Jhow

I'm starting college this fall as a business major and I plan on buying a new laptop. My budget is about 1400 (although i can throw in a bit more). I currently use windows and ubuntu but I like the mac hardware a lot. My problem is the price (and yes I did read the macintosh platform post). I'm just not convinced that it's worth the money. On a windows format I can get 3-4 gbs of ram, a huge hard drive, and a discrete graphics card for as much as or less than a macbook. My dilemma is that although I don't absolutely hate vista, I don't like it either. I'll be going to cal state university of Bakersfield for business and I want to have an open mind.

Which is better for me and why?

And I will say, I don't do too much gaming and if I do I can do that on my desktop. I've always wanted to try mac but you can never find a decent one, even used, for cheap. I'm just not sure that the it's worth it and I know I can run windows on a mac but that seems like a complete waste when I can get a windows machine with better specs for the same or cheaper. How hard is it to do a successful hackintosh?

Here's my favorite laptop so far as I've been searching for about a week.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834220272
core2duo 9300
3gb ram
320 gb hard drive
512mb graphics card

How is a mac laptop for about the same price better? (of course for this price it'd be a macbook.)

Thanks

__________________
New Macbook Pro!
Intel Core2Duo 2.53ghz
320GB Hard Drive 7200rpm
4GB DDR3 Memory
Nvidia GeForce 9400M +
Nvidia GeForce 9600m GT 512 MB Hybrid SLI

AMD Athlon X2 5000+ (2.6ghz)/Ram 3GB DDR2
500GB Samsung Spinpoint/400GB Hitachi Deskstar
ECS 512MB Nvidia 9600GT/OCZ Gamexstream 700W

cohen

Well i have to say that are very good... i never liked them but when i used a friends macbook pro... i've gone - i'm buying one! They are very good... nice look... nice OS, although they are over priced... they are very good... you are able to install windows and other OSs on them... so you can also do that!

__________________

Kill Bill

I own the new 2008 17'' MacBook Pros with the Penryn and Multitouch and I've never been happier with a notebook computer. You can download SMC Fan control if you are about to reboot into windows and that will speed up the fans so in windows you can play on your lap without trouble or even use the fan speed for video editing and what have you. I also downloaded iAlertU and you turn it on and set a passsword and if someone tries to hold it while its alarmed it will start to beep and the webcam will send a picture to your email if you used apple mail as a service provider (I used my Gmail account in it).
The specs of mine are in the signature. Also I have hackintosh installed on my tower (iATKOS) And your very limited to what you can do on Mac and it killed off one of my HDDs.

__________________
Macbook Pro 2.5GHz 17'' matte,2.5GHz C2D Penryn,2GB 667MHz,8600M GT 512mb,250GB 5400RPM,
Mac OS Leopard (Latest Firmware) with Vista Ultimate A.K.A bootcamp.

tlarkin

What software do you plan on using, and what majors do you plan on taking? Price is relative for many reasons. For one, that Mac will last you a lot longer. 7 year old Macs can run the newest OS, but not all the newest applications. No 7 year old machine can run Vista.

Yeah, well if you want the Lexus you have to pay for the Lexus. That is how that works. Apple designs their systems from the ground up. They even design the hardware. Which is pretty rare. Most companies just provide hardware makers with specifications, and say make this work. Apple designs everything from the ground up.

How is it better? Well, it has more out of the box features that is for sure, but really you need to qualify what you desire and need as a user. Every client I have ever had be it windows, or Mac have always asked me which is better? Well, a lot of that depends on the user. I find OS X more streamlined and am way more productive on it as a user. I can have 15 windows open, multiple terminals, ssh connections, remote desktops, etc and I can just pound through some work.

No one can make decisions for you, and I am not going to tell you which one to get for yourself personally. I am going to tell you that although Vista is pretty much a rip off and doesn't offer too much benefits it has gotten better since it's release. however, you will probably most likely have to upgrade to Vista ultimate or Business. Most Universities run domain level networks and if you wanted to log in and say map home directories you will need to have an OS that supports that. Since MS featured limited their OSes, only Business and Ultimate allow for domain level network connections.

Also, Apple gives an educational discount. So a MBP would run you around $1700 to $1800 most likely.

Jhow

I checked and a macbook pro is about $1800 with the most inexpensive config. with educationm discount. Thanks for the info, I guess I have to get one with business or ultimate and that does even the playing field out because they definitely jack up the price. I'm going to keep my options open either way but I'm still open minded.

__________________
New Macbook Pro!
Intel Core2Duo 2.53ghz
320GB Hard Drive 7200rpm
4GB DDR3 Memory
Nvidia GeForce 9400M +
Nvidia GeForce 9600m GT 512 MB Hybrid SLI

AMD Athlon X2 5000+ (2.6ghz)/Ram 3GB DDR2
500GB Samsung Spinpoint/400GB Hitachi Deskstar
ECS 512MB Nvidia 9600GT/OCZ Gamexstream 700W

Jhow

For one thing I don't like how much the ram upgrade is to 4gb. an extra 200 bucks for ddr2 is kinda ridiculous. Newegg has 2gb ram for 40-60 bucks on the notebook.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820233062
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820237046

Is it hard to upgrade ram in either a macbook or a macbook pro? If so how much would it cost to take it to a legit shop and have it done?

__________________
New Macbook Pro!
Intel Core2Duo 2.53ghz
320GB Hard Drive 7200rpm
4GB DDR3 Memory
Nvidia GeForce 9400M +
Nvidia GeForce 9600m GT 512 MB Hybrid SLI

AMD Athlon X2 5000+ (2.6ghz)/Ram 3GB DDR2
500GB Samsung Spinpoint/400GB Hitachi Deskstar
ECS 512MB Nvidia 9600GT/OCZ Gamexstream 700W

Burn_all

i dont know about on a mac but on a normal laptop its quite easy to upgrade ram, a shop will probly charge u like 40 bucks least thats what i would charge.

__________________
The Rigg:
Q6600 2.4GHz , GeForce 8800GTS 512MB
CORSAIR 4GB , 500 GB HD x2
ASUS P5K-E/WIFI-AP ,OCZ GameXStream 700W
NZXT Apollo Black case
The Laptop: ASUS M51 Series M51Sn-X2 NoteBook
Intel Core 2 Duo T8300(2.40GHz)
15.4" Wide XGA ,4GB Memory DDR2 667
250GB HDD 5400rpm ,GeForce 9500M GS

tlarkin

To access RAM and HD in a macbook pro is fairly easy. Remove battery, remove one panel you have access. In the past Macs were very hard to work on compared to PCs. I was the only tech for a long time that would touch ibooks because they had like 75 screws in them or something retarded.

They have actually gotten better.

mangofresh

so to upgrade the ram from 2 to 4 which ram would be best compatiable? And also does apple use 2 1gb sticks or 1 2gb stick on their macbooks not pros.

tlarkin

Hmm, not sure, mine came with 1 1xgig stick since I have the last generation. I would have to say that it could be either.