Help me to choose macbook

frenchy88

Hello, i'm planning on buying a trendy macbook...but when it comes on the technology inside i've no idea what to get
You can find the tech specs on apple's website, i was looking at the basic model, the white macbook.
Would i need more memory (2+2gb instead or 2gb) or is 2gb way enough for internet, and college work (words basically)? how about the hard drive, is 120gb enough? All i mainly store would be pictures and maybe a few videos...
Oh and last question...can you think of any alternative to a macbook? Something user friendly, oh and the design is extremely important too! I actually bought my current laptop because it is green...so yes...thanks for your help!!

Oh and by the way i would consider the aluminium version if anyone can explain me the difference between the white and the aluminium version sorry for all these question!

Alanstrainor

Are you used to macs or pcs, ie which would you be more familiar with? What's your budget?

RichyX

Buy a cheapo laptop and put an Apple sticker on the lid.
People will think you're trendy, and you'll save a load of money.

frenchy88

Well i am using mac in college and i pretty like it to be honest. Many people recommended macbook to me. As for price i'm getting student discount and i'd go to buy it in apple store in Belfast. Cheers.

Alanstrainor

What's your budget? ie How much do you have to spend?

Alanstrainor

RichyX wrote: »

Buy a cheapo laptop and put an Apple sticker on the lid.
People will think you're trendy, and you'll save a load of money.

Any more off topic posts like the above will result in a weeks ban.

RichyX

frenchy88 wrote: »

As for price i'm getting student discount and i'd go to buy it in apple store in Belfast. Cheers.

From what I've heard on here they won't accept southern student ID's anymore.

frenchy88

Alanstrainor wrote: »

What's your budget? ie How much do you have to spend?

well it's not really the price. I'd just like to know what you'd recommend between the white macbook and the first version of the aluminium model. What size of hard disk that i need and the memory. Cheers

frenchy88

Does that mean that my only possibility is to buy my macbook either online or in spectra! Can i not buy it in a apple store?

RichyX

frenchy88 wrote: »

Does that mean that my only possibility is to buy my macbook either online or in spectra! Can i not buy it in a apple store?

You can buy from the Irish Apple online store and get the student discount.

I'd say you'll be fine with the basic white macbook. It was upgraded recently and is probably the best value macbook.

frenchy88

so basically an irish student doesn't have possibility to use his student discount in a proper apple store such as the one in london or belfast?? Is that it?

RichyX

frenchy88 wrote: »

so basically an irish student doesn't have possibility to use his student discount in a proper apple store such as the one in london or belfast?? Is that it?

Basically, yeah, unless some of the authorised Irish Apple retailers will accept it, which I doubt.

rogers4815

dabs.ie have great deals on macbooks. I've been looking for good prices online for a while now and they have the best prices that i can find!

Oh, and their standard prices on macbooks are less than the ones in the apple store with the student discount!

Didn't think this was worth a new thread so said i'd put it here......

Was thinking of getting one of these MacBooks too, want to get Logic, anyway just wondering what these are like for gaming?... i got a P.C 2yrs ago, wasn't the cheapest by any means, still runs perfect approaching 3 yrs later but i wasn't able to play any new P.C games on it!!... what would the (standard)MacBook be like for this?

RichyX

gilberto_eire wrote: »

Was thinking of getting one of these MacBooks too, want to get Logic, anyway just wondering what these are like for gaming?... i got a P.C 2yrs ago, wasn't the cheapest by any means, still runs perfect approaching 3 yrs later but i wasn't able to play any new P.C games on it!!... what would the (standard)MacBook be like for this?

Macs are pretty rubbish for gaming tbh.
Unless you get a MacBook Pro you won't have a graphics card capable of running the latest games very well.

luckat

Maybe ask on the Mac forum? Tech/Operating Systems/Mac

Depends on what you want it for. I have a MacBook and love it, but if I were buying now I'd go up the few quid and get a MacBook Pro. The new MacBooks don't have FireWire, but the Pro does have it, and they're generally stronger and better machines.

One tip is to buy from the Refurbished store in the Apple Ireland Store - you get a great machine but much cheaper.

XoXMascaraXoX

Iv actually got a macbook and i think its great. <SNIP>

sonicthebadger*

I have a MacBook and I love it. Don't use it for gaming though, complete waste of time.

They're pretty tough too. My friend dropped hers off the kitchen table while it was running, a little clumsy, made one of those very horrible and very final slap/crack sounds expensive things make when you drop them and it was fine. Working away happy out a year later!

I have found compatibility to be an issue, I was trying to use it while studying an image processing Masters in DCU and couldn't run any of the programs I needed to. Made for very long days in College when I could have been working from home (that said, all the programs that wouldn't work on it were ones written by my lecturers)

Sorry, almost forgot, I bought mine in April of 2007. So whatever specs were the norm then I have. About 80Gig HD (too small if you ask me) and DVD player (not multi regeion).

RichyX

sonicthebadger* wrote: »

So whatever specs were the norm then I have. About 80Gig HD (too small if you ask me) and DVD player (not multi regeion).

None of the recent MacBook's seem to be multi region.
It's a right pain in the whole when half your DVD's are region 1 and the other half are region 2.

sonicthebadger*

RichyX wrote: »

None of the recent MacBook's seem to be multi region.
It's a right pain in the whole when half your DVD's are region 1 and the other half are region 2.

Yeah, I have a bit of a thing for Asian movies so I'm a mix of region 2 and 3 but the damn thing can change region, it just has a counter.

I rang them about it and the "help"desk said, oh it's nothing to do with us it's the company that we buy them from. I said, that's rubbish, just go into the code, comment out the line that says -1 every time you change region and bingo... infinite changes. I told her there was even new firmware on the web for doing it.

She replied... "um" then suggested I flash the firmware on the drive. I asked would that invalidate my warranty and she said it would. So I didn't do it.

It pisses me off that it's one line of code they need to change and they won't do it. Where's the business sense in hobbling your own product in comparison to its compettitors? Apple Mac dudes need to cop on a little in that regard. I love that what works does work beautifully but I hate that they've clearly chosen not to have a multi region machine and then they make out like it's not their fault.