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Post by matt on Nov 19, 2015 13:00:21 GMT -5
Please help! I need a new laptop as my current one is well over six years old and is going on the blink. But I am very computer illiterate and I have no idea as to what the best one I could buy. I've been thinking of a Mac Book as I'm fairly well versed and trustworthy towards Apple products but I'm not willing to spend £1000 on one, so I was thinking whether a restored Mac Book - which are usually about £700 - would be good enough. Calling out you tech savvy people on here, judging by your posts @wadfalkirk and The Crimson Rambler could you help with any recommendations? Cheers.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 19, 2015 15:17:22 GMT -5
I've used MacBook Pros for the last 6 years and haven't got a bad word to say about them. A restored MacBook should still be very good, although I'd find out the relevant specs beforehand (RAM, CPU clock speed, graphics card etc.) If you're thinking about getting one of the new MacBooks - www.apple.com/uk/macbook/ - I'd advise against it, simply down to the lack of ports. I'm also not a fan of the keyboard, although that's just a personal preference. Of course there are other options outside of Apple. What sort of things will you be using the laptop for?
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Post by matt on Nov 19, 2015 16:08:07 GMT -5
I've used MacBook Pros for the last 6 years and haven't got a bad word to say about them. A restored MacBook should still be very good, although I'd find out the relevant specs beforehand (RAM, CPU clock speed, graphics card etc.) If you're thinking about getting one of the new MacBooks - www.apple.com/uk/macbook/ - I'd advise against it, simply down to the lack of ports. I'm also not a fan of the keyboard, although that's just a personal preference. Of course there are other options outside of Apple. What sort of things will you be using the laptop for? Cheers, MacBook is definitely something I'm edging towards. Forgive me for my ignorance, but does this MacBook link below include a CD drive (for iTunes and CDs etc)? Honestly, the specs list is just all jargon - like a foreign language to me! www.amazon.co.uk/Apple-13-inch-MacBook-Graphics-Yosemite/dp/B008BEYEL8/ref=sr_1_5?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1447966514&sr=1-5&keywords=macbook+pro
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Post by Deleted on Nov 19, 2015 16:13:57 GMT -5
I've used MacBook Pros for the last 6 years and haven't got a bad word to say about them. A restored MacBook should still be very good, although I'd find out the relevant specs beforehand (RAM, CPU clock speed, graphics card etc.) If you're thinking about getting one of the new MacBooks - www.apple.com/uk/macbook/ - I'd advise against it, simply down to the lack of ports. I'm also not a fan of the keyboard, although that's just a personal preference. Of course there are other options outside of Apple. What sort of things will you be using the laptop for? Cheers, MacBook is definitely something I'm edging towards. Forgive me for my ignorance, but does this MacBook link below include a CD drive (for iTunes and CDs etc)? Honestly, the specs list is just all jargon - like a foreign language to me! www.amazon.co.uk/Apple-13-inch-MacBook-Graphics-Yosemite/dp/B008BEYEL8/ref=sr_1_5?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1447966514&sr=1-5&keywords=macbook+proThis model does. As far as I know this was the last Macbook to ship with a build in optical drive. I'd definitely recommend upgrading the RAM to 8GB or 16GB, which is fairly cheap to do. It might also be worth replacing the hard drive with an SSD, which will dramatically speed up boot times and overall performance. How much storage do you think you'll need?
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Post by The Crimson Rambler on Nov 19, 2015 16:18:59 GMT -5
Wish I could help but it's really not my area. I'll always vouch for Apple's quality, owning a Macbook Pro myself, but if you're going in on a limited budget you would probably get more for your money elsewhere. That said if you're determined to get a Apple product, and there's are plenty of reason to do so, try to make sure you're getting one which is high enough spec and up to date enough to keep pace with any major updates on the horizon. Unless you plan on putting the machine through it's paces I'm sure a Macbook would be a great buy.
Edit: I wouldn't worry too much about whether it contains a CD drive or not (I don't think any of the new ones do?) as you can always buy an external one and just plug that in. Just don't bother with Apple's official one. Expensive as hell!
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Post by matt on Nov 19, 2015 16:36:19 GMT -5
This model does. As far as I know this was the last Macbook to ship with a build in optical drive. I'd definitely recommend upgrading the RAM to 8GB or 16GB, which is fairly cheap to do. It might also be worth replacing the hard drive with an SSD, which will dramatically speed up boot times and overall performance. How much storage do you think you'll need? I'm not really someone who stores much things on my laptop - mainly for word documents, while things like iTunes go on my external hard drive, so I'm guessing the specs there would do for me just fine at the moment, though I had a look at SSD drives (of which I had no idea what they were before you mentioned them!) and they seem very useful so that is definitely something I will keep in mind. Cheers to both yourself and The Crimson Rambler help, you would not believe how little I know about these things! Got a much much better idea now, much appreciated!
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Post by Deleted on Nov 19, 2015 16:58:31 GMT -5
This model does. As far as I know this was the last Macbook to ship with a build in optical drive. I'd definitely recommend upgrading the RAM to 8GB or 16GB, which is fairly cheap to do. It might also be worth replacing the hard drive with an SSD, which will dramatically speed up boot times and overall performance. How much storage do you think you'll need? I'm not really someone who stores much things on my laptop - mainly for word documents, while things like iTunes go on my external hard drive, so I'm guessing the specs there would do for me just fine at the moment, though I had a look at SSD drives (of which I had no idea what they were before you mentioned them!) and they seem very useful so that is definitely something I will keep in mind. Cheers to both yourself and The Crimson Rambler help, you would not believe how little I know about these things! Got a much much better idea now, much appreciated! Always happy to help!
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Post by globe on Nov 20, 2015 5:40:04 GMT -5
This model does. As far as I know this was the last Macbook to ship with a build in optical drive. I'd definitely recommend upgrading the RAM to 8GB or 16GB, which is fairly cheap to do. It might also be worth replacing the hard drive with an SSD, which will dramatically speed up boot times and overall performance. How much storage do you think you'll need? I'm not really someone who stores much things on my laptop - mainly for word documents, while things like iTunes go on my external hard drive, so I'm guessing the specs there would do for me just fine at the moment, though I had a look at SSD drives (of which I had no idea what they were before you mentioned them!) and they seem very useful so that is definitely something I will keep in mind. Cheers to both yourself and The Crimson Rambler help, you would not believe how little I know about these things! Got a much much better idea now, much appreciated! Matt I'm not going advise you on what laptop to get as you seem to have your heart set on a Mac (I have an iMac, I love it but don't like Apple laptops for some reason). But please please please stop storing your live files on external drives. Store them on the computer and back them up to an external device or somewhere cloudy.
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Post by matt on Nov 20, 2015 11:37:10 GMT -5
I'm not really someone who stores much things on my laptop - mainly for word documents, while things like iTunes go on my external hard drive, so I'm guessing the specs there would do for me just fine at the moment, though I had a look at SSD drives (of which I had no idea what they were before you mentioned them!) and they seem very useful so that is definitely something I will keep in mind. Cheers to both yourself and The Crimson Rambler help, you would not believe how little I know about these things! Got a much much better idea now, much appreciated! Matt I'm not going advise you on what laptop to get as you seem to have your heart set on a Mac (I have an iMac, I love it but don't like Apple laptops for some reason). But please please please stop storing your live files on external drives. Store them on the computer and back them up to an external device or somewhere cloudy. Globe, does iCloud store iTunes files? If so, then that would be the best option for me.
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Post by Beady’s Here Now on Nov 20, 2015 21:54:22 GMT -5
I just buy a middle-range laptop as all I do is Facebook, search the net, etc. Basically, the generic laptop will be sufficient - just go with a trusted brand. Laptops these days aren't that hard to shop for anymore.
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Post by Binary Sunset on Nov 20, 2015 22:54:52 GMT -5
Been using a refurbished 15inch Macbook Pro i7 quad core for professional video editing for 3 years, and had no problems so far. Just make sure to get the insurance, because it is (slightly) more likely to have a problem than a completely new one.
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Post by Rain on Nov 22, 2015 4:12:14 GMT -5
macbook be good, but be careful whom you buy from and any dents. Any dents on the corner might mess up the hinge, which triggers issues to the wifi antenna. Make sure keyboard works and no keys are missing. Replacing a keyboard is 72 screws unlike a pc keyboard, which is 3 or 4. Virtual box suggested if you want windows stuff. I prefer virtual box over bootcamp
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Post by Deleted on Nov 22, 2015 10:55:34 GMT -5
macbook be good, but be careful whom you buy from and any dents. Any dents on the corner might mess up the hinge, which triggers issues to the wifi antenna. Make sure keyboard works and no keys are missing. Replacing a keyboard is 72 screws unlike a pc keyboard, which is 3 or 4. Virtual box suggested if you want windows stuff. I prefer virtual box over bootcamp I'm a very big fan of VirtualBox and use it on my PC at work, however with only 4GB of RAM, there's a good chance that the performance of both the host OS and the guest OS will suffer, especially if running Windows. You could always use Wine to virtualise some Windows applications.
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Post by Rain on Nov 22, 2015 12:36:32 GMT -5
macbook be good, but be careful whom you buy from and any dents. Any dents on the corner might mess up the hinge, which triggers issues to the wifi antenna. Make sure keyboard works and no keys are missing. Replacing a keyboard is 72 screws unlike a pc keyboard, which is 3 or 4. Virtual box suggested if you want windows stuff. I prefer virtual box over bootcamp I'm a very big fan of VirtualBox and use it on my PC at work, however with only 4GB of RAM, there's a good chance that the performance of both the host OS and the guest OS will suffer, especially if running Windows. You could always use Wine to virtualise some Windows applications. At work, my desk pc is 12gb of ram with i7. My work laptop is 6 GB macbook from mid 2009. Trick is run a 32 bit windows 7 with the laptop
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Post by globe on Nov 26, 2015 3:57:02 GMT -5
Matt I'm not going advise you on what laptop to get as you seem to have your heart set on a Mac (I have an iMac, I love it but don't like Apple laptops for some reason). But please please please stop storing your live files on external drives. Store them on the computer and back them up to an external device or somewhere cloudy. Globe, does iCloud store iTunes files? If so, then that would be the best option for me. Sorry matt, forgot to reply to this. Itunes match lets your store your library in Apple's cloud, comes at a cost though! www.apple.com/itunes/itunes-match/
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