Buy a good quality laptop , maybe Dell Vostro, load with open office, Avast , Adaware Crap cleaner and save your cash unless you are a designer.

Mac really over the top price wise for a basic home user

Well guys I have been won over.

I will be heading back to the store on Thursday to purchase my new Macbook Pro 13" 2.3Ghz with 8GB Ram and Dual Core Intel i5.

I will be purchasing from the Square group who have a few shops, some in London god help them! I am going to add the 3 year warranty/protection plan with full 24hr UK call centre support and in store back up.

I managed to save a fair bit by buying Microsoft Office 2011 on ebay for a mere £55. Much dearer in the shops. LL.B (Hons) - University of Derby
LOT (Lord of Time) - University of Gallifrey

Reeventu wrote:

Buy a good quality laptop , maybe Dell Vostro, load with open office, Avast , Adaware Crap cleaner and save your cash unless you are a designer.

Mac really over the top price wise for a basic home user

i'm heading to a Mac purely for the compatability for iphone, timemachine, appleTV, and the main thing is the lack of viruses that PC users suffer

And maybe just a little bit of Looks  Former Mod/Member, with the most post & Chicken George Arch nemesis

npinks wrote:

, and the main thing is the lack of viruses that PC users suffer

Dont be lulled into thinking macs are less vulnerable than PC's, because they aren't - its just that whilst PC's are the majority they are an easy target, however the new generation of hackers are now a bit smarter and are starting to target specific things making you who thinks mac are safe a perfect target!

This is especially true for business users and people who may have company sensitive of personal information on them!

As for the patching update - Yes MS do have lots of patches, but again this is tantamount to the number of people using them and so finding the vulnerabilities! There was a month not to long ago when Apple beat MS with its number of security updates

Doesnt stop me wanting one tho!  Freelander 2 TD4 Auto, SE, Narvik Black, Alpaca full leather, Rear Headrest Entertainment System, 6 CD, 18 HSE Wheels, Privicy tints

Good luck The Doctor, excellent decision You will love it once you get your head around the Microsoft/Apple OS differences 2012 DISCOVERY 4 GS AUTO ORKNEY GREY
2012 FREELANDER 2 SD4 GS AUTO BALTIC BLUE - GONE
2011 FREELANDER 2 TD4 GS MANUAL BALI BLUE - GONE

same here, but less viruses is better, but obviously would look towards protection too

Can't decide on what to go for though, macbook, macbook pro, or air Former Mod/Member, with the most post & Chicken George Arch nemesis

Macbook Pro unless you need the weight difference in the air. SSD is nice but too small to be practical.

Personally I would really recommend spending the extra to go for i7. It makes a big difference having Quad cores if you are doing any heavy processor work.

There are some good FREE virus checkers available to the Mac, but they are unintrusive and needless to say dont find much. The unique way in which applications are installed helps keep these at bay because the entire application lies in easily traceable files that you have to give authorisation to before installation.

Windows viruses can still pass through the Mac and onto other Windows machines so good to scan USB sticks and such from time to time.

 2012 DISCOVERY 4 GS AUTO ORKNEY GREY
2012 FREELANDER 2 SD4 GS AUTO BALTIC BLUE - GONE
2011 FREELANDER 2 TD4 GS MANUAL BALI BLUE - GONE

FREE Virus Checker for Mac

http://www.clamxav.com/ 2012 DISCOVERY 4 GS AUTO ORKNEY GREY
2012 FREELANDER 2 SD4 GS AUTO BALTIC BLUE - GONE
2011 FREELANDER 2 TD4 GS MANUAL BALI BLUE - GONE

Just logged into Apple, working on different MacPros and Airs

with NHS discount i can get, working out £80-100 cheaper, still about a grand though

or do i save a tenner and get a ipad2  Former Mod/Member, with the most post & Chicken George Arch nemesis

what this spec like for a refurb MacBook Air? Can the Flash storage be upgraded and RAM?

Product Details

Processor 1.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
L2 Cache 3MB shared
System bus 800MHz
Memory 2GB of 1066MHz DDR3 SDRAM onboard (4GB maximum)
Storage1 64GB of flash storage
Slot-loading optical drive Optional external USB MacBook Air SuperDrive (sold separately)
Graphics NVIDIA GeForce 320M graphics processor with 256MB of DDR3 SDRAM shared with main memory2
Video FaceTime camera; Mini DisplayPort output port with support for DVI, VGA, dual-link DVI, and HDMI (requires adapters, sold separately)
Display 11.6-inch (diagonal) high-resolution LED-backlit glossy widescreen display, 1366-by-768 resolution
Ports Two USB 2.0 ports (up to 480 Mbps)
Audio Stereo speakers, omnidirectional microphone, headphone minijack
Networking Apple USB Ethernet Adapter (sold separately)
Wireless AirPort Extreme Wi-Fi (based on IEEE 802.11n specification)3 Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR (Enhanced Data Rate) wireless technology
Size and weight Height: 0.11-0.68 inch (0.3-1.7 cm)
Width: 11.8 inches (29.95 cm)
Depth: 7.56 inches (19.2 cm)
Weight: 2.3 pounds (1.06 kg)4

I believe this is the model you are looking at:

http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/macb...specs.html

It states:
"It features 2 GB of onboard 1066 MHz DDR3 SDRAM (which only could be upgraded to 4 GB at the time of purchase), 64 GB or 128 GB of flash storage"

So I would say that it cannot be upgraded but I'm sure there are people out there that could do it. Unless you have lots of big programs open all at once then 2GB RAM should be enough anyway.

Oh well £650 might not be the best if it can't be upgraded, thought if it could have it wasn't a bad price

well might as well save a little more and go decent spec straight off, nowt like having more power than you need for surfing the web Former Mod/Member, with the most post & Chicken George Arch nemesis

As I sit here typing, I am on my new MacBook Pro. Early days in terms of use but it looks straightforward enough and it is damn quick! Plus I am getting much faster speeds on wireless using firefox probably because this has wireless 'n' card as opposed to my old laptop which was 'g' I think.

The style and quality is in a different league, the end of the mains cable which connects to the computer is magnetic!

Here's to many happy hours of useage. LL.B (Hons) - University of Derby
LOT (Lord of Time) - University of Gallifrey

how come you bought from the square group? and not apple direct? Former Mod/Member, with the most post & Chicken George Arch nemesis