Black MacBook Review by paul klein

Believe me I tormented myself for days trying to figure out whether to buy the Macbook or the Macbook pro. After much consideration I finally decided to buy the 2nd generation of the Black Macbook. Here are the specs:

Black MacBook
2.0Ghz Core 2 Duo
120GB Seagate Mommentus 5400.3
2GB of RAM (2x1GB)
Logic Express preinstalled
Apple 3year coverage plan

I pimped it out a bit. Upgraded from 1GB of RAM (2x512mb) to 2GB's of RAM (2x1GB). It costed an extra $157 dollar's but it was money well spent. Overall it speeds up the performance all around and is especially useful since I will be using multiple applications at once, like the revolutionary technology to run Windows and Tiger (Leopard soon) at the same time. I would have just bought the extra GB of RAM separately and installed it myself, but the stock 1GB RAM is composed of two 512mb RAM chips so in actuallity I would have to buy 2 1GB Chips in order to have 2GB of RAM since they don't make 1.5GB RAM chips and I would not be able to use the 2 512mb chips after upgrading. The Black Macbook has the stock 120GB hardrive and I could have upgraded to 160 @5400rpm or 200 @4200rpm.I found both upgrades to be arbitrary since the 160 has the same rpm as the 120 and the 200 actually slows down the macbook because it rotates slower per minute @4200. I would have upgraded if the apple store had the option to upgrade to a 7200rpm hardrive which is the only logical hardrive upgrade considering the cost/effectiveness ratio. But maybe I will oneday If I find it neccessary. As the macbook is very costly to repair I also had to buy the 3 year apple protection plan because if anything were to happen to my macbook it would most likely occur after the standard 1yr warranty.

Anyways, since I don't use any 3d applications or do any gaming, getting the macbook pro was illogical. Both the blackbook and the mbp come with the same processor (core 2 duo), RAM (1GB), Hardrive ( 120GB@5400rpm), Optical drive (6x double-layer SuperDrive), and software. The only significant advantage the mbp has over the mb is it's superior graphics card(ATI Mobility Radeon X1600 with 128MB of GDDR3 SDRAM), which is useless in my case since I don't play games or use any 3d applications. The blackbook's graphics card (Intel GMA 950 graphics processor with 64MB of DDR2 SDRAM) is no slouch either and plays most games just fine, only heavy gamers and users of high end 3d software would be dissapointed. Aside from that the blackbook actually has many advantages over the mbp. For one thing it is much more durable and portable than the mbp.
It's battery life is significantly longer than the mbp's , and the connectivity to wireless networks is better on the blackbook as well. Not to mention it looks a hell of a lot better!!!! I looked at the mbp and macbook in person before deciding and the macbook looked way cooler than the mbp, plus the mbp looks a lot like the outdated powerbook.

Well, Hope you are as fond of yours as i am of mine

peace out!!!

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