Which Macbook?

First of all:
I am terribly sorry if I'm breaking any unwritten rules as a first time poster. I *think* i posted this in the right place, I did a brief search... I tried my best.

Right on to the issue at hand.

I'm a PC user... who is fed up with PCs. I have had may a laptop which was a beauty to behold out of the box (if you ignor the hours setting it up) but after a few months was slow and horrible to use.
Vista and the more recent versions of office were the last nail in the coffin for me as i found them pretty but counter intuitive.

So begins the tentitive search into the world of Macs.

I'm a student at university, who used my laptop for Everything. I will spend more time on my laptop than any other single activty (even more than drinking!). I mainly use my laptop for insessant facebooking and other internet sites, word processing, creating presentations, watching films, streaming tv and listening to music 24/7 along with storing all my photos and the like.
I'm an absolute fiend for not closing down windows and running large amounts of programs at once and I don't do any gaming (but that is because of worrying about using all the memory up in PC's i wouldnt mind a bit of light gaming if i had the space).
Also my laptop mainly stays in my dorm room but has to have battery life as it is also my portable stereo for kitchen parties and does get carried to lectures when doing presentations and the like.

Judging from this would anyone like to give me any advice as to if a macbook or a macbook pro would be more useful to me? What kindof specs I should be looking for ect.

Thankyou so much in advance.

Cas

curiouscas said:

First of all:
I am terribly sorry if I'm breaking any unwritten rules as a first time poster. I *think* i posted this in the right place, I did a brief search... I tried my best.

Right on to the issue at hand.

I'm a PC user... who is fed up with PCs. I have had may a laptop which was a beauty to behold out of the box (if you ignor the hours setting it up) but after a few months was slow and horrible to use.
Vista and the more recent versions of office were the last nail in the coffin for me as i found them pretty but counter intuitive.

Click to expand...

Sounds like you're ready for a change and would be a good candidate for a Mac. We often have people that want to test the waters, but ultimately have no intention of changing their habits.

So begins the tentitive search into the world of Macs.

I'm a student at university, who used my laptop for Everything. I will spend more time on my laptop than any other single activty (even more than drinking!). I mainly use my laptop for insessant facebooking and other internet sites, word processing, creating presentations, watching films, streaming tv and listening to music 24/7 along with storing all my photos and the like.
I'm an absolute fiend for not closing down windows and running large amounts of programs at once and I don't do any gaming (but that is because of worrying about using all the memory up in PC's

Click to expand...

You'll love the MacBook. When you're done using it, just close the lid. When you want to use it again, open it back up again -- you're right back to where you left off. Sleep mode actually works very well in OS X. It's instant on and off, and a MacBook in sleep mode can run that way for weeks solely on battery power.

i wouldnt mind a bit of light gaming if i had the space).

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That won't be a problem with any of the MacBook models. Now, if you're looking to play the latest and greatest high end games, you're going to want one of the Pro models.

Also my laptop mainly stays in my dorm room but has to have battery life as it is also my portable stereo for kitchen parties and does get carried to lectures when doing presentations and the like.

Click to expand...

All of the MacBooks have a battery that is optimistically rated at 10 hours. In the real world, particularly under intensive load, you will likely see 4-5. Used lightly, you may get 8-10, but if you're running a lot of Flash video or playing games, you will run down the battery faster.

Judging from this would anyone like to give me any advice as to if a macbook or a macbook pro would be more useful to me? What kindof specs I should be looking for ect.

Thankyou so much in advance.

Cas

Click to expand...

Well, your needs seem fairly modest. I think any of the models will work for you. It really all depends on your budget and getting the "best bang for the buck". You also didn't mention whether you wanted a 13.3" screen or larger. That makes the decision process much easier.

thankyou so much for such a promt reply and clear anylasis. Screen size doesn't bother me too much a 13" would be fine (niether would i exactly shun a larger size mind) as the only thing i really need a decent size screen for is film viewing as macs don't seem to clutter their screen as much as PCs.
Also I can always buy a monitor if need be.

Basicly my biggest issue is that I want my laptop to survive my remaining 3 years at uni at the very least. It's the first laptop I will be buying entirly off my own back (ah the joys of being independant...) and therefor i really want it to survive the unimagianable amounts of rubbish that i will inevitably accumilate on it.

curiouscas said:

thankyou so much for such a promt reply and clear anylasis. Screen size doesn't bother me too much a 13" would be fine (niether would i exactly shun a larger size mind) as the only thing i really need a decent size screen for is film viewing as macs don't seem to clutter their screen as much as PCs.
Also I can always buy a monitor if need be.

Basicly my biggest issue is that I want my laptop to survive my remaining 3 years at uni at the very least. It's the first laptop I will be buying entirly off my own back (ah the joys of being independant...) and therefor i really want it to survive the unimagianable amounts of rubbish that i will inevitably accumilate on it.

Click to expand...

Personally, I would go with the 13" MacBook Pro with a 500GB Hard Drive. I would also highly suggest a hardshell case to protect from scratches/dings in the aluminum case.

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I'm in a similar situation. I'm considering the 15 inch macbook pro with the core i7 processor.

Keep in mind though, with the 13 inch macbook pro's, you are limited to a core 2 duo processor and a 5400 rpm hard drive. These two factors drove me to the 15 inch as they would not be sufficient for the things I want to do.