Future Macbook owner. Need advice.

Hey guys. I'm a graphic designer who uses all of the Adobe programs including Flash. I want to buy the blackbook and put in the 2gig memory, with the 120hd. Should I wait for the core 2 duo or should I just go to the store now and get MB? I don't want to wait too long, I just need some advice on what to do, since most of you here know more about Apple. Also has anyone have any experience in running the design programs on a macbook? How do they run?
Commodore 64 Other OS

However, being a graphic designer myself, I
PERSONALLY would go with the MBP. Based on the fact
that it has a bigger screen, more graphics memory and
comes stock at higher specs.
I totally agree. Get the MBP right away. You won't be sorry. I just upgraded from a MacBook to a MBP and love it. It boots faster (under 30 sec.) than my MacBook with a 7200RPM drive in it. The screen is larger and much better quality, along with the sound. It's also quieter and runs cooler to the touch than my MacBook.
Don't get me wrong, the MacBook is a great computer, but the thing that bothered me the most about it, was the graphics circuit sharing memory. If I started doing something graphic intense, the fan would start ramping up. One 3-D app I have causes the fan to run wide open all the time. The MBP is almost totally silent.
BTW..you can get an education discounted MBP for as little as $1799.00--and that includes 1G RAM and a 120 GB hard drive.
-Bmer
Mac Owners Support Group
Join Us @ MacOSG.com
ITMS: MacOSG Podcast
 An Apple User Group 

Similar Messages

New X-fi Xtreme Music owner need advice.

I just upgraded from Audigy 2 ZS to X-Fi Xtreme Music. I'm using Vista 64bit SP2 and will be upgrading to Win 7 64 bit soon. I have Logitech X-530 5. speakers set. Before this, I used Daniel's Audigy Support Pack 3.5 and quite happy with it. Now I'm I'm using X-Fi Support Pack 2.0. Being new to X-Fi, I'm quite confused and have a few questions on X-Fi's mode.
1) Games
If I play any games, I assume I have to switch to Game Mode. Do need to enable X-Fi CMSS 3D, X-Fi Crystalizer,SVM and EQ? I have 5. speakers and will enabling those enhancement spoilts the games' sound. If I'm not mistaken, most newer games supports OpenAL so 5. speakers are automatically supported.
2) Music
So far I have been using Foobar for music. I'm using DirectSound output and and Channel Mixer to upmix stereo to 5.. I believe X-Fi CMSS 3D does the same thing so I need to switch to Entertainment mode. If I want to use CMSS 3D, I would need to disable Channel Mixer in Foobar but I still havent try which sounds better. What are the best settings for CMSS 3D for 5. speakers set? Do I need to enable SVM, X-Fo Crystalizer and etc?
3) Movies
This is the hardest part for me because I don't know which is the best settings. I normally use Media Player Classic Home Cinema and AC3 filter for sound. If my movie is stereo, AC3 Filter will upmix to 5. and if the audio is DTS or DD AC3, it will play as it is. Which mode should I choose for movies? Do I need to enable CMSS3D, X-Fi Crystalizer, SVM and etc?
I would appreciate if you guys could advice me the best settings for my setup because I'm really confused. Thank you!

Hello. XtremeMusic owner here
For most games you don't have to switch modes and can happily play in ENT or GAME mode. Some exceptions. If you play a game like BF242 then it's better to switch to GAME mode. If you are playing over headphones then again go to game mode and select HEADPHONES under the speaker tab, enable CMSS to get 3D surround over headphones in games. I think the newer games handle sound a bit differently - i.e. they don't use EAX and such so experiment with this one.
For Music I switch to ENT mode because I have different EQ settings for MP3s. I up the bass slightly, turn on Crystalizer and set CMSS to SURROUND and the front/rear balance slider to about 75% front.
I also use MPC for movies and stay in ENT mode. The only difference I make is to switch of CMSS for a movie that has a true surround track otherwise the XFI will mix the front channels into the rears.

Questions from a future macbook owner

i would like to get a mac. either the normal macbook or the macbook pro, but i wanted to know if buying the pro is worth the xtra money. based on GHz, hard drive and memory/RAM, is it worth it?
if it is, which is probably the best deal? the $1,999, $2,499 or $2,799 one? is 2.4 GHz a huge difference from 2.5 GHz? is a 200GB memory a huge difference from 250GB?
http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPLE/WebObjects/AppleStore.woa/wa/RSLID?nnmm=br owse&node=home/shopmac/family/macbookpro
also, is the pro easier to upgrade than the normal macbook

That's really a question of preference. I think you should visit a store http://www.apple.com/buy/ and feel for yourself which one can do tasks you need better.
Advantage MacBook Pro:
1. The MacBook you have no option for glossy versus matte display, whereas the MacBook Pro you do.
2. The MacBook has no Express/34 slot. With that you can add EVDO, and SATA/II cards.
3. The MacBook has no backlighting of keys.
4. The MacBook has a smaller screen.
5. The MacBook Pro has more peripheral ports.
6. The MacBook Pro has a faster processor and a faster dedicated graphics processor.
Advantage MacBook
1. Its internal hard drive has instructions from Apple on how to replace.
2. It is slightly lighter weight.

New macbook owner need insight on downloading a word document?

I just got a new macbook for college.. never had one before and im use to hp with windows..now, is there a program like Microsoft Word i need to download?? to write word documents and stuff?

Download?
If you mean how to read/edit/use WORD documents on your Mac....your University should be able to sell you MS Office, or you can buy/download from Amazon.
You can also use NeoOffice (Google is your friend), or switch to Pages, the Apple solution.

New macbook user needs advice

Hello everyone, I have just placed my order and my first macbook will arrive this weekend. I am really excited and can't wait. Since I am new to mac, could anyone give me some advices? What are the things that I must do or I must NOT do? Thanks a lot.

Here are also some good things to check out.
MacBook
Mac 101: All Work and Play
It is OK to leave your battery hooked to the charger most of the time. The only time I unhook mine from the charger is when I calibrate. You should calibrate your battery in the first few days. Then you should calibrate every two months or so to keep the battery fully functioning. If you use your MacBook infrequently, it’s best to re-calibrate the battery at least once a month.
The following links have good information about the MacBook and the care of it's battery.
Tips for maximizing your Notebook battery charge
MacBook reduces processor speed when battery is removed while operating from an A/C adaptor
Apple portable computer's battery does not show a full charge in Mac OS X
Look here and here for some good tips about battery care.
MacBook: How to remove or install the battery
Determining Battery Cycle Count
Use and cleaning of MagSafe power connector

Future Mac owner seeking advice

Hi! So I've been using a PC my whole life. Odds are with the new laptops I'm making the switch to try out the Apple brand.
I've looked at the "Designing Airport Networks" pdf and just wanted to confirm I read it right and my idea for a home network would work. Also to gauge how difficult it may be to a OSX newbie such as myself, but not a Computer Tech newbie.
So here's my potential new network because I want to use a faster wireless system then 802.11g.
Apple Time Capsule - Cable modem into WAN port. Desktop PC into port 1. Time Capsule acts as DHCP host over a 802.11n 5GHz network. Laptop access's TC via wireless network and hopefully the PC can share files with the laptop through TC as well, I have to look into that and see how I can use the time capsule or if it is only for Time Machine backups in OSX.
Airport Extreme - PS3, DirecTV DVR and new printer/scanner/copier (most likely Canon or HP, still deciding) into the 3 gigabit ports. Airport Extreme acts as a bridge or access point and connects to the Time Capsule over wireless. Then those 3 devices have internet access thanks to the time capsule and its all over the 802.11n 5GHz network.
Sound doable? How difficult is it to set this up for a OSX newbie?
Any info would be much appreciated as I'm a bit nervous of making the change, but I REALLY don't want to buy a laptop with Vista or the next Windows that is supposedly built from Vista.

The_Drew wrote:
Hi
I've been trying to setup a similar network.
WRT TC to cable modem, that will work fine, you'll want to tweak the DHCP settings between the 2, you only want 1 device to act as your DHCP server so you avoid double NAT.
That depends on the cable modem. Some ISPs distribute cable modems, and DSL modems, that are routers in their own right. If that is the case then you'll want to set up your AirPort base station in bridged mode. That way the ISP's modem is the only one doing NAT and acting as the DHCP server.
Wirelessly connecting the Airport Extreme to your TC I'm not so sure about, in theory it should work but I'm trying to setup a similar situation at my house ( to avoid dark spots in the wifi coverage) and I can't get it to "join" an existing wireless network: It only wants to create a second wifi net.
In theory, its just a wireless bridge, but I'm guessing Apple has assumed we would use express base stations to perform that function and maybe the AEBS firmware won't allow it to join existing networks. Thats just my speculation though, so don't flame me if im wrong.
No, Apple does not assume that at all, both the Extreme and Express Base Stations and the Time Capsule are designed to be used together in what Apple calls a Wireless Distribution System (WDS). You can read instructions on how to do that beginning on page 42 of the manual 'Designing AirPort Networks'
http://manuals.info.apple.com/enUS/Designing_AirPort_Networks10.5-Windows.pdf
I had trouble getting it to work the first time I did it but it does work.
As for all the other comments about stability and poor support. Poppycock as we say in England. I have a G4 mac mini (g based), 1 Macbook (n based) 1 macbook pro (n based), 2 iphones (both g based) and 1 dell laptop (g based). The Apple devices are considerably more stable and drop connections far less frequently than my windoze machine. More importantly, they re-join networks much more quickly when they've dropped a connection than the Dell does too. But you should do your own testing to make sure its right for you.

Illegal name in verification - drive needs repair, owner needs advice!

Hi,
I have a problem with my ibookG4!!
I am relatively unfamiliar with operating system mechanics and only discovered the disc utility options because of reading similar issues amongst these threads!
I have been running fine until this week, when my clock reset itself to 1989 and now the mozilla firefox keeps freezing on me.
I ran disc utility verification.
it stated:
Verifying volume “Macintosh HD”
Checking HFS Plus volume.
Checking Extents Overflow file.
Checking Catalog file.
Illegal name
Checking multi-linked files.
Checking multi-linked files.
,0)
Checking Extended Attributes file.
Checking volume bitmap.
Checking volume information.
The volume Macintosh HD needs to be repaired.
Error: The underlying task reported failure on exit
1 HFS volume checked
Volume needs repair
I tried to repair it (using the disc utility), but it stopped before the end. Initially i had a lot of "iTunes / widget user name" disagreements that were simply fixed. The "illegal name" line was in red... meaning that there lies the problem?
I have no idea what that could mean or how to remedy it.
Also, if the start up disc is inserted and i fix it from there... (now please excuse me for sounding dumb) will i lose any of my files from the hard drive (e.g final cut projects)?
Im just not experienced enough to know how to sort this out and its probably really simple!
Any ideas?
Cheers
monster x
(and thanks to cornelius for recommendation to here...)

You shouldn't lose anything with this procedure. 1st insert install disk and let it load. then restart and hold down the c key to run off disk. go through the couple of windows that the disk asks, like language, and you will see at the top of screen, disk utility. choose that and 1st repair permissions. After that then go to repair disk and repair until there are no more errors in red. may or may not need a couple of tries. If all is well then go to preference panel, open startup disk icon, and choose your hard drive as the start up disk, and restart.

New G5 owner needs advice!

Hello, I just snagged a Power Mac G5 Dual 2.0ghz on eBay and absolutely love it! It works perfectly with the current set-up: DVR-104 Superdrive, 160GB hard drive, and Radeon 9600XT 128mb video card. However, I also picked up a used Radeon 9800 256mb Pro Special Edition card. When I put the card in the computer wouldn't boot past the gray screen. So I did a restart and it hung again, but this time the screen was all garbled. Did another restart and now nothing at all appears on the screen. Did a PRAM reset and SMU reset to no avail.
My question for those of you that have this card is this: is there anything special I need to do? Or do yo think I just have a bad card? I'm running Tiger 10.4.11 and have the latest ATI Displays 4.5.7 installed. I also installed the driver they had listed on the ATI website for the 9800SE. Is there any other way for me to test the condition of the card before I try to get a refund or replacement?
Thanks so much!

Well, I temporarily solved my problem and I hope it lasts. After researching the posts on this board regarding the temperamental heat sinks and fans on the Radeon 9800s, I took the heat sink off and discovered that the thermal paste had completely degraded and that the contact between the GPU and heat sink was not solid. So I cleaned it up, applied some arctic silver, put it back together and lo and behold, the computer booted up without incident, the display appeared normally and my frame rates for Halo doubled.

I have just purchased a new macbook and need to sync my iphone with itunes, i understand that you can only sync your phone with one itunes account. I do not want to wipe my iphone when syncing with this new itunes account. Any advice welcome

I have just purchased a new macbook and need to sync my iphone with itunes, i understand that you can only sync your phone with one itunes account. I do not want to wipe my iphone when syncing with this new itunes account. Any advice welcome

1) authorize iTunes on the new machine for your iTunes store account(s)
2) connect your device and right-click or control-click it in the iTunes Source list, then choose transfer purchases from the shortcut menu that appears.
3) sync the device
iTunes will wipe the iPhone but, since you transferred your purchases in the previous step, your content will be in your library and you can re-populate the iPhone with it.

I am looking for a small Dell black and white, laser printer like the Energy Star 1133 that is compatible with my macbook, 10.6.8. I would like to buy a new computer in the near future so would need it to be work on my next computer also. Any suggestion

I am looking for a small Dell black and white, laser printer like the Energy Star 1133 that is compatible with my macbook, 10.6.8. I would like to buy a new computer in the near future so would need it to be work on my next computer also. Any suggestions?
MacBook, Mac OS X (10.6.8)

I am looking for a small Dell black and white, laser printer like the Energy Star 1133 that is compatible with my macbook, 10.6.8. I would like to buy a new computer in the near future so would need it to be work on my next computer also. Any suggestions?
MacBook, Mac OS X (10.6.8)

I need advice after purchasing a MacBook Pro in the USA for use in the UK.

Hello all out there,
I bought a 13 inch MacBook Pro in the USA last week and brought it back with me to the UK. I had been given an Apple World Adapter kit by the gentleman in the apple store, however I realised today that it isn't for the MacBook Pro and is only for iPads, iphones and ipods. This means that despite paying around $40, I am stuck. I need advice as to how to charge the laptop in the UK now? Is there an adapter for this or can I use any ordinary USA to UK adapter and stick it to the one I have from the USA?
Any advice would be much appreciated.
Thanks,
Zainab

AFAIK, the World Adapter kit has a replacement PLUG for the power brick. What you need is just something that can go into your country's wall socket, as the power brick itself is universal and can work from 100-240 VAC, 50-60 Hz.
In other words, you ARE aware that the power brick has removable plugs on the AC end, right?

All future MacBook with 10.7 Lion will be set to 64bit kernel by default always ?

Dear Apple and Mac Expert,
Actually I hope Apple can answer this if possible or someone can redirect me to any Apple post ?
I learned that right from 10.7 Lion available, the default kernel mode is always set to 64bit no matter installed in MacBook White or Pro. I am wondering is it same for all future MacBook Air and Pro that come with 10.7 Lion will be set to 64bit kernel by default??
I really need a confirmation on this to support my future plan.
Appreciate Apple can answer this or someone can help.
Thanks in advanced!

Apple typically does not answer questions here. Further, your question invites speculation about future product releases, which is specifically forbidden in the Terms of Use for these forums.
That having been said, Apple usually looks forward, not back. Once they remove something it is usually gone forever. Witness the floppy drive disappearing in the late 1990s.
Best of luck.

Need advice: v5 versus v5.5

Newbie with less than a month's experience using a free trial of v5.5 for the specific purpose of creating the interior layout and wraparound cover for a trade paperback needs advice on the following;
It didn't take long to realize that my objectives barely scratch the surface of ID's capabilities. My guess is that everything I've done so far or will need to do in the future for other books, novels in black and white, simple chapter by chapter layouts with no images or columns, can be accomplished perfectly well with v5. To spend the extra money for features I'll never use seems unnecessary, and I'd appreciate feedback on whether I'm correct in my assumption.
Thanks in advance for your advice.

I know there are legitimatecopies of CS5 availble, but they aren't that easy to find (Amazon is one source, though, I think), and they will get harder every day.
For simple printed publications you are correct and the version doesn't matter much, but the world is heading more towards electronic distribution channels, and novels are ideal formats for e-book readers. CS5.5 is head and shoulders above CS5 in its capabilities for that market.
Presumably CS6 and beyond will be even more user-friendly for electronic publication (nobody can tell you what will or will not be in future versions, but the handwriting is on the wall), so if you think you will have money for an upgrade in another year or so after the succesful print run of your book (and if the current trend on upgrade pricing is an indicator, it will be expensive), it might make sense to buy CS5 now, but my instinct is that you'd be better off with CS5.5 and the ability to get your book onto iPad or Kindle now (with some more study) without jumping through quite as many hoops.
And just for reference, I only do print, myself, but I'm old.

Does a Macbook Pro need AV software? If so what brand is recommended?

Does a Macbook Pro need AV software? If so what brand is recommended?

No, it doesn't.
Helpful Links Regarding Malware Protection
An excellent link to read is Tom Reed's Mac Malware Guide.
Also, visit The XLab FAQs and read Detecting and avoiding malware and spyware.
See these Apple articles:
          Mac OS X Snow Leopard and malware detection
          OS X Lion- Protect your Mac from malware
          OS X Mountain Lion- Protect your Mac from malware
          About file quarantine in OS X
If you require anti-virus protection I recommend using VirusBarrier Express 1.1.6 or Dr.Web Light both from the App Store. They're both free, and since they're from the App Store, they won't destabilize the system. (Thank you to Thomas Reed for these recommendations.)
From user Joe Bailey comes this equally useful advice:
The facts are:
1. There is no anti-malware software that can detect 100% of the malware out there.
2. There is no anti-malware that can detect anything targeting the Mac because there
     is no Mac malware in the wild, and therefore, no "signatures" to detect.
3. The very best way to prevent the most attacks is for you as the user to be aware that
     the most successful malware attacks rely on very sophisticated social engineering
     techniques preying on human avarice, ****, and fear.
4. Internet popups saying the FBI, NSA, Microsoft, your ISP has detected malware on
    your computer is intended to entice you to install their malware thinking it is a
    protection against malware.
5. Some of the anti-malware products on the market are worse than the malware
    from which they purport to protect you.
6. Be cautious where you go on the internet.
7. Only download anything from sites you know are safe.
8. Avoid links you receive in email, always be suspicious even if you get something
    you think is from a friend, but you were not expecting.
9. If there is any question in your mind, then assume it is malware.

Need advice in setting up a portable external hard drive

Since I travel and am away from home for 4-6 months of the year, I would like to to set up an external drive which I can carry with me and will hopefully contain everything I could possibly need to back up and troubleshoot the iBook while away from home. Toward that end, I have purchased a registered copy of Super Duper, a 250 GB Western Digital notebook drive, and a firewire enclosure from OWC with the Oxford 911+. I have also read the X Lab's Backup and Recovery FAQs and a number of discussion threads. But I have never done anything like this before, and would welcome any advice I could get on specifically how to set up and partition the drive in the best possible way.
Because the internal drive is rapidly filling up with music and photos, I am thinking that the partition for the bootable clone should match the size of the internal drive, which is 120GB.
There are a lot of system discs which came with the iBook, which is the very first iBook G4 that came after the ibook G3. I upgraded the OS to Tiger from Panther, so I don't think I would need to worry about the original 3 Panther discs that contained the OS. But there is a separate disc for the AHT and 8 Software Restore discs as well as iLife 06. I know I can burn safety copies to carry around, but if there is a way to do it, I would like to have the safety copies on the external hard drive. At least if that would be OK with Apple's licensing agreement.
Also, my only diagnostic tools right now are the Apple Hardware Test and the Tech Tool Deluxe disc that came with Applecare. But in the future I might need to acquire others such as Tech Tool Pro, Disc Warrior, Data Rescue II, and possibly something else, so I would want to have my drive set up so that I would be able to boot from any of these.
Part of the drive will just be for extra storage space, in case the internal drive starts to get too full, and some media files will need to be archived to the external drive.
Any help, suggestions or advice will be greatly appreciated.
Many thanks in advance!

Thanks to both of you for your responses!
It sounds like there may be a consensus on making one partition the size of the iBook's internal hard drive, but I am still not at all certain whether the rest of the drive should be one partition or more than one partition. I probably didn't make myself very clear when I posed the question because I'm not sure I know enough to ask an intelligent question. But I think I need to ask a lot of questions because there is so much that I don't know.
One thing I should mention--I have never in my life partitioned a drive so I really have no idea what's desirable, what's not, or really where to start. So perhaps I should try to describe my concerns a bit better.
Because of a highly unpredictable travel schedule, there is a real possibility of being stuck away from home for an extended period of time. For that reason, I want to be prepared for any possible computer disaster. So that means I want to be able to do on the road the exact same things I can do at home where I have all my system discs and diagnostic tools.
I don't really want to carry the originals around--I'd rather leave them at home locked up in my fire proof safe. I could burn copies to CD's and DVD's, but that would result in a pretty big pile of discs to carry around. Also, sometimes the CD's and DVD's just turn into little gold frisbees over time, and I would hate to need one and find out it had gone south and was unusable. So I had the idea of incorporating everything onto the external hard drive so that if it came to it, I could even do an erase and install.
This may be overkill, but I am very paranoid. I am a fair klutz when it comes to computers. I managed to corrupt my OS twice last year. The first time I was trying to reset my password on the iBook and got completely locked out. The second time I was trying to do an Archive and Install on the MBP and made a real hash of it. So I have a real fear of somehow corrupting the software on the iBook and possibly on the clone as well. So I would like to be prepared for the worst possible disaster.
I like the idea of a separate partition for the Tiger OS, the AHT and Tech Tool Deluxe and any others I may acquire. And the Tiger OS would just be what is on the Tiger retail DVD that I have. One question--the DVD just says Version 10.4. Should I update it to 10.4.11 or just leave it as is?
I'm also wondering about a partition for the software that originally came bundled with the iBook and iLife 06? If I ever had to do an erase and install, I would really want to have this. Hopefully I won't--now that there is actually data on the iBook other than the address book and bookmarks, I am beginning to realize why it's only something to do as a last resort. But I would feel better if I had the option far from home. But if it makes no sense to install these on the external drive, would it be possible to burn a DVD of them on the MBP instead of all those CD's?
Also, how do the partitions show up in Disk Utility? Do you give the partitions names? I really don't have a very good idea how all of this works. As I understand it, I have to partition using the Apple Partition Map and I have to get it right the first time, as you can't change the partitions later without having to erase everything.
Oh yes, I did order the power supply for the drive--thanks to reading about that in another post.
Really, I have been trying to research all this, but so often I don't really understand everything I read. I very much appreciate both of you taking the time to help me with this project.
Many thanks!

Future Macbook owner. Need advice.

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for