New to macs.. please help a newb

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pa-sale

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Hello all. Never owned a mac before. i am very PC competant though.

i love the sound of the new mac book pro and will be purchasing one for college next year.

it appears you can have windows software on the mac somehow, and that is good as my college requires Microsoft Office Professional.

I use my current computer to burn DVDs, use to access my FTP server, use AIM, internet and occasionally play games.

I am simply looking for the most upgraded super packed computer that you can have. I attempted to build one on mac. com but they seem to have very few options for the MBP. I am looking for a great amount of ram, tons of space, dvd burner etc etc.

I just want to make sure i will not be dissapointed going over to a mac from a PC. Does it sound like this computer will be right for me? any advice, insight and helpful hints are welcomed.
 
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iRizzo

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Ya I was basically in the same boat as you are a few months ago. I made the switch and bought a MBP and honesly couldn't be happier. What college are you going to?
 
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The MBP is the best laptop Apple (and most likely anyone) has to offer. It has an Intel Core Duo, which means you have virtually 2 processors. It has 2GB of maximum ram. 120 GB HD @ 5400 RPM, or 100GB @ 7200 RPM for the same price. A 256 MB dedicated ATI video card for your games. And a bunch of other nifty features.
This baby will scream.
I highly recomend getting one.
 
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pa-sale

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for my use.. which would you suggest, the 120GB @5400 rpm or the 100GB @7200 rpm?

Washington College in Maryland, studying business.
 
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It is a trade-off. More space, or faster drive. I would suggest the larger drive as you will probably just be using Word, letting you store more .doc, etc. files. However, if you are running games, etc. The 100GB @7,200 RPM would be more ideal, it also makes OS X boot faster! :D You can ALWAYS upgrade it, infact, if you know something about computers, I suggest you pay for the cheap HD and find a better one somewhere else. I read somewhere Toshiba is coming out with a 500GB Laptop HD that runs at 10,000RPMs
 

zal


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wow! i would buy one of those toshibas so fast! 10,rpms is faster than most car engines!
 
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An issue may be battery life though. Most laptops use slower revving disks because they consume less power. So, slower disk = longer battery life. It *is* a tradeoff!
 
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pa-sale

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yikes... well i am not against upgrading at all... i used to build computers for that reason or just totally customizing them. i race cars and if you buy a new car and add other companies parts or "aftermarket" it voids the warranty.. is that the same for macs? 100GB and 120GB just does not seem like a lot.

are there fast DVD burners out there for macs yet?
 
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pa-sale said:
yikes... well i am not against upgrading at all... i used to build computers for that reason or just totally customizing them. i race cars and if you buy a new car and add other companies parts or "aftermarket" it voids the warranty.. is that the same for macs? 100GB and 120GB just does not seem like a lot.

are there fast DVD burners out there for macs yet?

I think adding anything more than RAM voids it because you really have to crack open the case. Maybe it's easier with MacBooks now ;) There's a 4X Superdrive in the Macbooks and an 8x Dual layer in the 17in MBP - see here
 
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I wouldn't fiddle with anything but the Hard Drive and the RAM. Those things are user-servicable and replacing other parts will void your warranty.

You can run Windows XP and Mac OS X on the Macbook at the same time. To run Microsoft Office, you can choose either. There is a Mac version of it which runs in OSX and IMO is much nicer than it's Windows counterpart. A Windows version of Office will not work in Mac OS X. You will need to put Windows on your Macbook for that.


You might just like the Mac version better though. For gaming you should consider Windows. It's the better choice.

For all your other needs, take the smaller drive and get an external at home for keeping any bulk (like pictures or videos). A fast drive is a good thing when waking the mac from sleep or when booting or when moving large amounts of Data from A to B. Saving a huge file in iMovie will be quicker with a faster drive.

Load up on RAM. It's vital.

Then you're pretty much set.
 
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pa-sale

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is there one type of ram you suggest? is there a special type of external drive you suggest?
 
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There are a lot of choices on this one. Personally I don't know which RAM fits with the Macbook.

But a bit of research helps. First of all I found that Apple doesn't sell any 7200rpm drives in macbooks. I don't think 7200rpm drives would work either, de to heat issues.

Macbooks use 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM (PC2-5300) SO-DIMMs.

I can't tell you where to buy any, thogh I hear Crucial is a good company. Whatever you do, make sure you meet those specs.

External drives are a many. If it's something you wanna keep at home then you can get cheap drives of 250GB which are fairly large but cheap.
You can also get super small iPod sized drives with up to 100GB but htey cost much over 400 USD.

I don't have any personal preference on external ahrd drives, nor the experience, so I don't want to tell you something I can't fully support.
But that's how far I can help you.
 
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pa-sale

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awesome information! thanks! i was on the mac website and the 7200rpm 100gb was an option.... is it a mistake on the website?
 
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pa-sale said:
awesome information! thanks! i was on the mac website and the 7200rpm 100gb was an option.... is it a mistake on the website?
No, sounds right :) AFAIK 120gig is the largest widely available notebook hard drive you're likely to find at the moment, so if you're going to have a number of large files (or a large number of files, heh) then I agree with what others have suggested and grab an external drive for those. There should be a few brands to choose from, I recommend Western Digital, Seagate or perhaps Maxtor (and in that order).

Edit: I just re-read the last few posts, and I meant that the 100gig/7200rpm sounds right for a Macbook _Pro_ (not the Macbook, as yogi said).
 
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teknobucks

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pa-sale said:
is there one type of ram you suggest? is there a special type of external drive you suggest?


get a couple of the fire wire externals.
i mac can boot to it......may not be able to do that with that new chip u have tho.

yes the office 2004 rocks!

tekno
just switched 6 months ago from the dos boxes :) :) :)!!!!!!!!!!
 

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