[miffed]

I am looking to buy a laptop & dont want to go over £900 really

so .....

do i buy this (G4 - from apples refurb shop)

Powerbook (http://store.apple.com/Apple/WebObjects/ukstore.woa/1224040/wo/Uc3eKtcGrr9H3b9BZTwNfKkyARb/2.0.0.19.1.0.8.7.3.5.1.1.13.1.5.1.0.5.0)

Or just a shiny new White Macbook with a nice Intel proccessor ?

What do you reckon ?

[miffed]

lol - after simply reading my own post back to myself - I think I am decided on the macbook , lol

[Ben]

Hehe :D If you can stretch to a white MacBook then go with it! It's all Intel moving forward for Mac so I'm sceptical about buying anything G4 or G5 powered now.

[Frasman77]

I'd agree completely. I just upgraded to a 1.8ghz white macbook a month or so ago. My gf has a G4 ibook. For day to day tasks the differences are not all that noticeable, but the screen is considerably better, as is the keyboard. It's also slimmer and I swear a bit lighter. Also even my standard specced machine will play world of warcraft at an acceptable speed - I am quite sure the ibook would struggle with that.

There have been some reports of the sort of teething problems you sometimes get with new apple products (my last machine was a g3 ibook which was plagued with logic failures, a design fault apple eventally had to recognise) but I haven't experienced any of them.

I'd definetely recommend going for the macbook.

[Ben]

I didn't realise there was another Mac user in our midst! It's crazy, not so long ago I didn't know a single Mac user, now there seems to be tonnes, myself included.

I'm glad you're enjoying your Macbook! I'm itching for a MBP, but I want integrated 3G for obvious reasons and Apple still haven't made the jump. Still, with Dell leading the charge and Intel talking about adding it to Centrino I think I stand a pretty good chance of having the MBP of my dreams!

[miffed]

Well picked up my Macbook today :D

I am very pleased with it - seems to run exactly as my Imac when optimized for performance , and it isn't much slower when optimized for battery life either

Think I made the right choice - even the guy in Dixons had a little joke at Apples expense ("Don't suppose you fancy spending £130 on an extra 20gb of hard drive space ?" pointing at the Black macbook ... "nah , didn't think so " :D )

So far so good

now ...... I think maybe I need a powermac next :rolleyes:

[chaslam]

Yes Ive had a whte macbook 1.83ghz and 1GB of RAM (Brought of ebay for £42 :D) and its great.

Put bootcamp on it the other day and it runs great. Here are some pics:

http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j251/chaslam500/DSC00964.jpg
http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j251/chaslam500/DSC00967.jpg
http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j251/chaslam500/DSC00979.jpg
http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j251/chaslam500/DSC00982.jpg

And some pics running bootcamp:

http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j251/chaslam500/Picture046.jpg
http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j251/chaslam500/Picture045.jpg
Mow im planning on selling my year old mac mini and using the macbook as my main computer. Its great having the best of both worlds (windows compatability and OSXs everything else :D) all on one machine.

[Hands0n]

£42 ???????????? Green :D

Pics look great, I'd like one of those for that kind of price!!

[Ben]

Me thinks just the RAM was £42, Hands0n ;) *prays heatwave gives up for a few days!*

[miffed]

From what I gather , bootcamp is no longer the way to do things ?

On the Apple site they are touting an app called "parallels" that lets you run any Windows OS as an app through OSX (like the older virtual PC thing)

Wish they'd make their minds up ! - Might give it a go though - apparatly it works with ANY windows OS (handy , as the only one I have laying around is 98se

Still not sure I want to pollute either of my Macs with copious amounts of viruses and the like though

[Ben]

They're two very different things really.

When you run Windows XP under the beta of Boot Camp you're running it as if it were the only OS on the computer. It has complete control of all your hardware, including the graphics card.

When you run an OS under Parallels the second OS is instead being virtualised. It doesn't have direct access to your hardware (games wont work very well if at all) and it'll be a little slower. However, as Mac's are Intel now and as the higher end Intel chips have Virtualisation support performance can be more than satisfactory for using that odd Windows application within Mac OS X for example.

It's choice, and it's all good!

[chaslam]

I considered Parallels. I then saw the price tag (£80) and then thought there wasnt any point when I could just use bootcamp for free, esspecially since you get a proper experience of the OS and if you have a spare disk and serial number lying around someone.

[miffed]

From what I gather , bootcamp is no longer the way to do things ?



From this - I didn't mean it was the BEST way to do things , I meant the way Apple are suggesting we do things by the looks of it :) - I'll probably give bootcamp a go as soon as I can acquire a copy of XP at a reasonable price (legally , of course)


Not impressed with Parallels TBH - Downloaded it , applied for a trial Key (twice) - which will supposedly be mailed to me (one day :rolleyes: ) - been over 24 hours now and no sign of it - Can't help but wonder if I had ordered a full version Key & parted with $80 , would I still be twiddling my thumbs ?

[3GScottishUser]

Have you seen what Tesco are selling?

An Acer laptop, slim and neat with 15.4 Crystal TFT widescreen, 80GB HDD, 1.5Ghz Intel Wireless enabled chipset, 1GB DDR RAM, DVD RW + Dual Layer, 3 USB2, Video/Audio Out, Modem, LAN, Win XP Home + Works + 3 year RTB warranty.

Not bad for just £449.99

They also have a lower spec widescreen model with standard TFT, 40GB HDD, 256MB RAM, but still wireless etc for....

£299.97

Creating a lot of interest in my local Tesco, even the Poles (lots of them here) are stopping and looking.

BTW - They are doing a Lexmark all in one Printer, Scanner, Copier for £39.99!!

Amazing!!

[Hands0n]

That is incredibly good value and spec - I got close to that £449 from Aria, had to buy XP Pro myself (I don't use XP Home, security too weak for my liking). So that jacked the cost up a bit - I could have dipped below the £400 had I done that.

The time of the sub-£500 laptop is most definitely here, now lets see it dip below £400 in the mainstream. Oh, and shove a 3G/HSDPA chipset in while you're at it :D

[Ben]

Mhm.

As always, there's value for money and there's getting what you pay for. For computing equipment on a shoe string Tesco often has some eyewatering deals, but Apple Mac's still represent value for money at twice or three times the price. The Macbook especially has hit a sweet spot between cost and performance, holding its own against equivalently specified Windows laptops. However, the only way anyone can appreciate the added value of OS X and the iLife suite of applications is to try them out for themselves.

[miffed]

Mhm.

As always, there's value for money and there's getting what you pay for. For computing equipment on a shoe string Tesco often has some eyewatering deals, but Apple Mac's still represent value for money at twice or three times the price. The Macbook especially has hit a sweet spot between cost and performance, holding its own against equivalently specified Windows laptops. However, the only way anyone can appreciate the added value of OS X and the iLife suite of applications is to try them out for themselves.

Must admit , Even while looking around Dixons I did keep looking out the corner of my eye at the kind of spec that was being offered by other manufacturers for my £899 (and far less in some cases ) , and being a little tempted to "go conventional"
But at the end of the day - I didn't really want a laptop - I just wanted all features of my Imac to be portable ! :D So my choice was pretty much made for me
Haviing shown the Macbook to a few mates , I was reminded of what fueled my choice - with EVERYONES reaction being simply "wow!" - you just don't get that reaction from showing people a PC ! :D

[andymc001]

The reason the Apple are pushing it as parrallels now is that boot camp is only a beta, it is due to stop working when they release the new Mac OS Leopard i think it is, which will have it built into it.

I really would like a nice shiny macbook but i need something in the next few weeks and with the next version of macbooks not due out till later in the year i'd be ragin' for spending all the money on the macbook and having to pay more for the new OS

[Ben]

Mhm, there's always something new just around the corner. If you bought now you'd probably still be 6 months from Leopard shipping.

If you buy a Windows notebook now, you'll be upgrading to Vista around the same time and forking out more!

Get that MacBook ;) Just be sure to get (or add) enough RAM to total at least 1GB.

[chaslam]

The reason the Apple are pushing it as parrallels now is that boot camp is only a beta, it is due to stop working when they release the new Mac OS Leopard i think it is, which will have it built into it.

I really would like a nice shiny macbook but i need something in the next few weeks and with the next version of macbooks not due out till later in the year i'd be ragin' for spending all the money on the macbook and having to pay more for the new OS

True, but its not going to be hugely expensive, probably no more then £120. Vista on the other hand is supposed to be very expensive. Also, would you really need to upgrade to that? Lets be honest, if your not going to need bootcamp or the other new features it has and your happy with what it does now, then there is really no need what so ever to upgrade to leopard when it comes out, is there?

Like ben says, there is always something new around the corner anyway, so whatever you buy, something new of it will come out in 6 months time. Get it, you wont regret.