help me convert to mac please

Posted:
in General Discussion edited January 2014
hello everyone,



as you can probably tell, i am a windows user, and i hate it. i started considering a mac probably a year ago...but i wasn't really in the market for a new computer (college student). so anyway, i have some questions for you all. i appreciate any feedback you can give me. also, please be honest. we all know windows blows, but apple has flaws too (nothing is perfect) so i seek the best and worst of what macs have to offer. i have looked around the site, so yes there are "some" answers scattered about...but i would like to have clear answers.



i am intending to purchase a macbook, 2.16, 2 gigs of ram, 120g hd.



1. if you have a macbook, what do you dislike most about it?

2. has the white discoloration issue stopped or is it still a problem a year later?

3. is the video card enough for the mac? i would like to play games without flaw occassionally.

4. would waiting for a centrino duo mac with leopard be worth the wait?

5. when do you all think the macbooks will be revised?



thank you for taking the time to read/respond.

-dan

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 8
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by WINblOWS View Post


    hello everyone,



    as you can probably tell, i am a windows user, and i hate it. i started considering a mac probably a year ago...but i wasn't really in the market for a new computer (college student). so anyway, i have some questions for you all. i appreciate any feedback you can give me. also, please be honest. we all know windows blows, but apple has flaws too (nothing is perfect) so i seek the best and worst of what macs have to offer. i have looked around the site, so yes there are "some" answers scattered about...but i would like to have clear answers.



    i am intending to purchase a macbook, 2.16, 2 gigs of ram, 120g hd.



    1. if you have a macbook, what do you dislike most about it?

    2. has the white discoloration issue stopped or is it still a problem a year later?

    3. is the video card enough for the mac? i would like to play games without flaw occassionally.

    4. would waiting for a centrino duo mac with leopard be worth the wait?

    5. when do you all think the macbooks will be revised?



    thank you for taking the time to read/respond.

    -dan



    1. IDK, macbook pro

    2. Some have it, some don't.

    3. Depends on the game. For light gaming and with the 2GB ram and 2.16 processor, it should be enough.

    4. Yes, see Below.

    5. Around October (Leopard) hopefully, and definitely before January (MWSF), IMO.
  • Reply 2 of 8
    1-The only thing I dislike is the size. Its a little too big for what I'm used to. Although I've always had a mac desktop, I used to have a Sony Vaio TR laptop and it was considerably lighter and smaller (but not thinner) than my current macbook.

    2- I haven't heard anything about it since it came up

    3- I don't play games so I honestly don't know

    4- It might be (yes crappy answer, sorry). I say why not wait a little, unless you absolutely need it within the next month or so

    5- I'm thinking either around the time Leopard is released or January as stated earlier
  • Reply 3 of 8
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by WINblOWS View Post


    ... so yes there are "some" answers scattered about...but i would like to have clear answers.



    i am intending to purchase a macbook, 2.16, 2 gigs of ram, 120g hd.



    1. if you have a macbook, what do you dislike most about it?

    2. has the white discoloration issue stopped or is it still a problem a year later?

    3. is the video card enough for the mac? i would like to play games without flaw occassionally.

    4. would waiting for a centrino duo mac with leopard be worth the wait?

    5. when do you all think the macbooks will be revised?



    thank you for taking the time to read/respond.

    -dan



    1. I can't play the latest snazzy 3D games.

    2. Stopped. Quite okay now.

    3. MacBook is not appropriate for games. You will need a MacBookPro or iMac.

    4a. Wow, tough question.

    4b. If you think you need a better computer now, go for it, you can wait until early next year when Leopard is more stable, etc.

    5. Some people are predicting around the time Leopard is released but this is not so likely IMO.



    Good luck
  • Reply 4 of 8
    MarvinMarvin Posts: 15,310moderator
    If you can afford it go for either the lowest new Macbook Pro or look at the refurb section where you can pick up the last generation Macbook Pro for not much more than some of the Macbooks and still with a full warranty.



    I've used a lot of Mac laptops regularly and despite the Macbooks having much better build quality than the old ibooks, the Pro machines have always felt more solid and the interface feels more responsive - possibly due to the much better GPU.



    You can get a matte screen with the pro too.
  • Reply 5 of 8
    I think you should wait until the MacBook gets its next hardware refresh which will likely use the Santa Rosa platform. The primary benefit of Santa Rosa is the GMA X3100 graphics which will be a big improvement over the GMA 950 that is currently used. An added benefit to having GMA X3100 graphics is support for DX10 so you can install Windows Vista and get the full effect.



    Link to Wikipedia page with a table of GMA graphics cores and chipsets



    Link to the Mac Buyer's Guide on macrumors.com with Apple's products' refresh history. Based on the MacBook's history we should see an updated model in November.
  • Reply 6 of 8
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by WINblOWS View Post


    hello everyone,



    as you can probably tell, i am a windows user, and i hate it. i started considering a mac probably a year ago...but i wasn't really in the market for a new computer (college student). so anyway, i have some questions for you all. i appreciate any feedback you can give me. also, please be honest. we all know windows blows, but apple has flaws too (nothing is perfect) so i seek the best and worst of what macs have to offer. i have looked around the site, so yes there are "some" answers scattered about...but i would like to have clear answers.



    i am intending to purchase a macbook, 2.16, 2 gigs of ram, 120g hd.



    1. if you have a macbook, what do you dislike most about it?

    2. has the white discoloration issue stopped or is it still a problem a year later?

    3. is the video card enough for the mac? i would like to play games without flaw occassionally.

    4. would waiting for a centrino duo mac with leopard be worth the wait?

    5. when do you all think the macbooks will be revised?



    thank you for taking the time to read/respond.

    -dan



    Hehe, don't quite agree with your username although I've have my fair share of ups and downs with Windows. I recently acquired a Macbook, and was in a similar position to you (also a student), so I'll help you out.



    1. Out of all the things with the Macbook, I do have some quibbles in regards to the screen size. It's a bit small for my liking, especially seeing as I previously had a 15". The upside to this is that it really is portable! I actually take it out with me to University (something I never did with my older laptop), and the battery life is pretty great too. Also the fact that the plastic scratches a little too easily (on the casing), if you've owned an iPod you'll know what I mean.

    2. Had mine for over a month and no issues here.

    3. Can't really answer this one... from what I've read you should be able to play older games with minimal settings, I really hope they upgrade the graphics card a bit on the next iteration of the Macbook.

    4. Yeah, save yourself the £90 ($129) and wait. Unless they offer you a free upgrade that is. I was unlucky enough to buy just outside of two weeks before iLife 2008 was announced, we know Leopard is coming out in October, it's not too much of a wait (providing you can get your work done okay without the Mac)

    5. January to be quite honest. Not just a revision, but a whole new look (aluminium). The last "update" was in May, I reckon the rest of the year will be quiet, asides from Leopard.



    Hope I helped mate, good luck!
  • Reply 7 of 8
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by WINblOWS View Post


    hello everyone,



    as you can probably tell, i am a windows user, and i hate it. i started considering a mac probably a year ago...but i wasn't really in the market for a new computer (college student). so anyway, i have some questions for you all. i appreciate any feedback you can give me. also, please be honest. we all know windows blows, but apple has flaws too (nothing is perfect) so i seek the best and worst of what macs have to offer. i have looked around the site, so yes there are "some" answers scattered about...but i would like to have clear answers.



    i am intending to purchase a macbook, 2.16, 2 gigs of ram, 120g hd.



    1. if you have a macbook, what do you dislike most about it?

    2. has the white discoloration issue stopped or is it still a problem a year later?

    3. is the video card enough for the mac? i would like to play games without flaw occassionally.

    4. would waiting for a centrino duo mac with leopard be worth the wait?

    5. when do you all think the macbooks will be revised?



    thank you for taking the time to read/respond.

    -dan





    1. i have a black macbook. its a good computer but the performance isnt great.

    2. the video card sucks, if you are into gaming get the MBP, i bought the macbook and i regret it.

    3. you could wait for leopard, it comes out in a month.

    4. i think christmas time.



    My advice is to forsure get a MBP, its well worth the money, wether you wait for leopard it doesnt really matter because you can still buy it in a month. its more about waiting for a new model. you dont want to drop 2000+ to find out that a new one is coming out 2 months later
  • Reply 8 of 8
    mr. hmr. h Posts: 4,870member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by WINblOWS View Post


    1. if you have a macbook, what do you dislike most about it?



    It isn't a MacBook Pro



    I had a 4.5 year-old Titanium PowerBook, wanted to upgrade to a MacBook Pro, but at the time I decided it wasn't worth it and that I would get a MacBook as a "stop gap" measure. I am now waiting for Penryn (45 nm CPU upgrade) to appear in the MacBook Pro, then I will upgrade.



    In the past, I've owned a PowerBook 145b, a PowerBook 190, Power Macintosh G3 mini-tower, a Titanium PowerBook G4, a 3G iPod, and a 5.5 G iPod. I've also used a number of other Apple product (PowerBooks, towers, iPods) and the MacBook is IMHO Apple's best product ever.



    Quote:
    Originally Posted by WINblOWS View Post


    2. has the white discoloration issue stopped or is it still a problem a year later?



    It was a problem in an early production run. It was solved and any discolouration is covered under warranty.



    Quote:
    Originally Posted by WINblOWS View Post


    3. is the video card enough for the mac? i would like to play games without flaw occassionally.



    It depends what sort of games you are talking about. For most people the GPU is absolutely fine. However, for 3D games it is a no-no.



    Quote:
    Originally Posted by WINblOWS View Post


    4. would waiting for a centrino duo mac with leopard be worth the wait?



    I'm surprised that no-one in the thread has mentioned that this doesn't make sense, or at the very least asked for some clarification.



    "Centrino" is the name of Intel's mobile "platform". Strictly speaking, Apple have never used this, because they don't use Intel's wireless chips. However, they use all the other chips from the platform (CPU, GPU, northbridge and southbridge). Currently, the MacBook uses Merom Core 2 Duo CPUs, GMA950 GPUs and the motherboard chipset from "Napa". Hopefully the MacBook will be upgraded to "Santa Rosa" soon, which delivers a slightly faster and lower-power motherboard chipset, and a much better GPU - the X3100.



    I would hope that the MacBook would be upgraded to Merom by the time Leopard is released. So yes, I would wait until then.



    Quote:
    Originally Posted by WINblOWS View Post


    5. when do you all think the macbooks will be revised?



    Maybe at the Apple Expo in Paris at the end of September, but Apple seem to have become completely uninterested in that event in the last couple of years. Otherwise, some time in October.
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