1st Mac - MacBook White questions

I am looking at buying a Macbook white. I am getting this over the new ones, due to the price difference. Unless there is a really good sale on Black Friday

My questions are....

1) I was looking at the 2.1 and the 2.4 GHz models. I have family videos and photos I work with. Nothing pro. I use a 4/5 year PC, which is slow when doing some of this. Would I be better with the 2.4? I have been told several things on this issue.

2) How much of the Harddrive is taken up with preinstalled software. I have to have XP installed. There are a couple of programs that I only run on windows for work. I would like to install linux to learn it, since its being used a lot more.

I think I need at least 160 GB. I have an external harddrive with my music so that isn't an issue.

3) Since I am posting, is Parallels the best way to run windows for short periods. The programs I have to use a lot or for long. From what I have read it seems like the best solution. I figure my wife will use Boot Camp to run windows.

4)Is working with Boot Camp fairly easy for an intermediate PC user?

1) 2.1 will be fine. The difference is minimal, and even 2.1 is still above what most manufacturers offer.

2) Hard to say, you also have to remember that the formatted space is less. With a 160GB hard drive, I would guess you'll get about 125GB - that could be way off though.

3) I use Parallels. It can be a little more complicated than VM Ware (which is the other option) but is more integrated.

4. Once you have it installed, you hold down Alt when you power on your Mac, and then select OS or Windows - can't get much easier

jtdolphins said:

I am looking at buying a Macbook white. I am getting this over the new ones, due to the price difference. Unless there is a really good sale on Black Friday

My questions are....

1) I was looking at the 2.1 and the 2.4 GHz models. I have family videos and photos I work with. Nothing pro. I use a 4/5 year PC, which is slow when doing some of this. Would I be better with the 2.4? I have been told several things on this issue.

2) How much of the Harddrive is taken up with preinstalled software. I have to have XP installed. There are a couple of programs that I only run on windows for work. I would like to install linux to learn it, since its being used a lot more.

I think I need at least 160 GB. I have an external harddrive with my music so that isn't an issue.

3) Since I am posting, is Parallels the best way to run windows for short periods. The programs I have to use a lot or for long. From what I have read it seems like the best solution. I figure my wife will use Boot Camp to run windows.

4)Is working with Boot Camp fairly easy for an intermediate PC user?

Click to expand...

1) 2.1 should be fine with that. But as always, 2.4 will obviously make it run that little bit faster and smoother. It's an expensive bit of kit, so you dont want to end up getting one thats not as powerful as youd like, when you could afford the next one up.

2) 160Gb will probably show up as about 140Gb free space or there abouts. Id imagine you'd want to partition the drive so you have maybe 40Gb for windows (including installation space), so after all the nitty-gritty bits in the background, i'd estimate that you'd have roughly 95Gb at least for you photos, moves and other osx applications you install.

3) It depends. When you are running windows would you like to be able to flick back to OS X every now and then to look at something or do something? With Parallels you can, but without it youd obviously have to reboot the whole machine. There are other alternatives, but from what i've heard Parallels is the best.

4) All boot camp is is a way to install and run Windows natively. There are very simple instructions for installing windows onto your mac via bootcamp, then, when you turn the computer on you are faced with a simple menu where you select which operating system you want to boot up. simple as that.

Thanks for the feedback.

I think I will be getting parallels. I really don't want to work in windows if I don't have to.

My wife will be happy about being able to boot windows though.

I use VMware fusion for running Windows on the odd occasion.
Very easy to setup and use.

What are the differences between parallels and VMWare? Are there any advantages that I should know about. I haven't looked at VMWare much, since everyone kept telling me about Parallels.

Either one will need to handle some molecular modeling graphics, but it shouldn't be to much. They run on my old PC when I need it.