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the superdrive on the macbook

F

flowin

macrumors member
Original poster
May 10, 2006
64
0
Edinburgh
is it worth it paying for the white mid range macbook..
with the 2ghz processor and the superdrive, if i have a tdk external burner.?

the price difference is about 211usd ?

was going to get a macbook

white 1.83ghz, with 2gb ram upgrade
or
white 2ghz, with 2gb ram upgrade as well

any comments?

would the macbook be able to handle games decently? ( i dont need super fast speeds)
i would be playing some games occasionally, something like sims 2 or second life.. possibly black and white 2. ?
 
sikkinixx said:
sims 2 maybe, because it is a processor instensive game, but B&W2 is a Gfx eater.

Go to macworld.com and they have a benchmark of the macbooks vs mbp. UT 2004 is only 17fps!
Click to expand...

Remember! Intergrated graphics! Not the fancy ATi X1600.
 
flowin said:
is it worth it paying for the white mid range macbook..
with the 2ghz processor and the superdrive, if i have a tdk external burner.?

the price difference is about 211usd ?

was going to get a macbook

white 1.83ghz, with 2gb ram upgrade
or
white 2ghz, with 2gb ram upgrade as well

any comments?

would the macbook be able to handle games decently? ( i dont need super fast speeds)
i would be playing some games occasionally, something like sims 2 or second life.. possibly black and white 2. ?
Click to expand...

Only if you want a SuperDrive. But since you already have a Dvd burner; you can save some money by going for 1.83.

I personally dont think there will be a really big difference. I wud have been content with a 1.67CD too. But bought the 2.0CD coz I really wanted a super drive and this will be my only computer.

As for games. They might run a little faster. But you might not even see the difference with naked eyes. Coz the real bottleneck in games wud be GMA and not the CPU.

But then If you have extra money and cant decide what to do with it, You can go for the SuperDrive MB with 2.0.
 
On second thoughts since you are saying that you can buy 2.0MB with 2 GB RAM; why not consider a MBP. The size difference is not that huge. Check out this post by alienx. He`s put up a lot of pics of MB and MBP together. Doesnt look that big wen compared to MB.

But then there are problems with MBP like heat whine etc. Also if you are buying the MBP then you may well wait till Aug. MBP might just get MEROMS(ie 64bit Core2Duo) in them. I had little doubts bout this happening and thought there is bout 10% chance that apple wont put Meroms in MBP before MWSF in Jan07. But now that MB have got 1.83 and 2.0 CD instead of 1.67CD and Core Solo which many of us had feared; I m 99.9% sure that we`ll see Meroms in MBP this Aug. ie if intel doesnt screw up and delay the Meroms in first place.

But I know how hard it is to wait. I`ve waited just over a month for the MB and I know it was the most painful month in last 10 years. But now that I m getting the MB very soon. It all seems worth it.

BOTTOM LINE. If you really want games,wait till Aug and can stand the Bigger dimensions of MBP ; I`d surely recommend a Merom MBP. That is assuming you have enough money for MBP.
Or else get the 1.83 MB and save yourself some money and a lot of frustration too:D
 
student_trap said:
definitely get the superdrive built in, it wil be worth it in the long run as you won't have to lug your burner around anywhere!
Click to expand...

Yeah it`s not easy to carry extra burner with you. But I personally dont need a SD everywhere I go. If I had an external Burner than I`d definitely go for cheaper 1.83 MB. And in case I need to make an Optical Copy of my data, I can always use the built in CD writer. It wont be good if you need to burn a lot of data though. But it`ll work absolutely fine for my needs. In any case the SD in 2.0MB isnt DualLayer. And might just be slower than the external one OP has. So I wud have gone for 1.83 MB if I was in OP`s place.

But that`s just my opinion. May be if he needs SD on the move;which doesnt look like he`ll need, then go for the 2.0 MB. It`ll be worth 200 extra only for the internal SD. Processor speed is just bout 8% more. He might not even motice the difference in real use.
 
Lopez.T.H. said:
Remember! Intergrated graphics! Not the fancy ATi X1600.
Click to expand...


OMFG please stop. everyone please stop slating the IIG. current incarnations are not bad, in fact, they're quite good. the developer Intel PowerMacs last year had them and nobody said there was any problem. The new IIG used in macs is far better than any graphics support the iBooks or PowerBooks ever had.
 
hmmm

I might wait for the WWDC..

or the June/July Student Sales?


most prob going to get the 2ghz white model..

games are not essential.. but it would be nice once in a while..
anyway i shouldnt be playing all that much... i will be a 3rd yr uni student next year..

hah..
 
No one has suguested the obvious yet, so I thought I'd say it....



Buy the RAM from a 3rd party vender and install it yourself.... you'll save oh.... about $300, more then that if you sell the old ram on eBay.
 
Ah gotcha. It's hard to tell how's a guy/girl online sometimes, so people assume.

I echo the previous poster, get the base model, and go to www.ramseeker.com and buy 2 GB of memory there for about $150, saving you $200-300. As for graphics, I believe you'll be pleasantly surprised with the integrated graphics. As for the DVD-burner, if you want the convenience then get the model with the SD, if you want to save money, then get the combo drive and buy third party RAM. It's not that hard to install yourself, it just involves removing the battery and a few screws.

If you're on a budget, then save $200 and the 0.17 GHz processor difference is probably something you can live with. Save another $250 by doing the RAM yourself. Enjoy =)
 
vikas soni said:
why not consider a MBP. The size difference is not that huge.
If you really want games,wait till Aug and can stand the Bigger dimensions of MBP ; I`d surely recommend a Merom MBP.
Click to expand...

flowin said:
btw....
im a girl
Click to expand...

Rules out that extreeemely big MBP. Way too big n heavy for a girl.
Even MB seems big now.

I remember there was a rumor bout some MB mini,aimed for the female. But it was a one off rumor only. Never heard bout it again though. I`ll post the link if I find it.

EDIT: Here`s the link. It was posted in December and not much has been heard bout it since then. So cant count on it.

EDIT DEUCE: On second thoughts; even if such a thing is launched by Apple, it wont be more powerful than the MB at all. So it might not even play the games MB can. Also it will be pricey too. I mean anything`s possible if they can charge 150$ extra just for a Black Paint:eek: .
 
vikas soni said:
Rules out that extreeemely big MBP. Way too big n heavy for a girl. Even MB seems big now.
Click to expand...

i have a lot of female friends who have the 15 and 17" PBG4s, and don't have any problems with them in terms of size or weight, and aren't exactly built like arnold schwarzenegger... ...or an elephant...

my girlfriend read that over my shoulder too and thought it was a *little* bit of a stupid comment (not her words, but i've decided swearing on forums is bad).


:rolleyes:
 
bigandy said:
i have a lot of female friends who have the 15 and 17" PBG4s, and don't have any problems with them in terms of size or weight, and aren't exactly built like arnold schwarzenegger... ...or an elephant...

my girlfriend read that over my shoulder too and thought it was a *little* bit of a stupid comment (not her words, but i've decided swearing on forums is bad).


:rolleyes:
Click to expand...

I believe they were being sarcastic. However, since this is the internet, it's hard to tell so I could be wrong.
 
Man, it's 3am in the morning, I thought my sarcasm meter was off for the day but it's just turned on by itself over that post about the MBP being too big for a girl.

It's now acting outside my control, as though I have become one with the sarcasm.

A white MacBook might be OK for a girl, so long as you put some flower stickers on it, a black one will be waay too much for the delicate female sensibilities to deal with.
DANCE PUPPETS!!! DANCE!!!
 
bigandy said:
i have a lot of female friends who have the 15 and 17" PBG4s, and don't have any problems with them in terms of size or weight, and aren't exactly built like arnold schwarzenegger... ...or an elephant...

my girlfriend read that over my shoulder too and thought it was a *little* bit of a stupid comment (not her words, but i've decided swearing on forums is bad).


:rolleyes:
Click to expand...

Actually I dont think a girl (even if she`s Well built or an Elephant) would look good with a big Laptop like MBP. Small n cute goes well with the girls. But then everyone has his/her own choice and no one can decide what girls/boys should like/dislike other than the person him/herself.

I personally dont want to imagine what gf wud look like with a 15/17 laptop in her hands. Unless ofcourse she needs the bigger screen for some serious work. I m sure if she wants a lappy, she`ll rather pay twice as much than buy somthing big which is not girly cute.
 
samanthas said:
vikas soni is such a sweet talker. I bet he gets all the girls.
...
But seriously those comments come off as rather sexist.
Click to expand...

WOW. You really are smart. So tell me, where will the DOW be after a month. And also mention the Gold rates for next Monday. And one more thing;should be a piece of cake for you again, who`ll win the FIFA worldcup, who`ll be the runner up and the 1st runner up. As I said, it`d be really easy for U. I`ll put my money on your advice make a lot of money to buy a 17" MBP with 30"ACD.:D

So tell me waddya think Smarty.
 
samanthas said:
vikas soni is such a sweet talker. I bet he gets all the girls.

...


But seriously those comments come off as rather sexist.
Click to expand...

Well, as a girl, if I saw an enormous guy walking around with a 12" iBook I might have to... shall I say, give in to girly urges and giggle?
 
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