Considering a Macbook but I have a few Questions

I'm considering buying either a Macbook or a Macbook Pro because I really like te look, feel and operating system. My problem is, I'm not sure if I'd be downgrading from my PC.

I have an HP Pavillion dv3000. It has 4 GB of Ram and I think 250 gigs of hard drive. I noticed that regular Macbooks only have 2GB of RAM. One of the main reasons I want a new laptop is because with all my music and files, this HP has become a little sluggish. Will downgrading to 2 GB of RAM be going to a slower computer?

On a different note, I noticed that Pro's have 4 GB of RAM. Would I essentially be buying the same thing? I don;t know enough about computers to really know.

One last thing, I'm in a masters program for writing, and I have a lot of stories saved in Microsft Word on my laptop. Util I can afford to get Word for the Mac, assuming I buy one, will these files be readable and editable in Open Office for Mac? Thanks!

You can't always compare Windows computers & Mac's on a "head to head" hardware basis. You got to see how efficiently you get something done on each computer...which is more OS related.

Unfortunately it's hard to do this without owning the computer & actually doing the tasks you need to do to make the comparison.

HTH,

- Nick

I use Open Office and NeoOffice all the time to create/open/share files with MS Office 97 and 2003 all the time. I haven't transferred PowerPoint files much but Word and Excel seem to transfer OK. I did have an issue with Excel and NeoOffice not transferring the header and footer correctly on some documents but it is not a common occurrence for me. The header/footer were there withe the correct information it was just off by about a quarter inch affecting the layout of the sheet.

None of my documents have seriously complex formatting though so others may be better to address that issue.

Moved. Does not belong in the "Lounge". Please read forum descriptions and Sticky notices before posting. Thanks.

Nicholas17 said:

I have an HP Pavillion dv3000. It has 4 GB of Ram and I think 250 gigs of hard drive. I noticed that regular Macbooks only have 2GB of RAM.

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They can be easily, and cheaply, upgraded to 4GB of RAM if you like. You can do it yourself, or you can opt to have Apple do it at the time of ordering ($100 extra). It's cheaper to do it yourself after you receive it.

One of the main reasons I want a new laptop is because with all my music and files, this HP has become a little sluggish. Will downgrading to 2 GB of RAM be going to a slower computer?

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Probably not. Macs work differently than PCs and (IMO) make better use of RAM and vRAM. But a big important thing with Macs are two little things that will help keep the machine running smoothly:

a. Quit (really quit, not just close) apps you are not using.
b. Keep a big hunk of hard drive space (a dozen or two GBs at least) available at *all* repeat *all* times.

On a different note, I noticed that Pro's have 4 GB of RAM. Would I essentially be buying the same thing?

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No. MacBooks are MacBook Pros happen to be, at this particular moment in time, similar but not the same. There are other differences between them.

One last thing, I'm in a masters program for writing, and I have a lot of stories saved in Microsft Word on my laptop. Util I can afford to get Word for the Mac, assuming I buy one, will these files be readable and editable in Open Office for Mac? Thanks!

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TextEdit, OpenOffice/NeoOffice/LibreOffice, Bean, MarinerWrite, Pages, MS Office -- in fact I'm hard-pressed to think of ANY word processor for the Mac that can't read and write Microsoft Office format if desired (though 100% always-perfect compatibility is a bit elusive, even with Microsoft Office! It's more like 95-99 percent compatible depending on what program you opt for).

In short, this is a total non-issue for you.

I appreciate the help guys. I'm still considering the buy, I haven't decided yet. If I do buy one though, it would more than likely be a re-furbished one from Apple.com.

Really nothing wrong at all with refurbs, from most manufacturers actually.

you mentioned that your more likely to buy a refurb, as your doing a masters im assuming you either goto university/college full time or if it is away from uni/college you have access to the campus? the reason being you could get an discount by purchasing from the campus network. i was doing part time evening classes at uni and while i was there i bought my macbook pro from the apple website while logged into the campus network. i ended up saving around £200/£250 . im not sure if that would be the same or around the same price as a refurb?

Macs tend to use RAM more efficiently than Windows computers so comparing the two is a difficult comparison.

The biggest difference between the speed of a Windows PC and a Mac, is the operating system.

If you take a Mac and PC that are similar specs then you'll find everything from the boot time to the speed of the applications themselves that the Mac (in my experience) is quicker!

Not only I have I found the boot time to be quicker but once I see the desktop I can start opening programs on my MacBook where as my Windows desktop PC I have to wait several more minutes for it to settle down so I can do something!

My advice to you is simple. Go to an Apple store, explain your a PC user and are considering switching to a Mac but aren't sure if the Macs will be up to speed. Take along a USB memory stick with some of your photos on and see if they'll show you how you'd put them in iPhoto and edit them etc and you'll soon see how fast/better a Mac is!

To be fair, I'm sure (with no personal experience to back me up) that a *highly tweaked and custom-tuned* Windows computer can be lickety-split too. I just prefer not having to do all that stuff by hand personally.

chas_m said:

To be fair, I'm sure (with no personal experience to back me up) that a *highly tweaked and custom-tuned* Windows computer can be lickety-split too.

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It all depends on the components and how they've been put together/designed.

Take a Lenovo laptop and a Dell laptop of the same spec and you'll find that the Dell one is significantly faster than the Lenovo one. However for business use I'd recommend Lenovo T Series laptops as they're designed to last forever and are very robust - I've even had one that had been run-over by a car and although the screen was smashed, I plugged in an external monitor and it booted up no problems!

When it comes to Desktops (where they're less likely to be mistreated in a business environment) the significantly faster Dell business machines would be beneficial and the build quality of their business desktops are on a par with Lenovo.

All the programs running in the background tend to kill PC's a lot too - did you know that the business/corporate version of AntiVirus software is different to the Retail versions and is a lot slicker and doesn't slow your computer down as much?