Getting a mac

[Tucker]

No, im not getting a Big mac, i mean Mac as in Macbook ;D

im seriously considring purchasing a Macbook, for many reasons which are - i am studying product design and Computing ( mainly web design) and i heard a mac is the best for this sort of stuff. Its a laptop so i can take it anywhere, take it to school for presentations ( where the apple remote that cums free with it cums in handy) and because its also great for podcasting and making home made music

here it is in all its lush Macness

i jsut want to know if anyone has a Mac or Macbook and what they think of them

[Zoso the Rock God]

I don't have one but it does look cool.

[dharmashark]

My brother got one for graduation. I love the little picture-taking thing. We took about a hundred pictures in the first day using all of the distorting thingies.

[officialben]

I don't own one, but I've heard a lot about them. Make sure you get the AppleCare warranty with it. They're new noteboooks and new notebooks always have problems. Yes, even Macs have problems. The most noted problem with the MacBook is an odd discoloration on the palmrest after a few weeks use. Apple has agreed to fix the problem, but who knows what will come up in the future. Oh, and be sure to max out your RAM on that thing, it doesn't fit much, so you'll need all you can get.

[dharmachili]

tucker, macs are the best computers out there to get for web designing ( and anything else you want to do with it) but good pick

----if you arent sure what culor to get then get the black one. it looks 20 times better(even thogh it is about a hundred more its totally worth it).

[Tucker]

Make sure you get the AppleCare warranty with it.

funny enough that is exactly wot my brother sed as well. he had a mac and his has broke after using it for a year

i will definately max the ram, ive heard that apps such as photoshop dont run as fast with say 512mb ram ( which is the standard in a macbook) so ill definately upgrade that

[Casey D]

tucker, the mac is the computer you need, anytype of design (or anything creative for that matter) the mac computers are the best computers to use, good choice and go with it. But I suggest the macbook pro, much faster than the regular macbooks.

[Shinra]

macs are SUCH a waste of money. theyre about twice as expensive as a PC, and still their applications crash, and u cant find free software anywhere. We have nothing but macs at the school, and it drives me completely insane. They have their up-sides, but nothing thats not possible on a PC really.

[Zoso the Rock God]

I reallly have no need for a labtop.

[Shinra]

me either, but i still want 1 :-D

[Zoso the Rock God]

Who doesn't?

[Shinra]

someone who's afraid to leave his room

[Casey D]

my apps barely ever crash, and macs are made to do the cool artsy stuff. like the commercial says, how can you show a family vacation with a pie chart?

[Dragavan]

shinra said:

macs are SUCH a waste of money. theyre about twice as expensive as a PC, and still their applications crash, and u cant find free software anywhere. We have nothing but macs at the school, and it drives me completely insane. They have their up-sides, but nothing thats not possible on a PC really.

Wow, this almost sounds like baiting for us Mac users out there... but I am not going to bite. Really. But I will make a few points.

Macs are really not that expensive (at least any more). They are made with nothing but higher end parts, not cut corners (like lack of wi-fi or a burner) to bring prices down, and have a great customer service record (especially if you have AppleCare). If you find or make a Windows machine with the same features, software, and everything you will end up paying about the same (if not more).

As for software, it's a matter of how you care for and use your system when determining how much you have crashing or other problems. There are also lots of freeware and shareware out there for macs, just not as much as for Windows. But, then there are like 10 times more Windows machines out there, so not a surprise.

Plus, the new MacBooks (and Pros) have the ability to use Boot Camp and run all major OSes out there. So there is far more software for them than most other machines. Heh

Personally, I like Macs. Always have. But I see reasons for both to exist. I even see uses for UNIX and LINUX machines too. But as an artist and publisher, so I won't use them myself.

d**nit... I gave in and took the bait. heh

[Shinra]

$3,299.00

Estimated Ship: Within 24 hours
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Two dual-core 2.5GHz PowerPC G5 processors

1.25GHz frontside bus per processor

1MB L2 cache per core

512MB of 533MHz DDR2 SDRAM (PC2-4200)

250GB Serial ATA hard drive

16x SuperDrive (double-layer)

Three open PCI-Express expansion slots

NVIDIA GeForce 6600 with 256MB GDDR SDRAM


I recently upgraded my computer by adding 512mb of ram (the same as on this mac) for 49.99
The video card it uses starts at $78.00 (froogle)
You can easily get the other stuff in an e-machine for less than $600. which would bring the total price to ~800, 1/3 that of a Mac.

As for customer service, I've never needed any, so it doesn't matter.

We use IE For Mac at school (well, the other people at school do, I use Safari cuz it crashes less) and it seems like every 10 pages, it crashes and u have to go to finder and do a force quit. It annoys the crap out of me, and since its not freeware/shareware and is actually a professional software, I'd expect it not to do that. IE Also quits unexpectedly all the time on the new macs (I forget what theyre called but theyre super-skinny)

Boot Camp just proves that Windows is better, because there's no reason you'd want to boot ur windows machine in OSX.

In my eyes, the biggest advantages macs have is their media editing capabilities, which are already being cought up to and surpassed by third-party programs. and the Dashboard, which is sweet, but something similar will be on Vista (if it ever coems out...)

Sorry to keep rambling, but those commercials they keep running are seriously tickin me off. the 1 about the digitial camera bein easily plugged in on a mac and how its so great... ah screw that. I work Tech support for the school, andi was there for like 3 and a half hours tryin to get some stupid camera to work. It needed a driver, and came w/ a mac driver, but it didnt work for OSX so we ended up having to order 1 on a cd cuz mac drivers are harder than crap to find for download.