We need a mac. Advice pls.

Greetings

So i am thinking about upgrading a laptop for my girl-friend.
Currently she is using my old white macbook 2007 or something. Core 2 duo 2.0 (one of the first). Generally speaking she is fine with how fast it is but recently it started to fall apart.

Obvious choice would be macbook air since she carry it every day. But she is also a singer and she use laptop for recording. Unfortunately her $1000 audio card is fire wire. I guess there is no workaround, right?

Another option is mbp but... she doesnt quite like the fact that it looks bulky and made of metal (lol). Its also heavier then air.

We are fine with buying used or refurbished mac so i was thinking maybe last gen white macbook 2.53 (or whatever it was)? I heard its even more powerful then first gen mbp13 and is generally "good". Did they made plastic a bit more durable. since my first white macbook had problems with plastic since i bought it.

Maybe there is a way to firewire on air?

ty.

 

they are making firewire thunderbolt adpaters, but currently I dont think there is one available for the job

so its either older tech (mb) or newer tech mbp.

and yes the casing of the mb is better than the first ones

 

I'm pretty sure the Air is made of metal too.

I'd get the 2011 Macbook Pro 13.

 

+1 on the 13" MBP.

 

convince her of metal... the aluminum cases are much better than any plastic case any company has ever made. If she hasn't used on in person, try one out first. Sometimes people just head "metal" and go.. "what?? metal.. thats horrible!" without any experience with it.

until Firewire adapters are available to run on thunderbolt... your best bet is a 2011 MBP 13"

 

The last version and the 2 versions prior to that of the white MacBook didn't have firewire.

+1 for your GF to get the 13" MBP. Apple only sells aluminum MacBooks now.

 

Why is she against it being metal? The MBA is also metal so that would instantly rule that out as well if she is against metal. Also, Apple did away with the white MacBook so she would either have to buy one used or from a third party retailer if they still had them in stock. Either way, I would not buy something that has been discontinued like that especially whenever you can buy a baseline 13" MBP for $999 (new) from Microcenter (it is in-store only so you have to live near one), the same price as the old craptacular 13" white MacBook.

The 13" MBP is also anything but bulky. Put it next to another 13"-14.5" notebook and it will still be thinner. In fact, I came across a notebook labeled as being "ultra portable" (Best Buy's words, not from the manufacturer) running Windows. It was about the same size as the 13" MBP. I can stack my MBP up against almost any 13"-14.5" full notebook and it will come in smaller.

 

i guess that makes sense. Especially if last macbook doesnt have firewire (ours does so its older then i thought i guess).

One question remains -- anyone tried usb>fiwi on air?

 

firewire audio... converted and run through USB? sounds horrid.. USB isn't up to the task, which is why it was firewire in the first place. Maybe USB3 could handle it, but no Macs have USB3

 

MBP 13" is the answer here, it has the portability and the power and the Air will be somewhat of a disappointment for most users who need peripherals. The Air is an amazing piece of art and is a highly functional laptop but, a road warrior for artists it is not.

 

I think its funny that no one has mentioned that they don't even sell the MacBook anymore!!!!

The new unibody aluminum MBPs are heads and tails above the macbooks for durability, I have taken a few apart and stood on their top cases without them breaking (please don't try it, I work at a repair center).

Also your macbook "falling apart"?!?!, I would guess is your top case is getting cracked. FYI you can get that repaired for free (even outside of warranty) if its less the 4 years old. And that covers EVERY macbook's topcase. (Top Case is the part that is: Keyboard,Trackpad,Power Button, and entire top of the main body of the computer)

MBP 13" is pretty much the only choice at this point, unless you go bigger and better.

 

Actually, you forget that they can still be found (NIB)on eBay and other sites.

 

You can also still buy them from Apple if you are an educational institution. There was no point in bringing up the white MacBook though. "Oh yeah, you could have purchased the white MacBook but Apple no longer sells it to the public." What would be the point in that? Apple dropped the aged notebook and is keeping with their current lineup. The funny thing is that if people live near a Microcenter, they can pickup the baseline 13" MBP (new) for the same price that Apple was selling the white MacBook for ($999).

 

Need advice again. We got an offer:
MacBook Air (13-inch Late 2010)
Intel Core 2 Duo L9600 2.13 GHz (2 cores)
No scratches, 80 cycles battery — perfect condition pretty much.

The guy wants $780
Looks like a good deal, but how fast is it?

p.s. screw firewire, she can record on my mac when she needs it.
p.p.s. sadly there is completely no chance of buying new mbp for $999 in our country. Cheapest would be to ask someone to buy it in US and bring here but that person will want some money for his service + state tax, so it will be around $1200-1300 minimum + it will take a while and some risk is involved.

 

What is the capacity of its SSD? That will be the real kicker. The Core 2 Duo processor has aged OK for common tasks such as browsing the web, using office productivity programs, etc. The area where Sandy Bridge ULV really pulls ahead (i.e. more than enough to truly notice a difference) in is video encoding. It is approximately twice as fast as encoding videos compared to the Core 2 Duo setup of the 2010 MBAs. $750 seems like a really good price if it has at least 128GB of storage. I am not sure what capacities Apple offered the 13" MBA in so you will have to ask the seller for that information.

 

ye its 128gb... so i guess we ll consider it.
Any idea if it overheats hard or some other things we should look into closely?

 

I think the 2010 MBA actually operates at lower temperatures than the 2011 models as Sandy Bridge has been producing more heat across the board. Whether or not that will be noticeable to you is beyond me. I still wouldn't use it on my actual lap. There have been some reported problems with the 2010 MBAs that included iMovie locking up, video glitch problems, kernel errors when a MBA is coming out of sleep mode, and a few other things. From what I understand, those issues were mainly experienced by early adopters and Apple has since fixed them with subsequent updates to their software and OS X.

Personally, I would actually be more worried about the cosmetics so long as any of the issues I mentioned (along with a few others, you can Google them or let someone else with a 2010 MBA chime in) are popping up especially since the $750 price sounds almost too good to be true. Best Buy was selling open box 2010 MBA's with the same configuration (though the battery should have not been used quite as much) for $170-$1115 right after the 2011 MBAs went on sale.