Thinking of going Mac but what spec?

I am seriously thinking switching from PC to Mac for my home as I fancy a change and am impressed by the styling and the many positive things I have heard about them. One thing was concerning was whether my Sky Broadband would work with a Mac. I have now found out it should be pretty simple to hook up (plug in Ethernet cable!!) so I am almost ready to take the plunge!!

I am however unsure what spec of machine would meet my requirements.

I would be using if for mainly Internet, email, photos, music & a bit of video editing. Now I realise that most of these are not that demanding but obviously video editing can be!!

I was thinking of getting the cheapest Macbook as an introduction to the Mac world (£699) but was just a bit concerned about the hard drive speed (5400rpm) and if the ram would be enough. I could buy a re-furbed Macbook and get a bit more spec for similar money anyone got an opinion on the apple refurb units?

Once I am convinced that I am happy with the Mac life I will then look at purchasing a more powerfull iMac as the main home computer.

Any other advice to a potential newbie to Mac would obviously be appreciated.

Thanks

[SeedyR]

1GB ram should be fine for what you want, however pushing to 2gb wouldn't hurt.

If you're going to be doing video editing, do you require dvd burner? If so, make sure the mac has it, as some of the lower spec ones don't have a dvd burner.

As for hard drive speed, I have 5400RPM and that's fine for my needs. I know 7200rpm is suppose to make a noticeable difference especially with video editing. On a Macbook you can replace the hard drive quite easily.

Personally I think you should go the whole hog now. Once you get your Mac, you'll love it, and just wished you'd gone for the best you could afford in the first place.

Any more questions, please feel free to ask.

Craig

Originally Posted by Craigy Boy

1GB ram should be fine for what you want, however pushing to 2gb wouldn't hurt.

If you're going to be doing video editing, do you require dvd burner?

Thanks for pointing that out had missed that!! Will be getting the next one up then!!

[jont]

If you don't need portability you could also look at getting a mac mini - slightly lower spec but even cheaper - and use your pc monitor and a usb keyboard/mouse ... see how you get on and then upgrade later (the mac mini makes an excellent music/video server when hooke dto hifi/tv ... the iMacs are *meant* to be revised sometime in the next couple of months so I would hold off until then ...

Jon

Originally Posted by jont

If you don't need portability you could also look at getting a mac mini - slightly lower spec but even cheaper - and use your pc monitor and a usb keyboard/mouse ... see how you get on and then upgrade later (the mac mini makes an excellent music/video server when hooke dto hifi/tv ... the iMacs are *meant* to be revised sometime in the next couple of months so I would hold off until then ...

Jon

I did think about the mac mini but I would like it to be portable and would need to connect up to my tv as do not have a monitor as I prsentley have a laptop. Also do not have keyboard and mouse although I know these can be had for next to nothing. I am tempted but I think a macbook it will be.

[rorton]

go for the top end white, or if you really like the black (i did ) get the black.

With ref to the hard disk, why not get a megga large 500gb external firewire hard disk to use for all your movie editing.

The 120/160gb disks in the mac arnt the biggest, so be nice to keep all your video files on the external disk, and keep the mac disk for iTunes music/photos etc so you can carry them around with you?

You can get 2gb ram for £59 from crucial, and its a piece of cake to upgrade, so buy a stock macbook, and then by the ram yourself.

[SamRadford]

I do movie editing using iMovie on a 1.4GHz G4 with 1GB memory. So you needn't worry too much about the speed as modern Macs are faster anyway.

As pointed out above, make sure you get one with a "Superdrive", otherwise you won't be able to burn DVDs. (In other words, avoid the "Combo" drive models).

[spinaltap]

I use Final Cut Express HD for video editing on my 1.42Ghz Mac Mini (1Gb RAM) without any problems whatsoever.

[dejongj]

Don't worry about the 5400rpm speed spec...I did a little, I upgrade my late Dell laptop from a 5400rpm to a 7200rpm drive and was concerned...These Mac one's seem much faster and definitely fast enough for recording Video...

As suggested, I use a bus powered external 250Gb drive for storing the video and it is all plenty fast...

Me too went for a Black Macbook....Plus a 22inch external screen for when I am at home....The built-in graphics can easily drive it as well...

I think an upgrade to 2Gb would be wise though...

[Southernguy]

I too am in this position and would appreciate any help you guys could give me.

Currently i'm using an acer 1.3 centrino laptop for all my pc purposes. This includes: General business use such as word and excel, Itunes, net surfing, viewing and storing photo's etc. A dvd writer would be a bonus too. I also have an external 300gb hard drive as storage.

I've looked at the macbooks and also the pro's but can't decide which is gonna be suitable for me and have the longest possible shelf life?

[dejongj]

Originally Posted by Southernguy

I too am in this position and would appreciate any help you guys could give me.

Currently i'm using an acer 1.3 centrino laptop for all my pc purposes. This includes: General business use such as word and excel, Itunes, net surfing, viewing and storing photo's etc. A dvd writer would be a bonus too. I also have an external 300gb hard drive as storage.

I've looked at the macbooks and also the pro's but can't decide which is gonna be suitable for me and have the longest possible shelf life?

For those uses I think it comes down to the answers to the following questions (as all models will make your current laptop seem like something from the 19th Century )

1. Is a resolution of 1280x800 enough for you? Sounds like it should do.
2. Which colour do you prefer; white, black or aluminium?

I think a Macbook is plenty powerful..

[SeedyR]

Originally Posted by Southernguy

I too am in this position and would appreciate any help you guys could give me.

Currently i'm using an acer 1.3 centrino laptop for all my pc purposes. This includes: General business use such as word and excel, Itunes, net surfing, viewing and storing photo's etc. A dvd writer would be a bonus too. I also have an external 300gb hard drive as storage.

I've looked at the macbooks and also the pro's but can't decide which is gonna be suitable for me and have the longest possible shelf life?

I simply got the MacBook Pro as I wanted the bigger screen and found the keyboard on the Pro to be of a lot better quality. The MacBook is a great machine, but I was happy to pay the premium for those two things to go for the Pro. Both have recently be upgraded, and wouldn't expect either to have another upgrade until October time when Leopard (the new Mac operating system comes out).

Thanks for the help guys in the end I went for a refurbed Black Mac Book as it offered a better spec at a lower price.

I need to get online with it ASAP to do the online tutorials as I know nothing!! So the thing I really need to know is do I need to purchase additional web security for it? I believe OSX comes with its own firewall (which is turned off!! So first task is to turn this on!) but do I need to buy an additional firewall/anti-virus software, I assume it would be prudent so what do you guys recommend?

I have sky broadband and I remember reading on some old thread that in addition to the antivirus/firewall software for windows it also came with software for Mac can anyone confirm this? If this is the case can anyone please advise the best way to install this so I don’t get all the other Sky rubbish contaminating my system!

Cheers for any additional help guys

[jont]

Assuming you've got it switched on - go to the apple icon (top left), select system preferences, select sharing icon (internet and networking line) and then click the firewall tab and check the button ...

If you have a triangular icon in the right hand side of the menu bar it will be the airport icon - click and select switch on, it should find your sky broadband network, select it to join and put in your ssid ... and Bob should be your proverbial ...

Jon

[SamRadford]

Originally Posted by jont

If you have a triangular icon in the right hand side of the menu bar it will be the airport icon

Well, you learn something new every day. I always thought it was the screen wiper!