Advice for a Windows user buying first Mac - which model?

Skip · Mar 26, 2008

Gday guys, Im a convert PC user purchasing my first Mac, and i was hoping for some advice on which model Macbook pro I shoud grab.

Ill be using it as a replacement to my desktop PC, where ill probably play SOME games (not a hardcore gamer or anything) and do the usual desktop type stuff -movies,music etc etc....in addition will be doing uni work/taking it to uni (sport science degree, nothing design based)

As it will be a desktop replacement, im hoping it will plug into my samsung lcd i have, which is a television which i can also plug my PC into, has hdmi input etc etc (its 19', not to sure on the res)... hopefully i will be able to run the mac through this ok ? If not, might have to pick up a dell screen or something

Any other advice i need to know... should i purchase appleware, or any special software, etc etc??

So yeh, basically just finding out which model will be sufficient for all this, and will last me a couple of years aswell

I really am clueless about Macs so any help would be much appreciated.

Cheers

jdmdelsol97 · Mar 26, 2008

I have an older Powerbook and it plugs right into my lcd tv, so that should be no problem. Apple care is up to you. My products have never broken being that i take superb care of my things, but you never know sometimes things break where its not your fault. Also i know you have your heart set on the macbook pro but the macbooks are quite powerful machines as well. i have a black one and its quite nice. runs all my adobe products (illustrator, photoshop, indesign) no problem and the macbooks max out at 4 gb of ram, plus it will run you a little less.

Skip · Mar 26, 2008

I have my eye on the macbook Pro as opposed to the macbook mainly for the video card. Not to mention it being 100 times more asthetically pleasing heh. I want this to last a couple of years so im just going to dish out for the macbook pro.

jsgreen · Mar 26, 2008

I'd go for the 15" screen (more portable) and suggest you don't purchase additional RAM from Apple - check our Crucial or OWC for decent RAM and decent prices.

CL33Zero · Mar 26, 2008

jsgreen said:
I'd go for the 15" screen (more portable) and suggest you don't purchase additional RAM from Apple - check our Crucial or OWC for decent RAM and decent prices.

I agree. If you are going to use a external monitor anyway, you might as well shoot for the portability when you need it. And NEVER buy ram from apple. Unless you pretty much wanna pay Apple about $1800 an hour to have one of there employees put it in ($400 extra to upgrade to 4G, - $100 for the cost of ram. That leaves $300 for a 10 min job. 60 mins in an hour. So 6 x 300 = $1800 an hour. Lotta profit there)

Skip · Mar 29, 2008

cheers for gettin back.

think im going to go with the mid range 15'. it turns out my dad gets 30% discount due to a deal with his company and if i buy it from domayne, so works out a pretty decent buy. (2400 for the 3400 macbook = bargain!)

still trying to workout why an extra 800$ = only .1 of cpu difference + 50 extra gig + 200mbs extra on vid card, but ay, whatever.. theyve got me sold

how do i go about putting my files from old pc/windows on... do i need to virus scan them before or get some sort of protection software on the mac laptop or what? Ive got so many music files and so much different **** that ive never scanned, have no idea what i could be putting on my mac... but i definately want all my old stuff transported.. should i make sure its clean first ?

also should i purchase iwork?

brianwmay · Mar 29, 2008

My MacBook Pro is just over a week old and, whilst I'm suffering it NOT being like Windows (because it ISN'T), I am absolutely delighted. it is SO fast (my PC was a top of the range Acer laptop 10 months old).

I'm running Win XP Pro in a Parallels VM (NOT through Boot Camp) and it seems to be operating nearly as fast as my Acer did.

As you can see, I have the 15" screen with 256 mb video. The screen is outstanding. I weakened however and bought a 3 button Bluetooth mouse which really DOES make the transition away from Windows easier.

I've uninstalled Office 2008 in favour of iWork 08 which seems brilliant - based upon a whole week's use.

Good luck - I doubt you'll regret it.

My biggest problem (apart from 'finger trouble') has been to re-educate my expectations and give the 'Mac way' a chance. This site has been outstanding in that regard as there are a plethora of patient, well-informed people who are willing to guide people like me by the nose.

Enjoy - even unpacking it was enjoyable, I couldn't believe everything was in the box - it seemed SO slim. I travel for a living, so the 15" won hands down over the bigger (and more expensive) 17" model.

The Vindicat3d · Mar 29, 2008

brianwmay said:
My MacBook Pro is just over a week old and, whilst I'm suffering it NOT being like Windows (because it ISN'T), I am absolutely delighted. it is SO fast (my PC was a top of the range Acer laptop 10 months old).

I'm running Win XP Pro in a Parallels VM (NOT through Boot Camp) and it seems to be operating nearly as fast as my Acer did.

As you can see, I have the 15" screen with 256 mb video. The screen is outstanding. I weakened however and bought a 3 button Bluetooth mouse which really DOES make the transition away from Windows easier.

I've uninstalled Office 2008 in favour of iWork 08 which seems brilliant - based upon a whole week's use.

Good luck - I doubt you'll regret it.

My biggest problem (apart from 'finger trouble') has been to re-educate my expectations and give the 'Mac way' a chance. This site has been outstanding in that regard as there are a plethora of patient, well-informed people who are willing to guide people like me by the nose.

Enjoy - even unpacking it was enjoyable, I couldn't believe everything was in the box - it seemed SO slim. I travel for a living, so the 15" won hands down over the bigger (and more expensive) 17" model.

*OFF TOPIC* I don't know if you know, but you can right click on a MBP, Just switch it on in system preferences, you can also enable a bunch of handy features with the multi-touch touch pad.

*ON TOPIC* You can either connect your mac and your PC via an ethernet cable and transfer files OR buy and external HDD put all the files from the PC onto it and than put 'em onto the Mac. You don't need to virus scan them or anything, there an NO VIRUSES for Macs, and if you want iWork than go for it, personally unless you need all the more advanced features of Office than iWork works great and it's cheaper.

Gbeav · Mar 29, 2008

Skip said:
cheers for gettin back.

think im going to go with the mid range 15'. it turns out my dad gets 30% discount due to a deal with his company and if i buy it from domayne, so works out a pretty decent buy. (2400 for the 3400 macbook = bargain!)

still trying to workout why an extra 800$ = only .1 of cpu difference + 50 extra gig + 200mbs extra on vid card, but ay, whatever.. theyve got me sold

how do i go about putting my files from old pc/windows on... do i need to virus scan them before or get some sort of protection software on the mac laptop or what? Ive got so many music files and so much different **** that ive never scanned, have no idea what i could be putting on my mac... but i definately want all my old stuff transported.. should i make sure its clean first ?

also should i purchase iwork?

i wouldn't spend the extra money on going form 2.5ghz to 2.6 ghz, you won't really notice any difference. The HDD and video card ram is a personal preference and if you want a more complete system extra video ram is never a bad thing.