New Toy :D

[Aero]

Ok, so I don't get new stuff very often, so if I do, I'm making a thread about it.

So after many months of putting off getting a new computer, I finally spent the cash. No longer am I stuck to my 600 mhz desktop or my 1.6 ghz pentium M laptop.

So what did I get you ask? I'll give you a hint. It starts with "M" and ends in "acBook Pro". So did you get it?

Yep a Macbook Pro. I honestly can't believe I'm typing this on a Mac. I swore I would never buy one, I had the whole Mac hater things down cold. But in today's world, they have come a long way. Anywho I'm happy so far, plus I'll be installing windows tomorrow and dual booting. However I havn't "calibrated" my battery yet, and it says I only have about 1:30 on it, so thats frightening me atm. Wait.. 1:40....wait...1:50... ok, well I'll just keep my eye on it .

I'm hoping to do a full review of this thing once I get used to it. Its the new Penryn based Macbook. The lowest end model. But yay, I'm just happy to have a decent PC ...er...Mac..hell...computer again.

[rendermandan]

Wow, must be something in the air. I swore up and down that I would never buy into Steve Job's Advertising for Mac/Apple products. And guess what I bought today.... I Ipod Touch. I have to admit, that it is f'n sweet!

Hope your new computer works good for you. the last Mac computer I used was an Apple IIe. LOL

[Quakken]

I hope that somewhere along in this thread you will give your reasoning for buying one.

Seriously.

[Aero]

lol, thats crazy. Hope you enjoy the ipod touch. And I just figured out my battery issue. Apparently Safari (web-browser) was using 99.9% of the CPU! That also explains the excess heat. What you need 2.4 ghz on 2 cores to run a web browser is beyond me, but whatever. Firefox runs on a mac right .


Quakken, its simple...kinda. I know that the internal specs of the system are on par with much cheaper hardware, say Dell (another of the world's most evil companies). But I see advantages in a Mac. First off software (ignoring the web-browser attacking the CPU ), its quite solid. I don't have to worry about viruses in OSX. Plus with Intel inside I can still dual boot to XP or Vista and run all the games I want or other utilities. But the major factor is the design. I'm going to college to be an engineer, so I look into designs alot. I know that alot of effort went into the design of this machine, and it shows. Everything is very refined, its high quality, and also professional. I needed something that I can have through college, be able to run games on decently, do photo/video editing for fun, use for 3d modeling in Catia, and also be able to walk into an internship, pull out a laptop and be taken seriously. Say what you will, but pulling out a Dell XPS probably won't come across very well, where as pulling out a MBP would probably come across a bit better.

I decided to pay more to have piece of mind with a computer, which is something I havn't had in at least 2 years. Plus it can do just about everything in any major OS, so its quite versatile.


OH, and yes, I'm having an aneurism from losing the ability to right click, its driving me mad.

[Braveheart]

i don't get the whole evil mac thing, they are amazingly well made computers, the OS is just crap in the eyes of a gamer, i would so buy a mac book air and put Vista on it if i had the money. oh and i love my 3gen 4GB silver nano

[chaksq]

Grats on the new computer thing. I'm personally now a fan of Mac hardware but I do like OSX on occasion. Probably cause I grew up using Finder System-7 on a bunch of old Macs, and at my high school their Macs worked better than their crappy Dell desktops.

About the lack of right click I find holding the "option" key while clicking in OSX usually does the same thing as right clicking does in Windows. ie: opening a menu with options to cut, copy, or paste and that kind of thing

[Quakken]

Okay, thank you. You're right about probably being more respected with it, you won't have to worry about pretty much anything going wrong with it either.

I would want a mac pro for video editing if they didn't cost double what a comparable workstation did and if I had some more video to edit (school is taking a big chunk of my already stressed life, I wish I had some time and people to make movies... oh well.)

After looking a macbook next to a comparable HP, well, It's more meticulously designed and its operating system is far superior in resource management, protection, usability... I want a macbook pro. Only really 1300 dollars more for the base 17 inch model vs. HP, and if I had the money that's a very viable option for what I would go with.

Give me you laptop.

[NightrainSrt4]

Yes, option click right clicks. Also you can go into setup or whatever and set it so you can put two fingers on the touch pad and then click. That will right click as well. I believe you have to enable it.

It's been so long since I set it with my Macbook that I'm not positive, but ya I think you have to set it.

Two options work well. I use both methods depending on the task and such. Nice buy!

[TheGreatSatan]

Quakken, its simple...kinda. I know that the internal specs of the system are on par with much cheaper hardware, say Dell (another of the world's most evil companies).

What are the specs and what did it cost? Mac's are notoriously expensive with sub par specs. It seems like the cost is all for the OS.

[Aero]

yeah, the specs are similar to PC's that cost much less.

I got the base model. Total cost w/tax for me was $1925. I got $200 off with a student discount, but then paid $125 in tax (lame I know). But here are the specs:

Intel Core 2 Duo 2.4 Ghz w/ 3 mb cache Penryn (45 nm)
2 Gig of RAM expandable to 4
Superdrive (DVD-DL, DVD +-, pretty much everything except HD disks)
Nvidia 8600GT 256mb GDDR3
200 Gig 5400RPM HDD
LED backlit LCD 1440 x 900
802.11n

(for more specs http://www.apple.com/macbookpro/specs.html )


The crazy thing is it get alittle warm, but still cooler than my older laptops. The all aluminium case works like a giant heatsink. The 8600GT plays games well in XP. I was just playing Doom3 in ultra high getting average of 60 fps, with a low of 25 fps. That being said I do wish I had the 512 mb version, but its like $400 more for the next level up, so I think I'll live.

Plus the little perks, like the touch pad (which I love now) and the backlit keyboard is very nice. And Mac OSX is tight. My friend was making fun of me cause he said it was made idiot proof, and its pretty true. But its also very powerful. So far the little things that were tedious in windows are simple a quick. Installations require dropping a program in the apps folder, dragging and dropping images saves them, its alot of little things that add up to a worthwhile investment IMO. Plus, I reboot the system, hold the option key, select "Windows" and can boot right into XP (vista coming soon)