Thinking about buying my first Mac

[None Such]

I'm just looking for any advice from Mac veterans. I'm more looking for advice about timing of buying. I only used my PC for the internet, playing games like Age of Empires, hooking my tivo up through broadband and the occasional word document and arrorted small tasks. I really like the Macbook(white and black) and I would like to get AOE on there. I'm not a big gamer, just a few strategy games like AOE, Cossacks etc. Will they run well on there?

It's not a necessity to get it right away, but I'm really itching too. I'll definately hold out for Merom/CD2. I'm just wondering about waiting for Leopard and any other possible hardware/software upgrades. I guess that's the eternal question right? I know things will always change, I just want something that will last a good while without major upgrades. Any advice will be appreciated. Thanks.

[Mac+]

Hi None Such - this is a common question and the most popular advice is: "If you need it, buy it now. If not, wait." However, I understand that this is not much help when you are just starting out and want to get your first Mac.

There is a web page from the MacRumors site which may help you form an opinion - or at least give you a guideline on recent update schedules. * click me * (http://buyersguide.macrumors.com/)

Deciding to wait for Merom/CD2 and Leopard is a fine idea ... but don't get caught in the eternal "I'll just wait for the next bump" syndrome as there will always be something new coming out. ;)

I'm not a gamer, so I can't offer you advice on the suitability of the MacBooks for game playing. :\

[dmegatool]

Deciding to wait for Merom/CD2 and Leopard is a fine idea ... but don't get caught in the eternal "I'll just wait for the next bump" syndrome as there will always be something new coming out. ;)

If he wait for Leopard, then he could wait for Santa Rosa in april 2007.

Seriously, don't wait for ever. I almost waited for clovertown but I made up my mind and it feels great(bough the mac pro). You could buy straith out the lauchn of Merom and upgrade to Leopard when released... no ?

[Brad]

Generally speaking, the MacBook is not a great gaming machine. It uses shared memory with an integrated Intel graphics chipset. It plays Quake 3-era and older games just fine, but new high-demand games will perform poorly or perhaps not run at all due to the lack of a dedicated GPU.

So, if you intend to include gaming as one of its main tasks, you might want to wait (or rather hope) for a bump to the graphics or step up to the MacBook Pro.

[torifile]

Just to chime in here - I think the likelihood of the MacBook getting a dedicated graphics card is next to none. I really don't see it happening. It's too much of an added expense for the target audience. Either that expense would be passed to the consumer (who likely doesn't want it - I didn't when I bought mine) or taken out of margins. So don't wait for an upgrade to the MB's graphics card because it just won't happen.

[None Such]

Thanks for all the advice guys. I'm not a big gamer, it's actually last on my list. So no big deal there. I think I will most likely go with dmegatool's suggestion. This is what I was kinda leaning towards. Because I doubt I will be able to wait that long on Leopard.

I've briefly heard of Santa Rosa on here. Pardon my ignorance but, what is it exactly?

[julesstoop]

It's a future mobile platform from Intel which is supposed to arrive somewhere in the first half of 2007. As far as I know it's based on core 2 duo (merom) but with a faster front side bus than present offerings and support for 802.11n (faster wireless networking)

Some more info:
The integrated graphics chip belonging to this platform will be faster than present offerings as well (obviously) and the CPU, though essentially being identical to present Meroms will sport a new socket (so no drop-in replacement for present day iMacs en Mac-minis)