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Buying dilemma

post #1 of 17
2/17/06 at 3:55am
Thread Starter 
Hi all,

Before I start, I'd like to say that this forum has been tremendously helpful thus far! Very knowledgable.

Anyways, in the fall, I'm going to be attending an Apple-friendly college, and I'm in need of a laptop. Having seen the newest MBP, I'd definitely love to try to switch from PC to Macs. But my fear is that the yonah chips are only 32-bit. Now I know that 64-bit programs aren't in the mainstream yet, but I tend to keep things that I buy for a really long time. The PC I have now is 7 years old. Do you guys think it would be smarter for me to go for a dual AMD Turion (most likely Lenovo) when it comes out in a few months? Or just go ahead and purchase the MBP and hope that the 64-bit apps aren't coming as soon as people say. I'm going to keep this laptop at least through graduate school (8ish years). The ideal situation would be for me to wait for the meroms that come out at the end of the year, but school starts in September, and I'm afraid that waiting that long won't be an option.

Any thoughts?
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post #2 of 17
2/17/06 at 4:00am
Being that you're going in the fall if you can hold off the next generation chips from Intel will be 64 bit...September is around the time they're supposed to be out.

Otherwise you'll be fine with a current model. Even now, after 64 bit processors have been available for over a year, hardly anything is in 64 bit. Even when things do start really coming out in 64 bit there will be 32 bit versions for a very long time.

Unless you're going to need new applications each year you'll really not have to worry about 64 bit.
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post #3 of 17
2/17/06 at 4:38am
that, and i'm still waiting to find out what 64-bits are supposed to do for the vast majority of users that won't have 4+ GB of memory in their systems... i've read more than a few articles talking about how the 64 bit craze is basically a numbers game for consumers to bite onto, most will never see the benefit in it.
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post #4 of 17
2/17/06 at 5:03am
I would recomend to wait as much as possible to buy anything (PC or Apple) so then you can either get the latest tecnology (thus lasting longer) or get todays tecnology @ bargain prices.

I would wait and see, then buy a MBP w/ 64 bit
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post #5 of 17
2/17/06 at 9:31am
wait till the absolute latest to buy. things will change.

if you're buying now, then i suggest Turion all the way.

MSI-1029 is a very good package for a very good price.
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post #6 of 17
2/17/06 at 11:32am
Check this out:

http://www.gizmodo.com/gadgets/intel...ers-153822.php
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post #7 of 17
2/17/06 at 7:49pm
WTF?

http://www.mac-forums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=30819

I feel somehow used/lied to, you could atleast typed a diferent topic in each forum
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post #8 of 17
2/17/06 at 10:44pm
Thread Starter 
er? What's wrong with double posting an a totally different site?

In regards to ... "
Before I start, I'd like to say that this forum has been tremendously helpful thus far! Very knowledgable"...that is 100 percent right. This forum has been an extreme wealth of information for me, just like the other forum. I knew that internet posting etiquette implied that double posting on the SAME forum in different subcategories is looked down upon, but on a totally different site.... I didn't think I would offend anyone...
The people who post on these sites are PC/Mac fanatics that I hope to exchange questions and ideas with, cuz I can bet that all of you all are much more knowledge about the current computer landscape then I am. I only wish to gain some lil tidbits here in there to improve my next computer purchase. So I figured if I felt the same way for both sites, why not just be efficient, and get to the point ....

So if I offended anyone, I apologize.
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post #9 of 17
2/18/06 at 1:57am
Thread Starter 
TeeJay, yea, I've heard that rumor before...

If thats the case, is there anything we can do to "enable" the 64 bit capabilities? Also, one of my teachers who has a master in compsci said that even if some programs in the future turned to 64-bit, 32 bit cpus would still be able to run it, just with slower or limited properties. So with that being said, what programs would possibly need to go to 64-bit? Video editing, CAD programs, programming, intensive gaming... what else? Seems like the more common apps (Office, Firefox, all those small programs) would never have to go to 64-bit. So in that case, the more average consumer wouldn't have to worry about 64-bit processors period, unless even THOSE programs eventually go to 64-bit, like Windows Vista. Is that likely?

Another question: From what I understand, Mac OS X is 64-bit...yet from all accounts, it runs perfectly smooth on the 32-bit yonahs..am I missing something? Maybe perhaps 64-bits aren't that big of a deal?
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post #10 of 17
2/18/06 at 3:15am
the whole 64 bit thing wont happen overnight. It'll take atleast 5 years before you can take advantage of it(for a normal user ofcourse). Which is like saying you need a new computer to take advantage of it. Tech industry is soo up. The moment you buy a computer... it's obsolete the next day(sarcastic remark). My guess is that apple might (guessing) enable the 64 bit capability of yonah sometime along the way. Besides what I heard is the chipset that will take full advantage of meron wont be out til March 2007(more or less). It will have a 800mhz fsb compared to the current 667mhz fsb of yonah and merom that will come out this fall. The first release of merom will use the current 945 chipset.
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post #11 of 17
2/18/06 at 3:21am
Quote:
Originally Posted by 777
TeeJay, yea, I've heard that rumor before...

If thats the case, is there anything we can do to "enable" the 64 bit capabilities? Also, one of my teachers who has a master in compsci said that even if some programs in the future turned to 64-bit, 32 bit cpus would still be able to run it, just with slower or limited properties. So with that being said, what programs would possibly need to go to 64-bit? Video editing, CAD programs, programming, intensive gaming... what else? Seems like the more common apps (Office, Firefox, all those small programs) would never have to go to 64-bit. So in that case, the more average consumer wouldn't have to worry about 64-bit processors period, unless even THOSE programs eventually go to 64-bit, like Windows Vista. Is that likely?

Another question: From what I understand, Mac OS X is 64-bit...yet from all accounts, it runs perfectly smooth on the 32-bit yonahs..am I missing something? Maybe perhaps 64-bits aren't that big of a deal?

Actually its both. Mac OS 10.4 is a 32 bit native OS but can do 64 bit (it has a 64 bit application support). The next Mac OS X coming this fall will be 64 bit native but has 32 but support. Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard

Sorry if I made a mistake, just correct me if Im wrong.

Thanks
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post #12 of 17
2/18/06 at 10:03am
Quote:
Originally Posted by 777
er? What's wrong with double posting an a totally different site?

In regards to ... "
Before I start, I'd like to say that this forum has been tremendously helpful thus far! Very knowledgable"...that is 100 percent right. This forum has been an extreme wealth of information for me, just like the other forum. I knew that internet posting etiquette implied that double posting on the SAME forum in different subcategories is looked down upon, but on a totally different site.... I didn't think I would offend anyone...
The people who post on these sites are PC/Mac fanatics that I hope to exchange questions and ideas with, cuz I can bet that all of you all are much more knowledge about the current computer landscape then I am. I only wish to gain some lil tidbits here in there to improve my next computer purchase. So I figured if I felt the same way for both sites, why not just be efficient, and get to the point ....

So if I offended anyone, I apologize.
I dont think anybodys offended (it was like 2 am so I mighta taken it the wrong way) infact now that I think about it its nice that your getting info both from PC people and Mac people.

BTW aelcome to the forums (damm theres so many new people IDK if ive already said hi)
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post #13 of 17
2/18/06 at 6:00pm
just curious... what "apple-friendly college" will you be attending?
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post #14 of 17
2/18/06 at 11:59pm
Thread Starter 
ah, no worries siul! thanks for the welcome.

ummm...I'll be going to the one 20 minutes away from Apple HQ. =)

Have a question, I hear of tons of "switchers" that go from PC to Mac, but none the other way around... anybody know of someone who a). decided to either go back to PC after trying out Macs or b). Mac users who decided to see what PCs were about, and stayed?
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post #15 of 17
2/20/06 at 10:29pm
I've had alot of buddies go from PC to Mac and then back, but most of them are gamers. And let's face it, if you game on computers... you just don't buy a Mac. period.
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post #16 of 17
2/21/06 at 12:00am
The other scenario where folk go from Mac to PC are developers and people who work with lots of data. This is not so much a problem with the Mac itself as it is the lack of relational database environments on the Mac (nothing to compare to MS Access unfortunately), at least for the data people.

The developer crowd actually winds up not switching in the first place because of there being no CLR support on the Mac. With .net experiencing explosive growth this is a weakness Apple needs to address, namely developing a CLR for the Mac OS.
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post #17 of 17
2/27/06 at 12:38pm
Well i switched to mac and I will always keep my desktop PC so i technically havent done a full switch. I love my powerbook but its more for my school work my music recording and I am so happy with the battery life. I also do a little graphic and video work but im just getting into that. I will always use my pc though becasue I play the occasional game and it works well for everything else. I just have the best of both worlds by always owning both.
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