Which Macbook should I get?

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tomisbetterthanu

83 posts

Master Geek

#38919 5-Aug-2009 23:00

I'm looking at buying a MacBook pro this weekend. In definately going to get a 15", not the cheapest one with one graphics card but I'm choosing between the $3999 and $4600 ones. I'm posting this on my iPhone so I can't really be bothered checking if these specs are right but anyway:
I am going to put windows 7 on my MacBook so I can play my PC games. Does video ram or whatever matter much? The cheaper has 256mb and the expensiver has 520(I think?) would I be able to run far cry 2 on the cheaper one? It has a 2.66ghz something something and the expensive has 2.87 or something. Does the ghz thing matter For general use? Will I notice a speed difference? And if I get the cheaper one, I might put a 7200rpm hard drive to replace the 5200? Is that worth it and does it drain battery? Also this will be my first mac, but they have them at school and I'm doing a course on how to make iPhone apps at school. I'm Hoping to own a software company some day - btw I'm 13 :) so convincing my dad to get a $4600 laptop might not go too well

: D

lpcustom

13 posts

Geek

#243748 7-Aug-2009 04:18

I'm a dumb American so I almost thought you were trolling because of the prices you listed. I was thinking USD and that would be over double the price in USD. At any rate, you may actually still be trolling, but I'll bite anyway.

I recently went over the specs for all the Macbooks and decided to get the 17" Pro. This is mainly due to the insane native resolution that it has. The 15" is a good price point but you won't find another laptop with 1920x1200 resolution like the 17" Macbook, especially with all the other features. The standard 17" Macbook has 4GB of RAM, a 500GB hard drive, and a 2.8GHz Core 2 Duo CPU. Those specs are hard to find from any other manufacturer. I looked and couldn't find anything close for around the same price.

There are also a lot of other factors that make the Macbook a good choice. The touch pad is the best available. I'm sorry if you disagree, and I hate it that I can't get that touch pad on a Toshiba or Sony Vaio. It's an important part of owning a laptop to me. They are awkward to use in many spots anyway. It's good to have the best possible input options. For instance, when I use my Acer, I have to have a wireless optical mouse because the touch pad sucks that bad. It's hard to use a wireless optical mouse while using my laptop on my couch. They require a flat surface.

It may not be important to some people but the touch pad was a major selling point for me. I'm actually more of a Linux fanboi than Apple fanboi too. If you have the money to spend, and don't want to cut corners on features, then the 17" Macbook Pro is THE laptop to buy.

I know the higher priced 15" Macbook Pro is close to the same price as the 17". That is why I'm suggesting you look at the 17"

Buttonmash

361 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 1

#243770 7-Aug-2009 06:59

Go to the Apple NZ website and look at the refurbished machines. You can get a very substantial saving on what is effectively a new machine, will full warranty.

jayaldous

64 posts

Master Geek
Inactive user

#243784 7-Aug-2009 08:02

I'm sooo happy with my 13" (Either of them are fine depending on your needs, up to you weather the higher speed is worth the extra $600). But but but, when I'm at home I often work of an external 24" monitor. If it's going to be your primary monitor then you might want something bigger for photos/video, otherwise I'd hang on to the extra money for future updates/SSD/New Laptop in the future etc.

tomisbetterthanu

83 posts

Master Geek

#244021 7-Aug-2009 18:15

Haha this is new Zealand dollars, gonna talk about this with my dad tomorrow and possibly buy one. Right now it's looking like I'm getting the middle priced 15", which is still pretty awesome :) I was planning on getting a iPhone 3GS for my birthday but he said that I could only have one >.> I need to get rid of the 6 year old peice of plastic sitting on my desk though

: D