patrykens Posted December 19, 2008 Share Posted December 19, 2008 I'm buiyng a Macbook soon and I'm wondering which of those two would be better for me: - New aluminum MacBook 13,3"/2GHz/2GB/160 GB/SD/GF9400M/Alu FSB 1066 - MacBook 13,3"/2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo/2GB/250GB/Double-layer SuperDrive/BT/AE (black one) FSB 800 I need it for: - internet - HD movies - music /recording guitar - photoshopping I've got 720p HD TV which would be used to watch HD movies and photoshop Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/141899-macbook-suggestion/ Share on other sites More sharing options...
agent-squirrel Posted December 20, 2008 Share Posted December 20, 2008 I would say the black one. For HD movies you need all the processor speed you can muster. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/141899-macbook-suggestion/#findComment-1006597 Share on other sites More sharing options...
guitarhelper Posted December 20, 2008 Share Posted December 20, 2008 The new Macbooks do not have firewire on them. I just got the last generation MacBook for recording and doing music stuff because of that reason. Brian www.guitarhelper.net Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/141899-macbook-suggestion/#findComment-1007321 Share on other sites More sharing options...
patrykens Posted December 20, 2008 Author Share Posted December 20, 2008 Is firewire worth it ? how about external drives, is USB sufficent for that ? Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/141899-macbook-suggestion/#findComment-1007609 Share on other sites More sharing options...
zeeky Posted December 20, 2008 Share Posted December 20, 2008 agent-squirrel says if you want to watch hd you need a faster processor.. thats not true; the aluminum macbooks have newer, much faster graphics cards that have hardware decoding. that means the processor does less work and the work is offloaded to the graphics card. if you want to do any graphical stuff like photoshop or watch movies, the new graphics card is MUCH more important than the extra 400 mhz. theres simply no competition between the macbooks, UNLESS you consider firewire a big loss. i don't, because firewire is dying and my recording equipment is already USB. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/141899-macbook-suggestion/#findComment-1007664 Share on other sites More sharing options...
patrykens Posted December 20, 2008 Author Share Posted December 20, 2008 I've never been using firewall on my desktop pc so I don't consider it a loss The only thing I think of now is how am I going to squeeze my 1TB into 250GB perhaps external drive is needed. Can anybody tell me how do the USB ones work ? Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/141899-macbook-suggestion/#findComment-1007697 Share on other sites More sharing options...
booger_sniffer5000 Posted December 20, 2008 Share Posted December 20, 2008 The transfer rates of the USB ones are kinda slow, but not bad. I would say definitely get the new MacBook, the graphics cards of the old ones didn't work well at all in OS X (poorly written drivers), even dock animations could be choppy. And if you're going to be watching HD movies, then you will want the faster graphics card. Plus the new MacBooks look better in my opinion. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/141899-macbook-suggestion/#findComment-1007736 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Berzerker Posted December 21, 2008 Share Posted December 21, 2008 MOST DEFINITELY, the new Macbook. Get a cheap 1TB external and use a hub if necessary, but an external works very well and the speeds aren't that bad. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/141899-macbook-suggestion/#findComment-1007860 Share on other sites More sharing options...
patrykens Posted December 21, 2008 Author Share Posted December 21, 2008 Thanks As it turns out, I might be able to get the new macbook 2.4GHz Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/141899-macbook-suggestion/#findComment-1008217 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wrenbird Posted December 21, 2008 Share Posted December 21, 2008 If you can afford the Aluminum 2.4 GHz model, and you're doing photoshop and the such, I'd say a better use of money is to get the 2.0GHz model with 4GB of RAM. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/141899-macbook-suggestion/#findComment-1008506 Share on other sites More sharing options...
patrykens Posted December 21, 2008 Author Share Posted December 21, 2008 Ram is something I can add later, upgrading cpu is far more expensive, am I right ? Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/141899-macbook-suggestion/#findComment-1008685 Share on other sites More sharing options...
rollcage Posted December 21, 2008 Share Posted December 21, 2008 Ram is something I can add later, upgrading cpu is far more expensive, am I right ? You won't be able to upgrade the CPU later as they are soldered onto the motherboard. But you're right, you can add ram later. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/141899-macbook-suggestion/#findComment-1008696 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stylez Posted December 21, 2008 Share Posted December 21, 2008 yeah but 300$ for an illumanted keyboard and just 400mhz more is a lot. i'd also say, get the 2.0ghz and spend the saved 300$ for ram and maybe a hdd upgrade or get a mbp, 13" is a little too small for things like ps, isnt it? Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/141899-macbook-suggestion/#findComment-1008755 Share on other sites More sharing options...
patrykens Posted December 21, 2008 Author Share Posted December 21, 2008 0.4Ghz, illuminated keaboard and more diskspace. 13inch is indeed too small for photoshop, that's why I want to plug it to 32" LCD TV Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/141899-macbook-suggestion/#findComment-1008853 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Berzerker Posted December 21, 2008 Share Posted December 21, 2008 You can easily get an upgrade kit from Crucial.com for about $120. It's not that much. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/141899-macbook-suggestion/#findComment-1008925 Share on other sites More sharing options...
patrykens Posted December 21, 2008 Author Share Posted December 21, 2008 The problem is I'm from Poland, and there is little choice on that subject (upgrading macs) Well ... I've been working in Photoshop on my current Hack and I am satisfied with the speed and this macbook would be even faster I don't do any hardcore rendering, so ... And any HD movies also ran seamlessly Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/141899-macbook-suggestion/#findComment-1009060 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts