Getting a Laptop For College......
To Start off, I would just like to say that any help at all would be greatly appreciated. For the last year or so I've realized that Apple just has a superior OS on their hands but haven't had the funds to be able to afford it. My parents have appropriated $1000 for my college laptop. Anything above and beyond that is my own deal.
So I have a couple of questions... and beyond that any advice to make the switch would be great.
1)School starts in early September, Should I purchase now or wait for Leopard?
2) Is the base base macbook worthy of basic functions? I'm very PC- literate. I do photo editing, basic movie-editing. All kinds of things. Is this laptop fast enough to be alright?
3) Is upgrading to 1Gb of RAM a necessity?
4) Any other thoughts or tips for me would be wonderful.
So I have a couple of questions... and beyond that any advice to make the switch would be great.
1)School starts in early September, Should I purchase now or wait for Leopard?
2) Is the base base macbook worthy of basic functions? I'm very PC- literate. I do photo editing, basic movie-editing. All kinds of things. Is this laptop fast enough to be alright?
3) Is upgrading to 1Gb of RAM a necessity?
4) Any other thoughts or tips for me would be wonderful.
Comments
1)School starts in early September, Should I purchase now or wait for Leopard?
I would wait. The product updates are already starting with the Mac Pro. It makes sense that the laptops won't be updated until the new chipset arrives sometime in May.
2) Is the base base macbook worthy of basic functions? I'm very PC- literate. I do photo editing, basic movie-editing. All kinds of things. Is this laptop fast enough to be alright?
Yes. The graphics capabilities are not the best but even on that front, it performs adequately. For CPU tasks, it is very fast. The chipset update should increase the graphics performance so another reason to wait.
3) Is upgrading to 1Gb of RAM a necessity?
Yes. I have run a few machines with 512MB and it quickly runs out. If you imagine the system using 150MB, Photoshop using 150MB and iphoto 100MB. That leaves just over 100MB for the little apps that use 10-20MB each. As soon as you go over that, you start paging the drive. 1GB is highly recommended.
that being said, i would say you should go with the 1299$ model of the macbook. it has 1gb of RAM which you would probably be updating to anyways, it has an extra 20 gb of HD space which will be good for extra room for photos, videos, and music. and along with a better processor it can burn dvds.
1)School starts in early September, Should I purchase now or wait for Leopard?
Yes, wait for Leopard and for the free iPod deal to come back around. And by then the base macbook should have a dvd burner. I HOPE.
2) Is the base base macbook worthy of basic functions? I'm very PC- literate. I do photo editing, basic movie-editing. All kinds of things. Is this laptop fast enough to be alright?
Yup.
3) Is upgrading to 1Gb of RAM a necessity?
Yeah.
4) Any other thoughts or tips for me would be wonderful.
Don't stop at 1, get 2 gigs of ram if you can.
You can always buy memory from someone other than Apple for less money--it is really easy to install
You will be eligible for a student discount too--in fact, you might be able to get a better deal when you are in school through your college bookstore--check that out.
Yes, wait for Leopard and for the free iPod deal to come back around. And by then the base macbook should have a dvd burner. I HOPE.
definetly do that, iPod deal is great.
Mak sure to get a small stand for the MB to raise it off your desk while editing video; it can get a bit warm.
Memory: you have to have 2GB if you are into photo annd video editing. It will also jjust make things smoother in general, and the extra time saved will more than off-set the extra cost at this important point in your life.
Leopard is coming in spring, according to Apple, so, yeah, you may want to hold off until early August to buy. Don't wait until the last minute as they may run out of stocck just wen you need the machine and you should have a couple of weeks to get accustomed to the MB and to configure it the way you will need it.
Once you have your college ID, you can get software cheap; academic discounts rock, and trust me, now that I have retired form mainstream teaching, I miss the discount dearly and am now very careful wih application picks.
You will need a few apps to get you going. I will post links later, but here are some to look at:
VoodooPad
ConceptDraw MindMap
Journler
iWork (Apple): Pages
But then, I am a power user and usually have two machines running at the same time, one chugging away at video (a couple of 1-hour DVDs each week) or recording audio, the other for 3D tasks (SketchUp), photo editing, surfing and creating my texts and printing them. Occasionally, the MBP will also find its way onto the desk when the other two are maxed out.
My daily usage is on several machines, with 512 K, 1GB, 2GB ram. Two machines have similar specs, and the 2GB machine is the slowest CPU spec of the three. It actually is the fastest of the three, followed by the 1GB followed by the 512, which stutters on newer apps. Speaking from experience. Extra RAM is worth every penny up to 1GB, then considerable to 2GB. If you buy 3rd party stuff, you can get 2GB for less than Apple's 1GB.
But then, I am a power user and usually have two machines running at the same time, one chugging away at video (a couple of 1-hour DVDs each week) or recording audio, the other for 3D tasks (SketchUp), photo editing, surfing and creating my texts and printing them. Occasionally, the MBP will also find its way onto the desk when the other two are maxed out.
vista needs 2GB or more to run at it's best.
10.5 may want 1GB - 2GB or more? for it self.
My daily usage is on several machines, with 512 K, 1GB, 2GB ram. Two machines have similar specs, and the 2GB machine is the slowest CPU spec of the three. It actually is the fastest of the three, followed by the 1GB followed by the 512, which stutters on newer apps. Speaking from experience. Extra RAM is worth every penny up to 1GB, then considerable to 2GB. If you buy 3rd party stuff, you can get 2GB for less than Apple's 1GB.
But then, I am a power user and usually have two machines running at the same time, one chugging away at video (a couple of 1-hour DVDs each week) or recording audio, the other for 3D tasks (SketchUp), photo editing, surfing and creating my texts and printing them. Occasionally, the MBP will also find its way onto the desk when the other two are maxed out.
this was the example of a power user that i was referring to, if you do this type of computing then, yes you will need the ram upgrade.
Anyway, Apple has solved this debate for us: only one of the MB models comes with less than 1GB or memory, and it is a 1.86 CPU. Spend a little more more, get a better CPU and Apple throws in a full 1GB or RAM. 2 would be better, but 1 will do; 512 will not.
The MBPs come with 1GB for the low end, and 2GB standard on the middle model. Guess Apple is leaning towards 2, perhaps becaus eof the lower HD RPM compared to a desktop?
iMacs are similar: only the low end model has 512, the others come with 1GB standard.
A low end machine is designed for basic tasks. A college student should not confine himself to basic tasks over $200; goodness, my textbooks ran 200 bucks per semester 20 years ago. Better to spend a little more investing in a better machine that will open doors rather than limit them.
If you are going to stay legit make sure you have used some of the Apple productivity suits, iWorks, Microsoft Office and that you can get work done in them. They are different then the Windows Versions.
Some links to apps:
http://flyingmeat.com/voodoopad/ (there is a FREE lite version that should do you fine)
http://www.conceptdraw.com/en/products/mindmap/main.php
http://journler.com/ (FREE)
A new app that will help you organize your assignments and projects and even take notes. It is FREE and pretty well put together:
http://www.apple.com/downloads/macos...hoolhouse.html
It also allows you to share data with friends (who also have the ap).
Google Earth: fun, educational and free:
http://earth.google.com/
When I was in college, I had a huge world atlas on my desk, along with several other "historical" ones (history major). With the Internet, you don't need them anymore. Lucky youngsters!
Curio is an interesting app for curious minds.
http://www.zengobi.com/products/curio/
Edgies is a great app for post-its and more; I use it along the left side of my screen to serve as a notepad, a to-do list, a launcher.
http://www.oneriver.jp/EdgiesEn/
iCal might help you, too, and there may already be calendars posted for your new school.
Again, get these apps (and your MB, of course) before school starts so you can try them out and learn how to aply them best for your tastes BEFORE school starts in the fall, or you will be a busy bee trying to adjust to lots of new things.
Anybody else got good apps to recommend to students?
1)School starts in early September, Should I purchase now or wait for Leopard?
Dude wait until your grad party. I got my 17" MBP largely because of that
-=|Mgkwho
Google Earth: fun, educational and free:
http://earth.google.com/
When I was in college, I had a huge world atlas on my desk, along with several other "historical" ones (history major). With the Internet, you don't need them anymore. Lucky youngsters!
Anybody else got good apps to recommend to students?
The macbook has the gma 950 and mac os does not use DirectX also Google Earth needs 16MB of video ram 32MB Recommended
** Intel 3D graphics machines can use the default OpenGL version, but work better in DirectX (choose Start > Programs > Google Earth > Start Google Earth in DirectX).