Just bought black Macbook ... some questions

[monty77]

My 1st Apple laptop!!!

Couple of questions:

1) How do I get access to an optical out?
2) Is another 1Gb RAM worthwhile? Have 1Gb now...

Thanks!
Adam

 

[72930]

Congratulations. I dont know about optical out, but 1GB ram depends on what you're doing. Video definitely, photography it would help a lot, rosetta applications it will be nice. Everything else it would be nice, but not really worth it.

 

[treblah]

Some info on the Optical out.

Cliffs: You need a mini-Toslink adapter.

About the RAM, do your everyday workflow and then check Activity Monitor at the end of the day. If the Page outs are greater than the Page ins (under the System Memory tab), you would benefit with the additional RAM.

 

[monty77]

Thanks!

Reason I asked about RAM is that Parallels seems a bit stuttery compared to my old iMac and only real difference is memory .. unless it's graphics related?

Cheers,
Adam

PS: Bought a wireless mighty mouse too, to be honest - not impressed. The squeeze buttons are in the wrong place and right click is a bit touchy

 

[mkrishnan]

PS: Bought a wireless mighty mouse too, to be honest - not impressed. The squeeze buttons are in the wrong place and right click is a bit touchy

Try pulling up the index finger off the mouse when right clicking (so that it is not over the left side of the "button"). Many people do this naturally, but not everyone. Some people have reported the MM is much more reliable in right-clicking when you do this. About the side buttons, I'm not sure... I believe they're in the same place as the squeeze points of my Apple Wireless Mouse and those are in the place where I naturally put my fingers, but each of us have different hands).

I think with all Apple things, give it a try for a while their way, and if it doesn't work out, just get a different wireless mouse. If you have very small hands, then some of the "micro" ones might suit your hands better than the MM, which is pretty physically large.

 

[treblah]

Reason I asked about RAM is that Parallels seems a bit stuttery compared to my old iMac and only real difference is memory .. unless it's graphics related?

Oh, if you are using Parallels then I would definitely suggest another gig and give one to OS X and one to Windows. It is the only way I find //'s usable.

 

[TyPod]

If you feel it's laggy and not up to your standards...then you should put another gig in it.

 

[monty77]

Well I've just installed the 2Gb kit from Crucial, top service from them as per usual by the way, and the thing flies !!!!

...lot of open apps + parallels with no stuttering at all, apps open faster and everything feels very 'snappy'

Would still like a 7200rpm drive to complete the setup, is there one out there now to buy? Or do people think it's work waiting a little for larger/faster 2.5" drives to be released.

Cheers!
Adam