Got my MacBook at last!

[Machead III]

A few things:

1) I love the keyboard. Perfect for a laptop.

2) I love the glossy screen, very deep colours, but I haven't tried it in high glare areas yet.

3) Intel GMA950 is better than I'd thought. Runs Civ4 with only slight chop with baseline ram. Looking forward to butter smooth performance when I install 2gigs of ram.

4) Installing a new HD is very easy, providing you have the right tools, which I didn't, so it was a nightmare and took 3 hours. Get your precision screwdrivers and Torx T-8 ready beforehand.

So overall, I'm very happy. With 512mb of ram you can tell it's only scratching the surface of performance posssibilities, but all the same, even now, it's great

The updates won't have a dedicated gpu, and will simply use the same GMA950, and I kno that's what you're all holding out for, so don't bother, save yourself the stress of Next Tuesdays and buy buy buy.

 

[Scarlet Fever]

Is this your first Mac? How big is your HDD?

If you feel comfortable, i recommend you take back several gig by wiping and re-installing the OS. Removing unneeded languages, drivers and apps can save you almost 10GB!

See how you go. In the meantime, enjoi your MacBook!

 

[Machead III]

Nah I've had Macs for ages, never been a PC user. This is my first laptop though. My HD is 120gb, but right now I've got plenty of space. I might try what you said if things get tight.

 

[IlluminatedSage]

get more ram, you will notice a performance boost. even in civ4, which if it had more ram for video, would probably perform a lil better.

and i know where you are coming from on the upgrade to macbook.

but you know apple should have at least put in a decent jr level graphics chip instead of that intel integrated piece of crap.

 

[Kardashian]

Just got my MacBook (well, last night - been in customs for 2 weeks ) - such a nice machine! And its still nippy with the standard RAM, should keep me going until I upgrade in a fortnight.

One thing I'm not happy with is the trackpad seems to have a pencil line on the pad, and some grey 'scratches' on the button - might look into getting a Magic Eraser and see what becomes of it!

Enjoy your new MB!

B.T.W - I did what the above poster said with the HDD (I have a standard 60GB for now) and by erasing unused languages and things, I saved 10GB, so now I'm at a comfortable 30GB, with all my music, videos, pictures and graphics works included.

 

[Scarlet Fever]

but you know apple should have at least put in a decent jr level graphics chip instead of that intel integrated piece of crap.

They put the integrated in to keep prices down. And besides, people who are hardcore gamers wouldn't use a laptop, or at least not a 13" display.
I would have liked a dedicated chipset, but i can live comfortably with the integrated.

 

[jonaseriksson]

They put the integrated in to keep prices down. And besides, people who are hardcore gamers wouldn't use a laptop, or at least not a 13" display.
I would have liked a dedicated chipset, but i can live comfortably with the integrated.

And beside price, there is also size and heat. Another thing to consider is that most jr level cards from ati (like its 200-series) are actually based on the same integrated-principle as Intels card.

 

[Hicks.]

Is this your first Mac? How big is your HDD?

If you feel comfortable, i recommend you take back several gig by wiping and re-installing the OS. Removing unneeded languages, drivers and apps can save you almost 10GB!

See how you go. In the meantime, enjoi your MacBook!

Still waiting for mine

How do you do this? I'll make it the first task I do when my macbook arrives!

 

[Chundles]

get more ram, you will notice a performance boost. even in civ4, which if it had more ram for video, would probably perform a lil better.

and i know where you are coming from on the upgrade to macbook.

but you know apple should have at least put in a decent jr level graphics chip instead of that intel integrated piece of crap.

Adding more RAM won't increase the amount available to the video card - it takes 64MB (with a 16MB buffer for a total of 80MB) no matter what you have in there.

Adding more RAM will give the rest of the system more to play with so that it has more breathing space whilst the game is running. More RAM for the system will give better performance but the video RAM doesn't increase.

 

[MACDRIVE]

4) Installing a new HD is very easy, providing you have the right tools, which I didn't, so it was a nightmare and took 3 hours. Get your precision screwdrivers and Torx T-8 ready beforehand.

So if you didn't have a T8 driver to remove the screws, then what did you use? Nevermind... don't tell me... it'll just upset me.

 

[®îçhå®?]

Your lucky. Apple cancelled my order after i had waited 23 days and now i am waiting for the C2D machines.

 

[leftfoot]

How do you remove languages from OS X?

 

[ilikeninjas90]

im having that same problem

 

[dsnort]

How do you remove languages from OS X?

There's an app to do it, I don't remember the name though. Try a forum search. If you don't plan on using it, garage band and all it associated loops take up a bunch of space.

 

[SC68Cal]

monolingual

 

[Machead III]

So if you didn't have a T8 driver to remove the screws, then what did you use? Nevermind... don't tell me... it'll just upset me.

Yeah you don't wanna know


Right, well, a day or two with my MacBook and I'm starting to think a little differently about this machine.

There are a hell of a lot of plus points. The thing looks like it's from the 22nd Century, particularly the keyboard which is just sublime.

This is my first laptop and I love the portability. However, I'm starting to think that I won't be taking it to Africa with me in Jan, which is the main reason I went for a portable over a laptop.

The GMA950. It's by no means a bad chip. I booted up HL2 yesterday and at 1240x, 2x AA and most settings on low, even with my 512mb ram, in most areas it's not just acceptable, it's pretty much kag free. However, if there's water or fire about, or you turn your flashlight on.... 5fps.

If I were to buy the extra ram, it would cost me 200 quid. I bought the HD for 100 quid, I also bought the miniDV adapter and a bluetooth mouse, and thogether that was about 60 quid. And a case for 30.

If you add all that to the cost of the MacBook, I'll have paid only slightly less than a MacBook Pro. In fact, considering what I said above about probably not taking it abroad, I could get a 24" iMac, or even a MacPro. I can afford the extra for those, I'll just have to work a few more shifts this year.


So I've got a tough decision. Right now I'm sitting in bed with the TV on on the otherside of the room and a tea by my side. This aspect of the MacBook over desktops really is delicious, but no matter how competant the GMA 950 is... I WANT MY TRILLION FPS HDR PIXEL SHAD4RZ!

Given tht I don't need a portable, I'm sacrificing performance needlessly, and if I could even splash out on a MacPro,I would finally have a computer that I could upgrade when needed and that would last me a few years, because right now I'm swapping computer every 3 or 4 months.

Advice?