my macbook is drawing closer...

Creamy Goodness

right in about 4 weeks i shall have enough to buy that macbook i've been looking at for the last year.

i was looking at this spec...

[FONT=Lucida Grande,Geneva,Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif]Specifications[/FONT]

• 2GB 667 DDR2 - 2x1GB SO-DIMMs
• 160GB Serial ATA drive (5400rpm)
• Keyboard (English) & Mac OS (English)
• 2.16GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
• Double-layer SuperDrive
• AirPort Extreme Card & Bluetooth
• Power Adapter
• Battery

now i'd be getting this with the educational discount and it comes in at 1,522.18 but what i was wondering was should i go for the hard drive that apple offer?

it's a 200gig 4200rpm drive for 94 euros extra.

or would i be better off buying this and sticking it in.
http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=336007
i know it's more expensive but i get the extra 50 gig's on top of it and it's 5400rpm not 4200rpm (4200rpm just seems like i'd be using old tech considering some laptops use 7200rpms now).

i'd like the bigger drive as i plan to have os x / some form of windows / and some form of linux on the machine.

how long do the batteries last on average just lets say i was just doing office-y kinda of stuff like word processing/web usage/coding etc with the wifi on.

also i'm paying the premimum for the black one, as to match my ipod sounds gay but well actually i just prefer the black colour oppose to white .

Urban Weigl

Why not go all the way and get a MacBook Pro? It's only €1899 now, even less if you are a student.

Rhyme

Urban Weigl wrote:

Why not go all the way and get a MacBook Pro? It's only €1899 now, even less if you are a student.

True, and that extra processor speed is nice looking.

I was on a tight budget myself when i was picking up my MacBook and got the 2.0Ghz 2GB Ram version and it's a marvellous little machine even without the beefed Pro version.

Creamy Goodness

size wise, i've had a 15inch notebook for the last two years and tbh it's a pain carrying one that size on my back (i have it in a crumpler sleeve in a jansports bag as i hate laptop bags) and they just barely fit in the bag and are just that bit heavier that it sucks whilst carrying books as well.

the only thing the pro has got that i would like to have would be the dedicated graphics card, but seeing as the only games i'll play on this - if any - would be half life 1 engined games, quakeworld/q3 and UT.

also just thinking about when i'm using it with windows, how the hell will i be able to right click?

Oriel

Firstly, do not buy RAM or hard drive space from Apple.
Go for the basic CPU spec and work it from there. You can buy the rest for half the price.
I would advise going for a MBP, if it's only anpther few hundread euros, definately go for it!

Oriel

Cremo wrote:

size wise, i've had a 15inch notebook for the last two years and tbh it's a pain carrying one that size on my back (i have it in a crumpler sleeve in a jansports bag as i hate laptop bags) and they just barely fit in the bag and are just that bit heavier that it sucks whilst carrying books as well.

the only thing the pro has got that i would like to have would be the dedicated graphics card, but seeing as the only games i'll play on this - if any - would be half life 1 engined games, quakeworld/q3 and UT.

also just thinking about when i'm using it with windows, how the hell will i be able to right click?

What. The. ****?
You need put into a binbag and given a good kicking.

Creamy Goodness

suppose just after looking at this http://www.crucial.com/eu/store/mpartspecs.aspx?mtbpoid=7EEDA720A5CA7304

so if i buy vanilla macbook at 1362.46 and that ram above - i assume that's compatible - at 86.94 and that hard drive eariler posted - assuming that's compatible too - at 175 i'm looking at around 1650 euros including delivery from komplett and crucial


i've no need for the macbook pro, the extra screen size and the whole dimensions of one is not appealling to me.

Sad Professor

I'd seriously reconsider the black. You're paying like, what, an extra 200 euro for a colour? It's not remotely worth it imo. If you really care that much about the aesthetics you should be getting a MBP.

K.O.Kiki

The "black tax" is €130 if you take into account an Apple HDD upgrade.

Yeah, it's expensive. But black is the new white, so.... hmm.... mmh
Back on topic, buying a basic 2.16Ghz white is the rational choice.

Creamy Goodness

i'll have a think about the black actually as a tin of paint won't cost 200 euros .

also what's the deal with the educational discount, how do they check i'm a student, do they ask for a student number and then check with the college (i haven't put one in my shopping cart as of yet).


is there anything else i'd need to buy off apple, i was thinking a mighty mouse for when i'm using it at home not hugely fond of trackpads they good for on the go though.

also is a .mac account worth it?

oh and i assume leopard will be €129 euros for the Ultimate version yeh (sorry just after watching the WWDC keynote)

Sad Professor

Cremo wrote:

also what's the deal with the educational discount, how do they check i'm a student

They don't (usually). Random checks or so I've heard. If they do they'll delay your order and ask you to fax a copy of your student ID. It's unlikely though.

also is a .mac account worth it?

Hell, no. But you'll get a free trial so you'll be able to decide for yourself.

Rhyme

For the educational discount they just ask for your college name and the county it's in.

A friend of mine is doing his INTRA in Intel and their discount is just about the same as the educational one.

Hugh_C

Cremo wrote:

also just thinking about when i'm using it with windows, how the hell will i be able to right click?

Buy a cheap 2-button with scroll-wheel mouse. I got one years ago from Logitech and it does the trick - i think it was about e25 or something.

As others have already said - don't buy Apple ram - very expensive. Also, buy (very) cheap external drives for increased storage. The 200GB is nice, but it's dear.

PS the black MacBooks are fabulous (matches my iPod too) if you want to shell out the extra money, go for it. Sad Prof is just jealous

big_moe

i went for the white macbook at xmas. 2GHZ and 1GB ram with 80GB hdd.

full price was €1319 and i paid €1199 including a DIT student discount of 10%. usual student discount is 7%.

i recently bought 2GB of ram from crucial (€96 inc shipping) and i am awaiting delivery of that samsung 250GB HDD (€187 inc shipping)

i got the wireless mighty mouse, and the wireless keyboard for when im using it at home.

i'd say go for the basic config in white (or black if you want it THAT bad!) its €1249 and with usual student discount thats €1167.

moe

Hugh_C

Cremo wrote:

or would i be better off buying this and sticking it in.
http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=336007
i know it's more expensive but i get the extra 50 gig's on top

That drive may be too tall to fit in, you may need to research the height thing. ISTR 9mm is max, may be wrong.

big_moe

i'll tell you in a few days when my one arrives.

it should fit in though. its 9.4mm high and the standard hdd is 9.5mm high.... so....


moe

Creamy Goodness

i read a thread here a few weeks back about a 300gig that was too big, think it was a hitachi drive.

moe if you could let me know that would be excellent.

flogen

Considering what people are saying about mac storage and ram being really pricey, is it worth your while paying the extra €200 or so for a 2.16 GHz processor over the 2 GHz one? I mean, the only specs difference is the processor, the disc driver (Combo V. Superdrive) and the HDD (it's 40GB bigger in the more expensive one). You can easily get some external storage and an external DVD-RW drive if you really, really want one so it's just the processor that's the main issue.

Creamy Goodness

well the thing is i don't want to be lugging around extras at all, what i intend to do is take out the 160gig hard drive and get an enclosure for it and use that as external, then i'm going to partition the drive so that xp gets 50gigs and linux gets 50gig.

i can justify the extra price for the extra 140mhz.

but as people were saying earlier to go for the macbook pro i couldn't justify that extra price increase for an extra 40mhz.

flogen

Yeah - there's a big price difference between the high-end MacBook and the low end Pro, for little in terms of specs IMO.

Is it easy to swap the internal HDD, besides having to reformat (I assume the package comes with discs with all the pre-installed software anyway)?

I suppose the superdrive adds value too, assuming you'd actually want a DVD burner rather than just a plain CD burner.

Creamy Goodness

well considering my mate bought an acer for like 599 euros and it had a dvd burner i'd kind of be expecting it to be standard in a media powerhouse like mac's.

K.O.Kiki

I doubt very much that Acer has a slot-load...
of course, if it does I'll look very silly...

Simon201

Cremo wrote:

also is a .mac account worth it?

Some would say at €99 it's fairly expensive for what you get, but the iDisk facility is great, you can upload and download from your iDisk from any Mac or PC and the iPhoto/iWeb integration works great. Like the other stuff don't get it from Apple, do wot i dun -

eBay item 230143868896

Cost me €51. Dont know how this can actually work but it does, (no p+p! they send you the code via email). Looking to get my Macbook Applecare in the next few months for around €120 the same way.

Hugh_C

Cremo wrote:

also is a .mac account worth it?

Depends if you're runnign multiple machines.

I have a work laptop, a workstation in work and a home iMac and I find .mac brilliant for syncing these up. Basically, you can have all your bookmarks the same, address books, email accounts and rules, mailboxes (IMAP), iCals, Transmit faves, keychains etc etc identical on any number of machines. Which is useful for me because I use 3 machines daily. If you're in single-machine territory, then maybe .mac wouldn't be as worthwhile for you. The iDisk would be useful for sure, but you can eeffectively do that with Gmail for free.

hc

Hugh_C

Simon201 wrote:

Like the other stuff don't get it from Apple, do wot i dun -

eBay item 230143868896

Cost me €51.

Fair enough for the first year, but when it comes to renewal time, you'll be paying full whack like everybody else unless you want to change your email address.

Creamy Goodness

just wondering for the future but would two of these work in the macbook or do they have a slot limit on the size of ram in each slot.

http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=325699

leeroybrown

The MacBook only ships with 2 x 1Gb because the chipset in the MacBook still has the classic Intel x86 chipset limitation of 3Gb of user space memory (affects every OS). The Santa Rosa chipset in the MacBook Pro addresses this. Assuming it worked 2 x 2Gb would only give you 3Gb of usable RAM.

Apparently you can get 3Gb kits that will work.

440Hz

Dont go for the black!! Did you not see the reports of the black paint peeling off!! urgh I couldnt imagine anything more frustrating!

Creamy Goodness

will that mean when leopard comes out (64bit OS) that the macbook will still only allow 3Gb of RAM? (was aware of that limitation for x86 just slipped my mind)
assuming i buy now and buy leopard when it's out?

Hugh_C

440Hz wrote:

Dont go for the black!! Did you not see the reports of the black paint peeling off!! urgh I couldnt imagine anything more frustrating!

Go for the black! They look fantastic! And make you more attractive to the opposite sex.

Hugh_C

leeroybrown wrote:

Apparently you can get 3Gb kits that will work.

See this thread here.

440Hz

hughchal wrote:

Go for the black! They look fantastic! And make you more attractive to the opposite sex.

lol!! Sounds like the next number one pop hit

Creamy Goodness

sorry i wasn't meaning i was going to stick 4gig's into my mac book, but was just curious as to the upgradability of the macbook.

it's kinda of crap if it's limited by an x86 chipset, do you think they'll update the chipset before leopard? wasn't there just an update < 5 weeks ago?

i still am undecided on the colour, i shall wait until i see how much i get for selling my laptop.

Hugh_C

Cremo wrote:

do you think they'll update the chipset before leopard? wasn't there just an update < 5 weeks ago?

rumours suggest maybe in October

leeroybrown

Cremo wrote:

it's kinda of crap if it's limited by an x86 chipset, do you think they'll update the chipset before leopard? wasn't there just an update < 5 weeks ago?

I'm not sure if they will. The MacBook Pro needed the upgrade and the MacBook isn't pitched at the large memory market. If there is an upgrade I would suggest that it will be driven by other features.

This issue affects all Intel x86/x86_64 chipsets prior to the Santa Rosa chipset used in the new MacBook Pro. The problem is caused by the lack of an IOMMU which is used to map 32-bit DMA addresses (for PCI) to higher memory addresses that don't coincide with the first 4Gb of RAM.

Creamy Goodness

oh well so, i'll assume i'll be upgrading before i need 4 gigs in a laptop anyways

decob

hughchal wrote:

That drive may be too tall to fit in, you may need to research the height thing. ISTR 9mm is max, may be wrong.

nope. it should fit fine. i replace mine last week with one. The original drive was 9.5mm.

Creamy Goodness

decob wrote:

nope. it should fit fine. i replace mine last week with one. The original drive was 9.5mm.

what drive did you replace your original with?

Simon201

hughchal wrote:

Fair enough for the first year, but when it comes to renewal time, you'll be paying full whack like everybody else unless you want to change your email address.

uh? where you hear that? I'm on my third year now with .mac and haven't changed any email addresses.

decob

Cremo wrote:

what drive did you replace your original with?

the 250gb samsung from komplett.
http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=336007

Creamy Goodness

Simon201 wrote:

uh? where you hear that? I'm on my third year now with .mac and haven't changed any email addresses.

he probably means he'll have to pay full whack to apple in the second year as they are the only ones who can renew your account.

decob, that's excellent news, that samsung shall be in mine too.

Hugh_C

Cremo wrote:

he probably means he'll have to pay full whack to apple in the second year as they are the only ones who can renew your account.

You read my mind!

big_moe

i just put the samsung 250gb from komplett in my macbook last night and it fits fine!

so much space...... i need more videos!!

moe

Creamy Goodness

sweet so the samsung works great so, two confirmed reports.

heheh i'll have no problems filling mine

big_moe

time to re-rip my MP3's at 320kbps:D!

Simon201

Cremo wrote:

he probably means he'll have to pay full whack to apple in the second year as they are the only ones who can renew your account.

Well I dont think you'd have to pay full whack in any year if you dont buy it from Apple. You just enter the S/N from inside your .mac box.

K.O.Kiki

big_moe wrote:

time to re-rip my MP3's at 320kbps:D!

AAC > MP3.... IMHO!

Creamy Goodness

gonna order this tonight .

so
1 x macbook standard spec.
1 x 250gig hard drive.
1 x 2gig pack (2 x 1gig sticks) ram.


in what way should i set it up i'm planning sticking in the hard drive and ram at the very start, should i do this or should i start it up firstly to see everything is running fine?

does it come with instructions on how to reinstall mac OS X as i've never used a mac before or does it really vary from installing the likes of xp?

440Hz

Installing the OS is very easy. Pop in the disc and follow the installation instructions, easy peasy! Well, a 'bit' more to it than that, but the instructions will guide you as you go along. If you are re-installing then just boot from the disc by restarting and holding down the 'alt' key until you get the 'swirlly circle' on bootup. Then choose to boot from the OS disc... after that just follow the screen.

Nice spec btw, enjoy!!!

Creamy Goodness

cool, sounds easy.

just noticed the drive i ordered on komplett is out of stock until the 25th .

presuming this ships tomorrow - as it's standard spec assume - i should have it by tuesday. anyone know what courier they use? as noteably fedex always have problems finding my house despite it being on one of the main streets in bray.

decob

Cremo wrote:

cool, sounds easy.
presuming this ships tomorrow - as it's standard spec assume - i should have it by tuesday. anyone know what courier they use? as noteably fedex always have problems finding my house despite it being on one of the main streets in bray.

depends on what you selected at the checkout.. ups or an-post/gls (iirc)