Post pic of your Mac

[Mike Wazowski]

Originally Posted by MusicallySilent

Im thinking of getting a macbook at the next refresh, I will definitly buy one in a heartbeat if they put a _400_ graphics card in it (even if it goes up to 14" or so to fit), more or less a 9400gs or a hd3400 card in it because I would like to use wine to play some steam games on it. If they dont do it ill consider playing with a macbook at the apple store a few times and see if I can make the size compromise to 13.3"

I cant wait to see the new redesign. If i dont get macbook, because macbookpro is way out of my pricerange and if this redesign is as huge as the hype I wont want an old edition of MBP. And if this all goes downhill Ill probably run linux, im getting away from windows as fast as possible :P Except my pcs graphics card doesnt play nice in linux

Just to make sure - you are aware of Apple's educational discount for students, teachers, and their families, right? It is not huge, about 10%, so that MBP would still be $1,800...

It sounds like mobility is important for you - is it as important as gaming? For the same price as MacBook, you could get yourself a really sweet iMac - 20" screen, graphics card, 7200 rpm hard drive!.. They just announced an incremental upgrade of the iMac line, check out guys and drool (I did).

Finally - what makes you believe a MB redesign is coming soon? Has there been some "evidence-based" rumor, like factories in China/Taiwan manufacturing some new units?.. If you just expect it from the June's Apple event, I wouldn't hold my breath... They got it really good with these MacBooks, can be a while before a real redesign. Well, that June event is only a few weeks away anyway, and soon after that will come the best time of year to buy a computer - back-to-school shopping time. Last few - well, at least the last 2 years Apple was offering a free $150 iPod (or a discount towards a bigger one) with purchase of a Mac, as a back to school deal. That is in addition to educational discount.

From watching Apple release new Macs over the last 5 or so years, I've learned that it is hard to predict a pattern. More often lately, they've been actually announcing new Macs in between major events. Remember how they would always release a new iLife at each year's MacWorld? - well, didn't happen this year...
If you order a Mac from Apple Store and a redesigned model comes out the next week, you'll get that one shipped, the new model. If there's a longer gap, well, you'll have the older one but, on the good side, you'll avoid the bugs new models often have.

One thing you can be sure about - no matter how carefully you time your purchase, game developers will make you machine seem too weak in no time at all

[MusicallySilent]

Mobility in being a laptop is basically a number 1 idea so I can go around in my house and I go to my schools robotics club so I will need mobile power on the go to do designing. Gaming isnt incredibly important but I still want to play some hl2 games from time to time and other source games.

I am starting to doubt they will update in june just because that would only be about 90 days from the last update, they may update later, I probably dont really need it until august or so so I can easily hold off, see if there is any news of updates and see if i can snatch up savings because my dad works as a para in special ed for one of the shcools and back to school savings (im not an ipod person, but if i can get one for free ill take it for the lineout :P) If i really wanted to I could always sell it to a friend afterwards.

Also revisions are more expected to occur in Q3 some time after the montevina platform, but yes if I had the money and didn't need the portability I would probably get lower level 24" with 8800gs :P

Hmm...

[Mike Wazowski]

Originally Posted by MusicallySilent

Mobility in being a laptop is basically a number 1 idea so I can go around in my house and I go to my schools robotics club so I will need mobile power on the go to do designing. Gaming isnt incredibly important but I still want to play some hl2 games from time to time and other source games.

I am starting to doubt they will update in june just because that would only be about 90 days from the last update, they may update later, I probably dont really need it until august or so so I can easily hold off, see if there is any news of updates and see if i can snatch up savings because my dad works as a para in special ed for one of the shcools and back to school savings (im not an ipod person, but if i can get one for free ill take it for the lineout :P) If i really wanted to I could always sell it to a friend afterwards.

Also revisions are more expected to occur in Q3 some time after the montevina platform, but yes if I had the money and didn't need the portability I would probably get lower level 24" with 8800gs :P

Hmm...

MacBooks have become very usable little machines. They are no longer limiting for normal activities, like watching a movie. They used to have a rather bad display (iBooks, back 3 years ago) and feel sluggish, but no longer. I know quite a few people who could've gotten themselves any laptop they would fancy but chose MacBook, not MBP. It is just more portable and about as fast - unless you are into serious gaming

I still do most of my work on a PowerBook G4, 1.67 GHz. Back in early 2005, by the way, I too tried to time its purchase. I waited through that year's MacWorld and, after no update was announced ordered on Jan 28th, Friday. Sure enough, during the weekend they announced an upgrade - speed increase, motion sensor, touchpad scrolling... They shipped me the new model, so all ended well, but this is to illustrate how hard it is to time Apple.

So, while I'm definitely looking forward to more speed and larger HD when I eventually upgrade, there is at least one reason why I now like my PB more than my wife's new (last September) MB Pro. This reason is the maximum angle to which you can open the screen. It is significantly less in our MBP, compared to the old PB. Maybe it has something to do with this new LED display technology, I don't know. Whatever reason, I find this rather limiting, especially when the machine is on my lap. So come August, I'll too head for the Apple Store and, who knows, maybe even end up choosing a MacBook!

Re: gaming - did you consider just getting a console, for graphics-intensive games? I may be out of touch (I know I can't stop so I don't play anything involved), but I thought any of the current ones will sell for less than the difference between MB and MB Pro?..

[MusicallySilent]

Well I will likely need to run windows on it because for robotics I will be running Autodesk Inventor which causes my 2.8ghz, 1.25gb ram, 240gb (80 and 160), ATI 9250 256mb computer to lag severely at times

So windows is pretty much something I need to be capable of running as inventor wont run on macs. As for gaming I don't keep up with many recent games, probably a little bf2 and tf2 along with some guildwars and other basic games can keep me content, which I know macbook can run both at bare minimum settings at the least. (Trying to break addiction, though robotics gets addicting and my grades fall a bit)

I think the problem with the angle is the design of the hinge, with how it is set up there is a lip that catches on the screen preventing high tilt angles, I may also consider a current macbook pro on clearance, maybe it is possible to combine it with student discounts if new ones come out.

[Mike Wazowski]

Originally Posted by MusicallySilent

Well I will likely need to run windows on it because for robotics I will be running Autodesk Inventor which causes my 2.8ghz, 1.25gb ram, 240gb (80 and 160), ATI 9250 256mb computer to lag severely at times
...
I think the problem with the angle is the design of the hinge, with how it is set up there is a lip that catches on the screen preventing high tilt angles, I may also consider a current macbook pro on clearance, maybe it is possible to combine it with student discounts if new ones come out.

Well, sounds like you pretty much know what you need, and that is not a MacBook! Without a a dedicated graphics cart, the tax on CPU and RAM will increase. Yes, you'll have a Core 2 Duo, but still, I won't be surprised if you find the new MB lagging, too. And that's not what you want when you buy a new machine. You want to run you old application and say "Wow! How can it be so fast?!." So maybe just get patient and wait until you can finally buy what will really be an upgrade a MBPro? I remember, there were times when they would just drop the price a little, $100-200, for holidays or back-to-school...

Yes, I noticed, it is that lip indeed. They must've needed it for something, I am guessing, because it does make the angle really limiting. Perhaps they overcome this in the future.

[MusicallySilent]

Yea, the lip has been around since the MBP was created as far as I know, I think it is due to the hinge design and how it is set up so the back will remain flush.

Yea, I was playing in Ubuntu earlier today and how fast stuff ran (slightly laggy because windows was hibernating (shut down makes it smoother) and screwing something up) but the boot and startup of programs was still incredibly fast, 20 seconds to start browsing the web.

My goal is a mac, but if that falls through it will probably be ubuntu with windows when Wine wont suffice.

[majid]

Here is my home rig. I had to use a 20mm lens to encompass it all. Click on the image to get to the annotated Flickr page.

[iamitman]

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Awesome Rig!!!

[Ymer]

Yay, yet another MBP ˆˆ



Sorry for the mess, I'm on exchange abroad so that's just really my stuff thrown into this temporary room.

I have to say this MBP is one of the best computers I've had yet!

Lovely setups you guys have

[krmathis]

My primary Mac rig.
You notice the secondary one in the lower left corner..