get mb or wait on mbp????

C

chucklesresale

Weaksauce
Joined
Jul 4, 2007
Messages
77
well i currently have 1600 and all of which is going towards a new laptop...should i get a reg mb with the money i got..or is the mbp so much better that i should wait the month untill i get the other 400 to get a mbp.

also on either..i have a blackjack which uses active sync which is only a windows program. how would i use that as well as microsoft office 2003 on a mac comp???
 
well there is office 04 (office for macs). not sure about the pda. do your needs justify a mbp (or do you want the leet factor) ?
 
chucklesresale said:
well i currently have 1600 and all of which is going towards a new laptop...should i get a reg mb with the money i got..or is the mbp so much better that i should wait the month untill i get the other 400 to get a mbp.

also on either..i have a blackjack which uses active sync which is only a windows program. how would i use that as well as microsoft office 2003 on a mac comp???
Click to expand...

Here's what I consider your best options -

Option 1 - TOTAL = $1557
New MacBook @ $1299
Upgrade to 2GB RAM - $100
Parallels Desktop - $67
Windows XP Home OEM - $90

Option 2 - TOTAL = $1690
Refurbished 15" MacBook Pro - 2.16GHz Core2Duo @ $1499
Up the memory to 2GB - $100
WIndows XP Home OEM - $90
Run your Windows apps via BootCamp - free, but restart into Windows Required.

Prices are for regular folks (not academic) and don't include tax or shipping.

From what you've said you're doing, I'd see if there's any way you can find the extra money to do option 2 and add Parallels. You'll be about $150 over your stated total, but the extra screen real estate on the MBP is nice.

As for syncing the Blackjack. . .it runs Windows Mobile 5.0. . .The Missing Sync for Windows Mobile will allow you to sync your BlackJack with your Mac. More info at http://www.markspace.com/
 
Well what do you feel you plan on doing with this?
Gaming, video editing, photo editing?

or

Just web browsing, chatting, writing papers, etc.

The MBPs are really nice and well worth it, but also do not over buy cause then you will wish you had got the other and saved some cash. I would wait and save some more (also if you can get an educational discount), and see if the MBP is more your liking, unless of course you have no needed for the extra video power.
 
well i do a little of everything lol but i more into the macs as i heard they are much more reliable and just stronger systems and for the price of a nice windows based is same pirce or more neway. i had gateway and it was slow frooze alot and crashed 3 times in the 6 months i had it. it was a mess. so im looking to upgrade the reason i say wait is my mom will be giving me 350 and by then off side work and such ill make another 200ish on top of that so withh tax ill have plenty for the 1999 pro.
 
if you're going off to college there is a student discount that you can use too; or you can find a student who can get you the discount etc... *Ahem*
 
yeah im only going into my senior year in high school and i really dont want to wait a year...i gotta find someone...what is the discount is it a decent amount???
 
chucklesresale said:
yeah im only going into my senior year in high school and i really dont want to wait a year...i gotta find someone...what is the discount is it a decent amount???
Click to expand...

200$ off?
If you're a student, you can use the page of the college you're going to go to, and they don't like.. check any of those credentials anyway... they just sell you the machine and trust that you're a student like you say you are. Very Apple like; to trust, same way it's nice that there aren't huge CD-keys to re-install an OS I paid for already and should be allowed to use as I so please on my machine.
 
Optional87 said:
200$ off?
If you're a student, you can use the page of the college you're going to go to, and they don't like.. check any of those credentials anyway... they just sell you the machine and trust that you're a student like you say you are. Very Apple like; to trust, same way it's nice that there aren't huge CD-keys to re-install an OS I paid for already and should be allowed to use as I so please on my machine.
Click to expand...

yes, because you bought your machine from apple and it has the authorization on the hardware side. dont start that nonsense.
 
oh ok..well im basically deff going to unlv ive been accepted there ust havnt actually accepted there offer but it will be the school im going to. so i just do that and they dont check or contact the school to see that im really enrolled. wow thats surprising. well also how long do you usually have to wait for shipping i really just wanted to walk into my local bestbuy and just pay cash and have it that day.
 
i mean right now im currently running a laptop with 1.66ghz processor and 1 gig ram...is a mac book pro going to be seriously amazing compared to what i am running now???
 
CPU wise, it is better, but graphically you are looking at an intergrated chip, but if you ask Optional87, he will tell how the GPU fairs in certain games.
 
Martyr said:
yes, because you bought your machine from apple and it has the authorization on the hardware side. dont start that nonsense.
Click to expand...

What do you mean? In several hundred OSX installs there's never been an authorization, hardware, software, or otherwise.

Now, if you mean that you can only install OSX on Apple-branded hardware, that is correct - but totally irrelavent to the point Optional was making about a much smoother install process/experience for the operating system.
 
ok with this whole bootcamp thing how does it work im guessing youd split your hardrive up some space for xp and rest of space for mac os...if i got the 120 would it be ok to have 80 for mac and 40 for windows??? as id onyl use windows for office 2003 and the sync software for my blackjack and windows media player which would hold my movies and music and thatw ould be it...also do i personally have to have the xp software or is it installed on the mbp already. sorry formany questions
 
Forums are here for questions for those who do not know.
You can split the harddrive however you want, basically you just partition it for the amount you want XP/Vista to run on. Also, yes, you do need a full licensed version of XP/Vista.
 
I love my macbook 2.0 ghz

I really love it. Running windows xp perfectly as well.
 
well i like xp so no vista for me but does neone have an idea how much xp media is now that vista is out?????


also i thought i should add really ehat ill use this for since i jsut took a real thought about this...


yes
alottttt of video editing
sotring alottt ofmusic and movies and such (ie fromlimewire)
aim
internet
school work

not so much
photos
gaming


also can most printers work on macs????

thanks guys/girls
 
If your drunk I'll excuse the grammar.

If you are looking for a macbook or macbook pro to be used with your school work, might I suggest you get a good grammar checking program. It is quite difficult to read some of that and find out what "neone" even means in the English language. Anyone works out much better.


There are some great macbook pro's that have LED back lighting which works out even better and gives some great battery life. The processing power and RAM options are top notch in the field for Apple products and PC alternatives.
 
haha im sorry i type fast and its not so easy to do so when its pitch dark (good thing macbook pros have backlighted keyboard) lol
 
so this is what i need and is recommended to run windows on a mbp?

http://www.parallels.com/en/shop/online/

also a copy of windows xp media

and thats is right

so my cost for this is going to be

1999 macbook pro
-200 student saving
+79.99 parallels
+50.00 xp media
---------------------------------
1928.99
+150.00 est shipping costs
--------------------------------
2178.99 total
 
chucklesresale said:
so this is what i need and is recommended to run windows on a mbp?

http://www.parallels.com/en/shop/online/

also a copy of windows xp media

and thats is right

so my cost for this is going to be

1999 macbook pro
-200 student saving
+79.99 parallels
+50.00 xp media
---------------------------------
1928.99
+150.00 est shipping costs
--------------------------------
2178.99 total
Click to expand...

Or. . .you could get a refurbished MacBook Pro. . .while it would be a previous-generation model, it would also save you $300.
 
theDreamer said:
CPU wise, it is better, but graphically you are looking at an intergrated chip, but if you ask Optional87, he will tell how the GPU fairs in certain games.
Click to expand...

Yeah, it's completely playable in WoW and WC3 and other older titles; works fine with FFXI which is DX8.1 etc.. So don't expect it to play FEAR or like Crysis, but you can game very extremely casually, I generally don't, but that doesn't mean that you can't. If you want to game at all, go for the MBP of course though.

chucklesresale said:
hey sorry im stupid wwats an integrated chip lol compared to what i got
Click to expand...

Integrated graphics is a graphics card that takes memory from the system to do it's work.

The Intel GMA950 in both XP and OS X can take anywhere (dynamically) from 64-224MB of the system memory from you in order to do whatever it is you're doing at the time. You don't notice the memory is being used though so long as you have enough from the get-go. A MacBook runs best with 1GB+ because of how OS X is and how the GMA950 is.

The MBP's have what is called discreet graphics cards, or cards that do everything on their own without relying on the CPU or System Memory at all, just like a normal desktop graphics card, but laptop ones are generally a little underclocked and some other stuff...

CreativeMac said:
What do you mean? In several hundred OSX installs there's never been an authorization, hardware, software, or otherwise.

Now, if you mean that you can only install OSX on Apple-branded hardware, that is correct - but totally irrelavent to the point Optional was making about a much smoother install process/experience for the operating system.
Click to expand...

That's what I was going for; just easier and nicer to install the OS because there is no key to use it for, not once did I say anything about using it for anything other than installing on a Mac.. that reply to my post earlier was just kinda weird and mean...

chucklesresale said:
ok with this whole bootcamp thing how does it work im guessing youd split your hardrive up some space for xp and rest of space for mac os...if i got the 120 would it be ok to have 80 for mac and 40 for windows??? as id onyl use windows for office 2003 and the sync software for my blackjack and windows media player which would hold my movies and music and thatw ould be it...also do i personally have to have the xp software or is it installed on the mbp already. sorry formany questions
Click to expand...

Ok so, as part of the BootCamp install process you get to choose how large you want your partition to be and you burn a drivers CD with all the drivers to install to windows for your current hardware. You pop in your XP SP2 based CD and restart and it goes right into the install.

From there choose the partition you just made, and choose whatever formatting method you want, FAT32 can be read and written to in both XP and OS X, where as NTFS (by default) is read-only in OS X, but there are programs like MacFUSE/NTFS-3G (used together) that will allow you to write to NTFS drives so long as they aren't compressed using the XP drive compression scheme.

I just use NTFS when I have a BootCamp install even enabled; which is when I'm away from my desktop for a long time...

You should really try to adapt right into OS X all of what you say you're going to do there, there's just something wrong with owning a nice new Mac and having to go into XP to do something you can do just as well in OS X...

You can play all your movies and music just the same as you could on XP of course, VLC is also on the Mac so for that you wouldn't even need any codecs. If you own an iPod or iPhone I highly recommend moving your library to the Mac as it's just more seamless there than it is on XP/Vista.

There's a bunch of software and links I'll post later on to help you get set up.

chucklesresale said:
also would i really need the 256mb graphics card over the 128mb one????
Click to expand...

The performance difference is minimal at the screen resolution of 1440x900, so it's your choice there, I say just go for the lowest one. If you went with an MB I'd say the middle one because they also come with DVD burners at that level, but in the MBP's they all have DL DVD burners so no worries there.

Yeah, and like I said above, make a list of whatever software you currently use and me and the others will link you to good and popular OS X counterparts, for the most part they'll all be free too.
 
well i use windows media player
microsoft office 2003
active sync for my blackjack
aim
limewire

thats about it lol and limewire and aim have mac installs
windows media..i will have quicktime
so its just office and active sync

im sure theres more ill have to look later

im getting really sick of this laptop i have now its slow and freezes sometimes and its not even a year old..it has 1.66ghz proces.. and 1 gig ram...so how much better will the mbp be with an installed 4 gig ram. i can get the 4 gig ram thats able to work on mbp pretty cheap from my neighbor so with the 200 discount ill just upgrade it
 
chucklesresale said:
well i use windows media player
microsoft office 2003
active sync for my blackjack
aim
limewire

thats about it lol and limewire and aim have mac installs
windows media..i will have quicktime
so its just office and active sync
Click to expand...

Here's what you'll need -

- In leiu of Wndows Media Player, use the free download of Flip4Mac. This will allow Windows Media files to play in Quicktime. There is/was a Windows Media Player for Mac, but it hasn't been updated in a LONG time. Flip4Mac is much better and more current.
- MS Office 2003 - get MS Office 2004 for Mac. Your v2003 docs will all move over to the Mac without any conversion. At worst, you may need to add .doc or .xls to the file name if it's not there already. Academic version will be ~$150 - that is if your university doesn't have a distribution agreement in place.
- Active Sync for your BlackJack - as I mentioned earlier, The Missing Sync for Windows Mobile will handle this. Should be priced at ~$40. You can try the freeware sync stuff if you want, but my suggestion is to just start with something that just works.
- AIM - use iChat. . .it's included free with OSX. If you want an integrated messaging client that does AIM, Yahoo Messenger, MS Messenger, etc and does tabbed chats, then look at Adium (free download).
- Limewire - I prefer Acquisition, but there's a Mac version of Limewire.
 
CreativeMac said:
Here's what you'll need -

- In leiu of Wndows Media Player, use the free download of Flip4Mac. This will allow Windows Media files to play in Quicktime. There is/was a Windows Media Player for Mac, but it hasn't been updated in a LONG time. Flip4Mac is much better and more current.
- MS Office 2003 - get MS Office 2004 for Mac. Your v2003 docs will all move over to the Mac without any conversion. At worst, you may need to add .doc or .xls to the file name if it's not there already. Academic version will be ~$150 - that is if your university doesn't have a distribution agreement in place.
- Active Sync for your BlackJack - as I mentioned earlier, The Missing Sync for Windows Mobile will handle this. Should be priced at ~$40. You can try the freeware sync stuff if you want, but my suggestion is to just start with something that just works.
- AIM - use iChat. . .it's included free with OSX. If you want an integrated messaging client that does AIM, Yahoo Messenger, MS Messenger, etc and does tabbed chats, then look at Adium (free download).
- Limewire - I prefer Acquisition, but there's a Mac version of Limewire.
Click to expand...

Oh man, I absolutely suggest Adium over iChat or anything in the IM/Chat region for that matter. There is no equal.

If you want some Office stuff on the cheap, NeoOffice is free, and is an Aqua/OS X based port of OpenOffice; it's compatibility is pretty good... but if you can afford it, I still recommend the Office 2004 Student pack as mentioned above.

The Missing Sync is again your best bet here, it's the de-facto standard for Mac users with BlackJack's etc..

As for file sharing? Hmm; I'm an Azureus Vuze man myself.

As far as media codecs goes: http://blog.twenty08.com/2006/12/27/codec-pack-for-all-the-new-mac-users/ is your best bed (although the link seems to be down, this also includes the Flip4Mac codecs, so you can skip that download and more updated and more specific versions of other codecs).

Umm, yeah, lots of other good stuff to mention, but I leave for work in 'bout 10 minutes and I still have to eat... *peace*
 
since somebody mentioned adium, does anyone know how to use adium if your screename you use now is from an AOL account? i get aol for .99 a month on a deal with my job, so i have the sn.
 
Optional87 said:
Oh man, I absolutely suggest Adium over iChat or anything in the IM/Chat region for that matter. There is no equal.
Click to expand...

The only reason I use iChat and not Adium is because for the most part, Adium is crap when trying to send files.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top