A switcher with the obligatory questions

I think every person who is contemplating switching has this kind of post.

Anyway, I'm Keith, a student and average teenager, and I'm thinking about purchasing either a macbook or macbook pro. If it were a regular ol' macbook, it'd be the 2.0 ghz white. Not sure about any pro model. Cost wise, after doing nescessary upgrades I see fit on a macbook, I reach my spending limit. So if it comes down to cost, it's the macbook. But I have a few questions.

I've played with a couple macs before, and find the operating system very sleek and different from my experience with any windows computer. Its something to get used to.

But what I was wondering... Would a 2ghz macbook (with upgraded HD and RAM for me) do all the things I'd need it to? Besides the usual word-processing, web browsing, and everything like that, I tend to tinker in photoshop (I'm an artist) with my wacom tablet. Would it run photoshop without any problems (considering the RAM upgrade) and possibly let me use Parallels smoothly?

Also, the airport cards in them would pick up wifi from a non-airport router, right? (Thats an utterly stupid question, I know :/ )

I hope this isn't clogging up the forums. Thanks.

Keith

I have one of the last version MacBook whites, i.e 2Ghz Duo rather than Duo 2, and have put in 2G Ram and a 100Gb 7200 HD.

It does everything I want from it (even runs PC games quite well using BootCamp).

And yes, any Wifi s recognised and used, I'm using a Belkin base station for my Wifi with no problems.

Amen-Moses

Oh and I regularly run XP and Debian in Parallels at the same time, with 2 Gb RAM I can allocate 500Mb to both and still have plenty for OSX to run smoothly.

I think a MacBook with upgraded RAM would do just fine for you. As far as the wireless goes, I am using my MacBook on a Dlink Gaming Wireless Router with no problems.

Thanks for the replies, guys.

But, whats the beef with those glossy screens?

Do note that Photoshop is still not a Universal (intel native and G5 native) app, and so it runs quite a bit more slowly on the new Intel Macs than it does on G5 Macs. If you are used to Photoshop's performance on reasonably recent PC, you will find it slow on a Mac. This will continue to be the case until Adobe releases CS3 sometime in the first half of this year. CS3 will be a universal app.

All things considered, the MacBook should serve your needs well. Photoshop is still PowerPC based (as noted by mac57) so the extra ram is a must, and the 13" screen is a bit cramped for photo editing, although it is glorious for day-to-day use. If you already have a larger screen that you could plug in the MacBook into, I'd recommend getting the mini-DVI adapter for the MacBook, and extending your display onto the larger screen.

myheaduphigh said:

Thanks for the replies, guys.

But, whats the beef with those glossy screens?

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They tend to exhibit excessive glare in certain situations. To me, it's not a big deal, but for others it's annoying. The advantage is that you get a seemingly sharper picture particularly with video.

I would actually disagree with Photoshop running slower on the Intel machines than on G5s. There have been tests that show that the latest Core2Duo chips actually run PPC programs under Rosetta FASTER than a G5 did natively. I have CS2 on my Macbook and it works beautifully on it. The only thing I have to deal with is the load time, which you know is more of a Photoshop issue since it has to load a ton of plugins.

As for the glossy screen, I agree with cwa107 that it's a personal preference. I really don't have any problems with my Macbook's screen, but I know some people who prefer the matte screens. This really depends on the lighting of the areas that you use it in. If you're going to use it in a room with a lot of fluorescent lighting, then you might experience some glare issues. Of course, by a lot, I mean the entire ceiling covered with them :bone:

I got my macbook a couple days ago guys, and I have to say I'm more than pleased.

Thanks for the help on it

- Keith

myheaduphigh said:

I got my macbook a couple days ago guys, and I have to say I'm more than pleased.

Thanks for the help on it

- Keith

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Excellent - welcome to the club and the forums. Be sure to check back in as you come up with more questions.