Calling Mac Community

Im looking at getting a macbook. Right now i have an Acer Aspire 5102wlmi, and i do enjoy it, its just not as media friendly as i would like it to be. I want something a bit smaller and something that i can have more "fun" on, and do more music/video editing on. Now when i say fun i dont mean well....hmm i cant explain that, hopefully you know what i mean. I do play the odd game on this laptop like COD2, which does play well on it. And that's the one thing that's turning me away from a macbook. Could i play the odd game like this on atleast medium settings with that gma950???? And the last question i wanted to ask is for people who have transfered from a notebook similar to mine, what are the advatages and things that jump out to you from a macbook that make it "better"?

 

MacBook is a good laptop.....
Fast, quiet, good screen, built-in camera, nice keyboard and OSX. Priced well for the 2.0ghz T7200 Core 2 Duo processor (our model in black)

Where it falls short for us, is the required Windows programs that we have to depend on daily in business. We picked up a U205 for that and were pleasantly surprised.

The MacBook is used now for graphics and some business and the Toshiba for the rest. Most data is cross platform. For our needs, this duality works fine. The MacBook works a little stronger in the wireless arena, being fit with an N wireless card; it has better range and through put side by side with the U205.

We are not ready to abandon either platform, regardless of those Mac vs PC cute commercials.

I feel we can have the best of both worlds.
YMMV

 

The main advantage of the mac that I have found is OSX. After buying my wife a hptx1000 on the weekend, I can say that OSX kicks all over vista. From the initial turn on of the laptop things were just so much easier with the mac. Within 5min I was playing with the OS, compare that to about 1-2h on the pc.
Then there are issues such as sideboard gadgets not installing, unable to remove some programs, and that the laptop locked requiring battery removal on 2 occasions in the first day....no such problems with the macbook at all....but my wife likes her new pc so thats all that matters.
For me I was a hardcore pc fan for years, but now after only a few months on my macbook I doubt I will ever go back.
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ps as for the gaming ability, there are heaps of reviews out there on the gma950, I would take alook at those to see how well your game of interest will run.
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ppss. I have more fun on a mac from the simple fact that I dont spend hours everyday trying to figure out why "X thing" isnt working like it should...thus I have more time to actually use the laptop for its purpose.

 

I agree with what Underpantman said. The fun comes from the fact that I don't spend a lot of time tinkering. I do like to tinker, but not when I need something done.

As for gaming, the current notebook you have has integrated graphics, albeit better than the GMA950. I am not sure if there is a thread in the gaming section of this forum, but I know Mac-forums has a thread about what will run on the 950. Look around, you will find your answer.

Other than that, I think you will be very please, I know I am. OS X is a pleasure to use. Not that Windows is bad, but OS X is more seamless.

 

Thanks for the great reply's Mac community

Now all i have to do is search around and find the mac i want.

 

My experience with OS X has been the opposite so far... Windows has been the "just works" OS in my case -- OS X has been weird, and the applications that do have problems have ones that are... weirder... You shouldn't expect to game in any significant capacity on the macbook -- that is, any game that is both recent and three-dimensional won't run well. I've heard of people playing WoW on the Macbook. That sounds like a bit of a stretch to me, but I could see it being doable.

I'm sure you can have more "fun" on the Macbook though. It comes with a lot more in the way of functional, streamlined-feeling applications. iLife is neat. Opening lots of windows and pressing shift-f9 is kind of amusing too.

 

I thought this seemed like a fair article
http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/macbook/faq/macbook-gaming-performance.html
It seems you can play wow at decent framerates on a macbook medium settings, but COD2 will need some lower settings and 2 gigs of ram to be really playable according to what's written here. There are videos on Youtube of people playing these games also. Some of them really suck, so don't say I didn't warn ya.. =P
Random stuff http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xpma495NOqo
COD2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7EWL9hwSKQ and last but not least WOW
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnSA-1ophR8

 

Hmmmmm. Now im back to where i started. I want a macbook and all of its features, but i want to be able to atleast play COD2. Does anyone know if the next model of the macbook is going to have an actual graphics card, or atleast something better?

This one issue is holding me off on it

 

It is doubtful that a MacBook will ever have a dedicated GPU. It is one of the major differences between the it and the Pro. Many people would love for it, but I don't see why Apple would do that.