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Questions on what portable mac to buy...and when

student_trap

student_trap

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Mar 14, 2005
1,879
0
'Ol Smokey, UK
Hi guys,
ive been out of the loop for a little while, which is the reason for the following questions.

Basically i go back to uni on October 3rd, and will need a new mac by then.

I have roughly £1600 to spend, and am chewing over either a white macbook maxed out with a cheap external display (probably 17"/19" but not widescreen), or a high end 15" macbook pro.

I quite like the screen of the MBP, but am concerned about...

1. My girlfriend has had one for about 6 months which is very very hot (much more than my powerbook), moos etc etc. Have these been fixed yet?
2. Whether the new chips are about to be put into them.
3. Will the current machine, assuming new chips aren't seen by october, be great for leopard?

I like the size of the macbook, but am concerned about...

1. lack of a graphics card (i will hook it up to my 40in TV when at home)
2. whether it will be able to handle leopard well


What do you guys think would be the best thing to do?
I will be buying thorugh the edu store and would like to buy sooner rather than later so that it is definitely here by the time i go back to uni (oct 03).

Any ideas/thoughts?
 
From what you said, I think you should go for the MacBook over the Pro, you said you would be hooking it up to a 40-inch TV, the MacBook can handle resolutions of up to 1900*1200 and most/all TV's (if they're HD, that is) are a resolution of 1360*?... I think. I'm not fully sure but I think the MacBook should be perfect for your needs.

There is a chance that the MacBook Pro's could have the new Core 2 Duo's in them by October, the 64-bit Memrom chips will run hotter but give a 15-22% speed boost on certain applications.

I personally think you should buy your White MacBook + External Drive and be happy rather than waiting.

Also, with regards to the mooing/discolouration etc.. Those problems have been addressed by Apple.
 
Yeah, I'd say Macbook is the way to go. The 2D performance of the on board graphics is very good, so for Uni work it should meet all your needs. Also the portability is much better.
But about your concerns: my husband's MBP does not get much hotter than my MB. Did she install the firmware update for MBP? Both MBP and MB should not get hot anymore with new firmware.
 
erikamsterdam said:
Yeah, I'd say Macbook is the way to go. The 2D performance of the on board graphics is very good, so for Uni work it should meet all your needs. Also the portability is much better.
But about your concerns: my husband's MBP does not get much hotter than my MB. Did she install the firmware update for MBP? Both MBP and MB should not get hot anymore with new firmware.
Click to expand...

ill let her know about the firmware update, would it come under the software updater, if so she will have upgraded to it already.

back on topic though, i will still have my powerbook for a couple (probably 3) more weeks, and so i will buy a new laptop so that it comes as my current one is leaving me :( . so as i have a few weeks, im not actually waiting, because whatever is on offer by october i will be forced to buy, but buying this week or next is not necessary. i.e. i am in no rush to buy a computer, i will simply need one for october

Also, will the macbook be able to handle light video and photo editing? as i like to use imovie to make videos and am an amature photographer.
And, how will the macbook likely perform with leopard
 
The firmware update is separate, you can find it on the Apple site under downloads.
Photo editing is fine on the MB, 2D performance is great as I said and the processor is the same as the MBP. Light video editing should be fine too, but no Final Cut Pro or so, then you need a MBP.
 
well, do you know Leopards specs? Nobody does yet, so it remains a guess. It will always work with Leopard, maybe a couple of frivolous effects in the OS won't be as pretty.
 
miles01110 said:
My 800 MHz G4 iMac runs Tiger fine, I can't imagine that an Intel mac wouldn't run leopard just as well, if not better.
Click to expand...

my concern is with apple seemingly looking towards 64bit architecture, and whether with a current MBP, i'd be able to take advantage of this?
 
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