hey guys, I'm been checking out Macs recently and thought about getting 1. Wondering if this is the correct place to ask some questions.

I'm on a budget but willing to stretch just a little bit to reach the 13'' Macbook Pro if I have to.

The thing is, when I looked at the specs for Macs vs PC at the same price, I can't help but think that the Macs are inferiors in terms of CPU speed, memory size, HDD size, etc. But I do understand that the Mac itself has been built in the highest quality by Apple and not to mention the superb OSX and now the new SL.

My question is regarding the specs primarily because I'm thinking of using it primary for multimedia work such as photo editing and painting in Photoshop or Corel Painter for that matter.

I does those right now on my PC (AMD 2400, Geforce 8800GT and 2GB of ram) and I noticed quite a lag when the work I'm doing reaches around thousand something resolution and a few layers. When i'm dragging the image around or simply erasing stuffs, the lag is noticeable. And if I were to get the Macbook Pro 13'' or the Macbook white which the CPU isn't any faster than my current desktop or the graphic card for that matter, is Mac OSX performs better because of the architecture or generally they are the same as the apps were in either Mac OS or Windows platform?

Also, i noticed that the graphic card is 9400M shared memory for both Macbook and Macbook pro 13''. But paying the extra gets you nicer aluminium unibody and a much much better screen.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I even thought of getting a Mac mini at first to save cost but no point having 2 desktops at the same time so... Macbook will be my choice for now.

Thanks a bunch first!

oh, if that's the case then perhaps that will clear out my worries. i went to Switch to try out the macbook white actually. I tried to do just a litttle stress test on it. opened a video clip, played it, open itunes, move to spaces, i noticed that the desktop has been zoomed out to reveal 4 spaces and the video kept playing smoothly in the small thumbnails.

perhaps which ever model i'll go for, i'll just make sure i upgrade the ram from the mere 1GB and i guess i'll be fine.

4GB eh... okay. that will cost me another bomb if i were to get MacBook Pro. hahaha, really torn between the price. correct me if i'm wrong, i went to Switch the other day to ask about the educational pricing. they told me it was out of stock or was it by period of each year the promotion is for until? cos that will enable me to save a few bucks and might even nail me 1 ipod touch.

i just went to ask around in Switch, they told me.. SL OSX equipped machines will only make their way here locally around December.... come on man... so slow?

Might as well order online...

hmmm... thanks for the info. guess i'll check out other retailers first b4 deciding. due to budget constrain... i think most likely i'll only get Mac Mini to suit my need. which is sad.... haih... its good.. but not that great i guess.. oh well.... 1 more thing i'm worried bout is the product refresh lifecycle. according to Macrumors.com, Macmini was neutral. meaning at the mid of its life cycle... will the SL updates bog down the mini judging by the specs?

with the new pricing for the previous generation of Mac Mini and Macbook... i'm left wondering. is it worth it to get the Mac Mini at RM1799? or get the new one at RM2199.

RM400 difference for CPU and ram bump! the 2GB ram will come in handy. but i can always upgrade it myself. the question is the CPU.....

psystar doesn't support AMD right? damn, my PC is AMD...

LOL.... so bad? Here in PG they still have 1 or 2 units in one of the store. just wondering should i be adding RM400 more for a superior unit with faster CPU and 1GB extra ram or not only. RAM i can upgrade myself.. but the CPU is nice touch.

Guys, again.. sorry if i'm asking a little too much.

between the new Mac mini entry level at RM2199 vs the older models which is now selling at RM1799.

The difference is around RM400.

Does that justifies the faster CPU speed? 2.0Ghz vs 2.26GHz

I won't mind upgrading the RAM myself if the price could be cheaper and HDD is not a factor for me.

I just need to know the CPU difference for that price and if it's any better for Snow Leopard.

I'm going to use it to replace my current PC which is dual core AMD 4200, 2GB ram, Geforce 8800GT which isn't too shabby. Mainly running Adobe photoshop, Corel Painter, etc. Games and stuff I'm not that worried as i can always revert back to my PC if needed.