First time Mac buyer

Hi, I’m considering getting my first Macbook and I have a few questions. I’m wondering what upgrades are recommended at the time of purchase. I’m thinking of getting the 15” 2.2 ghz i7 Macbook Pro with the anti glare screen. I checked out both glossy and anti glare screens at a store and found the glossy to be highly reflective. I think I’ll go back and check them side by side again just to be sure before I spend the extra $150. So aside from the anti glare screen, if I’m doing basic computing like web browsing, office applications, music, movies, plus photo, video and sound editing, would the standard configuration be adequate i.e. 4 gb ram along with the 500 gb drive or is it advisable to max out the ram to 8 gb for an extra $200. Is 8 gb (2x4 gb) the maximum amount of ram you can put in this machine or can you put 16 gb in (2 x8 gb). How hard is it to add more ram or upgrade the hard drive on a Mac at a later date. On a pc notebook you can shop around for cheaper ram and put it in yourself but I’m guessing this is not possible with a Mac. I’m also thinking that getting AppleCare at the time of purchase is advisable as well.

With regard to transferring files from a pc to a Mac is it advisable to transfer data using an external drive on which the pc data is backed up and then copying them to the Mac, or can you use Bootcamp to access your Windows files and how does that work?

 

You can put 16GB for 1000$ (2x8gb), apple has only 2 mem slots / most notebooks have 4 slots)
with 4 slots (4x4 GB) you can for about 190$, but unfortunately, well 2 slots as before

hdd and ram is easy to upgrade and doesn't void warranty, but the ram fits kind of tight. make sure you do it carefully

are you buying this for gaming??

 

$1000.. No.

They are within reach now, less than $200 on newegg.


Sent from my iPhone with Tapatalk

 

No gaming, just wanted to know if it's better to get ram upgrade now or it it's possible to upgrade at some later point if I decide I need it.

 

Not very. You just need the right tools. Youtube videos are the best source for information on exactly what you need to do for these upgrades.

RAM is RAM - any DDR3 will work. For the MBP, a standard 1333 MHz kit should do just fine. Don't pay Apple's extortionate prices for either RAM or a hard drive. They're not hard to change yourself and will not void your warranty.

AppleCare is most useful when it comes to reselling a Mac. As an actual extended warranty for a laptop, it's not that great because it only covers hardware failure. There's no accidental-damage coverage. If you're buying new, you can get a SquareTrade warranty with accidental for the same or less money than AppleCare, though in Apple's defense, the increased time for phone support (3 years vs 90 days standard) is a nice addition.

Mac OS can read drives formatted as NTFS, but it cannot write to them. It can read and write from FAT32 without a problem. If you've backed up your files to an NTFS drive, you would be able to copy them to your Mac no problem. You could then erase the external drive, format it to either FAT32 or Mac OS extended, then copy your data back.

 

sorry about that, last time i checked it's like $1000

if you're not gaming, it's going to be a great laptop.
RAM from apple is expensive, cheaper RAM can be bought off store and online store. and even in higher frequency (1600, 1866)

it's upgradable, but be noticed that there's only 1 sata port

 

Yea I would get the matte screen also, any bit of sunlight makes the glossy screen hard to see.

 

Don't use FAT32 for anything.. its too limited. If you want a read/write drive that can be easily used on Macs and Windows, format it with ExFat, which is a newer replacement for Fat32.

 

Thanks for the information. I will stick with the standard configuration of 4 gb of RAM now that I know I have the option of upgrading to more RAM at a later date. Ditto the hard drive. Sounds like it shouldn't be a problem copying files over to the Mac.


I'll probably just get Apple Care, I'm in Canada and as far as I know Square Trade warranties are for U.S. purchases (unless purchased from U.S. ebay), plus being a Mac first timer the extra phone support would be helpful.

 

I'm wondering about office software for a Mac. I'm leaning towards MS Office for Mac, but I don't see that it includes Access or Publisher. Is it not available at all, or just not available on the Apple website?

 

If you have a copy of Office for Windows and have a spare Windows license, I would install it in a virtual machine (Parallels, VMWare or VirtualBox). That way you would have access to those features.

 

Okay, so I take it that these MS applications are not available for Mac. So is something like Parallels etc. better than running Bootcamp?

 

Ignore people that tell you stuff like this. It is all personal preference.

Go to an Apple store and decide which you prefer by actually looking at them and using them.

 

I wouldn't buy a notebook without trying it out first. I spent an hour in an Apple store comparing displays. My preference is for the anti glare and I like the standard resolution (1440 x 900) better than the high resolution (1680 x 1050). I find the print too small on the high resolution model. Unfortunately you can't get the anti glare screen with the standard resolution. So I am in a quandary about what I should do. It's also too bad that the 13" MBP does not have an anti glare option because originally that was my first choice, until I saw an anti glare screen. I know you can zoom in zoom out etc., but I think that would be a pain to have to do constantly. I also changed the resolution of the high res in settings to a lower resolution something like 1440 x 852 but of course it didn't look as crisp. I believe that the screens look best in their natural resolutions. I also know that you can buy anti glare films that you apply to the glossy screen, but I think that might not be an ideal solution because the application sounds a bit tricky.

 

I spent more time today testing the anti glare high resolution 15" MBP vs the glossy standard resolution 15" MBP and I definitely prefer the anti glare and I really do prefer the lower resolution. Since this combination is a pipe dream my alternative is to zoom in on text whenever necessary, it creates some fuzziness but it's not too bad. Does anybody read web pages on a high res Mac and regularly zoom in as necessary and is it annoying to do so or is it just one of those things you get used to.

The salesperson directed my attention to the 13" MBA which has what he described as a semi gloss screen. It's somewhat glossy but not as mirror like as the MBP glossy screen and actually quite nice. Too bad the MBP doesn't come with that screen option, again another pipe dream.

Is resolution independence something that would address the higher res vs smaller text size?

 

Unless color reproduction is of paramount importance to what you do, you could buy an anti-glare film for the screen. That's what I'm going to do with my incoming MBP.

 

It is somewhat, I do photography, but I'm not a professional. However, since I can't actually see in person what that set up would look like I'm not comfortable taking the chance of buying a glossy screen and applying a film to the screen which may or may not work for me. Right now I'm leaning towards the 15" anti glare high res screen and zooming in on text as required.

 

I wouldn't recommend an anti-glare film since you are focusing on pictures. Even amateur photography would be kind of screwed up by an anti-glare film. I have yet to come across a good one that didn't make things more blurry and didn't reduce color depth. I had one on my iPad 2 for all of 10 minutes before I drove back to Best Buy and told them to install the standard screen protector. The same thing goes for my Droid X. I was actually in the car with my new Droid X last year sitting outside of the Verizon store after they just installed an anti-glare screen protector. Again, I went back in and made them replace it with a standard one.

Personally, I actually prefer the glossy look. I used matte displays (or CRT monitors) all my life until 2005 when I purchased a Dell notebook with a glossy display. In fact, since that technology was kind of new at the time, I had to pay extra for it and the glossy coating was offered only on the high resolution (1920X1200) panel. Sure, it means that you don't have the ability to work outdoors in direct sunlight. Then again, I am from the desert and I never wanted to cook my notebook and now I live in southern Ohio where taking my MBP outside means it either gets drenched in rain or it freezes.

I have yet to come across a situation where having a glare display hurt more than it helped. Others will tell you differently though, it is all a personal preference and there isn't a clear winner.

As you also picked up, those MS Office programs are not available for Mac OS. Office 2011 comes only with Excel, PowerPoint, Word, a craptacular version of Outlook, and a few tools. The use of any additional Office programs require Windows. I recommend taking the virtual machine route since I find it to be the easiest. I can fire up Windows 7 and then open MATLAB (which you would replace with whatever Windows-only program you want) without having to restart my MBP and my performance in both OS X and Windows is just fine. That is all on my 13" MBP. A quad-core 15" MBP would have no issues running Parallels 7 (probably the best virtual machine client out now), a bunch of Office programs in Windows 7, and then a handful of programs in OS X all at the same time (though you would be wise to upgrade to at least 8GB of RAM before doing so).

 

Thanks for the information. I plan to use whatever Mac/Apple programs I can and if not available then I'll do the virtual Windows route to run Windows programs.

I know screen preference is a totally subjective thing. I actually like the glossy look of the MBA screen which is less reflective than the glossy screen of the MBP, but I don't want a MBA.

 

If color reproduction is paramount then an Anti-Glare film is the absolute wrong choice. Those films do nothing more than nullify the contrast of the screen and give a slight haze. It's best to buy a Macbook with the Anti-Glare screen.

Did you mean your "Forthcoming" Macbook Pro?

 

Nope, incoming because it's on its way.

 

Ah, your english is a bit off. If it's on it's way, it's "forthcoming", just saying.

 

Forthcoming means readily available, planned to happen, doesn't mean that it is actually coming. Incoming sounds correct to me.

Anyways, just front the money for the matte high-res, the extra pixels are nice for photo editing.

 

Forthcoming:
1. coming forth, or about to come forth; about to appear; approaching in time: the forthcoming concert.
2. ready or available when required or expected: He assured us that payment would be forthcoming.
3. frank and cooperative; candid: In his testimony, the senator could have been more forthcoming.
4. friendly and outgoing; sociable.

Incoming:

1. coming in; arriving: the incoming tide.
2. newly arrived or received: incoming mail; incoming orders.
3. succeeding, as an officeholder: the incoming mayor.
4. accruing, as profit.
5. entering, beginning, etc.: all incoming students.

Technically either one would be correct with incoming being the most commonly used. This isn't like someone saying "for all intensive purposes" as that is an incorrect phrase.

 

I like the matte screen and high res for photos, but the issue I have with high res is the size of the print and icons when you're reading, the solution is to zoom in and out as necessary, which may get tedious.

 

I don't mean to start a flame war, seriously, but if the screen is the biggest concern (and size, and so forth), have you considered getting the perfect laptop in all those regards, and then either dual-booting OSX if you need OSX-specific programs, or running it in a VM?

It's the opposite of what you were planning with the MAC, but you could get something with an IPS screen (extremely high colour reproduction) in a 15" profile, such as the new Envy 15 or a Dell Precision 15.

 

The primary reason for buying a Mac is OS X. If you don't intend to fully utilize its programs and features, you would be better served with a Windows machine. The OP already has MS Office and uses features of that suite which are not available on the Mac.