Took the plunge!!

MagicMarker

Well, i have just arrived home with my brand spanking new macbook. I opted for the mid range one, 2.4, 2GB memory and 160GIG HD.

I must say it is a joy to use, i've wanted a mac for so so long. I'm in Canada right now so i've saved a few hundred on the Irish prices as well...

Now i just have to get used to using the bastard:)

babypink

congratulations! enjoy!!

The Black Oil

Welcome, welcome!

Passenger

You'll probably never buy another PC again.

MagicMarker

haha, probably not... One thing that sucks is that uTorrent isn't an option... SUCKS!!!!

Simon201

XTorrent! - a few quid but brill!

J-blk

MagicMarker wrote: »

haha, probably not... One thing that sucks is that uTorrent isn't an option... SUCKS!!!!

Welcome, you'll love it!

Transmission isn't bad either but you could always use a VM for the transition and run uTorrent or any other Windows apps you want that way. It probably would be a good idea to pick up software in Canada too, as Apple simply changes the currency symbol on the prices, e.g $129 = €129

Dman001

J-blk wrote: »

Welcome, you'll love it!

Transmission isn't bad either but you could always use a VM for the transition and run uTorrent or any other Windows apps you want that way. It probably would be a good idea to pick up software in Canada too, as Apple simply changes the currency symbol on the prices, e.g $129 = €129

Actually they don't do that anymore with the prices but it is still cheaper to buy in America/Canada.

turf

you'll never go back...

got mine in america last christmas nd saved bout 300euro

J-blk

Dman001 wrote: »

Actually they don't do that anymore with the prices but it is still cheaper to buy in America/Canada.

Um, yes, they do still do that. Leopard on the US store - $129:

http://store.apple.com/us/product/MB427Z/A?fnode=home/shop_mac/software/apple&mco=MjM4NTI

Leopard on the Irish store - €129:

http://store.apple.com/ie/product/MB427Z/A?fnode=home/shop_mac/software/apple&mco=MzI0NDkx

VMware Fusion - $79.95 Vs. €79.95:

http://store.apple.com/us/product/TP185LL/A?fnode=home/shop_mac/software/utilities&mco=Mjg4NDcz

http://store.apple.com/ie/product/TP185Z/A?fnode=home/shop_mac/software/utilities&mco=MjM4NTQ

iWork '08 - $79.00 Vs. €79.00:

http://store.apple.com/us/product/MA790Z/A?fnode=home/shop_mac/software/apple&mco=MjU4ODk

http://store.apple.com/ie/product/MA790Z/A?fnode=home/shop_mac/software/apple&mco=MzIzODAz

They only adjust the prices for the UK market, so that in £ it kinda matches the € amount:

http://store.apple.com/uk/product/MA790Z/A?fnode=home/shop_mac/software/apple&mco=MjU4ODk

Dman001

They don't do it with iPods or Macs though. Like an iPod Classic is $249 but it is €229 here. The 2.0 update for the Touch is $9.99 but €7.99 here. I'm pretty sure there is Tax on top of those prices on the American Store.

J-blk

J-blk wrote: »

It probably would be a good idea to pick up software in Canada too

As I said in the original post, I was referring to software. Yes, they don't do it with hardware anymore but as you pointed out, there's still money to be saved by buying in the US/Canada.

As for the tax, it depends on which state you're in I believe - some don't charge any on online purchases. As for Canada, I don't know what the deal with tax is, though the prices are again the same, in Canadian dollars.

In any case, I think we can all agree on the fact that buying Apple stuff from the US/Canada is a good idea and in most cases cheaper .

MagicMarker

Yeah this laptop cost lest than a thousand euro, and it's about 1200-1300 back home so i saved a few bob alright.

What kind of software would you recommend picking up?

For torrents i'm using azureus now and it seems to be doing the job well.

J-blk

MagicMarker wrote: »

What kind of software would you recommend picking up?

That depends on your needs really - I got VMware's Fusion so I can run Windows XP in a VM for some applications that I still need to use (and you can get uTorrent to work that way too). You could of course run Windows with Boot Camp but as I don't play games on the Mac, there's no reason to reboot each time I need to do something Windows related. Parallels Desktop does the same job and these days, between Fusion and Parallels, I think it's more down to personal choice than anything else.

I also needed an office suite, so I went with Apple's own iWork '08 though you may prefer Microsoft Office instead - though there is a free alternative in Open Office and a few others.

Generally, I only buy "packaged" software in the US that has price variations in Europe - things like the apps I mentioned. With some smaller, independent apps, that you can download and licence online, I find they usually charge the same dollar price no matter where you're based, which is fair enough.

TheScript

Magicmarker fair play to you for making the step,

Im heading to the US in 2weeks and I been tring to make the decision whether to go for the mac. Was in the States 2 years ago and at Christmas and i didnt go for it. This time I think il make the step across.Ive had no experience with a mac. Before I make the move I gotta few quick Qs for ya.
Is it a big adjustement from a pc?With different programmes needed,utorrent as you mention cant be used!
Where did you buy it? How much?
Does it do the job for you, in overall terms?

TheScript

Ive kinda got worries whether Im actually getting value for money, I coul get a laptop from laptopsdirect for cheaper, however it means sticking with windows. Is the extra 150 euro worth it for the mac OS?

Carmeii

TheScript wrote: »

Ive kinda got worries whether Im actually getting value for money, I coul get a laptop from laptopsdirect for cheaper, however it means sticking with windows. Is the extra 150 euro worth it for the mac OS?

yes yes and yes

randombar

Started a thread here a few weeks back that might be of interest: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055323367 definitely takes getting used to but it's all the little things (who am i kidding the big things too like stability, lack of viruses,,) like two finger tap on the touchpad = right flick, tow finger drag = web page scroll, press cmd+space and enter anything you want and it finds it!

Loads of great apps, my faves:

adium
pwnage
stickies
getting iphone contacts to synch with mail.app and gmail
skitch
expose
textmate (costs money)

Can't see myself ever going back!

Dman001

TheScript wrote: »

Ive kinda got worries whether Im actually getting value for money, I coul get a laptop from laptopsdirect for cheaper, however it means sticking with windows. Is the extra 150 euro worth it for the mac OS?

The Mac OS is definitly worth the extra money. I'm using XP and it drives me up the walls, and Vista is supposed to be worse. Also, the trackpad is awsome. Really easy to use.

Chong

I would like to join Magic Marker also, I just bought the exact same laptop. Never ever used a Mac in my life but have always wanted to. I paid 1090 euro in Pc World. So far its been good, its taken me sometime to get used to it, having been a Pc user for about 12 years , this is like a whole new experience.

I also have to say how beautiful it looks, even the box it came in was elegant. I am now a full Apple Fan boy, Ipod, Iphone, and now Mac Book .

MDTyKe

Oh believe me - you WILL get value for money in getting a mac. Don't try to save 150 quid by going for a PC laptop. It might have "features" extreme, but the user experience is completely different.

I got mine in the Apple Store in Palo Alto, California - never looked back!

Tar.Aldarion

MagicMarker wrote: »

Yeah this laptop cost lest than a thousand euro, and it's about 1200-1300 back home so i saved a few bob alright.

What kind of software would you recommend picking up?

For torrents i'm using azureus now and it seems to be doing the job well.

What graphics card you get with it, I assume it's a 2.4 dual core processor?
Big difference in price her and in america it seems.

MagicMarker

yep that's the one...

I can't really form a solid opinion on it yet as i've only had it a day and thus far only used it for general browsing...

However there is no doubt that it's a VERY nice machine, even the keyboard i'm typing on now is so nice and elegant. The track pad is also very nice and two finger scrolling is very nice.

As for the utorrent scenario, i'm now using azureus and it seems absolutely fine.

*edit* I said nice too much.

Tar.Aldarion

i asked what graphics card, not was the graphics card the processor.

MagicMarker

i knew that...

''Intel GMA X3100 graphics processor with 144MB of DDR2 SDRAM shared with main memory4''.

Whatever that means....

J-blk

Tara Le d'Arion wrote: »

i asked what graphics card, not was the graphics card the processor.

As MagicMarker said, it's an Intel GMA X3100 - this is what all MacBooks use and it's an integrated graphics card into the motherboard. It's not great for games or anything really 3D intensive but it will do the job for almost everything else - even Vista's fairly demanding Aero interface will work fine on the GMA X3100.

If you need a Mac laptop with something better graphics-wise, then you have to start looking at a MacBook Pro - the current generation uses an Nvidia 8600M GT with either 256 or 512MB of dedicated memory (the X3100 shares memory from your main system RAM). Still, even though it is quite good by comparison, it still does not compare to some dedicated gaming laptops - the MacBook/MacBook Pro is not really geared towards that market anyway.

Still, as a happy MacBook Pro user (and I've used a few MacBooks too), I can tell you that with the exception of games, almost nothing else will ever be an issue graphics-wise.

Tar.Aldarion

MagicMarker wrote: »

i knew that...

''Intel GMA X3100 graphics processor with 144MB of DDR2 SDRAM shared with main memory4''.

Whatever that means....

J-blk wrote: »

As MagicMarker said, it's an Intel GMA X3100 - this is what all MacBooks use and it's an integrated graphics card into the motherboard. It's not great for games or anything really 3D intensive but it will do the job for almost everything else - even Vista's fairly demanding Aero interface will work fine on the GMA X3100.

If you need a Mac laptop with something better graphics-wise, then you have to start looking at a MacBook Pro - the current generation uses an Nvidia 8600M GT with either 256 or 512MB of dedicated memory (the X3100 shares memory from your main system RAM). Still, even though it is quite good by comparison, it still does not compare to some dedicated gaming laptops - the MacBook/MacBook Pro is not really geared towards that market anyway.

Still, as a happy MacBook Pro user (and I've used a few MacBooks too), I can tell you that with the exception of games, almost nothing else will ever be an issue graphics-wise.

Thanks! just wondering. Although a little too detailed a computer engineer what an integrated graphics card is. :-p
Cheers though.

J-blk

Tara Le d'Arion wrote: »

Thanks! just wondering. Although a little too detailed a computer engineer what an integrated graphics card is. :-p

I was trying to clarify MagicMarker's "whatever that means" rather than answering you directly .

I've grown tired with the constant need for a better graphics card for any PC gaming every few months or so, so a couple of years ago I switched to a Mac Mini/Xbox 360 combo and haven't looked back since (just added a MacBook Pro to the mix too ).

Tar.Aldarion

It's not great having to upgrade but a gfx card will usually last me a year or two with the bonus of much better gaming. :d
I still play games that take 16/32mb of ram, some great old ones!

MagicMarker

I've had my first hiccup this evening.... Well, barely a hiccup.

My external hard drive was formatted for windows, so although i could read what was on it, i could not write, meaning i could not edit or add to the hard drive. Which is kind of the point with an external HD.

So, i had to reformat it, so had to backup what i could onto the mac, which was hard as it's a 300gig exHD and only 160gig on the mac, so i had to say goodbye to a few things. Mainly tv shows and music, but it's ok. The tv shows i had seen and probably never would have watched again and the music i never listened to.

So what's done is done, biggest issue was the time. Transferring everything back and forth was a pain in the ass.

J-blk

Unfortunately, only FAT file systems are really read/write compatible out of the box on both Mac OS X and Windows - but they bring with them other problems. There are however ways to write to NTFS from within Mac OS X if you need to, though I would not recommend it. Have a look at this thread:

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055341257

randombar

I also thought you could convert drives to different formats without removing the data? I know I converted fat32 to ntfs with the data still on it? Not sure about the other way around?

turf

J-blk wrote: »

Unfortunately, only FAT file systems are really read/write compatible out of the box on both Mac OS X and Windows - but they bring with them other problems. There are however ways to write to NTFS from within Mac OS X if you need to, though I would not recommend it. Have a look at this thread:

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055341257

why wudnt u recommend it? i hav paragon installed and it works perfect.. just integrates into the os so once you install, you never need to think of it again.

J-blk

turf wrote: »

why wudnt u recommend it? i hav paragon installed and it works perfect.. just integrates into the os so once you install, you never need to think of it again.

I was referring to the free NTFS driver, which takes quite some tweaking to get working - as I mentioned in the thread I linked to, I've never used Paragon's solution to know how reliable or not it is so it's good to hear from someone who has actually used it.

ZENER

MagicMarker wrote: »

I've had my first hiccup this evening.... Well, barely a hiccup.

My external hard drive was formatted for windows, so although i could read what was on it, i could not write, meaning i could not edit or add to the hard drive. Which is kind of the point with an external HD.

Wouldn't it have been simpler to just share the drive on Windows ?

ZEN

Tar.Aldarion

MagicMarker wrote: »

I've had my first hiccup this evening.... Well, barely a hiccup.

My external hard drive was formatted for windows, so although i could read what was on it, i could not write, meaning i could not edit or add to the hard drive. Which is kind of the point with an external HD.

So, i had to reformat it, so had to backup what i could onto the mac, which was hard as it's a 300gig exHD and only 160gig on the mac, so i had to say goodbye to a few things. Mainly tv shows and music, but it's ok. The tv shows i had seen and probably never would have watched again and the music i never listened to.

So what's done is done, biggest issue was the time. Transferring everything back and forth was a pain in the ass.

Be careful with usb sticks too, I was deleting things away on mine and somehow it was still full one day with nothing on it, unlike windows, it was just adding the deleted files to a hidden trashes folder!