Dilemma: Buying an iMac

shoes

Well-Known Forumite
I just ordered my new macbook pro.

Went for the 15" 2.66 / 4GB / 320 7200 rpm / dual gfx one.

Ended up paying penuts for it too as I got VAT off, another 5% discount, free upgrade to anti-glare screen and also hard drive speed upgrade to 7200 / one of the memory foam cases thrown in.

Due to the hard drive and screen upgrades it'd going to take 7 working days to arrive... thats AGES :(

Anyway will let you know how I get on. Customer service so far? Sublime. Then again I did just part with an awful lot of money, so if (and hopefully I won't) i do i have a problem it will be interesting to gauge service.

The next 7 days is going to take forever isn't it? lol

Oh yeah also going to get the snowleopard upgrade as soon as its out.
 

shoes

Well-Known Forumite
Also DB - forget all of your compatability issues, I just got this. It does exactly what it says on the tin. So simple a monkey can use it also - my test installation of windows xp sp3 went thusly:

1) insert windows cd
2) open parallels
3) click "new virtual machine"
4) once its auto detcted what OS you then put in the windows key
5) you click install
6) its messes around for 25 minutes, reboots the 'virtual machine' a few times
7)windows xp is running, all net working in place, all drivers installed, all user settings as close to their leopard ones as possible, direct links to parts of the hdd occupied by windows and leopard.

just installing autocad to test performance (because its the only reason i'll install parallels and windows on my new machine)

apple said:
Unlike dual-boot solutions, in which users must completely shut down Mac OS X and endure a full OS start-up cycle to access a important application, Parallels Desktop for Mac empowers users with the ability to run important Windows programs like Outlook, Access, Internet Explorer and all other applications without having to give up the usability and functionality of their Mac OS X machine even for a few minutes.
It literally does just that. Boot times of the virtual machines are phenominal on my 'old' black macbook 2.0, christ knows what it will be like on a new iMac !!
 

shoes

Well-Known Forumite
Well I finally got my MacBook Pro today... can't wait to get home and try it out :D
 

John Marwood

I ♥ cryptic crosswords
In the mean time I am considering one of these

http://store.apple.com/uk/configure/MB420B/A?mco=ODAxNzM2OQ

but the 'official' price of photoshop cs4 is putting me off
 

My Name is URL

Well-Known Forumite
Anyone want to buy a cheap mac book.... no power cable, box or manual....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-Wj2-3BrNg&eurl=http://www.bitterwallet.com/high-speed-apple-robbery-shocking-yet-deeply-impressive/17659&feature=player_embedded#t=131

:strange:
 

shoes

Well-Known Forumite
Well once again I am falling in love with apple's technology.... you can say what you like about them but this MBP is faster than your mum at a knitware sale lol
 

shoes

Well-Known Forumite
John Marwood said:
In the mean time I am considering one of these

http://store.apple.com/uk/configure/MB420B/A?mco=ODAxNzM2OQ

but the 'official' price of photoshop cs4 is putting me off
I think the 'official' price of most adobe products put people off. The unofficial price is easy to come by though and very much more agreeable ;)
 

db

#chaplife
shoes said:
Also DB - forget all of your compatability issues, I just got this. It does exactly what it says on the tin. So simple a monkey can use it also - my test installation of windows xp sp3 went thusly:

1) insert windows cd
2) open parallels
3) click "new virtual machine"
4) once its auto detcted what OS you then put in the windows key
5) you click install
6) its messes around for 25 minutes, reboots the 'virtual machine' a few times
7)windows xp is running, all net working in place, all drivers installed, all user settings as close to their leopard ones as possible, direct links to parts of the hdd occupied by windows and leopard.
this is excellent news.. obviously, i'm aware of parallels, but this is the first time i've heard a first-hand report of it and it sounds even easier than i imagined! this is particularly good as there are no decent audio editors on the mac, but by the sounds of things i can just use adobe audition or sound forge via parallels :)
 

shoes

Well-Known Forumite
I'm a very happy chappie with my Parallels install, it really does a great job.

The only problem is I couldn't get any versions of Win 7 to work with it, but as this hasn't been released yet it's not suprising. I had a perfectly valid vista install working, however XP uses much less resource and as such I can assign less resources to the VM meaning my mac runs faster :)

I can even get around 6 hours of battery life running both OSs in parallel and going about my normal daily work activities so clearly running parallels isn't that intensive.

Edit: I'm running Ableton Live 7 within leopard too at the moment, would you not class this as a good sound editor? (I use it for the live mixing capabilities, not production and I know nothing abour production). Also, isn't logic meant to be the dog's danglies?
 

shoes

Well-Known Forumite
Wookie said:
Get an Alienware. :P
Well suffice to say that I am so glad I didn't buy an alienware, just look at this:

MPBWin7.jpg


:slayer:
 

db

#chaplife
shoes said:
Edit: I'm running Ableton Live 7 within leopard too at the moment
this is brilliant news, because there isn't a decent crack for ableton on the mac!

shoes said:
would you not class this as a good sound editor? (I use it for the live mixing capabilities, not production and I know nothing abour production). Also, isn't logic meant to be the dog's danglies?
ableton is a sequencer and logic is a DAW, and yes, i will be all over both of them like vanessa feltz on a roast chicken! audio editors are things like:

adobe audition
sony sound forge
steinberg wavelab
bias peak

as in, programs to edit specific audio files.. basically, audio editors are to .wav files what photoshop is to bitmap images..
 

shoes

Well-Known Forumite
Right I understand what you mean now, yes. In which case I definitely can't suggest anything, audacity is about as far as I went with this kind of thing on the PC and it was more than I needed, which should give you some idea of the kind of sound tech n00b I am.

If you want any help with cracked software on the mac I have become quite the dab hand recently in Leopard, just PM me. One piece of software which will be invaluable to you is little snitch, its literally the alpha and the omega in outbound firewalling for mac (IMO). Basically without it I wouldn't be running parallels, ableton, CS4 Master Collection, Office 2008, iLife (which i subsequently uninstalled), Traktor or a couple of other bits a bobs I can't remember off hand.

Its $30 unless you go for ironic torrent of the century ;)
 

db

#chaplife
shoes said:
If you want any help with cracked software on the mac I have become quite the dab hand recently in Leopard, just PM me.
thanks, but i'm on savethecoratee, audionews, what.cd, and a few other mac trackers so i'm sorted for pretty much everything software wise ;)

shoes said:
One piece of software which will be invaluable to you is little snitch, its literally the alpha and the omega in outbound firewalling for mac (IMO). Basically without it I wouldn't be running parallels, ableton, CS4 Master Collection, Office 2008, iLife (which i subsequently uninstalled), Traktor or a couple of other bits a bobs I can't remember off hand.
yeah you would, just add the relevant servers to your hosts file! but i agree, little snitch is invaluable on the mac.. software firewalls are completely redundant on PCs imo, but macs seem to use phoning home as a piracy prevention measure a lot more innit..

shoes said:
Its $30 unless you go for ironic torrent of the century ;)
indeed i did.. i've got a G4 emac already remember, so i've been running little snitch for quite a while now.. you just gotta remember to add the rule before you try and register it ;) lol..
 

shoes

Well-Known Forumite
Ah i forgot that you had a G4 lol.

Gotta love the hosts file in Win though, yes yes! Vis-a-vis firewall on the PC, I use windows firewall, heavily modded to restrict very little and its done me fine. Like me I imagine you hang about in some of the more destitute parts of the interwebnet and so far have survived without mishap :)
 

db

#chaplife
shoes said:
Ah i forgot that you had a G4 lol.

Gotta love the hosts file in Win though, yes yes!
i meant the hosts file on the mac, i didn't mention windows :?:

you can stop adobe et al phoning home by adding them to your hosts file, so little snitch isn't required.. but i agree, it's useful to have in case anything attempts a call home unexpectedly!
 
Top