Talk Mac to Me...

Fajitas!

(This thread is for Katie, who saw this coming. Nearly three years ago.)

Well... My (HP) laptop is gone again.

It's out of the TOS to get it repaired for free, but it looks like a common problem, might be an extended warranty. I'm currently looking at Macs, and the only reason I've not pressed the "check out now" button is it's Saturday, and the banks are closed... Well.. maybe one or two other reasons

Other than just wanting more people to tell me to buy the feicing yoke, I'm looking for some other bits of advice;

Current laptop is a 17in widescreen, which is huge, way too big and heavy. I'm looking at the 15in models of the MB Pro. It'll mostly be for photo processing, of which I do a lot of, probably 6/7 hours of each day. (Lightroom and CS3) Will the 2 inches off be a massive difference? Should I just pick up a flatscreen for the studio/house for when I plan on doing mass amounts of work? I know it's easy to say "yes, of course the 2in makes a huge difference", but if anyone had practical advice/experience, it'd be great.

I'm also looking at going for the 4 gigs of RAM on the 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo model, with 200 gigs of HD. Pretty much because (From experience with XP/Vista) I use two mighty RAM hungry programs. Good choice? Yay/nay?

Other bits and pieces then;

Is it possible to partition the hard drive on a Mac? I've never seen it done. I generally like having a lot of space I can dedicate to a scratch disk.

Is it generally easy to set up Parallels, etc?

Can I still use my student card to get some money off?

What's the story with my Ext. HD's? I've got over a Tb, so from my understanding, they all need to be reformated?

For what it's worth, I'm not a Mac n00b - We use iMac's in college for just about everything. Any replies to anything at all would be great.

deevey

IMHO 15' is more than enough out and about - been using 12' - 13' for the past few years doing video / graphics / and stuff and only after I changed to the 15' have I been going WOW, 17' is overkill for transporting I reckon.

I reckon pick up a 22' flatscreen for when your in the studio- no harm especially if your at it 6-7 hours a day (what are they now ... 200 -220 euro these days ?)

Im amazed the weight/size on the MBP Vs the Macbook, barely anything between them.

4 gigs reccommended and cheap (dont buy from apple! .. shop 4 memory is under 100 euro!)

Other bits and pieces then;

Is it possible to partition the hard drive on a Mac? I've never seen it done. I generally like having a lot of space I can dedicate to a scratch disk.

YUP ! .. easy as pie, use disk utility - can be done after OSX is installed.

Is it generally easy to set up Parallels, etc?

YUP! easy as pie (install bootcamp and run parallels from that partition handy if you want to fully utilize Wndows at some stage for games etc.)

Can I still use my student card to get some money off?

So long as your a student .. why not ?

What's the story with my Ext. HD's? I've got over a Tb, so from my understanding, they all need to be reformated?

External drives need to be formatted as Fat32 or HFS to write to ... BUT ... OSX can read NTFS just fine, so if you dont need to write to the external you'll be fine.

Also worth while upgrading the hard drive internally .. 250 - 320 gig drives are cheap as chips .

Check out the refurbished store for possibly even better deals than student discount .. 2.4Core2duo - 2 gig ram - 120 gb HDD - 128mb 8600GT, set me back just 1300 euro ! (older version without multitouch BTW)

upgrade to 4 gig ram and 250 gb HDD just 200 euro.

Good luck

Fajitas!

That's fantastic, cheers!

cornbb

Fajitas! wrote: »

(This thread is for Katie, who saw this coming. Nearly three years ago.)

LOL, I know what *thats* like

Current laptop is a 17in widescreen, which is huge, way too big and heavy. I'm looking at the 15in models of the MB Pro. It'll mostly be for photo processing, of which I do a lot of, probably 6/7 hours of each day. (Lightroom and CS3) Will the 2 inches off be a massive difference? Should I just pick up a flatscreen for the studio/house for when I plan on doing mass amounts of work? I know it's easy to say "yes, of course the 2in makes a huge difference", but if anyone had practical advice/experience, it'd be great.

A general opinion seems to be that the extra 2 inches isn't worth it. But I'm coming from a music production POV, not a photographers. But I use my 15" MBP both at home and at the office - I have an external screen at each location, and having 2 screens (the 15" MBP and 20" external) beats the ass off lugging around a 17" machine, if you ask me. So if I were you I'd go for the 15" model and use the cash you'll save to splash out on an external screen.

I'm also looking at going for the 4 gigs of RAM on the 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo model, with 200 gigs of HD. Pretty much because (From experience with XP/Vista) I use two mighty RAM hungry programs. Good choice? Yay/nay?

I got 4GB of RAM on my machine - highly recommended as you'll be running RAM-intensive tools, not to mention Parallels. Don't buy it from Apple though, buy it from the likes of crucial.com and install it yourself. I also upgraded my HDD to the 250GB model, I reckon its worth it for the extra 50 quid or whatever.

Is it possible to partition the hard drive on a Mac? I've never seen it done. I generally like having a lot of space I can dedicate to a scratch disk.

Yes, its very easy and it can be done using Disk Utility, which is included with the OS.

Is it generally easy to set up Parallels, etc?

Yes

Can I still use my student card to get some money off?

I think so, if you are still a student

What's the story with my Ext. HD's? I've got over a Tb, so from my understanding, they all need to be reformated?

What deevey said :pac:

Hugh_C

Fajitas! wrote: »

Will the 2 inches off be a massive difference?

you need to get out more ...



One mild word of caution, the colour reproduction on my MacBook is slightly suspect so I won't use it for final tweaks. I've also used a new generation 17" MBP and it also differs from a display I know and trust. Very slightly, but as a film editor and former colourist it is a consideration. As regards the extra 2", my opinion is it's only necessary for hidef tv work. The 17" is a brute and will give you a dropped shoulder toting it around. 15" is plenty especially if you're contemplating an ext monitor.

babypink

what up Faj!!

ditto to everything said above.........

absolutely go for the external monitor for static use....it'll make a big big difference!

Fajitas!

Hugh_C wrote: »

you need to get out more ...

I was waiting for that

Size is everything though! I reckon I'll pick up one of the flatscreens our college gets rid of at the start of every year.



Cheers for all the replies lads!

Type 17

I'm a photographer, and use a 17" MBP and 20" iMac.

The MBP screen is fine for photo work, but the iMac one is "warmer". The MacBook is not really good enough for photo work (my wife has one, but only uses it for email/web/MS Office stuff).

Also note that changing the MBP HD involves a lot of disassembly, and doing it yourself will invalidate the warranty, so ensure that you order something useful, or have an external HD strategy worked out.

If your eyesight is good, and you can read small text, consider the high-resolution screen option when ordering a (17"-only) MBP - it's great for photo work, as the photos fill the screen anyway, but the menus and palettes are smaller, so you get more use out of the screen - I get 1920 x 1200 on the MBP (high-res) 17" screen, and when I use the 20" iMac at 1680 x 1050, it seems pokey, with giant-sized menus and icons!

Fajitas!

Cheers Type 17!

Well, it's ordered. Lets just hope it comes nice and fast

forbairt

just to reassure you ... I've already posted on a few other threads ...

I made the move to a MBP 15inch 2.4ghz ... with 2 gb ram and 200gb 5400 drive

I'm very happy.

Got CS3 web premium along with it ...

Since then ... I've tried switching over completely and nearly have ... don't get the mightymouse I'm really not happy with mine .. and I find I use the touchpad nearly all the time .. even for fine detail work I've really gotten used to it. ( at least try it out a good bit before buying )

I just upgraded to 4 gbs from the 2 I originally had and I have to say its definitely worth it as well. Cost just about 100 EUR from crucial.

I just bought VMware Fusion as well and I'm very happy with it now (wasn't that happy with just the 2 gbs) Can't really say about parallels ... I've heard different things about it ... but I've used vmware in the past and I've found it to be fairly solid in performance ( that said I've run into a strange issue with an external drive not being recognized in Vmware this afternoon ... but it could just be something funny ... )

I'm using an external 22inch monitor beside the MBP and it took a while for me to adjust. (I was previously on a desktop with 22inch and 17inch side by side which allowed me to just have them at the right hight that I didn't notice too much cross over moving things between monitors) I'd love to be able to run two external monitors with it but I can't to the best of my knowledge ... at least not in the resolutions I'd want (two x 1650x1080) also the hardware for two external monitors costs a pretty penny

I honestly can't say if getting a 250gb drive would be worth it. These days backups are really important and most of what I need can probably be held in 40 - 80 gbs. I do think the 7200 RPM drive would make a difference if you're using the scratch disk a lot 7200 / 5400 = 1.333 so I'd assume something like a 30% performance increase ? but thats just me guessing ... someone will have better figures. I've also no idea how easy it is to dump in another drive .. though looking at the prices I'm sorely tempted http://www.komplett.ie/k/kl.aspx?bn=10614

Best of luck with the move I don't think you'll regret it

440Hz

All I can say is... everyone gives in to my char.. errrr I mean my Mac sense in the end. Sure if I could get Mike_A to come to the brightside it was only a matter of time before everyone else started to crumble

Seriously though, not much I can say that has not already been said, only that anyone I have advised to make the change seems to be happy. I have yet to meet anyone who switched and regretted it. Im sure people will post now to say they have, but Ive never met one!!

Finally, happy shopping, and welcome to the brightside/forum!

Fajitas!

Cheers!

In the end I went for the 2.5Ghz, 200Gb @ 7200 and 4 gigs of RAM... I've got plenty of external hard drive space as it is!!!

I was going to buy the extra bits and bobs from other sources, but I'm going to claim the tax back - Makes it easier for me at the moment

With this, my whole class in college will be Mac...

(Oh - Does it normally take quite long for the confirmation email to arrive? 4 hours now!!! )

440Hz

Shouldnt take that long! Bank Holiday laziness in Hollyhill

Nice choice, oh and congrats as well on the new modships, just noticed that now!

Fajitas!

Don't be congratulating me on'em yet!

Ham'nd'egger

440Hz wrote: »

All I can say is... everyone gives in to my char.. errrr I mean my Mac sense in the end. Sure if I could get Mike_A to come to the brightside it was only a matter of time before everyone else started to crumble

God woman, your worse than the Jehovah Witnesses at times:)

440Hz

Hamndegger wrote: »

God woman, your worse than the Jehovah Witnesses at times:)

But funnier! right?

OctoberFall

Al, unless I'm mistaken, you get the same screen resolution on a standard 17" screen as you do on the 15" MBP (1440x900). I love my MBP to bits. You won't be disappointed. If you fancy, you can buy the 23" Apple Cinema Display (like I've just done ) and use it on the MBP with no extra cables/adaptors.

forbairt

The standard 17inch is 1680 by 1050 (native)

The Enhanced 17inch is 1920 by 1200 (native)

At least thats the way I read it.

OctoberFall

forbairt wrote: »

The standard 17inch is 1680 by 1050 (native)

The Enhanced 17inch is 1920 by 1200 (native)

At least thats the way I read it.

I was thinking more along the lines of iMac - I'm using a Core Duo 17" in work - it's 1440x900.

Fajitas!

Just to keep you updated, it was supposed to land into Dublin on Friday the 13th... It got missorted, and sent to spain (From Germany), missorted again, and last thing I heard before the office closed on Friday was that they weren't quite sure if it was in transit or not - It hadn't been scanned, but the staff said it was on it's way back to Germany to get a flight here...

Eta's been pushed to the 20th, yer one on the phone said it could possibly take longer.

I have awful luck with laptops.

Cabaal

jesus thats some joke, shame Ireland doesn't have a proper Apple Store instead of depending on O2 shops etc

Fajitas!

And it's finally arrived.

Paddy@CIRL

Nice one Al !