Nice, expensive, not got much graphical shove

Post #395,151 by pwhysall 10/1/14 7:31:38 AM 10/1/14 7:44:28 AM Reply	Nice, expensive, not got much graphical shove Go for the absolute maximum spec you can afford. Prioritise RAM and storage over CPU. (sub Mac Pro, Apple's GPU options are pretty shitty these days; even the MacBook Pro has a gimped integrated graphics card. However, unless you have eyes on gaming or serious 3D modelling, you don't care). The screens are very nice indeed. Very nice. Indeed. Very. The retina screens add to the niceness, but whether they're worth the premium of moving from the Air to the MacBook Pro - well, you should try them out and decide. Bear in mind that upgrade options on Apple's current laptops are brutally limited. I.e. there are none. You get what you buy and that's it. So choose accordingly. ETA: Things that Apple do really really well on laptops: * Keyboards - not mega-standout, (my new Dell Latitude work lapper has a keyboard that's on par, albeit not backlit) but they're really nice * Trackpads - seriously, best trackpads ever * Screens * Battery life Things that they don't do so well: * Not blowing a planet-sized hole in your bank account * CPU/GPU performance * Limited RAM and no upgrade path means futureproofing is limited * Limited storage and no upgrade path means futureproofing is limited (bear in mind that according to MacRumors, a clean install of Mavericks takes 15-20GB; that's a fair chunk of a base 128GB SSD, which of course won't have a hundred and twenty eight actual gigabytes of space) * If optical disks matter to you, you need an external drive. Note that if you ever want to boot from an operating system DVD, you almost certainly need the ludicrously expensive Apple SuperDrive (roffle $80 option roffle; I bought a Samsung USB dual-layer DVDRW for £20 last year) Edited by pwhysall Oct. 1, 2014, 07:44:28 AM EDT Expand All History
Post #395,154 by Another Scott 10/1/14 8:07:39 AM Reply	What he said. Are you missing a "Do Not" in the last line? We've got a Sony external DVD/CD drive that has seemed to work fine with all the Macs I've tried. I've always assumed that just about any external optical drive would work these days. Cheers, Scott.
Post #395,175 by pwhysall 10/1/14 2:32:04 PM Reply	No Regular external drives work fine for workaday stuff, but I've read stuff that indicates that the special case of booting off an OS X disc seems to require Apple's beautiful-but-expensive SuperDrive.
Post #395,178 by Another Scott 10/1/14 3:58:20 PM Reply	Weird. Hmm... It looks like Apple's been playing some games with their external optical drives. Some hackery may be required to have SuperDrives even work with some Macs. (boggle) Cheers, Scott.
Post #395,180 by pwhysall 10/1/14 4:28:40 PM Reply	Re: Weird. I think the Apple use case has now come down to "If this appliance in the configuration you buy today meets your needs now, and for up to the 3 years that the AppleCare lasts, you're golden. If not, well, OS X may not be for you." Frexample, I'm looking at what's coming down the gaming pipe, and I'm seeing games that (thanks to the PS4 and XB1's unified memory models, and the tendency of developers to write stuff with consoles in mind) have a requirement for 4GB of VRAM. This is inconvenient, but I can go out and buy an NVidia GTX 970, sell the GTX 660 on eBay, and carry on happily. Anything other than casual gaming on a Mac? Busted flush in the next 2 years. Even mildly graphically demanding games that would otherwise be fine will run like dogshit because of the differing memory model.
Post #395,189 by static 10/1/14 10:05:42 PM Reply	I disagree about the keyboard. The keyboard on my (work-supplied) MBP strikes me as a triumph of form over function. I know I type slower on it. My Happy-Hacking Keyboard is much better to type on. A colleague has a real Apple external keyboard and that's better than the MBP's built-in! If only the keys had more travel. Wade. Just Add Story http://justaddstory.wordpress.com/
Post #395,192 by pwhysall 10/2/14 12:50:46 AM Reply	Take your point, but... ...your favouring the monstrosity that is the Happy Hacking Keyboard reveals you as the vegemite-eating wrong 'un that you are.
Post #395,197 by static 10/2/14 6:20:23 AM Reply	Yes, the HHK is an outlier. But it's what I have and use. The other option is the Dell keyboard tethered to the desk (we hot-desk)/ Wade. Just Add Story http://justaddstory.wordpress.com/

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