Is a Mac book really worth it's price?

Discussion in 'hardware' started by dogma, Jan 12, 2008.

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  1. Close_Hauled

    Close_Hauled Registered Member

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    I got one of these for my daughter for Christmas and she loves the thing. She is the quintessential gadget freak and text messenger. She was IM'ing and e-mailing with it in no time. I will be getting one for me pretty soon.
     
  2. dNor

    dNor Registered Member

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    Generally I'd say yes. If you don't want or need any of the features a Macbook or OS X would provide, there's cheaper alternatives. Otherwise, a Macbook (and especially Macbook Pro) is a very fine piece of hardware bundled with a fine piece of software.
     
  3. BlueZannetti

    BlueZannetti Registered Member

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    They are rather neat, and there's a few more applications on them now. I'll be updating...

    Blue
     
  4. Close_Hauled

    Close_Hauled Registered Member

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  5. C.S.J

    C.S.J Massive Poster

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    this forum is biased!
    also disturbing is the price difference between US and UK stores.

    as usual, we get the much higher priced version of the SAME PRODUCT :(
     
  6. Coolio10

    Coolio10 Registered Member

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    Hmm..

    Starting at $1799. I am guessing that is U.S pricing so Canadian it will be over $2000 with tax.

    Incredibly thin though. Imagine dropping it.
     
  7. dNor

    dNor Registered Member

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    I can see the $1799 1.6GHz/PATA model being at least attainable...but the only other model, the $3098 1.8GHz/Solid-state, is ridiculous. SS drives are expensive, but having two models with such a pricing disparity is a bit much...
     
  8. C.S.J

    C.S.J Massive Poster

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    this forum is biased!
    just be glad, because at the UK store, the same one is offered to us for over $2000.

    and its surely not worth it for a 1.6ghz machine with an 80gb HD, regardless of how thin the laptop is.
     
  9. Huupi

    Huupi Registered Member

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    I don't bother with this stuff cause its all windows in my office,i am looking for a nice little Dell,reading from the specs they have much more to offer for the money,and yes great support.
     
  10. dogma

    dogma Registered Member

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    I'll be getting my hands on a new MAC next month, God willing. Thanks iceni60, I'm definitely going to get the EEEPC too by the end of this year. Bee waiting for somethimg like this to come out for a long time. The news of it being released with Win Xp doesn't enthral me much, because it would lead to a sharp price rise.

    The EEEPC also solves my problem of portability aswell, which makes the decision of getting a Macbook Pro over a Macbook a lot easier.

    Thank you all.
     
  11. ethernal

    ethernal Registered Member

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    i enjoyed mac when they used the POWER arch, it suited my needs better.

    intel might be cheaper and have more clock cycles, but they're not well suited for crunching raw data methinks.
     
  12. Huupi

    Huupi Registered Member

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    but then here its about notebooks and as far as i understand choosing the one above the other is very personal and not dictated by performance directly.

    Also if compared highend PC and PowerMac the difference is negliable cause both use now comparable hardware,in the end its a question of taste i think.

    In prices at the moment real highend PC's cost you more then latest PowerMacs !
     
  13. lucas1985

    lucas1985 Retired Moderator

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    The Core microarchitecture has a great IPC and high clock speed. Besides that, SSE is as fast and equally capable as Altivec in practice.
     
  14. ethernal

    ethernal Registered Member

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    the hypertransport between the cores, or physical processors are nowhere near as high bandwidth.
     
  15. farmerlee

    farmerlee Registered Member

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    I read somewhere that the macbook air has a non removable battery which i think is a terrible idea. Can anyone confirm?
     
  16. BlueZannetti

    BlueZannetti Registered Member

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    Not user removable is probably a better way to put it. It's like an iPod - a change is best handled by service folks. To make the size specifications, it had to be more mechanically integrated into the system.

    Blue
     
  17. lucas1985

    lucas1985 Retired Moderator

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    (¿?)
    Care to explain?
     
  18. lucas1985

    lucas1985 Retired Moderator

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    Well, if you buy a Macbook Air for mobility, the lack of user-replaceable battery is a serious drawback. A good amount of travelers carry already charged batteries to replace the exhausted ones.
    IMO, the Macbook Air has too much design compromises for a ultraportable.
     
  19. BlueZannetti

    BlueZannetti Registered Member

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    Physically there are some serious constraints. That said, an external battery solution is actually a reasonable compromise. I could see this as being a future accessory, much like the external superdrive.

    Blue
     
  20. lucas1985

    lucas1985 Retired Moderator

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    When you start to add more and more external accessories, it loses its portability :)
     
  21. Huupi

    Huupi Registered Member

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    Yes,ultra portable with portable optical drive,portable battery,portable memory and portable Mobo.You have quite a lot to carry around. :D
     
  22. BlueZannetti

    BlueZannetti Registered Member

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    A second battery is basically an external accessory of sorts as well, isn't it?

    Blue
     
  23. ethernal

    ethernal Registered Member

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    hai lucas! *waves*

    on multiple core/cpu systems, threaded applications that does heavy work sometimes need to inter-communicate between the threads.

    instead of going all the way out to RAM and then back, you have "connectors" between the cores and the physical cpu's.

    on x86 this one is generally fine for the purposes most people use their computers for. macintosh and well any RISC'ish computer are usually used for huge calculations (like applying a filter on a really large photoshop image) so you need bigger "connectors" between the processor parts.

    this is basically what hyper transports are. for everyday use, you won't notice the difference, but with applications that support multiple cpu's and do big big work, it really helps.

    and by the way, for you who mentioned ipod touch, i saw a little write-up how to install network testing tools on it, like a portable security suite :)

    i use my sony PSP for that a lot.. nobody expects the spanish inquisition! (nor suspecting that a dorkish looking person who's playing a video game is actually scanning your network for holes :))
     
  24. Huupi

    Huupi Registered Member

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    heavy load and numbercrunching its better to have a desktop for,bottleneck in heavy calc. is not processor but memory,development in memory is lagging as compared with modern cores so its mainly a shortage of the bandwidth that hold you back,at least with latest photoshop among others,Scott Byer developper from Adobe has done some expanded testing on this and came to this conclusion.
     
  25. dogma

    dogma Registered Member

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    Update

    Hi all

    Finally got my Macbook this week. So have been running it for just under a week.

    The build quality, iSight camera, aesthetics, etc are better in my opinion than other notebooks around the same price bracket. The wireless connection with my router is significantly better compared to my notebook with an Intel® PRO/Wireless 3945ABG Network Connection (running XP MCE).

    At first I was annoyed with a single-click button on the touchpad, however this vanished after I learnt how to enable the two finger right-click gesture.

    Anyone know what the techinal specs of the iSight webcam and the Wireless adapter are?

    My next desktop will, God willing, definitely be an iMac! (which also looks great and has NO TOWER!)
     
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