[ewing]

i thought i was ready to finally order a macbook tonight after tons of research.

deciding factor (besides a bunch of other good reasons, such as stability, software, the upcoming iphone etc) to convert to the mac religion = local 1x evdo supplier will be carrying sierrawireless.com's upcoming usb os x supported modems.

my main work use:

• outside sales job
• ical/schedules for myself and employees etc.
• spreadsheets - very simple forms vs heavy math formulas - so will likely use open office.
• may need to login to a windows based machine over the net to view/add/edit data in win only software (maximizer)
• web forms - required to login to certain websites and read/enter data etc
• may use it for a gps guidance program of some sort if there's one out there - can't find one via google. something like iguidance, but for macs
• work will buy me an evdo aircard & plan
• email
• printing - either to a bluetooth inkjet or impact printer
• etc

personal use:

• web browsing
• download some low quality movies (i can't be bothered to wait for 4gb movies)
• email
• chat clients
• forum posting - i've made over 50k posts in the last 7 years & i'll likely still be on forums daily/nightly.

additional requirements:

• i've never bothered to in the past, but i think i'd like to use some sort of backup utility in order not to lose work data. (contacts/addresses/schedules etc)

stuff i might use it for:

• burning dvds? not sure if i ever would, as i never have. i replaced a dead cdrw with a dvdrw - and have since had dead burning software for the better part of a year... so, i can live w/o copying dvd's if i have to. movies i've ever dl'd have been sub 700mb torrents that fit on cdr's & play well enough for me.
• dl'ing music... maybe. i've dl'd a couple songs in the last year. i usually just listen to keys clicking & a fan whirring.

stuff i will never use it for & thus don't care:

• games. yes, i said it. i do not play games. (and if i did it'd be something with pacman-esque graphic intensity, so i don't want/need a pro etc)
• other super video intense entertainment stuff

other stuff i'm considering:

• bluetooth mighty mouse
• maybe more ram, depends on the value
• not really too concerned about hard drive space, as i currently have about 1/2 of a 20gig hdd sitting idle & almost always do.

now, which machine & why?

1.83 white:

2MB shared L2 cache vs 4 - what does this mean in lamens terms to me for my purposes? (vs that it's 1/2 as much as the other, that's a given.)

512mb ram - would you up it? all the way? (i've been advised that ram is cheaper elsewhere... but the last two times i made an attempt at any hardware upgrades i fried things worth more time/$ than a slight premium to have more ram installed right away)

hdd - any performance reason to increase the size of it? ie utilizing more than x% = unhealthy for the physical components?

combo drive - no dvd burner... might have to go 2.0 in order to backup things, eh? or no, everything i'll need to keep will fit on a cd and a dvd burner is a waste of funds unless you want to pirate quality movies?

2.0 white:

i was just about to order one of these when i read a review for the add on battery stating that the add on is only a "necessity" because the battery life in the white version is significantly lower than the black version.

from apple.com review:

"This was overpriced for a simple battery. It's essential, but doesn't last as long as the black one. I guess it's a money making thing. Pay more money for the black MacBook and get a good battery... I would just get a black MacBook and return the white so that you don't have to waste $400 on batteries."

fact?

maybe there's more value in the extra $200cdn for the black mac than initially meets the eye...

which brings me to...

2.0 black:

is the battery actually different? does it last longer? that could prove very useful on the road... otherwise it seems ludicrous to spend $200+13% sales taxes on a 40gig hdd addition & a black case. which in the white vs black macbook thread, isn't getting glowing reviews in terms of robustness/resistance to scratching/oil marks etc... but i do have to admit, i think it looks slick. but the white version may prove more useful in low light w/o backlit keys - then again, i'd almost never be in a situation where i'd need either, as i can type just fine on this pc in the dark w/ the mere glow of an lcd monitor.

oh, and hi - potential new mac convert here... posting from a ~5+ year old pc i bought from an internet cafe that was going out of business/i'm one of 4 people left on the continent that doesn't own an ipod/mac anything.

[xandr115]

~Hi Also First Post!~

Interesting, I haven't heard much about the White Macbook's battery being cheaper than the Blackbook's.

I've been considering the switch to a Macbook as well. I've been a lifelong PC power user in the IT field. However, I support the entertainment industry and over time have been exposed to the usefulness of the OSX operating system to not only be easy to use, but suitable for a power user.

As far as your questions, I've always been told this about Apple computer purchases... Always buy the most that you can afford now, because it reduces the amount of regret in the future. With the 1.83 vs 2.0 debate, doubling the onchip cache from 2mb to 4mb is significant. Consider cache to be an even FASTER ram. Unlike an upgrade from the white to blackbook... the 1.83 to 2.0 white is a significant one w/ the 4mb cache and extra 512mb ram going a long way. For a normal user, I believe 1 gig of ram is plenty enough until you can save to upgrade that as well.

Personally, I've been leaning towards the black macbook simply because the white gives me creepy memories of underwhelming ibook (my clients) laptops that can't hold their own to the more expensive powerbooks. However, according to reviews, these new Macbooks can almost more than hold their own... the new c2d macbooks can even outperform the original core duo macbook pro's in certain tests by a large margin. In other words, I have been having a hard time justifying the extra 200...

Good luck to you... I'm torn right now between making the purchase now or waiting for Leopard...

[uicandrew]

congratulations on making the switch.

1. don't get a bluetooth mighty mouse. It seems nice for the first week or so, but then the scrollball on top gets dirty, then it becomes useless. and it is nearly impossible to clean since you can't pop the scroll ball out. Think about the old mice from the early 90's when you had to clean the ball on the bottom of the mouse (before optical mice were invented). it's like that but it occurs 1000x faster, and you can't remove the ball. it looks nice, it is technologically advanced, but it is a pain in the butt to use.

2. Ah, ram. it actually has gotten more expensive. 1gb (in 2 sticks of 512mb) is the minimum of comfortable using. To really multitask, i would recommend getting 2gb (2 sticks of 1gb). Where to get it? Newegg.com reliably has the lowest price on RAM. currently, they have a sale on 1 stick of Patriot branded RAM for $90 shipped. never heard of the brand? neither have i, but the reviews seem to be very positive, even coming from mac owners.

3. hard drive space is always an issue for me. I currently have an 80gb in mine, but i'm keeping my eye on a 160gb upgrade. I like to run bootcamp (which allows you to run Windows on a separate partition) and i want to have enough space for both OSes to be fully stocked, like both having dvd burning software, MS Office, etc. With Bootcamp, Some form of windows (either in parallel or in bootcamp) is almost necessary when you work with others since Internet explorer on the windows side is still dominant, and some websites are hindered until you use IE in Windows.

4. i've never heard of the batteries before and that sounds like rubbish

i would recommend the 2ghz white because the stock RAM is 1gb and the hard drive size is 80gb, both healthy starting points, especially with bootcamp.

i would recommend the 1.83ghz white ONLY if you plan on upgrading the RAM and harddrive you are SURE you'll never use a dvd burner.

i wouldn't recommend the black because you can do the hard drive upgrade yourself without voiding the warranty. (macbooks the first apple notebook in the last 5+ years with this feature)

again, congratulations on seeing the Mac side of computing. The OS and the machines just make sense.

[ewing]

cache - gotcha.

interesting note about the mighty mouse - first time i've heard that. reviews i've heard have been positive. i'd typically be using it in clients houses, usually finished/clean, or in a retail store or office - not usually in any sort of very dusty/dirty environment. i may buy one despite you're review & see for myself.

ram at $90usd for 1gb, whereas it's ~$140ish cdn for 1gb via tigerdirect.com/ca/whatever & afaik there're only two slots on the macbook, correct? so in order to go from 1gb of two 512mb sticks to 2gb, you have to buy two sticks of 1gb ram for ~$240+ tax & shipping (you could sell the two 512's for a few bucks, i guess.) & then install yourself etc (risk of damage) whereas mac charges $195cdn to upgrade to 2gb right out of the box.

i can't imagine hard drive space becoming an issue for me at 80gb, so, as long as there's enough room to properly run both os' IF i choose to run windows, great. i suppose if i wanted a larger internal hdd i could pay to have one swapped in, eh? as the idea of external drives to pack around seems fairly inconvenient.

batteries - yeah, that was the only place i was able to find that comment... could be complete rubbish, indeed.

i'm back to thinking white 2.0's the way to go... i guess i'll leave this thread riding for a bit (today, maybe tomorrow) before i click and spend a bunch of money, just in case there's other valuable input to consider.

[uicandrew]

go to the peripherals subforum here and do a search for "dirty mighty mouse." most standard reviews only use it for a couple days, but thinking long term, like 2-3 weeks. it gets dirty not because of the environment, but because of your fingers scrolling the ball. grime, sweat, dead skin cells.

upgrading the memory in the mac at the factory used to be absolute highway robbery. Now it is a bit more reasonable, relatively. i think it is like a mini bar at a hotel. it is much more expensive, but it is a convenience.

upgrading the hard drive is as easy as installing the RAM. apple has made a pdf on how to upgrade the hard drive, and there are videos online on how to do it.

[ewing]

if not the mighty mouse, does apple make another bluetooth mousy?

[ewing]

according to this thread: http://forums.macnn.com/57/periphera...-mighty-mouse/ it can be cleaned, sort of.

[uicandrew]

i suggest the logitech bluetooth mice. well-made and a 5 year warranty

[ewing]

any value in spending $139 on the backup battery vs a $60 power inverter to charge it while driving?

heeeelllllllloooooooooo00000ooo... value - where aaaaarrre yoooou?

i'm not seeing it.

but if someone chime in & let me know asap, that'd rock.

[quiklee]

don't forget your other options at ColorWare . . . . life is more than just black and white!

[ewing]

*clicked, read & forgotten*

pay nearly $1000 more (after exchange rate) for a different coloured case?

do i smell retarded to you?

business = about making money with tools such as macbooks, not spending it on making them look like toys in an anime movie.

[walkerjs]

I recently got myself a white Macbook, and then subsequently needed to go out and get my wife a Macbook too. I opted for the black for her, which she likes muchly. We haven't had them long enough to compare battery capacity, but I do note that the black came with a 120 gigabyte HDD, while my white one came with an 80 gigabyte HDD. So that sort of justifies the extra expense. (I have a 250gig firewire external drive for my personal storage needs.)

Other than that they are identically configured (1 gig RAM, Airport Extreme, pretty screen, etc.) and are both quite speedy. Mine gets heavy use with web browsing, running a VM with Parallels to get to the workplace remotely, editing audio, and image editing with Photoshop. That's the PPC version of Photoshop, mine with CS1 and hers with CS2. Hers gets used for most of the web/email stuff and light Photoshop. Both are quite up to the tasks especially compared with my employer supplied Dell 1.8Ghz/1gig RAM Windows XP laptop. The Macbook runs both Windows and OSX simultaneously with aplomb. It even runs Photoshop quite nicely even though they are Rosetta translated PPC binaries. It runs the Universal Binary of Unreal Tournament 2004 quite well, though just take that as a graphical benchmark since you don't play games. I don't really play games either except for the occasional bot fragfest to blow off a little steam. The Macbook does this while running all the other stuff unlike my Mac Mini, with which I usually quit all the other apps before running the game to get best performance. Not so with the Macbook.

[ewing]

ordered a refurbished white 2.0 w/ stock 1gb ram & a bluetooth mighty mouse.

thanks for the q&a on here!

[quiklee]

ewing - you're retarded enough to ask complete strangers for advice on how to spend your own money

[ewing]

i asked macbook users/owners how to get the best value for my money for my purposes - not how to waste a thousand dollars on coloured plastic.

[mduell]

The difference in cache (4M vs 2M) gives you about 3.5% better performance on average. 10% faster Divx encoding, but 0.5% faster Cinebench rendering.

[xandr115]

Congrats Ewing! I did the exact same thing (sans bt mighty mouse). I have an extra corded mighty mouse around since I'm a Sys Admin @ work. :-) Client use Waccom tablets instead.

[uicandrew]

Originally Posted by quiklee 

ewing - you're retarded enough to ask complete strangers for advice on how to spend your own money

actually, i think ewing did the smart thing and provided detailed information about the use he would have in terms of features always, seldom, and never use.

much better than the thread that just lists "which macbook should i get?" without listing any information as to their use/background.

[bcswbc]

I've had the Bluetooth Mighty Mouse for over a month now and have had no problems with it. It works great!

[maccrack]

3months hear still is clean and in perfect working order! i just clean my hands if i have anything on them

[legacyb4]

I got black; even though fingerprints do show up, those are easily cleaned off with a damp towel whereas scratches on the white will be more visible.