Thinking of getting a MacBook

Cina

Right, so my Dell laptop is dying, and I need a new one soon enough, I've never had a Mac before but I've seen people using OS X on their MacBooks and it looks very cool, I've also heard that MacBooks have a really good battery life, and are light and portable, which are two things my Dell did not have.

I'm doing Computer Science in college, so I still need Windows, Linux etc on a laptop, not just OS X, so I'm wondering is it worth getting a MacBook Pro for the extra windows xp button, or can it be put on a normal MacBook aswell and run nice and smoothly?

Cheers

aidan_walsh

As long as you're using Leopard (10.5), you'll be able to use Bootcamp to partition your drive to install Windows on. Alternatively, you could use an app like VMWare Fusion to run Windows in an emulated mode inside OS X.

Breezer

Windows runs fine on a MacBook. However, if you want to use it for Windows games as well as college work get the MacBook Pro. The integrated graphics card in the MacBook won't cut it for most modern games. Same if you're going to be doing any kind of heavy video editing. Otherwise the MacBook is an excellent machine, and more portable. And yes, the battery life trumps any Dell I've experienced anyway

Creamy Goodness

depends what type of gaming you'll be doing, most college folk shall be lanning with the likes of cs 1.6 quake3 and unreal tournament which will all work flawlessly on a macbook under windows.

WUSBDesign

Don't forget to max out the RAM if you do decide! Go for the minimum RAM configuration you can get from Apple, and grab new large ones from (say) Crucial and upgrade yourself. RAM prices are rock bottom now...

K.O.Kiki

If you want to swap in a larger HDD (for extra Linux! ), it's very easy in the Macbook, much harder in the MBP.

Hugh_C

Breezer wrote: »

The integrated graphics card in the MacBook won't cut it for most modern games. Same if you're going to be doing any kind of heavy video editing

Dunno what you consider "heavy video editing" but my macbook runs fcp just fine for sophisticated editing (cuts and mixes), maybe you mean rendering pointless heavy effects ... You don't need a sledgehammer to crack a nut.



Hugh

(film/video editor by trade)

big_moe

hughchal wrote: »

Dunno what you consider "heavy video editing" but my macbook runs fcp just fine for sophisticated editing (cuts and mixes), maybe you mean rendering pointless heavy effects ... You don't need a sledgehammer to crack a nut.



Hugh

(film/video editor by trade)

final cut pro wont run on a macbook, i wanted to get it but on the apple site it says it wont work on intel integrated graphics. but final cut express will work grand with 2gb of ram.

i use my macbook for the sames things you want except the gaming. i have windows xp on it as well with VMWare fusion.. runs grand

adam

Hugh_C

big_moe wrote: »

final cut pro wont run on a macbook,

Uh, yeah it will, or maybe my macbook is special then ...

440Hz

hughchal wrote: »

Uh, yeah it will, or maybe my macbook is special then ...

BanzaiBk

LOL ^

My beloved MacBook (RIP) also ran FCP, was a bit sluggish at 2GB but was great with 3GB. Kevin Rose edited an early ep of Diggnation on it before it was even called Diggnation!:p (was called the Digg show or something, was interning with Leo Laporte at the time).

big_moe

thats savage, i wanted FCP but when i read it on the apple site it said it wouldnt work so i bought FCE instead.

http://www.apple.com/ie/finalcutstudio/finalcutpro/specs.html

on the right hand side of that page under "Minimum Requirements to Install All Final Cut Studio Applications"

"Final Cut Studio is not compatible with integrated Intel graphics processors"

ZENER

Cina wrote: »

. . . so I'm wondering is it worth getting a MacBook Pro for the extra windows xp button, or can it be put on a normal MacBook aswell and run nice and smoothly?

Cheers

Windows XP button ??? Where's that then ??

ZEN