Big Diffrence

Before checking out the new Macbook i was going to get a huge HP dv8000, but after reading about keyboard issues in that paticular notebook i decided to look at a Mac, mostly for reliability and OSx. Will the 13" screen do for watching DVD's?

Also are there any messengers for mac that support MSN. As you can see im new to macs, very new.

 

Well, the screen its beautiful, i love it, as it is widescreen its really confortable. I like it better than a normal 14 screen.

Mercury MSN is really cool, it even supports isight with MSN. There is also Alvaros MSN and ADIUM.

 

I like Adium. I have all my chat clients running through it.

As far as DVD's, I would think the 13" would be fine. I prefer the 15.4" personally, but that's just because I'm used to having multiple windows open.

 

Yes the DVD viewing on 13.3" is great if you're the only one watching it most likely thats the case, I've watched a couple on mine already, I did have to use the video adjustments within Front Row to change the colors a bit (I just choosed "richer color" setting) and now its great.

Adium is what I use, however it's limited as it can't use webcam or mic as of yet, but Adium is currently working on it.

I didn't know about Mercury MSN, and since iSight is claimed to work on it, I'll definitely be trying that one out.

 

Yeah i was wondering about isight on a messenger. Im moving interstate so ill defenetly be wanting a good messenger. Should i get the iwork package or office?

 

Jox, I downloaded and am playing with NeoOffice, which is a free alternative. I tried the iwork stuff and there is a bit of a learning curve for the Mac - NeoOffice is VERY similar to MS Office and has a few more programs than MS Office (like a nice drawing/painting program). You might want to check it out.

 

Yeah thanks i think ill check that out alongside the trial version of iwork. Will i notice much diffrence between the lower Macbook (1.83ghz i think) and the 2ghz model? I will be using Garageband and some light media editing plus school work and watching dvds

 

It depends on how heavily you use Garageband - if you use it a lot to compose music and then compress it, you may want to think about the 2.0GHz model, otherwise the 1.83GHz model should be fine. Also keep in mind that the 1.83GHz version doesn't come with a SuperDrive, so you can't burn DVDs.

 

I didint know it didint have a DVD burner,looks like the 2ghz for me. Apart from color is there any diffrence between black and white, in terms of materials?

 

Um, they are both the same just different feel.

The black is Matte and the White is just um smooth plastic?

Quite honestly, get the White, and use the difference towards a AppleCare extension. If you're worried about getting it dirty, there are tons of cleaning materials and not to mention materials such as InvisibleShield.

The Black is reported as showing grease and marks easier, as well as the matte wearing down a bit faster, I'm not sure if Apple addressed that issue of the matte or not.

 

Yeah the white distinguishes it from PC's, So sick of PCs!

Considering i have never done any hardwear work on a laptop, or any computer for that matter before, would i be able to upgrade the RAM on a Macbook myself?

 

With NeoOffice is there a spellcheck and what not, does it have all the features off Microsoft Office?

 

Yes, in the User Guide that comes with the Macbook, there is instructions on how to do it, FOLLOW this to the letter, and you will be fine, make sure you do everything it says even when it asks you to 'touch a metal part of the casing' many don't know why it asks that but it's reason for doing so is to discharge any static from your body, because static is one of computer components worse enemies, it can either damage the component or cause it to deterrioate over time. So yes, just follow what the user guide says and you'll be fine.

P.S. Before removing the ram, take a look at how far it needs to be seated in before you take out the original ram, so you have an idea, and also you need to push fairly hard on em, so don't worry too much about it, you'll hear a click and you'll have that visual idea of how far it needs to be in, after doing it all, load up OS X and click the Apple in the upper left corner, and do 'About this mac' and check and see if the new memory is being detected.

 

Thanks alot, i might be picking up a macbook tommorow, what price diffrence is there between installing your own ram/hdd and ordering it with 2gb ram. Also, when does leopard dome out?

 

Well, a large difference in price.

If you want 2GB of ram, its better to buy via third party, you'll save yourself hundreds of dollars. Upgrading your Harddrive however, is considered to be on par with the industry, such as upgrading to 80GB.

Just remember that 1.8Ghz and 2.0 differ because 1.8Ghz does not have the DVD burner option (SuperDrive).

Leopard should be coming out late this year or early next year.

So really, just get base 512MB of memory, and upgrade to 2GB via third party if you want. Just do the HDD upgrade right there if you like right now. Personally I bought an external 250GB HDD for mine, it holds all my multimedia files, I leave a good chunk of Music on my notebooks drive, after putting on everything I want and such, I have about 24GB of space to use, all which is more than enough for school.

 

An external hardrive might be a good idea, depends on the price of upgrading the hard drive though. Have you used Airport express or extreme or whatever?

 

Yes I use my Wifi. They all come with it, its simply the best wifi I ever had on a notebook, I was litterally 8 houses away before I lost connection and I'm not joking.

 

wow, thats pretty good, whats the diffrence between express and extreme?

 

Well, there really isn't an 'Express' yes there is products from Apple that have that in their name, but those are more of add-on kind of things.

Extreme however is basically G wireless, with Apple their Airport extreme supports 'b/g' wireless, however it's been said that 'a' wireless works as well, its just not supported by Apple.

Normal Airport is just 'b' wireless. So naturally you want 'G' wireless router if your planning on gettting one, because G is faster than B.

 

Oh ill probly be setting up wireless in a few months time, do you think ill need more than 512ram, i wont exactly be doing heavy photoshop

 

You'll want at least 1GB of ram, 512MB doesn't really cut it.

 

Im oredering White 2ghz Macbook with 1GB ram and 80Gb HDD

 

I have couple questions.

1) Since it already comes with 2-256mb chips, if say I upgrade and put one 1GB stick in, and keep one 256 in would that be ok? 256mb chips arent easy to sell off.

2) Does it use DDR2 667, 5300 or 5400 ram?

Will this work?
http://www.memoryexpress.com/index....dProductDetail.php&DisplayProductID=8427&SID=

 

Well according to Apple, you're suppose to use PC2-5300, but there has been reports of many using PC2-5400. I would recommend PC2-5300 solely because it's what Apple says to use, they might even have a good reason for not stating PC2-5400 as well. They are both the same speed.

So when you're looking, go for PC2-5300 DDR2 667Mhz.

As for the 256 one, yes you can have 1x1GB and 1x256, more memory is always better than less. It would be fine, the whole concept of pairing two modules of same capacity, well is more of 'good practice' than it is in real world performance. However, in real world performance having 2 equal size, same brand and model is always best.

Anyways, if you're fine with how much you're planning on, than it'll be a sweet rig.