offer helpful advice.

Matte is better.
No glossy is better.
No matte is better, glossy is so lame its so reflective in the light. Matte is like heaven blah blah blah.
No glossy is better, matte is lame. Glossy provides rich colors. Its my new girlfriend, blah blah blah.

From what i've found this is the answer. You have to decide what you will be doing and see whats most important.

Matte provides more true colors.
Glossy (which from the 4 i've seen are easily visible unless you aim the screen at a light) provides rich colors and makes DVD's delightful, but are false colors and not true. Something like that.

So if you are doing film editing or photography and need true colors, probably should get Matte.
If you look at your screen at an angle that is facing a light source, then you will have a little problem, but if the screen is 90 degree angle or facing straight at you, 80 degree, 70 degree angle you'll be fine.
If a lamp sits on your shoulder then you won't.
If you are doing home video's of wee ones and you want to sport a sweet DVD on a plane ride, glossy is good.

Your best bet, after my long rant of nothing ness, would be to just go to an Apple store if you can and decide for yourself because its all personal prefrence, no matter how much some people will make you believe.
 
well said poppe, if one was more expensive then there would be no choice
 
HGW said:
quote "OP, ignore this guy. 2 GB of RAM is worth it. But do NOT get it from Apple - they wildly overcharge for RAM. Get your MacBook with the base RAM, then buy your 2 GB elsewhere."

strange first the iPod sold almost too well, now black macbooks with 2 gig ram seem to be going that same way. good one apple

"black macbook 2 gig ram"
Click to expand...

hunh.jpg
 
poppe said:
For information on the screen Macrumors is a hard place to find info on. People will beat you bloody before they ever just offer helpful advice.

Matte is better.
No glossy is better.
No matte is better, glossy is so lame its so reflective in the light. Matte is like heaven blah blah blah.
No glossy is better, matte is lame. Glossy provides rich colors. Its my new girlfriend, blah blah blah.

From what i've found this is the answer. You have to decide what you will be doing and see whats most important.

Matte provides more true colors.
Glossy (which from the 4 i've seen are easily visible unless you aim the screen at a light) provides rich colors and makes DVD's delightful, but are false colors and not true. Something like that.

So if you are doing film editing or photography and need true colors, probably should get Matte.
If you look at your screen at an angle that is facing a light source, then you will have a little problem, but if the screen is 90 degree angle or facing straight at you, 80 degree, 70 degree angle you'll be fine.
If a lamp sits on your shoulder then you won't.
If you are doing home video's of wee ones and you want to sport a sweet DVD on a plane ride, glossy is good.

Your best bet, after my long rant of nothing ness, would be to just go to an Apple store if you can and decide for yourself because its all personal prefrence, no matter how much some people will make you believe.
Click to expand...
fair enough. I think I'm going to go with the matte as glossy seems too... glossy for me
 
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