Thinking About Getting a Mac...

So, right now I have a dell xps m1530. It is about a year and a half old. It's served me pretty well, but I'm going to college in the fall and would like a better laptop. Right now my main problems with the laptop are that 1.5 processor is very slow at times, vista takes FOREVER to start up and I have some programs turned off upon startup, the laptop gets VERY hot from just internet and aol. Also it is falling apart a little bit, the face plate in front of the headphone jacks fell off, part of the logo chipped, and the screws are loose on the screen.

I have been looking at the MBP line, and I really think I would like one. I am stuck between the 15" and the 17". Well I will be taking this to classes, I would still like a nice large viewing screen for movies and whatnot. DVD burner is a necessity, and I'm VERY excited they added the SD card slot! That was something I was really going to miss on my xps.

Anyway, I'm currently going to major in english education, but I took a class this year that exposed me to web design and graphic design. I LOVED it! I feel like I need a laptop that can easily take on heavy photo shop and probably golive. I've heard that macs are the best for photo editing. Also, I've always had PCs, but I feel I can easily adjust to the new OS.

I guess I just want to know if you feel the MBP is a good choice and what configurations you might recommend? I tried posting something in the "What notebook should I buy?" but didn't get any responses towards apple, which is where I am leaning most towards buying.

Also, I won't be buying the laptop until July at the earliest, waiting for graduation money.

Oh, and another side note, the only computer game I play is Sims 3. So the laptop MUST be able to play it pretty much effortlessly. I've heard that Sims 3 hasn't been working too well on the macbooks though?


Thanks!

 

^^^
Total myth.

My suggestion is if you want portability PLUS large screen real estate, get a 13" Macbook Pro and an external monitor. If you have the money, fork it out for the new LED display since you don't need an adapter for the DisplayPort plug.

 

Ohh good idea!

That's really a myth? I've heard it multiple times, never knew it wasn't true.

The other thing that worries me about the 13" is I've heard that the graphics card isn't as good as the 15" or 17"? It's really important to me that it can play Sims 3 and new sims games that will come out in the next four years.

Thanks for your input!

 

from what i can see you want to do... any of the current or last model Macbook Pros should work fine... the problems with Sims 3 right now aren't related to Macs, but to problems with the Port, which hopefully will get a patch... but its still decent, nothing major.

 

Portability wise macs are very well designed with a long lasting battery, and thin/light design. However if you want a large screen the 15 and 17 inch macs are a little more expensive than other pcs. For hardcore photo editing/graphic design there is no advantage to macs, however as a hobby where you wouldn't want to fork out a large amount of money (or hit up torrents) for professional software macs come with more pre-installed software like ilife/photoshop to help with basic graphic/web design. You should look at the features and if you do decide to go with mac, I'd suggest the $1700 15inch mac pro, as the 17inch is way more expensive, and a 2.66 GHz is fine for basic graphic work. The 2.8 or 3.06 is not that much faster. And the 9400 should play sims fine, the 9600 isn't really needed.

If you do decide to get serious in graphic design I'd almost recommend getting a pc. You get can get a pc for cheaper with a bigger, higher res screen, better processor, and then have money for an external display. Going the mac route might be allot more expensive.

 

Might want to get a can of compressed air and blow the dust off the heatsink and use sleep or hibernate instead of turning your computer off. That way you don't have to suffer before you buy a new laptop.

I would also suggest a small laptop with an external lcd screen. Carrying a 15" or 17" laptop will be annoying after a while.

BTW.. you'll need to buy photoshop again in you want to use photoshop, the Mac version because PC version of photoshop doesn't work on Mac.

 

The 9400m should be able to handle it, but I may be wrong. I could play Team Fortress 2 at ~ 30 FPS on fairly high settings with no AA and AF

Agree with the part about both being essentially the same. Adobe makes CS4 for both Mac and Windows. Same with Lightroom.

 

Check with your college before you plunk down the two grand or whatever to get the software... My sister's heading to Harvard this fall as an undergrad; I was reading her prefrosh orientation brochure and it said that they provide the Adobe suite free to all students.

 

Without going into too much detail I'd say a 15" MBP sounds like a good fit for your needs. And believe me, you'll love it. I'm heavily into Photography and I've been using Macs just about exclusively for that even though I have three PCs.

If you already have a licence for Photoshop, Adobe allows you to transfer the licence from windows to mac (it just takes a call to Adobe customer service); I did it for my sister earlier this year and it was very easy. No need to buy it again, even if discounted. If it's a special licence you have (educational, corporate etc...) you might have to jump through a couple of hoops but Adobe CS will help you out.

Apart from adobe's products (Lightroom especially) I'd check out Aperture. After using both Lightroom and aperture, for me personally aperture was a better fit and ties into Photoshop easily for advanced editing, but on macs you have the choice of using either.

 

Wow, thanks for all of your advice!

To clarify, I don't own any adobe software right now, I've been using it at school in my web design class.

I'm not sure if I will definitely be able to switch to any sort of computer art major, but I really love it, so if anything, I'd like to at least do it in my spare time. As a hobby of sorts.

I haven't really heard of any programs other than the adobe programs we use in school. However, all the computers are dell in the tech lab at my school [high school, not future college] and they run photoshop VERY slowly. Though I'm sure it can majorly be attributed to running them all on the same network and stuff.

I also will definitely check on the education site and maybe send an email about whether they include the software. I sent the tech department an email before about whether the school is primarily mac or pc and they said it's pretty well-balanced, except that the computer art students typically go for mac. But, as stated, I don't think I'm going to be able to switch, already have english scholarships.

I really appreciate all of your advice and your honesty, it's helping a lot!

I tried to go to the Apple store to check out some more configurations and pricings with the LCD, but keep getting a page load error.

 

from what I've heard.. with the new laptops announced Monday, as well as the new iPhone and Snow Leopard information, at times Apple is having problems with too many people hitting them. Try again later is the best bet.

 

I have to argue that Macs are better for video and photo editing but only under 2 conditions...

1. Stock from vendor with no extra software to purchase. Microsoft just can't match iPhoto and especially iMovie for editing. I've seen it in action at college at in business and people just take to the Apple software faster in terms of pure editing to a finished product. Now if your already familiar with Final Cut and Photoshop and stuff, well then it's still a toss up IMO between Apple and PC.

2. For novice and very amateur computer users with little to no knowledge of editing. Again, in terms of pure editing folks just take to iMovie faster then any commercial Windows based editing software that I have seen so far.

If you already have knowledge of and plan to use more advanced software like Final Cut and Photoshop then you obviously get more bang for you buck in terms of hardware when purchasing a PC. That being said Macs are more affordable then ever, and have more options then ever. Now that they are Intel based you can replace OSX with Windows or dual boot them and in terms of hardware Mac has everything you need and is visually pleasing in every way for a little more money.

 

Oh yeah, unless your in an absolute rush, I would wait until you hit the campus. Better deals all around once your a student in regards to hardware. And inquiries to fellow students usually turns up TONS of software.

 

That's no longer the case. The new softwares from Live services such as live photo gallery and movie maker is pretty evenly matched to imovie and iphoto. The free softwares for windows no longer suck.

Too bad that Apple doesn't want the people with PC to run Mac OS on their computers legally.

 

Apple wants tight control over software/hardware integration to ensure a certain customer experience and simplified support. If Apple all of a sudden allowed everyone to install OSX, considering the myriad of hardware configurations available off the shelf it would be a nightmare to support but more importantly for them, the Apple experience is no longer assured.

This is why despite my leanings towards Macs I really admire MSFT for what it tries to achieve. I always thought they would be well served to cut off legacy support and have some control over hardware, but I can also understand why such a thing would be counterproductive. This is where it's beneficial to be a niche market; MSFT is so big now that it's somewhat anchored and held back by its own success.

 

Apple gives you adobe photoshop cs4 for $170 if you buy a mac. Its a sweet deal considering the other discount i found was 300. Not bad at all but i think you gotta call apple to get the discount after you buy your macbook pro. Trust me i have used cs4 and i am pretty knowledgeable about photoshop. Its a program i am always stuck using in my game dev classes. I swear everytime i am making a game my project lead calls me to do photoshop work which i dont hate at all. You will like it. And it will run great on your new pro.

 

Well I'm not sure about movie maker, at least the Beta included in Windows live. It feels stripped down in an attempt to feel simpler.

Waiting till school is a good idea though, or at least waiting till you get a .edu email address. Many companies are willing to give you discounts if you have a ,edu email address.

 

I think thats the express version or whatever they call it, not the full version but its still a good deal. BTW final cut pro is OS X only, same with logic. However final cut pro is not really considered a full professional video editing software, and its kind of overpriced. If you do serious video editing in college you will most likely be using some other program.

As for graphic/web designing as a hobby, I do think a mac has the advantage over the pc like the adobe discount and ilife for making the website. However there are great free and commercial alternatives on a pc that are just as good, they just don't come pre-installed in the whole package like the mac does. If you do decide to major in graphic or web you most likely will want to buy the system that is best compatible with the software your college uses, mac or pc.

 

If you are taking this to classes, you definitely want to get the 15". And I would even advise that you consider the new 13" MBP. With what you would save by buying the 13" MBP over the 17" MBP (and certain 15") you could also get a 24" LED Cinema display for your movie viewing or photo editing.

 

Yeah in graphic work having a true representation of color is very important. All laptop screens, even when calibrated, don't offer very accurate color. So opting with the 13 inch and getting a really nice external monitor gives you portability with a good screen you can plug into for your graphics.

 

Isn't that the whole point?
iMovie, iphoto and live movie maker and live photo gallary all feels stripped down and easy to use. All of the software offer about the same capabilities as well.

 

CS4 for 170? I will definitely look into that! I'm also already considered a student, I've got a .edu address.

I know that the computer lab, for the computer art classes, is all mac computers.

So I was looking at the 13" and I got a pretty good configuration, but are you talking about the external monitor thats like $900? I don't think I can justify spending so much on a monitor.

 

^well yes,but it is really worth 900$ if you are screen Nazi! It uses high quality I-SPH panel instead of regular TN panels used in cheap monitors and LED backliting ...all high quality monitors are in that price range!

 

I think he said photoshop cs4 is $170, not the suite. I would not buy Adobe CS4 from any vendor until you check your education discount through your school for Adobe software first. The discount through your school will always be much bigger.

For example:
Adobe CS4 Master - $2499
Student version - $1000
Student version through my school - $500!

The Master version is all of Adobe, in your case you're probably fine with the smaller packages.

I-SPH? What technology is that? The apple LED monitors are S-IPS, which there are S-IPS monitors out there cheaper than $900.

The HP LP2475w 24" is cheaper than the Apple display and is a very nice monitor if you do decide on an external. It doesn't have LED backlit, but its about $350 less.

 

You're exactly right. When people speak of the elegance of Apple hardware/software (as compared to Windows/PC's) it's this absolute control over the entire environment that helps make it possible. If Apple opened up its OS to 100 3rd-party PC vendors then the OSX experience would probably be like, I dunno, Vista.

The bottom line is that Microsoft can't do what Apple does, at least not anymore. You can't exactly come out and orphan 20,000,000 enterprise desktops every time you want to roll out an OS upgrade. And Apple couldn't do what Microsoft does, at least not without sacrificing the quality of the experience that they currently offer.

Funny, every company wants to increase its market share (one assumes) but there might almost be a point where it'd be counter-productive for Apple to do so past a certain point. As you say, it's one thing to turn on a dime and orphan a small group of people. It's quite another to turn your back on a large one.

 

I don't know too much about monitors and displays, what does all of that mean? I-SPH and TN panels? LED backlighting? I know LED is supposed to be better but I don't have any idea why.

I'll ask the school tonight if they have anyway of getting the Adobe CS4 with a discount.

I'll look at the HP one too, but I'd rather not order from two different companies. If it is worth it, I definitely will though.

 

If all you need is a large monitor without the need of super-duper-extremely accurate color, then those $900 monitors are not needed. A 22" LCD monitor can be easily had for $150. A 50" plasma monitor can be had for as low as $750.

 

Sorry,it is H-IPS (I am a bit drunk ATM )

Do you have any store around? Go there and check the monitors(cheap monitors and expensive moniotors like apple or 800$ + samsung monitors)-you ll see the difference!

H-IPS has much higher color accuracy,much better viewing angels,etc.

LED backlit makes colors more vivid,brighter and does not dim over time

 

Unfortunately, I don't live close to any computer stores. The nearest apple store is about 1.5 hours and the nearest stores like Best Buy are 45 minutes I believe, if they even have one there. I'm sure I'll go to one of the two cities before I order the mac, though.

Thanks for clearing that up, makes sense!

Yeah, I thought that monitors were like 300 at most, so I was pretty shocked at the 900. It's been a while

I might have to go the cheaper route with the monitor, but we'll see I guess.

 

if you are not too picky or don't need high accuracy,any 200-300$ monitor will work!

hehe,there are monitors that cost 10000$

 

If color accuracy is not a concern, then I would stick with a basic monitor. Remember that macbooks have minidisplay port, so you have to buy an adapter that outputs to dvi

As to what external monitor to choose, thats another thread.

 

for adapters, I'd save some cash and buy them from Monoprice and not Apple... they even have HDMI ones Apple doesn't make.

 

So I talked to my college and apparently they don't offer any discounts on software for individual students. They have every program on the computers in the labs but nothing for students computers.

 

The Sims isn't that taxing of a game and the 9400GM should handle it fine, so I would suggest either the 13" or base model 15" mbp would be ideal for you, as your more likely to be booting 95% of the time into the 9400 for extended battery life. Given that you'll be carrying it around a lot I would lean towards the 13", and then if needed get an external monitor for home with the money saved.
The smaller form factor and less weight are often over looked until you actually experience the difference on your back... 0.5kg doesn't seem a lot on paper but its definitely noticeable and worth every penny... or in this case the $$$ you'll save.
a

 

Then your next best option is to buy from a student online retailer such as:

http://www.academicsuperstore.com/

 

That is awesome! Thanks for sending the site, I will most likely purchase adobe cs4 from there. :]

 

The Sims 3 does have quite high system requirements; I believe the 9400 will play it but may not play it that well. It says X3100 is minimum requirement, so the 9400 definitely will play it!


FOR MAC OS X

* Mac OS X 10.5.7 Leopard or higher
* Intel Core Duo Processor
* 2 GB RAM
* ATI X1600 or Nvidia 7300 GT with 128 MB of Video RAM, or Intel Integrated GMA X3100.
* At least 6.1 GB of hard drive space with at least 1 GB of additional space for custom content and saved games
* This game will not run on PowerPC (G3/G4/G5) based Mac systems, or the GMA 950 class of integrated video cards.