07-05-2006, 11:33 PM

hello appilians! this is my first post and hopefully u guys can help me decide to get a MB or MBP since i lack knowledge between the two laptops and more with apple in general.

im trying to take full advatage of the offer they have right now the college discount and the free printer/ipod. Another reason im going with an apple. since im starting school in aug at uconn as a freshman and slowly beginning my school of business career i decided i want to get a macbook or macbook pro. From what i understand the macbook is more suitable for non heavy digital/graphic work. since i pretty much need it for word, powerpoint yada yada the "school programs" im leaning more towards the macbook and save money. But when im not at school, of course i want to be able to throw a couple of games on it so when im bored (some CS or something) and bring out the most what these books can do! i also love music and i listen alot burning and all sorts of multimedia as well, but again this is a school laptop so i can work at libraries and other studious areas. now my big questions are..

1) with that being said which book is the better choice? MB or MBP

2)will it be a better idea of getting the higher end macbook with a gb of ram and still be able to get great performace at what i like to do? (music, games)

3) Is there anything apple is coming out in the near future that will turn these new laptops into decading old computers? ( i hate having to buy something then hearing a better one came out)

4) anything else i should know? (remember im coming out of windowsville with very little apple knowledge)


thats about it for my 1st post....hope u guys are still awake since its 11:33 ET. thanks and appreciate!

07-06-2006, 12:00 AM

Well I have the low end macbook in white but I upgraded the memory to 1 gig and i noticed a difference. i use it mostly for school too.. my boyfriend on the other hand got the black macbook and upgraded his to 2 gig ...and he notices a huge difference in performace when doing games..etc..

Well what i am trying to stay is two things. First off the MacBooks are a great series they are amazing computers you will LOVE MACS! and Secondly if you think that you aren't achieveing the results that you wanted with them they are sooo easy to upgrade the hard drive and memory that its amazing! well good luck on what you decide!

07-08-2006, 03:52 PM

Basically the choice between MB and MBP is mostly just graphical. If you want to play graphically intensive games at good fps then the macbook pro is what you want. i think that the integrated graphics that the MB has should be able to run cs quite decently, but if you are looking to play bf2, fear, oblivion etc you probably are going to want the x1600 that the MBP has. Other than that I would definately reccomend the MB as it is smaller, easier to carry around school and much cheaper. I got mine for about $1000 with the whole ipod deal (bought macbook + 2gb nano for about $1300 -$179 mail in rebate - $130 for nano sold on ebay. If you compare that to the prices of even the lowest end MBP's it is a very significant difference. If big screen and big graphics are what you want go MBP if you want something mostly for school, media etc then the MB should do you just fine.

07-08-2006, 04:39 PM

I'd say either way, upgrade the ram to at least 1gig. I use my mac for everything from recording songs to photographs to movies, etc, etc. Otherwise, I reiterate what SHNAKE said with that MBP is for the high end graphics, MB for portability.

All I can recommend is that your buy more ram and maybe even an external hard drive. What I do is put all my music on my external hard drive and when I'm off doing my thing I bring my iPod for my music and my laptop for everything else.

07-08-2006, 11:37 PM

shnake, where u get the $179 mail in rebate?

07-09-2006, 03:07 AM

The $179 rebate is when you buy a mac and an ipod in the same purchase. It is only available to college students and also offers a direct discount on the mac itself. My base model macbook cost me $1099- $50= $1049. I also purchased a 2gb nano for $179 - $179 mail in rebate. I sold the nano on ebay for $130 which ended up just about paying for the taxes I payed when buying the mac and the nano in the first place. I agree with JKrouth, 512mb of ram is definately not enough ram to be satisfactory. I ordered 2gb of OCZ valueram for somewhere around $150 after a mail in rebate. It was definately worth it, especially considering apple charges like $450 bucks to upgrade to 2gb of ram, thats 66% off by buying the ram myself :black:

Almost forgot to mention, I also got myself a 300gb hard drive for like $100 and an enclosure for $30, so I have a nice 300gb external drive to hold my 150gb of music 100gb of videos and all my other crap I figured upgrading the internal hard drive would be useless considering I wouldnt ever be able to fit all my stuff anyways.

07-09-2006, 03:22 AM

yea thats one of the main reasons im getting an apple because of the deal..college student discount with the free 2gb nano and printer. its gonna be my first year in college so i qualify for their deal (happy!) i think im going to be smart and save some money and get a MB. becausee really, its going to be for school for my late nite papers..presentations etc. and i use my desktop which im using right now for games (amd 3500+, 2gb ram, 80gigs, geforce 6800GT) so ill just do my gaming on this pc. so to recap the macbook is perfect for music, photos, movies, word, powerpoint, and regular surfing? will it hurt to throw on games like warcraft 3 ? im also thinking of gettint he 30gb for 90 because my friend wants 1...so ill charge him like 250 instead of 300 and that will go towards the MB to lessen the bill.

07-09-2006, 03:26 AM

I just had a similar dilemma myself in buying my first Mac. I opted for the base model Macbook, but with 1GB of RAM and an 80GB hard drive.

I decided that I really didn't need to spend the extra money considering my usage, which will probably be similar to yours, basic office type apps, web, email etc. I will play some games occasionally (when I have the time!) but I will just have to accept that I won't be able to play some of the more recent releases (I could easily buy a new console with the savings).

I also decided to install XP with Boot Camp, even though I actually had to buy a Windows licence. My logic was that I would then be able to choose from the full range of Windows games rather than just those that were available for OS X (subject to the same graphical limitations of course).

In the end I actually decided that I preferred the MB anyway. It's smaller and lighter, and after my (fairly limited) testing in the store I much preferred the feel of the keyboard (although the backlight on the MBP was pretty sexy).

07-18-2006, 05:44 PM

My first post at mac-forums.

I just placed an order for a new macbook basic (white) with iPod video 30GB. It was pretty easy to decide for me - the basic macbook is the only macbook that fits my pocket! :dummy:

I didn't even upgrade the RAM - I'll just go around with 512MB to begin with, and then later upgrade to full 2GB if Diablo fails to run smoothly.

No superdrive for me - I don't generate much data except few kilobytes of word files each week.

I have made a choice in just about one day, and I'm sure I'll be quite happy with it. Good luck to me and you :dive:

07-19-2006, 01:39 AM

the basic macbook is the only macbook that fits my pocket!

You sir, must have gigantic trousers, if your macbook fits into your pocket.

with that being said which book is the better choice? MB or MBP

I'd say go with the Macbook... the additional features the MBP has don't really seem to be necessary for what you want to do with it...
The macbook is still fairly new, so it'll be a while before they update them (likely a small speed bump just before or after christmas).