interested in getting a MAC laptop..whats up?
SouthCrackalack
3,853 Posts
dont know too much about them honestly. I can get a student discount id needed..but will have to get a student loan to get the shit in the first place. Whats the word? whats recommended. this shit will be my baby for sure..and will be used for graphic design and shit. i know a lot of yall are Mac heads..whats up?
Comments
Whaddja do?
I got one earlier this year and can honestly say I would alway buy MAC from now on
just depends on your budget.
The confusing thing about the mac line is that there's a lot of overlap. The difference between an ibook and powerbook is not that great when it comes down to it.
iBook: slightly inferior parts (slower RPM hard drive etc), fewer ports.
Powerbook: better video, more HD/memory, faster. can do dual-screen video instead of just mirroring.
My wife has an iBook and I have a powerbook. I can't imagine how I got any work done without it.... tho being able to bring up soulstrut anywhere doesn't help!
Emac: Simple internet/music/ipod
G4 tower(200gb harddrive/1gb ram/dvd burner/): for Graphics/burning/ripping DVDs/ video editing.
Ibook: Wireless computing at coffee shops/notetaking/music on the go...
figure out what your intentions are then buy accordingly.
If you can wait, see about the 2nd generation (1st generation usually doesn't have all the bugs worked out yet) of the Intel Macs. Only problem is that the wait time might be a 2 years or so from now before Gen 2 of the Intel Macs are out.
I personally am not buying another Mac until Gen 2 of the Intel Macs are out.
I stil luse it as my main computer and that means, flash, illustrator, photoshop etc not to mention all my music shit is done on there.
you can get a firmware crack to run two monitors.
my secondary computer is an imac g3 450. that's my wifes internet terminal, i run a server off it and i store my mp3 library on there.
both are wireless and running tiger.
at the moment i need a new computer for music as the ibook is maxed out. I have to get a laptop for the nature of my job (freelance design) so i will probably sell this one and upgrade to a g4 ibook, or powerboook if i can get a good enough deal on one.
obviously the imac g5 would be a doper machine for the price but i need the mobility.
But I still live & die by my 15" ibook. OSX is gorgeous. Since I got it I've done a ridiculous amount of freelance work (writing and software development) on it.
used to have a 1ghz g4 powerbook. it was insane. i miss my little heatbrick.
i had one of those pizza boxes.. it was my 3rd mac after my mac+ and a pimped out 512
Good point--powerbooks and ibooks come with 256 mb of RAM which is not nearly enough. Definitely upgrade to at least 512.
The built-in iSight and remote control are
depends on your budget... my opinion: go, get an ibook and the software crack to plug on another screen without that mirror crap (14" is kinda to small for all that photoshop windows...). much cheaper than the powerbook but will work fine for graphic design. and you'll save enough money to buy a new one in two years ;-)
iam on a g4 500mhz powerbook with 15" screen and have been doin graphics with it since three years now. no errors, no nothing. but i heard about several hardware failures at others powerbooks (display crashed, cd-drives had errors, etc...) in the last weeks. iam now switching to one of those fancy quadcores
so you'd maybe better get one of those advanced 3-years-hardware insurances...
On the contrary they are not wall mountable out of the box. YES it is true that the FIRST imac G5's had this feature but apple didn't make enough on the ktis to keep making them for the new model. Surely there are bound to be after market kits for this but who will really do that anyway? Also the new imac G5's are cool but the remote w/front row software is seriously overrated and the magnet is a serious design flaw. Any owners of this machine can confirm this on page 6 (i think) where you will find a warning something to the effect: "WARNING: THE MAGNET IN THE COMPUTER IS NOT SHIELDED! DO NOT PLACE iPODS, HARD DRIVES, ETC. NEAR MACHINE". Come on Steve Jobs think this through a little bit.
I consider myself well versed in the mac arena having owned more than 12 now. I will probably never use a PC. I agree with whoever said "consider your needs and buy accordingly".
The game is different now. Mac want to move units. In the past buyers were purchasing towers for a 6-10 year span and upgrading the insides along the way. These days it is far more cost effective to just buy an entire new machine every 3-4 years.
I am planning on buying a new mac soon for approx $1200 and I can still get approx. $600 for my current computer. A $600 out of pocket expense is not bad considering how much use I get out of it etc..
Keep in mind that if you are doing audio recording with pro-tools, a 5400 processor is never recommended.
THE ONLY DOWNFALL IS GAMES.
The Mac is superior in all other aspects. It has a
If you do get one, get Apple Care. Mac products do last, I've had my 15" Powerbook for 1 year so far and I've had NO problems whatsoever. However, I do know people who have had problems. When you have Apple Care, they are VERY good about fixing your shit. In fact, a lot of the time they will just send you brand new shit. Happened to my friend, he had a few problems with his 12" powerbook, and instead of fixing it they just sent him the brand new ones. He had his powerbook for 2 years prior to that!
I can't agree with that, the FrontRow software is great... allows me to run through my iTunes library without having to actually sit in front of the Mac. Plus, the remote works in standard iTunes mode too, not just FrontRow.
People still buy computers to do that?
The last time I played an actual GAME on any computer was:
to this thread, but i thought id put the question out there anyway. About to make the leap from PC to Mac, and my question is thus-
I do alot of freelance design work, so a laptop would be ideal in terms of work in various places. BUT... i'll need to run protools on it aswell
im currently using a P3 dell laptop with a docking station at home, so i can just slot into my studio bench and im up and running- is there a mac equivalent? And are there any drawbacks to running protools on a lappy? (minimal ports permiting)
so school me - thanks in advance
Machine Name: iBook G4
Machine Model: PowerBook6,7
CPU Type: PowerPC G4 (1.5)
Number Of CPUs: 1
CPU Speed: 1.42 GHz
L2 Cache (per CPU): 512 KB
Memory: 768 MB
Bus Speed: 142 MHz
with an 80 gig hard drive and super drive. I also bought an airport express and the Microsoft Office suite. It came with a free iPod mini (rebate). With the teacher discount, it was about $1500 total with tax. I made the "switch" from PC, and could not be happier.
New powerbook revision was announced a few weeks ago, thus if you don't mind getting an older model that is your best bet for a discount. iBooks were revised back in July, so I doubt there'll be a revision anytime soon.
Alternatively, you can fish around on ebay/craigslist if you're looking for a deal.
I've since switched and i've never been a computer person and I'm all about the MAC,
the only problem I've had is software, there is not as much for the mac, and I am not
enough of a computer guy to figure out the emulators...
Mac is the
but let's put pesonal details away.
you might wondered already, why i have TWO of them. one was the first release and i used a lot for work, mainly makin flyers and layoutin. i was upgradin to a new better and faster machine two months ago, because apple is about to switch on INTEL PROCESSORS next year (guess about june 2006) and i was afraid that i would loose all my software, which is designed for the G4 processors. maybe this move wasn't necessary, maybe it was. future will tell.
if you really intend to buy a mac laptop now, i would wait till june. the machines are gettin faster and cheaper...
but inform yourself
The Intel switch sort of has me wondering though if I need to wait for that or not. I dont want to wait years or anything, yet I dont want to buy something terribly outdated either.
time to do some research.