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kungfucody

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 11, 2006
11
0
Hi yes my name is Cody long time reader, first time poster. Hah, neways yeah I have been a pc guy since pretty much the dawn of time and have been reading a lot of stuff about mac 10.4 and even leopard, and being that my pc is on its last leg, I decided its time to switch. Since I am new to this world I had a lot of questions. First off, should I wait a while and save money for a core 2.0 duo, or just get the refurbished core duo? Will both of these be good for leopard when it drops? I also wanted to know what my choices are as far as media center software goes. Of course I have read about Front Row but I have heard it has its problems, mainly with not supporting many video file types. Below is a list of things I will be using the computer for and maybe you can give me some feedback.

- using an external hard drive to rip dvds and tv show season dvds (any suggestions on software)
- watching hdtv (any suggestions, have read a few good solutions)
- surfing the web/email/check stocks (i just bought 10 shares of apple)
- possibly building a website
- light video games (counterstrike mostly, maybe source)
- outputing to a 30" dell display via dvi (have read many people frustrated with getting the resolution right), or even a larger lcd screen with dvi or vga (can i do it with vga?)

that's all I can think of right now, I am a college student and money is kind of an object orthwise I would grab a mbp right away. Plus i love the portability of the macbook. any suggestions, testimonies, or anything related to macs would be greatly appreciated. Any photos of macbooks hooked up to displays would be appreciated also as it is hard to sift through the 90 some odd pages of the 'setups gallery'. Thanks in advanced for replies, and thanks macrumors for supplying all of these great forums and articles.
 

Scarlet Fever

macrumors 68040
Jul 22, 2005
3,262
0
Bookshop!
For CD or C2D, that depends on how much money you can afford to put into the MacBook. C2D will probably last you a bit longer than CD, just because it has the 64-bit extensions.

-Surfing the web, either Safari (which is included) or FireFox will do the job.
-For mail, Apple's included Mail app is great, and most of us here use it.
-For gaming, you will want to install Windows on it. Have a look around the forums here, i think there may be a sticky on installing XP on an Intel Mac. Just don't expect state-of-the-art graphics, especially on an external display.
-The MacBook won't output to a 30" display, but it can go up to 24". You won't notice any lag in the Finder, but as soon as you start working the GPU, lag will start to happen.
 

j26

macrumors 68000
Mar 30, 2005
1,754
726
Paddyland
...

- using an external hard drive to rip dvds and tv show season dvds (any suggestions on software) MacTheRipper(to rip), Handbrake (rips and encodes to mpeg4) and iSquint (converts into a format for iPods if you want to do that). I do this and then put links into iTunes to the movies so they play easily in Front Row. It's the easiest way to do it
- watching hdtv (any suggestions, have read a few good solutions)
- surfing the web/email/check stocks (i just bought 10 shares of apple) Firefox works well for me, others have their own preferences
- possibly building a website iWeb produces nice looking sites, but the functionality seems to be crippled (problems with blogs and podcasts aparently) unless you sign up to .Mac. I haven't used it yet, but that's what I gather from reading here
- light video games (counterstrike mostly, maybe source) You might be best off to check the Games Forum on that
- outputing to a 30" dell display via dvi (have read many people frustrated with getting the resolution right), or even a larger lcd screen with dvi or vga (can i do it with vga?) A MacBook will not do a 30" display. The max resolution is about 1920x1200 (23" ACD or 24"Dell). You can use DVI or VGA, but you need adaptors to do it as the port on the MacBook is Mini DVI. They cost about $20 each.
I love my CD MacBook 2.0 - it has the speed I need to do what I want, and the screen is great. Given it's so close to Christmas you might be best off to wait until January and take advantage of iLife '07 which will update the whole suite.
 

kungfucody

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 11, 2006
11
0
scar, thanks for the reply, some good info. I have read that also, that the macbooks cant output anything larger than a 24" screen. But I have also read some reviews of people watching hi def trailers with divx on their plasma tvs via their macbooks.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0v3ZqigIkI

there is another video of someone watching a full trailer with front row on their plasma tv hooked up to a macbook. i dunno.

thanks again for your input.
 

Chundles

macrumors G5
Jul 4, 2005
12,037
493
scar, thanks for the reply, some good info. I have read that also, that the macbooks cant output anything larger than a 24" screen. But I have also read some reviews of people watching hi def trailers with divx on their plasma tvs via their macbooks.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0v3ZqigIkI

there is another video of someone watching a full trailer with front row on their plasma tv hooked up to a macbook. i dunno.

thanks again for your input.

Yeah, it's all about the resolution. The MacBook can output up to 1920x1200 which means every HD plasma and LCD on the market will run just fine. When you start talking about computer monitors however, with their much higher pixels-per-inch resolution then the largest proper computer monitor that you can hook up to the MacBook is 23"/24" - it's not a physical size limitation, it's a resolution limitation.

If you're dead keen on using the 30" ACD or Dell display (at 2560x1600 they have a much, muuuch higher resolution than even your largest HDTV - 1080p TV shows look small on this thing) then your option for a portable is the MacBook Pro - all versions of the MBP can run a 30" (or any other size display up to 2560x1600) at it's native resolution in combination with the internal display at it's native res.

PS, you'll want to hook up your second monitor using DVI - it's a much better picture than you would get using VGA although the MacBook can do both it's worth using the better interface.
 

kungfucody

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 11, 2006
11
0
thanks j26, chundles. I do still have 1 question though. In addition to my list of chores for the macbook at the beginning of this post, I would like to do some tv recording, maybe even hi def recording, (anyone have any suggested software/hardware for this?) and how would this look outputted to say a 32" or 40" hdtv with dvi? still look hi def? how will text editors (like word, or just text in general) and say an app like google map look on a 40 inch hdtv, any blurring or pixalation to be expected?
thanks again for all replies.
 

kungfucody

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 11, 2006
11
0
well i have heard some bad things about refurbished macs rescently so i might just wait for the core 2.0, i wonder when mac will start shipping leopard macbooks, i know the software drops in march/april. also is there any rumors going around about a macbookpro 13" or sub 15" at least, id probably save for that, just for that standalone graphics gpu with high resolutions to output to bigger monitors.
 

imMAColata

macrumors member
Sep 26, 2006
65
0
I find it puzzling that a student has a 30"....

How can money be an issue then :)

Anyways, if you go macbook, go for the C2D version. If you want to use large screens with it, I doubt it will be fast enough. The Intel 950 GMA is pants.
 

kungfucody

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 11, 2006
11
0
well i have a 32 inch hdtv that i'm about to sell this guy at my work for a lot more than i bought it for...and i was wantin to get a nice monitor or lcd hdtv out of it. yeah its funny i am a student, and money is an object, it wouldnt be too bad but me n my room mate went and got ps3s thinkin we would turn big profit, nada. so im like 700$ in the hole and still have 2 new ps3s sittin in my room, hah. but thats off the topic, anyways......yeah still lookin for media software center suggestions for the mac, and pics of anyone who has their macbook hooked up to an hdtv would be cool too, to see the quality and what not. thanks again for all replies!
 

XP Defector

macrumors 6502
Apr 5, 2006
492
0
Don't expect decent framerates with a MacBook. The shared graphics card is really it's weakest link imo and will definitely inhibit any ability to play graphic intense applications such as games. Bootcamp is a must for gaming on the Mac in any case.
 

kungfucody

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 11, 2006
11
0
ok well what about counterstrike 1.6, not very graphically intense. maybe cs source. lemme know, wish u could upgrade video card in macbook, would make my descision 100% easier.
 
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