Thinking of buying a MacBook - Advice please

yrrag1974

Hi All,

I'm thinking of upgrading my PC and investing in a MacBook and looking for any existing user experiences. The main use I will put it to is Multimedia - Music, Video Files, Burning DVDs etc. Am looking for something with a good screen size and a large memory - anything over 100GB. Also like the whole size and weight thing making it truely portable.

I know that its pretty easy to move all my existing files over but have a few questions. (They are basically all stupid questions but the only experience I have with Apple is my I Pod)

1. Will I still be able to play Xvid / DivX files if I'm not using Windows Media Player and sync them with my media player?
2. How easy is the Mac operating system to get used to for someone who has used Windows all their life. (Yep - I know I can get Windows on Apple now)
3. What are the main advantages of a MacBook over a similarly specced PC?
4. Is the internet experience still the same? Is the torrent experience still the same?
5. Is there anything I can currently do on a PC that I DEFINITELY cannot do on a Mac?
6. Who are the good Apple Retailers here in Ireland (pref Dublin)

Thanks in advance for your help?

Cheers

Anti

My advice would be for a mod to move this to the mac forum. Where people will actually reply.

irlrobins

anti wrote:

My advice would be for a mod to move this to the mac forum. Where people will actually reply.

Well then report the post to get it moved..... :rolleyes:

uncle_sam_ie

1. yes, you can download a plugin for Quick time or download the VCL player
2. It's easy, but there are minor differences that will just take time to get use to,but there are many things you will discover that's going to make your life easier(like not having to install anti-virus and spyware apps that bloat your system).
3. OS X is designed to take advantage of the specific hardware. Also with a similarly specced PC you wont get the extra software that will come with the Mac like iLife.
4. The same. You can get many torrent, p2p apps for the Mac. You will also want to download the app flip for Mac to play streamed video like the stuff you get on CNN.
5. Not really, because you could always run windows if you really had to. To be honest even though I could run Windows, I don't need to on my machine. Gaming would be the only reason I would ever consider it.
6. O2 and 3,but I'd just buy from the Apple online store. OR, do what I did and take a trip to the US and get it much cheaper there.

Anti

irlrobins wrote:

Well then report the post to get it moved..... :rolleyes:

Haha, yeah i should have done that alright

timbrophy

1. VLC will play any video-type files you want. If you run into any trouble then download Movie Time.
2. Very easy. You might have some initial problems with a one-button mouse but you can avoid this with the newer Apple mouse.
3. Ease of use. Better Graphics. Excellent free software. Full Access to the Unix world. Security.
4. Identical. Would recommend Firefox. Would recommend Azureus for torrents. You can get this, and much more besides, by going to a link on the Apple Menu (Mac OSX Software...) where you will find a package called SSS (Software for Starving Students).
5. There are Games and Accounting Applications that are PC only.
6. Best Apple retailer in Ireland is, unfortunately for you, in Limerick. They are called Logic2 at www.logic2.net or 061440100.

Hope this helps,

Regards,

Tim

Breezer

1. As mentioned, VLC will play them, there's also plugins available for Quicktime if for some reason you prefer that.

2. Very easy. I used Windows all my life except on certain computers for a year in college which ran Mac OS 9, which I HATED. Based on raving reviews I took the plunge in September and bought a Macbook and haven't looked back since. It'll take a little bit of time to unlearn your Windows habits (expect, among other things, to find yourself cursing loudly every time you point your mouse to the upper right corner of a window only to find it devoid of a close button). But Mac OS X is genuinely easier to use - it's much more graphical, things generally aren't hidden in obscure locations, when something occasionally is hidden you can use Spotlight or Quicksilver to find it, and installing/uninstalling programs is a breeze.

3. Hardware integration. The fact that when you visit support boards you can simply state your computer's model and people will instantly know what they're dealing with. Macs apparently hold their value better than PCs. OS X won't run legally on PCs, Windows will run on Macs if you need it. No antivirus subscriptions to be paid every year.

4. Internet Explorer (newer versions) won't run on Mac OS X. Count your blessings to be honest. You have a choice of Safari (which comes with the Mac), Firefox, Camino (billed as a more Mac-integrated Firefox though lacking in extensions), Opera, Omniweb (costs around €30) and several others. Personally I'd recommend Firefox especially if you've used it on Windows - when I switched to Mac I was able to import all my bookmarks from the PC, download almost all of the same extensions/themes and was able to pick up where I left off. There's also a very handy 'Torrent Search' extension available that searches loads of big torrent sites at once).

5. No, though you may have to run Windows for gaming. I'm not a gamer so I can't tell you how effective this is.

6. I ordered my Macbook from the Apple Online Store. There's also an Apple Store right beside the Molly Malone statue near the bottom of Grafton Street.

Note: Some would have you believe that Macs are perfect. They're not. They have their problems, though it would seem they have less than PCs. My Macbook occasionally goes into an unresponsive sleep rather than shutting down, resulting in the battery running down. Even if I catch it before the battery goes dead I have to repeatedly press and hold the power switch before it decides to do anything.

OS X is not devoid of meaningless error messages. Instead of the unhelpful "this program has encountered a problem" you get the equally useless "Error -50". Fortunately Googling for 'mac +"error -50"' or whatever number is thrown at you will usually let you get to the route of the problem.

Macbooks also run pretty hot, especially when the power adapter is plugged in. They won't give you 3rd degree burns as some reviews would suggest, but i wouldn't leave it sitting on my unprotected lap for long periods of time. It's fine on a desk (no it won't burn a hole in it - I did actually read otherwise somewhere), or if you're wearing thickish trousers, or you put something between your lap and the Macbook.

big_moe

after much research i switched from pc to a macbook last week and its brilliant. one of the best decisions i have ever made! its so easy to use, basically im agreeing with what everyone else has been saying. for video, VLC player. torrents, azureus. internet safari/firefox, for the dvds, i use MacTheRipper to put them on my hard drive and then use Roxio Toast to burn them to dvd.

os x uses ALOT of keyboard shortcuts, so once you know a few essentials of those you will be grand - like the quit program (command-Q), close window (command-W) etc...

as far as retailers go, i bought mine on the apple online store as i got a student discount! but for buying accessories etc, i went to the 3 stores (spectra, beside molly malone; o2 experience, beside brown thomas and 3g in stephens green shopping centre) in town and found each of them as useless as each other. its a pain in the arse cos most accesories are more expensive than equivalent pc parts and usually have more features than i will ever need!

i installed windows on my macbook and i left it on for about 2 hours and decided i didnt want it there anymore so i uninstalled it. there is one program for college i need that is windows only but im still searching for an alternative cos i really dont want windows on my macbook.

they only "drawback" i anticipated was the screen size of the macbook, 13.3". but after a few hours use, i got used to it due to the high resolution so you dont miss too much of the screen!

seriously, go for the macbook. you wont regret it!

moe

HQvhs

i'm probably going to get a macbook soon myself.
I have 3 questions though:

1. Will there be any updates soon (ie, within a month)?

2. Has anyone had any problems with the integrated graphics card (such as programmes not working)?

3. And would 1gb of RAM be enough for most things?

Sad Professor

HQvhs wrote:

i'm probably going to get a macbook soon myself.
I have 3 questions though:

1. Will there be any updates soon (ie, within a month)?

Unlikely but you never know. Since the switch to intel, updates have become even more unpredictable. Look here:

http://buyersguide.macrumors.com/

Their forum is good for advice too.

3. And would 1gb of RAM be enough for most things?

Yeah 1GB is plenty for most things but if you can afford it you should try and get 2GB. Might be useful down the road. You can never have too much RAM.

big_moe

i dont see an update soon. the last one for core 2 duo wasnt that too long ago.

the graphics look great. i do alot of photography type stuff woth it and it looks grand. i dont play games so i wouldnt know how it handles them...

i have 1 gig ram and its perfect. even with very intensive apps open (dvd burner, movie editor, photoshop...) it was still flying along, but yeah if u can afford 2 gig then get it! as sad prof said, you can never have too much ram


moe

Waylander24

I've just ordered a new Macbook to replace my 3 year old Powerbook G4. I'm getting the 2.0Ghz White with 2 Gig RAM and 120HDD. Cant wait!!

monkeyfudge

As for torrents... not having µTorrent is a bit of a problem as I really think that's a great piece of software on the PC.

And Azureus is a bit of a system hog.

Lately I've been using Transmission.

K.O.Kiki

Don't forget Bits On Wheels & Tomato Torrent (TT is nice cos it's very lightweight).

alastair

Waylander24 wrote:

I've just ordered a new Macbook to replace my 3 year old Powerbook G4. I'm getting the 2.0Ghz White with 2 Gig RAM and 120HDD. Cant wait!!

I got the same spec machine (more or less - I went with the 160gig drive) just after christmas. Also replacing a (12") powerbook. It's not quite as nice (or light) as the 12" as an object, but it's a good deal faster, and doesn't fire up the fan at the sign of a bit of warmth. I'm enjoying it.