Just ordered a MacBook

Urban Weigl

I just ordered a MacBook. Set me back €1050 at the Apple store, and the mid-range 2GB iPod nano is only costing me €33 with it. So it's a good deal.

However, it won't ship for another 7 days, so I still have time to think about it and cancel the order. Do you think I should and wait for the new MacBook that's rumoured to come out in a month or so, and will have a Core 2 Duo chip, which is 20% faster? Or just go for it and not cancel my order?

K.O.Kiki

Bah -- unless the Merom Macbooks have a proper GPU (which no rumour has suggested) you'd probably see a greater performance increase with extra RAM or a 7200rpm HDD.
Keep the order IMHO

Urban Weigl

Good advice on the RAM front: I'm actually surprised how good the GMA950 graphics chip is once you feed it enough RAM. For example, I have a Core Duo Mac mini at the office, upgraded to 2GB RAM, and the graphics performance is very smooth. Obviously I don't use it to play Quake 4, but as far as playing back huge media files and more casual games (like The Sims 2), it seems slick.

TerrorFirmer

The GMA950 is absolutely awful with games - its fine for games like the Sims 2, which aren't demanding and obviously enough its grand for media. Playing anything remotely advanced though is out of the question. Even though the 950 supports 224mb of ram, most decent games that require even only 64mb gfx will either

a)not run at all
b)run terribly

I think on tomshardware the GMA series got something like a totally unplayable 12fps in Doom 3 - performing infinitely worse then even some 4 year old cards. It doesn't support hardware t & l either and does it in software.

Hope you don't plan playing games, because the gma 950 is going to disappoint, big time if you do...:(

Easy Rider

I got a macbook pro for 1,400 euro, but depends what you want, mobility wise....

Urban Weigl

I'm not buying this as a gaming machine.

TerrorFirmer

Thats fine then, but just when I saw the words GMA950 and "Quite good", warning lights went off...you'd be surprised how many people actually DO buy machines with the GMA and think it'll play recent titles

Hugh_C

HavoK wrote:

The GMA950 is absolutely awful with games

Havoc, we're Mac users in here, we don't need to play games

Urban Weigl

hughchal wrote:

Havoc, we're Mac users in here, we don't need to play games

Perhaps I'm not your typical Mac user, but I quite enjoy playing games.

Anyway, just an update. Originally when I ordered, I was given a delivery date of on or before the 12th of September. Guess what, my MacBook was shipped last night, only 24 hours after I ordered (when I ordered I was told it would take at least 7 days), and is scheduled for delivery on or before the 5th. UPS have already got it in the UK and it's "en route". In other words, it will be here on Monday or Tuesday.

tonyboy247

Good move you could wait till thay bring out the XXmbp but your still going to wait, only snag is there will be no direct upgrade path with em.

deevey

Damn, I ordered mine the 26th and not due till the 15th (shipping the 5th) ??

Hugh_C

Urban Weigl wrote:

I just ordered a MacBook.

As a matter of interest why do you want a MacBook and a MacBook Pro? Different users I guess...

Urban Weigl

deevey: Did you customise yours? I just ordered the base model without any changes. Will install more RAM myself should it be necessary. That could account for the discrepancy, though a friend of mine ordered one (base model + 1GB RAM). She ordered over the weekend and got it on Friday... This was like 2 weeks ago, though, and I've heard there have been shortages since (at the time they still had "shipping within 24 hours", which has changed to 7 days now, though I got lucky).

hughchal: Yes, it will be allocated to somebody else in the office here.

deevey

Put a 80gb hard drive .. i was thinking of just upgrading it myself but that'll cost me 150 .. i already have enough 2.5 hard drives knocking around.. thank christ they made it easier to upgrade .. the Ibook was a b*tch

apart from that its stock .. have 1 gig ram on order too with memoryconfigurator .. which i now find out is backordered too ... till the 25th sept .. Gah! ..

Apparently its direct shipping from china .. And they are giving me 50 euro back for the inconvieience when i rang to enquire..(not complain even) which'll pay the difference on the hdd..

With all the new core2duo laptops coming on stream I wonder is that the reason .. (*dreams*)

Thumper Long

deevey wrote:

Put a 80gb hard drive .. i was thinking of just upgrading it myself but that'll cost me 150 .. i already have enough 2.5 hard drives knocking around.. thank christ they made it easier to upgrade .. the Ibook was a b*tch

the new macbooks use sata drives rather than the standard 2.5" ide so are going to be quite pricey for a while.

Urban Weigl

Even a 120 GB SATA laptop drive would be too small for me; why not keep only essential files on your notebook, and put large files like movies on an external drive? Something like the Western Digital 250GB USB2.0/Firewire drive can be had for €125: http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=318873

Just a thought?

Hugh_C

Urban Weigl wrote:

why not keep only essential files on your notebook, and put large files like movies on an external drive?

Coz then you have to carry the bugger around in your bag! (as well as the laptop and power supply and other odds and ends)

deevey

Cancelled my order .. decided what the hell i'll wait a few weeks and maybe get a pro instead .. when i saw the "special news conference" announced for the 12th sept, i have to see if its about core2duo ... if not so be it ...

Oh and when i go for the HDD upgrade it'll be speed rather then just space .. 7200rpm all the way baby .. still is 150 euro I'd rather not have to spend, but hey ..

the extra RPM's made a huge difference to the ibook .. espessially for video / dvd work .. not to mention cutting about 20 secs off boot time.

Urban Weigl

The status changed to "Out for Delivery" this morning, and the delivery date has been revised down to 04 Sep 2006 (was 05 Sep 2006). I guess the UPS van should be showing up any minute now.

Urban Weigl

It arrived a couple of minutes after I posted that. Unboxed and looks perfect, I haven't turned it on yet. Will report back ASAP.

My first reaction is that I am very pleased how fast it arrived. Taking the weekend into account, I guess it only took 2 business days, or maybe 3, from clicking the order link and it arriving at my doorstep.

Urban Weigl

I finally got some time to set it up and transfer data from an old Mac. Everything perfect so far.