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Dec 2nd, 2006
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IF I were to convert to the Dark Side...

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Ok, I'll admit it. I want an Apple.

I've been a PC user since being introduced to computers way back when.

My question now is, what specs should I be looking at?

First off, I'm set on buying a laptop. That leaves the MacBook and the Pro.

In PC usage, I'm quite a heavy user. Usually I'll have an instant messenger client, iTunes, and the internet open eternally. On top of this, I have photoshop open at times as well.

My main question is whether 2 gigs of RAM will cover me on a 2.33ghz processor?
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Re: IF I were to convert to the Dark Side...

Click to Expand / Collapse  Quote originally posted by 'Stein ...
In PC usage, I'm quite a heavy user. Usually I'll have an instant messenger client, iTunes, and the internet open eternally. On top of this, I have photoshop open at times as well.
It sounds like you do a lot of multitasking. I think you'll enjoy the MacBook/MacBook Pro's Intel Core 2 Duo processor. It's supposed to be really good at multitasking. So you'll obviously need lots of RAM. Processor speed isn't quite as critical at this point, because multitasking is more about RAM than about your processor's clock speed.

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My main question is whether 2 gigs of RAM will cover me on a 2.33ghz processor?
It should be. My MacBook only has 512 MB of RAM, which is a little bit less than I would like it to be, so 2 GB will be perfectly adequete for what you need.

So now that leaves you with several things:
  • Do you ever play games? MacBooks suck at gaming, so get the MacBook Pro if you want to do any real gaming.
  • How big do you want your screen to be? The MacBook's only come in 13" models, whereas MacBook Pro comes in 15" and 17".
  • Intel Core 2 Duos are inside both MacBooks/MacBook Pros, so unless you need really, really fast clock speeds, the MacBook's 1.8 Ghz Core 2 Duos should be perfectly fine.
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Re: IF I were to convert to the Dark Side...

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Do you ever play games? MacBooks suck at gaming, so get the MacBook Pro if you want to do any real gaming.
Not so much, although I'll always have the ability to use my PC for that.

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How big do you want your screen to be? The MacBook's only come in 13" models, whereas MacBook Pro comes in 15" and 17".
That might be a small issue. I've tested the 13" before, and they seem fine to me. However, I might be looking at the 15"

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Intel Core 2 Duos are inside both MacBooks/MacBook Pros, so unless you need really, really fast clock speeds, the MacBook's 1.8 Ghz Core 2 Duos should be perfectly fine.
Excellent.

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Processor speed isn't quite as critical at this point, because multitasking is more about RAM than about your processor's clock speed.
:o Shows how much I know about hardware...

Joeprogrammer, thanks for the response.
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Re: IF I were to convert to the Dark Side...

I see you're using photoshop ... are you going to be an aperture user also?

Go for the max! I keep kicking myself in the tail for not maxing out. My band invested in Logic Pro and Protools, Final Cut Pro, and I use Aperture, Illustrator and Photoshop CS2, I went from 1g , 2gs and I'll be getting more .. we have a Macbook Pro for gigs and a imac 24'' We do alot of preproduction work so when we go to the main studio we have our ideas set and we use up less studio time. Get a big HD also .. When we were recording we ate up a min of 30gig for a couple of songs a day.
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Re: IF I were to convert to the Dark Side...

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I see you're using photoshop ... are you going to be an aperture user also?
Actually havn't thought that far in advance.

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Go for the max! I keep kicking myself in the tail for not maxing out.
That's the main thing I'm worried about right now! That's what I did on my most recent PC as well. However, for this one, money won't be as much an issue, as I won't be paying.

Thanks Junya for the insight!
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Re: IF I were to convert to the Dark Side...

I also try to keep a current PC functional. There is a few programs I use that are not available for my PPC macs. On the new macs I have parallel/win xp on one of the g4's i have iemulator and win98 and 2000. I know what you mean .. I got my personal ibook from my employer .. prior to that i was running a dell laptop and macmini with a KVM switch. The macbook pro and the imac "24 were collective purchases .. the band decided not to pay ourselves for a couple of gigs and we bought the computers and firewire mixing heads...


Looks like its gonna be a tool for work ... you know good car mechnics and carpenters get the best tools so you deserve good tools also
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Re: IF I were to convert to the Dark Side...

Well remember with Bootcamp, you can natively dual boot any Intel mac with Mac OS X and Windows XP.
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Re: IF I were to convert to the Dark Side...

Stein and Dani,

A friend of mine at the other park system would be telling us "Luke the force" ... she's a biologist but she has a collateral consolidation or duties so she works on the computers at her park .. She always ask me to leave the dark side.

we have so many choices ... decisions, decisions, iemulator, virtual PC, Parallel, and Bootcamp. It has my head spinnning ////
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Re: IF I were to convert to the Dark Side...

Click to Expand / Collapse  Quote originally posted by Junyah ...
we have so many choices ... decisions, decisions, iemulator, virtual PC, Parallel, and Bootcamp. It has my head spinnning ////
Of all of them, running Windows XP on Mac OS X using Boot Camp will be the fastest way because it's running natively. In fact, it runs just as fast (or faster) than their PC equivalents. Parallels Workstation for Mac is the fastest emulator, although it will slow down significantly when playing games. Some of other choice, especially the free emulators, are quite a bit slower, and should only be used if you can't afford Parallels.

Hope this helps
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Dec 11th, 2006
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Re: IF I were to convert to the Dark Side...

Hello,

I have one more question, if you all don't mind.

Should I just wait until Leopard arrives? I noticed in one of joeprogrammer's post that it's due out in January/February?

Anybody concur?

Thanks.
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