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Macbook: Is it worth it? (Read 1877 times)

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Carrion Crow

#1 November 22, 2009, 12:50:46 am

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I get paid next week and I will have £300 toward my macbook pro fund. The question is, is it really worth it?

At the moment I have a 2 year old HP Compaq 6720s with a Celeron 540 (1.9Ghz) with 2gigs of ram, internal graphics and an 80 gig hard drive.

It has a massive chip off the lid from where I tragically dropped my laptop bag onto a concrete floor and the I key sticks because they keyboard is not very well wearing.

When I take it to project meetings the battery runs down in 10 mins and leaves me looking like a cock when I am trying to demonstrate things in the board room where there are no plug sockets on the middle table.

I would like to get a 13" MBP and I can for about £760 with a student discount whilst I am in uni. I'm just not entirely sure if it is worth the money.

I have a tower PC in my room that is powerful and runs Windows 7 so I don't have to worry about not being able to access windows-specific things.

In your opinon would it be wiser for me to upgrade to a cheaper but higher power Windows laptop or do you think I should take the plunge with the MBP? I am determined not to buy into the crazy underpowered netbook thing people are banging on about at the moment.

If you own a mac are you happy with it right now or do you have some regrets for not buying a windows machine?

The reason I am asking this is because I am not that well off and it is a big move for me to spend the best part of a grand on a piece of electronics.

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Mama Luigi

#2 November 22, 2009, 01:20:53 am

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Quote from: ed on November 22, 2009, 12:50:46 am

If you own a mac are you happy with it right now or do you have some regrets for not buying a windows machine?

Haha, maybe no one's told you, but Mac fanbois are the most rabid of them all. Fanbois act like the Macbook is the best thing since Jesus walked the earth and they will go way out of their way to let you know how much they love their Mac products and how you should too. They're like a fucking cult.

Of course, having repaired Macbooks and the fact that I use a Mac desktop every day for about 7 hours, I can tell you that Apple makes some pretty good quality stuff. The hardware is pretty well thought out and just feels nice to use. Of course you pay a premium for Apple notebooks... some call it the Apple tax. You pay more for the trendy (reputable?) brand, the relative quality compared to most PC manufacturers, and of course the bundled software which many like.

If you don't care about iLife or haven't given OSX a test-run... or if you just want better computing bang for your buck, the Macbook/Pro is probably not your ideal choice.
If you want a very nicely built laptop capable of running OSX and Windows 7/Vista/XP, nice bundled software, and enjoy the added bonus of appearing trendy, you will like the Macbook.

My 2 cents.

Speaking only about myself personally here: I would buy a nice Windows laptop. I prefer Windows 7 to OSX slightly, would enjoy playing games on the go, and am sort of budget conscious.

Last Edit: November 22, 2009, 01:23:30 am by Mama Luigi

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Carrion Crow

#3 November 22, 2009, 02:05:55 am

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I am most attracted by the fact it comes with stuff like garageband installed, has a 7 hour battery which is unheard of with most other makes (in the price range), it has Nvidia graphics and they look very very nice indeed. The new MacBook is fugly imo. It's too curvy and plasticy. The whole being all white = cool thing lost its appeal to me somewhere around 2004.

I can't find a laptop that looks nice for ~£760 that has specs that good. They all look so crappy.

I have used OSX on PCs that aren't mine and I do like it a lot. I use Ubuntu also and it strikes me as being similar but with a wider appeal with more software.

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Mince Wobley

#4 November 22, 2009, 02:06:28 am

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No, get a vaio

Play Raimond Ex (if you haven't already)

I'll not TAKE ANYTHING you write like this seriously because it looks dumb

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Carrion Crow

#5 November 22, 2009, 02:07:34 am

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Quote from: Mince Wobley on November 22, 2009, 02:06:28 am

No, get a vaio

No fucking way. I work as a resnet buddy on my campus and the only PCs I can't fix are Sony Vaios. My Dad has had 2 and the HDDs died on both of them and they were different models 4 years apart from each other.

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Mince Wobley

#6 November 22, 2009, 02:11:10 am

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Actually I think those macbooks are really pretty and well designed and minimalistic. I'd get one and install windows in it if I were rich.

--

Ps I'd get the vaio if I were a high level executive

--

Pps: Apple is less reliable than sony according to the numbers

http://news.idg.no/cw/art.cfm?id=040626EC-1A64-6A71-CE0B1803CEDA95FF

Last Edit: November 22, 2009, 02:26:22 am by Mince Wobley

Play Raimond Ex (if you haven't already)

I'll not TAKE ANYTHING you write like this seriously because it looks dumb

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Vellfire

#7 November 22, 2009, 03:03:27 am

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Macbooks are very sweet, and as long as you have a windows machine nearby to do your windows-only stuff there is no reason not to get a macbook for day to day things. One thing I would suggest though is looking into rebates, deals and student discounts (you said you were going to do this already but I am emphasizing YES DO THIS). I knocked several hundred dollars off of my macbook this way, as well as getting a free ipod and printer. It's probably easier to find this stuff during back to school time (which is when I got mine), but I'm sure there are plenty of rebates and discounts if you look around. Sometimes it is hard to find the info, and sometimes it involves mailing in invoices and proofs of purchase, but it's well worth it to get a couple hundred back on the price. I say go for it.

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Carrion Crow

#8 November 22, 2009, 04:16:20 am

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How did you manage to swing a free ipod, was it some dude who came to your campus student's union or something?

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Vellfire

#9 November 22, 2009, 05:46:24 am

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No, it was just a deal they had going on on their site. Like I said though it was probably a back to school thing.

I love this hobby - stealing your mother's diary
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Mama Luigi

#10 November 22, 2009, 06:46:18 am

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Quote from: Peggy "Turkey Leg" Hill on November 22, 2009, 05:46:24 am

No, it was just a deal they had going on on their site. Like I said though it was probably a back to school thing.

Yup they do this every year. If you're a college student and you buy a Macbook they give you a free iPod Touch 16gb if I'm not mistaken.

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Vellfire

#11 November 22, 2009, 01:33:58 pm

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I got mine in '07 so it was pre-touch but it was the newest model at the time iirc.

I love this hobby - stealing your mother's diary
BRRING! BRRING!
Hello! It's me, Vellfire! FOLLOW ME ON TWITTER! ... Bye! CLICK! @gidgetnomates

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Verne

#12 November 22, 2009, 04:45:36 pm

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I'm a big Mac (fanboy) hater but I did buy a 13" MacBook Pro earlier this fall. The operating system (OS X) was a huge disappointment. It did work but it wasn't the saviour operating system the fan boys made it out to be. It's easy to set up stuff but it's just as easy in Windows. The main difference between Windows and Mac OS is that Mac OS doesn't show as much options on the GUI itself, while Windows shows everything. OS X is just easier on the go due to this more "limited" GUI.

What actually made me choose a MacBook Pro instead another HP laptop was the great build design (it feels very sturdy and looks good too :P), 7 hours battery life (its great to not have to drag the power cord around) and the multi-touch track pad.

Its been working well for school stuff and multimedia, but OS X does lack some software, especially on the freeware side. Snow Leopard also killed support for many great programs and even some critical ones (like Mobile Connect for mobile internet connection) but by now I think most of the programs have at least beta version available for Snow Leopard.

I would recommend getting a MacBook if you actually do only use it for work/school.

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im_so_tired

#13 November 23, 2009, 07:46:31 pm

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i wouldn't call myself an apple fanboy, im pretty skeptical of both windows and mac and i really don't want an iphone.

regardless, using a mac is a lot less hastle. the gui is cleaner. the only problems i've run into are with the mac firewall, which is completely editable through the terminal window. but has no real GUI. i guess this is the trade off. at least the windows firewall has a gui, though it does suck ass, you can at least navigate it with an interface. it's just ridiculous that apple made it impossible to open up any of your ports via gui. i guess too many noobs opening ports w/o knowing what's going on and people get their info. there's still some stuff that's a mystery with the OS like mapping network drives. can't figure it out. that stuff is much more direct with a pc.

my macbook also gets really fucking hot. i would suggest getting applecare if you get the computer because my charger busted and some crap happened with my battery about 2 years in and it wasn't covered under general warranty anymore and i didn't have applecare so i had to buy a new charger then i had to save up for a new battery. :/ kind of shitty they wouldn't even help me but the problem was their fault. one of my friends also has had problems with her keyboard and apple wouldn't replace it. just seems like they really treasure customers who buy the applecare package.

i guess it's important to tell you that i use my macbook for editing, graphics, 3d, rendering, wow, and i'm going to run windows on it pretty soon. my friend is able to play cod6 on his and it plays pretty well.

i know this is stupid but it seems like a concern of yours and macbooks are great to take to meetings. it makes you look stylish and up-to-date.

one thing that's frustrating moving between the two os's is i often accidentally press the wrong keys for copy and paste cause the apple key is the ctrl key. usually i just have to take a second to remember which os i'm on.

overall, my experience with the mac os has been better than mine with windows.

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Mince Wobley

#14 November 23, 2009, 07:51:20 pm

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im_so_tired is it good at v-raying (rendering with v-ray)?

Play Raimond Ex (if you haven't already)

I'll not TAKE ANYTHING you write like this seriously because it looks dumb

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im_so_tired

#15 November 23, 2009, 09:35:59 pm

gnilleps
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is v-ray a maya 2010 thing? i have 8.5 on this machine which doesn't come default with vray, i just use mentalray most the time and it is pretty slow :/
usually i go to the computer lab at school when no one is there and chain render. i actually found a pretty good alienware pc on the street here and i use that for rendering too.

you do maya stuff mince? post it in ga please, that place is so dead and has been for several years but i don't wanna accept it.

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Mince Wobley

#16 November 24, 2009, 03:02:46 am

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I don't know if it comes with maya 2010. I use it with sketchup to render interiors (at the lowest quality setting or else it'd take weeks to render a single 800x600 image on my obsolete computer)

Play Raimond Ex (if you haven't already)

I'll not TAKE ANYTHING you write like this seriously because it looks dumb

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dada

#17 November 24, 2009, 12:38:58 pm

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Quote from: Mama Luigi on November 22, 2009, 01:20:53 am

Haha, maybe no one's told you, but Mac fanbois are the most rabid of them all. Fanbois act like the Macbook is the best thing since Jesus walked the earth and they will go way out of their way to let you know how much they love their Mac products and how you should too. They're like a fucking cult.

You know what's also a cult? People who keep talking about how unreasonably biased Mac users are and how you absolutely should never listen to them. Come on man. This is about as old and incorrect as that same Mac cult you yourself describe.

I've been a Mac user for years now and I personally am very happy with my Macbook. It's about 2 years old now but it still works quite well for my purposes (web development and graphic design). If you want a machine just (or mostly) to play games with, you might want to reconsider. There just aren't that many games for the system, although a lot of the bigger ones do get ported these days.

To me, though, the real killer feature of Apple is the operating system. I'm not sure if you've ever worked with it but it's just so much better than Windows. It's fast, it's easy to figure out, it's designed for everything to be as simple as possible, and it's POSIX-compliant. It's very nice to work with and I would recommend it for virtually any type or line of work.

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Verne

#18 November 24, 2009, 01:25:47 pm

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Quote from: Dada on November 24, 2009, 12:38:58 pm

To me, though, the real killer feature of Apple is the operating system. I'm not sure if you've ever worked with it but it's just so much better than Windows. It's fast, it's easy to figure out, it's designed for everything to be as simple as possible, and it's POSIX-compliant. It's very nice to work with and I would recommend it for virtually any type or line of work.

For me the operating system was the biggest disappointment with my MacbBook Pro. I didn't find OS X to be any faster, simpler or easier to use than Windows XP/Vista/7. Every time I stumbled upon an OS war I would hear how great the OS X is and after finally getting my hands on it, it was just such a huge let down. I found the hardware side much more impressing. OS X on iPhone, however, is actually fast, simple and easy compared to other mobile OSes.

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Saleop

#19 November 25, 2009, 08:46:43 am

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Macbooks are definitely high-quality laptops. and if you really wanna use windows all you gotta do is use boot camp to get a dual-boot set-up. I do recommend getting a mouse if you do this, though. my trackpad is very sluggish on windows.

I also recommend getting a pro, if only for the aluminum casing. I have a regular macbook and the polycarbonate casing gets really smudgy after a while and it just doesn't look good.

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Vellfire

#20 November 25, 2009, 01:20:21 pm

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Yeah let me just say that if you do get a regular macbook instead of the pro, think carefully before getting a white one. I can't speak for other people but mine looks GROSS a lot of the time. There's a handprint on either side of the trackpad from where I lay my hands while typing and it will not come off with any sort of cleaning I've tried.

I love this hobby - stealing your mother's diary
BRRING! BRRING!
Hello! It's me, Vellfire! FOLLOW ME ON TWITTER! ... Bye! CLICK! @gidgetnomates

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