Possibly buying a MBP soon

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Hello.:)

I am new to the Mac world. Actually, no, I am not new to it because I haven't even entered it yet, but I am standing outside of it with great anticipation.:D

I have been a pc user all of my life, and i have used my computers primarily for gaming. These days, my gaming time has been cut significantly, and i really just don't feel the need or want to get back into it. Plus, building $3,000 computers every year to play video games gets a bit exhausting.

Now, money isn't an issue. I have been saving for a good while, so I want the latest and greatest. My heart is set on a MBP, but i do have a few questions.

I do a lot of photography, amateur music production and things with astronomy. I am mainly concerned with how it will handle big, greedy music production applications. How does it handle these types of applications?

I have been told that I need to get the Apple care without hesitation. What are your thoughts on this? I have never had the need for extra warranty coverage, but I am kind of considering it this time around.

Do many of you have the higher resolution screen on the 17-incher? If so, how do you like it?

I have heard about some reliability issues, but those just come with things made by people. So, I'm not really concerned with that. I am concerned with some things I have read and experienced regarding the speed of these dudes.

I played around with 2 different 17-inch MBP's. one of them was blazing fast, and the other was laggy as all get out. They both had the same specs and has the same applications loaded on them. Now, I am not very familiar with the ins and outs of OSX, so I understand that there could have been a lot going on in the background on the slower machine, but I'm not sure how Macs work in that respect. Are there a ton of services that load and run in the background like Windows?

Anywho, I apologize for the longer-than-expected post and appreciate any feedback or help that anyone can give me.

Thanks!


Oh, and if you have any pics of your MBP's, feel free to show them.;D
 
Joined
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15" MBP 2.4GHz 4GB, iPod Classic 120GB
Hello and welcome to the forums. I have recently switched from windows to a MBP and I am loving it.

Gaming, I haven't done much on my Mac as I don't have much time for it anymore, but I do play World of Warcraft and it actually runs better on my MBP than on my PC.

You ask about photography, and audio editing... This is what Macs were built for, they are extremely fast in this area and most audio and image editing that would normally be time consuming is the rendering portion of it which is dependent mostly on processor speed so make sure to get a fast one. I have the 2.4Ghz one and it is crazy fast.

Applecare? I guess its all personal preference... but with a $3000 laptop I wouldn't (and didn't) hesitate. and you do have a year to buy it after you buy your Mac but the coverage starts the day you bought the Mac not the warranty.

I played with the high resolution screen in the store, it looked nice and I was going to buy it but.... I was advised by a few friends that own Mac's that the 17" is really really big and to actually try it on your lap, not just on a table at the store. I followed their advice and I decided to go with the 15", also the 15" has the LED backlit screen which means more battery life and better for the environment. Also I don't know personally but my friend said taking a 17" on a plane is a nightmare. I guess this is all personal preference but you may want to consider the 15"

Reliability issues... I haven't really come across any. I did have to reinstall the OS the day after I bought my Mac but that was of my own doing I messed it up heh :Oops: I mean every once in a while a program may start acting screwy but this is rare and when it does a good restart will fix it.

OSX is not loaded with a bunch of processes like windows is. The reason for the lag may have been programs that were open in the dock that you may not have noticed... OSX runs differently it doesn't quit applications like Windows does it sort of minimizes them. Also remember those are display models they have people messing with them all day every day.

Well I hope I helped, and unfortunately I don't have any pics of my MBP but the Apple pics do it justice, or you could always just bring a chair to the Apple store take a seat and stare at it all day. haha
 
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Hello.:)

I am new to the Mac world. Actually, no, I am not new to it because I haven't even entered it yet, but I am standing outside of it with great anticipation.:D

I have been a pc user all of my life, and i have used my computers primarily for gaming. These days, my gaming time has been cut significantly, and i really just don't feel the need or want to get back into it. Plus, building $3,000 computers every year to play video games gets a bit exhausting.

Now, money isn't an issue. I have been saving for a good while, so I want the latest and greatest. My heart is set on a MBP, but i do have a few questions.

I do a lot of photography, amateur music production and things with astronomy. I am mainly concerned with how it will handle big, greedy music production applications. How does it handle these types of applications?

I have been told that I need to get the Apple care without hesitation. What are your thoughts on this? I have never had the need for extra warranty coverage, but I am kind of considering it this time around.

Do many of you have the higher resolution screen on the 17-incher? If so, how do you like it?

I have heard about some reliability issues, but those just come with things made by people. So, I'm not really concerned with that. I am concerned with some things I have read and experienced regarding the speed of these dudes.

I played around with 2 different 17-inch MBP's. one of them was blazing fast, and the other was laggy as all get out. They both had the same specs and has the same applications loaded on them. Now, I am not very familiar with the ins and outs of OSX, so I understand that there could have been a lot going on in the background on the slower machine, but I'm not sure how Macs work in that respect. Are there a ton of services that load and run in the background like Windows?

Anywho, I apologize for the longer-than-expected post and appreciate any feedback or help that anyone can give me.

Thanks!


Oh, and if you have any pics of your MBP's, feel free to show them.;D

What big, greedy sound programs are you using? I run protools on a Core Duo Macbook 1.83 GHz and it runs just fine. I can't imagine you're using much other than that since protools is really industry standard. You really don't need a MBP for this. Photography I can understand needing the bigger screen, but protools makes no use of the graphics card, all it needs is RAM. I have yet to encounter a sound program worth using that is a real system resource hog, so I'm not sure what you're talking about.
 
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NovaGnome
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What big, greedy sound programs are you using? I run protools on a Core Duo Macbook 1.83 GHz and it runs just fine. I can't imagine you're using much other than that since protools is really industry standard. You really don't need a MBP for this. Photography I can understand needing the bigger screen, but protools makes no use of the graphics card, all it needs is RAM. I have yet to encounter a sound program worth using that is a real system resource hog, so I'm not sure what you're talking about.


Drumkit from **** Superior.


The Invisible Man, thanks a bunch for your reply. I just don't want to get the 15-inch model and be disappointed. Screen real estate is good.
 
Joined
Jun 5, 2007
Messages
274
Reaction score
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Location
Ypsilanti, MI
Your Mac's Specs
15" MBP 2.4GHz 4GB, iPod Classic 120GB
no problem Novagnome. yea but I guess the screen size is all preference I was set on the 17" for months and then the day before I bought it I decided to go with the 15"
 

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