Maybe we have one more switcher

As I've read, there are more and more switcher, probably because of the same reason i would like to.

I bought an Asus A6Ja Notebook, that is quite good for gaming because of the x1600, as a desktop replacement, and because i always wanted to have a notebook and because my desktop died it was the perfect time.

What i like about the notebook is it's graphics card only and the (compared to my classmates notebooks) wide touchpad.

What i dislike is the screen (the viewing angels are the worst i have ever seen and even when my head is targeted black at the top differs from black at the bottom, in fact, if you see windows xp booting the background color is not black, it is silver...) and...

...the weight and the size. I never realized that since the day i went to the new school (that offers wlan). It's really a pain to get it from one place to another if you do it everyday so i decided to go with the macbook (Knowing it is not the lightest and that the gpu is not comparable with the x1600, i wouldn't want to do gaming in school at all). MPB is too expensive for me and the size not suited for my kind of use.

There are just some things i need to clarify:

• price must not be higher than 1000 € (Do i get discount though i am not student but a pupil?)
• are there any Core Duo's beeing sold anymore officially by apple? Is it a huge difference compared to Core 2 Duo? Would you buy a Core Duo if it would be possible (is it?) instead of paying the extra charge (then...)?
• heard the macbook is small, but not the leightest (weight), how does it feel?
• sharp edges? Is it painful?
• Leopard... when do you think will it come out and would you wait for it? Of course you can buy the os later but will it run smooth with the macbook? The macbook has a bad gpu, what if leopard uses XGL, it will probably not work right smoothly, right?

Many thanks for reading all of this and for your advices in advance

 

I assume there is an Apple Germany, you should check price and student discounts policy there (btw, student = pupil, what do you mean?). I guess the price shouldn't be more than 1000€ but who knows.
While there is not a notable improvement going from CD to C2D in the Macbooks, I'd hardly see why someone would like a CD now, since they bear the same prices. Unless you plan to buy a refurb of course.
I'd say the Macbook feels heavy. It's about 2,3kg. It is quite compact though. If that matters to you try to see one in person beforehand. As for the sharp edges, I've never hurt myself with those, but there are enough complaints... perhaps it depends on the typing position.
I'd wait for Leopard if I could, there might be improvements in the hardware lineup as well. But Leopard won't use XGL which is a Linux technology (well, they could since it is open... but they'd never do it, trust me ;-) ) And XGL is fairly light and would run on the GMA950 anyways. I'd be very surprised if any effects in Leopard wouldn't run in the Macbooks. Don't mistake OS X for Vista.

::EDIT:: Here is the Macbook at Apple Germany:
http://store.apple.com/Apple/WebObj...clm=MacBook&wosid=Gv5HZuyZpTrK2n56lF7dAgtXEm0
1119 euros... I don't know enough German to hunt a student discount in the site, good luck.

 

Thanks for your input so far

I managed to get to the site that reads the student prices. It says:

1,83 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
512 MB ram
60 GB hdd
combo drive
Eur 1.051,96

2,0 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
1 GB ram
80 GB hdd
SuperDrive Laufwerk with Double-Layer-Unterstützung
Eur 1.240,42

As far as i can see, the first configuration does not have a dvd burner included. While i don't burn dvd's everyday (only backups once and then) it is still a useful thing to have, if not a "must have" nowadays... But if i take this notebook and sell my current one i don't have a dvd burner, and i am not going to buy an external hdd (please don't note that the first macbook has a 60 gb hdd only )

However, if i sell my current notebook, i would get the additional cash to buy the second macbook. And i would have such nice things like 1 GB Ram that is very important to run Parallelis, and if i buy a macbook, i am definitely going to install that or boot xp native using bootcamp - additional 20 gb free space on the hdd is also nice to have but not neccessarely - neither the 0,2 Ghz cpu speed is (for me).

I could not find any other differences in the configuration of the 2 macbooks.

If i configure the first macbook so it has 1 gb ram and a 80 gb drive, the price is Eur 1.173,34.

If i only add the ram the price is Eur 1.126,93.

Not much € left to the Macbook2 price.

So it seems i sell my notebook and get the second?

I am on holiday on friday and going to use the time while i wait for my connection train to examine the macbook again in a shop.

What are your opinions? Anything might be useful