Help! I am on the verge of buying a MacBook today but I need some quick answers...

I am so very close to buying a macbook but I want to know what setup would be best. I am going with the basic model but I'm trying to decide if I should go with 2 gigs of ram instead of 1 and whether or not I should buy the extended warranty. If anyone knows also, is the 2.0 ghz intel core duo 2 faster or slower than a 2 ghz pentium M with the same ram (1 gig)? I have a dell laptop right now that has the pentium M in it but I want the macbook because its much smaller and I will only be using it for word processing, music, and internet. All other multimedia will be done on my Dell. So for word, music, and internet, is the difference from 1 gig to 2 gigs of ram significant or is it overkill? As far as the warranty, how many of you purchased it and is it worth it to get one? If someone could help me with these questions I would really appreciate it. Thanks!

from apple, you get a 1 year warranty, and you can buy the extended apple care warranty within the a year if you decide too, its a little more expensive. 1 Gig will be fine for most stuff, unless you are using really big programs. for normal use, you will not notice a difference with 1 to 2 gigs. also, the ram is pretty cheap and really easy to upgrade your self if you decide to later on, and it will not void your warranty. i cant answer your other questions but i figured i would help any way i could!!

cool i didnt know you could purchase a warranty later....I figured 1 gig would be good. Also if anyone knows, have the discoloration problems been fixed?

definetly agree with jamesx, for what you are using it for, you probably wont even notice that second gb, 1 is plently

well, considering that Word is still a Power PC application, the extra 1 GB might help with that.

i am not sure if they have been officially fixed, but i have heard they are fine now. i have had nime for 6 months now and its been fine....your buying a good machine and will be impressed on how well it works... i dont even use my PC anymore unless i have too!

visualpurple said:

well, considering that Word is still a Power PC application, the extra 1 GB might help with that.

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when i bought my macbook it had 1 gig. word worked fine. after switching to 2 gigs, the only thing i notice is that it opens slightly faster, but nothing else.

AppleCare Protection is pretty expensive though. Youre talking 300 dollars.

lolz, i've had mine for 6 months too.. but mine (even though i didn't order it) came with iwork, and pages can open and export to a word file (.doc) so.. if you're worried about performance on that one program, you should probably get iwork plus you get keynote, which surpasses power point indefinitely.

I have 1gig and it seems just fine and very fast, I never switch my PC on these days as the MacBook does the lot and fast.

runback22 said:

... If anyone knows also, is the 2.0 ghz intel core duo 2 faster or slower than a 2 ghz pentium M with the same ram (1 gig)? I have a dell laptop right now that has the pentium M in it but I want the macbook because its much smaller and I will only be using it for word processing, music, and internet. ... As far as the warranty, how many of you purchased it and is it worth it to get one? If someone could help me with these questions I would really appreciate it. Thanks!

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A 2GHz MacBook Intel Core Duo would definitely be faster than its PC equivalent, more so compared to your Pentium M. For example, my experience in booting up a Pentium M is about 2 minutes more or less, with MacBook it is only about 15 seconds. I bought a 3-year Apple Care ... this gives me peace of mind just in case something happens to it BUT it has been stable since I bought it in December 2006 from CompUSA.

Regarding RAM upgrade, you can get a third party RAM a lot cheaper and install it yourself. As some of our mates say in this forum, upgrading the RAM doesn't void the warranty. Hope this helps.

so did you buy it???

jamesx said:

so did you buy it???

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yes i did! Now I just have to wait for it to show up at my doorstep. I didnt get the warranty and the scratching situation scares me a little, but oh well. I noticed at the apple store that the white macbooks were scratched but they werent very noticeable and virtually impossible to see from a distance. Thanks for all your help guys!

Thinking of switching to Mac....Have a question

I am looking at getting into a macbook. I would take the entry level macbook and I was wondering if the 1 gig of ram is enough for the machine to run smoothly, or is it worth it to get the 2 gigs....

runback22 said:

I am looking at getting into a macbook. I would take the entry level macbook and I was wondering if the 1 gig of ram is enough for the machine to run smoothly, or is it worth it to get the 2 gigs....

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What happened to the MacBook you bought in June?
Anyway, as far as the RAM the previous responses pretty much covered it:

I have 1gig and it seems just fine and very fast

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when i bought my macbook it had 1 gig. word worked fine. after switching to 2 gigs, the only thing i notice is that it opens slightly faster, but nothing else.

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for what you are using it for, you probably wont even notice that second gb, 1 is plently

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1 Gig will be fine for most stuff, unless you are using really big programs. for normal use, you will not notice a difference with 1 to 2 gigs.

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runback22,

Go to http://www.newegg.com/Store/SubCategory.aspx?SubCategory=551&page=1 (2 pages there) and look at the prices of the SODIMMs (Notebook memory). 2GB may be $50-60, 3-4GB about $75 to 90. I bought 4GB only because I wanted to run Parallels and I heard a VM does better with more RAM.

But you'll do fine with 1GB for the time being. If not, you know where to go now

Noel