Buying a MacBook

[Ernest Friedman-Hill]

OK, kids, time for a new Mac, and this time it's going to come out of my own nasssty pocketses. I'm looking at MacBooks. There are a lot of choices: there's a glossy vs. matte screen, the Hi resolution 17" vs. the regular 17", there's black and silver, there's faster or slower HDD RPMs, there's a couple of barely-different processor speeds... money is an issue only to the extent that I want to get my money's worth; I don't want to spend extra for something that doesn't really help.

This is going to be my workhorse machine; I'll use it for everything from coding to video editing to photoshop to gaming. Performance matters. It should be luggable (hence the MacBook) but airplane portability isn't an issue (I have this old G4 powerbook for that.)

OK, so: let's hear those opinions, folks!

[Bear Bibeault]

The only thing I wouldn't do is pay extra for black. White rocks!

[Bill Shirley]

If you want to use it for video editing and photoshop, then you want to get a MacBook Pro.

Up the hard drive as much as possible.

Up the RAM - aftermarket if you're not afraid.

[Bear Bibeault]

With regards to matte/glossy that's pretty much a matter of taste. The glossy looks great and the colors really pop, but depending upon your lighting conditions you could get reflections and glare.

Max the memory (buy from Crucial not Apple), cpu and disk size.

Get AppleCare.

[marc weber]

What's your timeframe?

Apple Insider - Apple notebook lines to see major design changes, sources say.

(Yeah, I know. Trying to stay on top of Apple's marketing -- never mind the rumors -- is a dubious proposition. But you might find the above article interesting anyway.)

As others have already said:

Max the RAM and processor (especially for video and gaming).

White is cool. Black is expensive.

Matte/glossy is very much a personal preference.

[Bert Bates]

for me:

#1 - pixels, pixels, pixels - at home I have 1650x1080 (Macbook Pro) AND an extended desktop with another 1440 x 900. And frankly I'd like more! I think there's a newer Pro with even more pixels

#2 - Not glossy - it's great when the lighting is PERFECT otherwise too much glare.

[Bert Bates]

oh, and one more thing...

A few months back we were preparing for our 6 week, 30,000 mile, winter, road trip odyssey. I was agonizing over whether I could safely lug my 17" Pro thru all those airports. I almost got a low-end Macbook. In the end I got a top of the line Brenthaven backpack, and it was FANTASTIC! Everything about it made traveling with the 17" easy, and I felt really confident that my machine was safe - it made the traveling much less stressful.

[Ernest Friedman-Hill]

Originally posted by Bert Bates:
for me:

#1 - pixels, pixels, pixels - at home I have 1650x1080 (Macbook Pro) AND an extended desktop with another 1440 x 900. And frankly I'd like more! I think there's a newer Pro with even more pixels

#2 - Not glossy - it's great when the lighting is PERFECT otherwise too much glare.

There's a 1920x1200; that's the "Hi-Res" option. Yeah, I love my pixels too, so that's going to rock. Thanks for the input about the glossy screen; I'll steer clear.

[Maris Orbidans]

coding ? AFAIK there is no java 6 in Macs.
Otherwise I would have bought my Macbook a long time ago.

[Bear Bibeault]

Java 6 is available as Developer Preview minus the Rhino engine. It does, however, only work on more recent 64-bit machines.

[Ernest Friedman-Hill]

Ordered a 2.6GHz Macbook Pro 17" Hi-Res Matte, with the 7200 RPM disk, and 2GB of RAM; I'll upgrade it myself.

[Bert Bates]

count me officially green!

[marc weber]

Gosh, darn! That sounds like one heck of a spiffy contraption!

[Bear Bibeault]

Originally posted by Bert Bates:
count me officially green!

Kermit impression here too!

[Ernest Friedman-Hill]

Order status now "Prepared for shipment"...

[Bear Bibeault]

Taunt us, why don't you?

[Lasse Koskela]

I'm really liking my new, week-old, thin-and-light-as-a-balloon Airbook...

[Bear Bibeault]

Sweet! Pics?

[Lasse Koskela]

Originally posted by Bear Bibeault:
Sweet! Pics?

You want pics?



I'm happy with it

[Bear Bibeault]

Great smile!

[Ernest Friedman-Hill]

And... I'm posting from the new MacBook! I need to adjust some preferences here; the pixels are so tiny I can barely see what I'm typing! Other than that: it feels considerably lighter than my G4 17". The screen won't tilt as far back and I'm going to have to get used to that. The Airport seems to work better than on my G4, too; I get better reception in my kitchen than I used to. The keyboard feels nice, the screen is very bright and the whole thing feels very speedy.

Thank for all the input, folks!

[marc weber]

Originally posted by Ernest Friedman-Hill:
... The screen won't tilt as far back and I'm going to have to get used to that...

Well, the communicator props in the original Star Trek had a pin inside the right hinge to hold the lids open at about 135 degrees. But vigorous flipping soon dislodged these, after which the lids opened as far as 210 degrees. I expect this is the same deal.

[Bear Bibeault]

Man, do I love geeks!