- Joined
- Mar 21, 2007
- Messages
- 21
- Reaction score
- 0
- Points
- 1
- Location
- MA
- Your Mac's Specs
- 120 GB HDD, 1GB RAM, 2.16 GHz Core2Duo, white MB
Background:
I currently have a 6 year old PC that has given me many problems in the past - just to give you an idea I'm on my third replaced hard drive. This spring it gave me problems again, so the Geek Squad replaced the hard drive and upon them telling me they can't retrieve my data from the old hard drive - but they could try for 90 bucks - I took it to a 'computer guy' my boyfriend uses. He was immediately able to get everything off the old drive and onto my external for a mere $20 for his time, which I was glad to pay. It was at that point I considered taking the plunge to a Mac.
My computer is fixed and had been working fine, but all of a sudden I just got in the mood again to want to get the Macbook. I want a laptop for the portability. I don't want Vista, so I've been looking into Macbooks extensively recently. But I'm very indecisive and can't make up my mind what to do. Here are my concerns:
1- The biggest thing right now is the graphics card. I've read online as well as talked to Mac owners and I know that these graphics cards are just not what they should be for this computer. I definitely am not a 'gamer', but there are a few games I like to play -old school Zoo Tycoon (2D), Sims 2, and I just bought Roller Coaster Tycoon 3 which actually gives me an error and refuses to load on my pc because my graphics card is not good enough. I want to play these in BootCamp - I've heard some people can't play Sims 2 very well, and others who say it runs perfectly fine for them, but I don't know if they were playing through BootCamp or using the Mac version. Considering I can't play Sims 2 on my computer now because it runs VERY slow (I'm talking one frame per a few seconds), as long as it runs on the Macbook I'd be satisfied, even if the graphics were on the low setting. I worry that I'll get the Macbook now, and then all of a sudden they'll refresh them and put a better card in. But since I don't know if/when that might happen, I hate to wait. And from what I have heard, because this is an integrated graphics card, that means I can't even buy a new one and upgrade it down the road? And furthermore, if Apple did upgrade the graphics card in the Macbooks down the road, would that increase their price much?
2-Leopard. I'm not concerned with necessarily having the latest and greatest OS (I was like that with Windows too), but the fact that BootCamp is beta now but will be included on Leopard (this is what I hear, I'm not really sure if I'm right), is this a good reason to wait until Leopard comes out? Will you have to pay for BootCamp beta when the real version comes out?
I'd go out and buy the Macbook today if I didn't have these to reasons to possibly wait. The only thing I'd rely on windows for are those few games, and really I don't see them as a huge reason to get another PC over a Mac. And the reason I'd run them in bootcamp is because I already own them and prefer not to spend more money on trying to buy the Mac versions, especially Sims 2, in which the first copy I had someone lost disc 1, so I had to buy a second copy.
If you have any input/suggestions/answers on whether I should go for it now or wait until an upgrade/Leopard please let me know, I want to make the right decision! Thank you,
Alicia
I currently have a 6 year old PC that has given me many problems in the past - just to give you an idea I'm on my third replaced hard drive. This spring it gave me problems again, so the Geek Squad replaced the hard drive and upon them telling me they can't retrieve my data from the old hard drive - but they could try for 90 bucks - I took it to a 'computer guy' my boyfriend uses. He was immediately able to get everything off the old drive and onto my external for a mere $20 for his time, which I was glad to pay. It was at that point I considered taking the plunge to a Mac.
My computer is fixed and had been working fine, but all of a sudden I just got in the mood again to want to get the Macbook. I want a laptop for the portability. I don't want Vista, so I've been looking into Macbooks extensively recently. But I'm very indecisive and can't make up my mind what to do. Here are my concerns:
1- The biggest thing right now is the graphics card. I've read online as well as talked to Mac owners and I know that these graphics cards are just not what they should be for this computer. I definitely am not a 'gamer', but there are a few games I like to play -old school Zoo Tycoon (2D), Sims 2, and I just bought Roller Coaster Tycoon 3 which actually gives me an error and refuses to load on my pc because my graphics card is not good enough. I want to play these in BootCamp - I've heard some people can't play Sims 2 very well, and others who say it runs perfectly fine for them, but I don't know if they were playing through BootCamp or using the Mac version. Considering I can't play Sims 2 on my computer now because it runs VERY slow (I'm talking one frame per a few seconds), as long as it runs on the Macbook I'd be satisfied, even if the graphics were on the low setting. I worry that I'll get the Macbook now, and then all of a sudden they'll refresh them and put a better card in. But since I don't know if/when that might happen, I hate to wait. And from what I have heard, because this is an integrated graphics card, that means I can't even buy a new one and upgrade it down the road? And furthermore, if Apple did upgrade the graphics card in the Macbooks down the road, would that increase their price much?
2-Leopard. I'm not concerned with necessarily having the latest and greatest OS (I was like that with Windows too), but the fact that BootCamp is beta now but will be included on Leopard (this is what I hear, I'm not really sure if I'm right), is this a good reason to wait until Leopard comes out? Will you have to pay for BootCamp beta when the real version comes out?
I'd go out and buy the Macbook today if I didn't have these to reasons to possibly wait. The only thing I'd rely on windows for are those few games, and really I don't see them as a huge reason to get another PC over a Mac. And the reason I'd run them in bootcamp is because I already own them and prefer not to spend more money on trying to buy the Mac versions, especially Sims 2, in which the first copy I had someone lost disc 1, so I had to buy a second copy.
If you have any input/suggestions/answers on whether I should go for it now or wait until an upgrade/Leopard please let me know, I want to make the right decision! Thank you,
Alicia
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