I've been a PC user till date. Being a student, I need to restrict my expenditure on a laptop.
I have to make a decision between a macbook 13.3" (previous generation) which I am getting in the apple clearance store for $799 and a Dell Studio 15 for $699. The Dell obviously has better memory, RAM as compared to the macbook but the macbook has 2 GHz, 2 GB ram, and the other basic works.
What will I be using it for? Net surfing, movies, lots of presentations and word/excel/pdf documents. No gaming.
Just wanted an opinion if the macbook prev gen is worth it as compared to the Dell (I used Inspiron 1525 before and was happy with it). Pros and cons will really be appreciated.
Also is entourage,word etc included with the macbook OSX or does that have to be bought separately?
Does anyone have a model number, or another method for identifying the previous generation of unibody MBPs? Unfortunately I'm that one percentile that cannot live without an express card slot, and I'm not interested in going to the 17.
A Few Friends from work were asking about buying Mac's, But they said they wanted to get the older model aluminum and plastic instead of the new unibody ones. So Basically I was just wondering where i could get one..or do they even still sell somewhere now that the new ones are out so long...
Just reset my wireless router, it's asking whether the wireless card I've supports WPA2 or not? Does the airport card in MBA 1st generation support this? Can someone please clarify?
Does anyone know when Dell is going to release their next generation of XPS series? I'm just curious because I want to know how much my laptop will drop in value by the time the new XPS come out so that I can sell it in advance! Not really but you know what I mean.
To start I should remind everyone that i'm not a mac user. I have never owned a mac or used OSX properly before today. As such, my opinions should be taken as coming from someone who has much knowledge and experience as far as PC's are concerned, but who is a total mac n00b.
First Impressions
When I first walked over to the Macbooks I was quite taken aback. The build quality is out of this world. In fact, I immediately walked over to the latest PC laptops to compare and immediately thought "manufacturing FAIL". Really, the Macbooks are italian sports cars, and PC's are 30 year old farm tractors to use the typical "car analogy".
The Macbook
I really only had any interest in the Macbook when I first went to the Apple stand, but came away with the intention of buying a MacBook Pro. Let me explain:
The MacBook's build quality is awesome. It's solid, no creaking plastic or flexable build, completely and utterly solid. Awesome.............
In this second generation, HP brought with it, the new 2010 Intel iCore family. You can now configure it to use the i5-430, i5-520m, i5-540m, and it was available briefly i7-620m. All of the new 2010 Intel iCore Dual processors are on the newer 32nm design. That made the laptop cooler and uses less power, resulting in longer battery life. On top of this awesome addition, they revamp the GPU! The laptop now offer the new ATI 58xx series GPU, among one of the first in industry to offer this GPU.
Specs:
* Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-540M Dual Core processor (2.53GHz, 3MB L2 Cache) with Turbo Boost up to 3.06GHz * 4GB DDR3 System Memory (2 Dimm) * 10GB 5400RPM SATA Dual Hard Drive (SSD 160GB + 250GB 5400RPM * 15.6" diagonal Full High Definition LED HP Ultra Brightview Widescreen Display (1920x1080) * Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit..................
I have been speculating over this prospect giving the direction that Apple took with the starting price of the 24" iMac (upgrade everything else and downgrade the VRAM).
I mean, this is something I would like to see, but I wonder if it is a smart move on Apple's part given how much they make off the current MBP's with the so called Apple Tax.
And, if they made this move, one has to wonder if it still would be considered a Pro.
This is going to be my very first Mac. I'm really excited about it, but I don't know which one I should go for... I narrowed it down to these two models. Which one should I go for and why?
I bought a black macbook this summer and every night when I'm in bed trying to do work I can barely see which keys is which. Obviously this wouldn't be a cheap fix but is there a way or is it possible to install the new light up keys of the new macbooks onto a pre-remodel macbook?
I got 2 sticks of Patriot PC4200 200-pin SODIMMs from Fry's, popped them in...and got a single blink of the three lock LEDs, followed by it shutting off. Interestingly, mixing the 1 GB and 2 GB gives me only 2 GB recognized if it's in the first bank, and a memory error if it's in the second bank.
In retrospect, I should have looked at Intel's website - the 915PM only supports 2GB of RAM.At least I can take the RAM back for a full refund.
Posting because I couldn't find the answer to this question anywhere.
I downloaded this updated for my unibody Macbook Pro, and I think it's pretty vital. However, it gave me this error when I tried to install it: "You cannot install Macbook, Macbook Pro software update on this volume. This update requires Mac OS X 10.5.5 or newer." Now don't tell me that I have selected the wrong partition to install the update, or that I need to update my OS to 10.5.5 because I already have 10.5.6 and I chose the Macintosh HD partition to install the update.
So I'm definitely getting a 13" Macbook or Macbook Pro. Apple has some great prices on refurbs so that's probably the route I'll be going however I'm having trouble discerning the difference between the 13" Aluminum Unibody standard macbook and the 13" Unibody Macbook Pro. From what I've read they both have the upgraded screen, they're obviously both unibody, both have the large button-less trackpad, and both have the 9400m. They even have the same dimensions and the only difference I can see between the images is a slightly different case bevel (also the firewire and sd card ports, both are useless to me).
Unfortunately, none of the Apple stores or BestBuys in the area have a non-pro unibody 13" Macbook for me to actually handle and compare. So, basically, what makes the pro version with the slower cpu and smaller hard drive at the same price point worth it?
If I make an image of my hdd from my white macbook with disk utility onto a hard drive I take out of a unibody macbook pro will it work and boot properly?
I will do this by taking the 250gb hdd out of the unibody macbook pro and putting it into a sata external usb hdd enclosure, then making an image of my current 120gb white macbook and writing the image onto the 250gb. After, I plan to put the 250gb hdd back into the macbook pro and boot it up normally as if everything from my white macbook was just copied onto the macbook pro.
The buttons(email,e-management,internet) above my key board quit working,my volume bar will not show up on screen,and some of my symbol keys will not work.I've tried checking my settings and restore to a previous time that I knew the computer was working correctly.
There were many SR4 laptops sold in May 2009 in China suffering the problem of stopping responding randomly and frequently, which caused quite a lot of hot threads discussing.
Sony identified the problem as some bugs in BIOS firmware and hence released an update to fix this.
Official site:[url] (Chinese site, Google Translate may work)
Download link: [url]
As a "side effect" some customers noticed that Sony has officially enabled the option of VT in BIOS settings!
This is quite unbelievable according to the usual style of Sony. Maybe it is because of the pressure from XP mode in the upcoming Windows 7.
Unfortunately the BIOS update still does not give SLIC 2.1 so to activate Windows 7 we still need SLIC 2.1 from Lenovo or other brands.
I have inspiron N5110 . I recently upgraded my bios version from A9 to A11(to solve the Win 8 black screen problem) . But unfortunately the battery timing is reduced to 2 hours only . before that it was nearly 4 hours. I switched back to windows 7 and i want to get that bios version back..
So I purchased my lenovo y510 (base model) in November of last year, and hasn't acted up at all until now. Before you ask I have tried to restore my computer to a previous point before it had this problem but it didn't work.
What happened was I restarted my computer, and then it went off, turned back on, went to the lenovo screen without a spinning loading circle, and then turned off and right back on again, determined to do the same perpetual cycle over and over again.
I have tried restoring and taking out battery with no luck.
She has a white macbook with leopard I think, and has a separate partition in which she has boot camp, she uses specialized software that can only run in windows (doesnt run in vm). She got a new macbook air but wants to keep everything intact.
Do programs like duper clone drives with all files intact, including partitions? Keep in mind that the windows side is more important, installation of this software can only be done remotely from Russia, so it's a bit of a hassle if we screw up, we have to contact IT at a specific time and get them to do it.
Would I have to take the drive of the macbook air out? Or can i just clone to an external hard drive and then move that to the mba hard drive, in target disc mode or something.
I really love the black color of MB404, but is it good? does it crack easily?(is it plastic?)
Hows screen quality?
What do you think? which one should i buy?
I really wanted to buy Alu one before i hear about slanted keys and loose battery covers(i know %99 of them don't have that, but it's hard to risk when there's no way to fix it in here), because there's no Mac center in my country and i'm SO picky.
I've been looking at basicly two models, both got almost the exact same price tag here in Norway, so I'm not sure which one to go for.
The first ones is a MacBook Pro 15" with High-resolution 1650x1080 glossy screen, featuring the top of the line Intel Core i7-620M CPU the other is a MacBook Pro 17" with even higher resolution (1920x1200) glossy screen, featuring the slightly slower Intel Core i5-540M.
I don't list the other specifications as I don't really care about them, I already got a pair of 4GB 1600MHz CL7 (2x2GB) DIM's and a Intel X25-M 80GB SSD that I'll be using anyway.
There will be lots of movies and series played on my MacBook Pro, that's why I don't really considering paying a premium for the anti-glare screen, even though I love anti-glare and tend to struggle with glossy screens I don't see the point in actually paying more for it. And when watching movies and series, in often very dark rooms the glossy screen actually have some advantages.
The hard thing to decide here is slicker and lighter, with smaller screen and lower resolution, but better CPU versus the bigger, more heavy but featuring bigger screen and Full-HD+ resolution but slower CPU.....................
Using Windows 7 on an Inspiron N5110. Get a black screen when system loads indicating a previous incorrect shutdown, with the options to load Safe or Normal. But the system will not accept any of these options, as a matter of act, the system will not accept anything.
1-a 13" MacBook Pro, primary use will be Internet and e-mail and manipulating music files. Will my husband really notice a difference/benefit between the basic 2.26 and the 2.53GHZ (and is it worth about $250 more)? If he uses it for video downloading will that make a difference?
2- a 15" MacBook Pro- here I'm debating between the 2.66 and 2.8. My daughter uses it for Office apps, PhotoShop, music, Internet and e-mail. Again, would video downloading make a difference?
I am currently returning a dell studio xps 16" as its so sooo much hassle to deal with dell and the fact that i got 3 messsed up replacements in a row. i am looking to get a macbook or macbook pro. i would prefer a macbook pro (lowest model) although the cheapest method i can find is £1163 from the higher education store. is there any other way or place that sells it for less? apple seem to charge crazy prices for a low spec. een £100 would be expensive but maybe afordable. only discounts i found for the macbook/macbook pro are 14% higher education (the one i am looking to use) and 6% EPP and school discount. iv looked at the macbook but im going to use the laptop for movies, work and internet. movies on a 13.3" arnt exactly enjoyable to watch so thats why im looking for a macbook pro.
I finally decided that i am going to take my desktop HTPC from home to grad school for movies/TV and playing demanding games.
So now I cannot decide upon which notebook to get - the base Macbook Pro 2.4 or the base Macbook Air 1.6
I am going to be mainly doing work: taking notes, photo editing, and also some light gaming (2d games and old 3d games (red orchestra, combat mission) when away from apartment) on the notebook.
So I was wondering which is a better choice for me.
The macbook pro has a faster core 2 duo cpu, but the FSB and RAM are all the same speed. Obviously the 9600mGT is 2.5x faster than the 9400M, but I am not going to need it for intensive gaming.
Also the macbook pro has a larger screen.
But the Air is so much lighter and thinner, and would be a good thing to take to libraries. And it is 200 cheaper....................
A friend of mine is debating which model. I noticed some small differences, but for 200 bucks it almost seems worth getting the pro model. It seems as if it's a higher quality build, firewire, backlit keyboard, is the screen the same? What do you guys think? Can the Macbooks without the dedicated video card run a game like Sims 3?
