Looking for a laptop...

[Mr.Clark]

So... new job, more monies and a total lack of OSX experience. I'm thinking of taking the plunge myself. Again, 0% finance is a very nice incentive! I figure that I could replace my PC for 90% of the stuff I do at the moment. I hardly ever game, it's mostly Chrome web browsing and watching films through the TV.

I've heard that if I get a cable like this: Mini-Toslink to Optical Cable, I should be able to get 5.1 sound from videos that support it (my speakers have optical in). Couple that with HDMI to the telly and I think I'm away. Anyone here tried it?

Also, can a Macbook Pro support HDMI out, DVI out (through their adapter) and normal panel display at the same time? This one's not a deal breaker, but it would be kind of awesome.

Also on the question of finance - can you pay a certain amount up-front (say £500) to reduce the monthly repayments? Or is it an all-or-nothing?

[kingweed]

So... new job, more monies and a total lack of OSX experience. I'm thinking of taking the plunge myself. Again, 0% finance is a very nice incentive! I figure that I could replace my PC for 90% of the stuff I do at the moment. I hardly ever game, it's mostly Chrome web browsing and watching films through the TV.

I've heard that if I get a cable like this: Mini-Toslink to Optical Cable, I should be able to get 5.1 sound from videos that support it (my speakers have optical in). Couple that with HDMI to the telly and I think I'm away. Anyone here tried it?

Also, can a Macbook Pro support HDMI out, DVI out (through their adapter) and normal panel display at the same time? This one's not a deal breaker, but it would be kind of awesome.

Also on the question of finance - can you pay a certain amount up-front (say £500) to reduce the monthly repayments? Or is it an all-or-nothing?

The machine is lovely and the screen is great.

I'm now getting use to OSX and it's still got some stupid stuff going on with it. For example if you tap a file and press enter - that should open it - that's how you rename a file. So retarded iyam

Yes, I think it can. I've only hooked it up to one monitor though via a kvm switch and it worked great.

Regarding finance i'm not sure how they do it but if you'd rather split it up over different ways, different amounts each month. Buy it with a 0% credit card - money saving expert will list a load that are over 12months interest free and you'll be able to pay it up anyway you like.

[Tinlad]

I've heard that if I get a cable like this: Mini-Toslink to Optical Cable, I should be able to get 5.1 sound from videos that support it (my speakers have optical in). Couple that with HDMI to the telly and I think I'm away. Anyone here tried it?

Not tried it, but that's how it's meant to work. You obviously can also get multi-channel audio via the HDMI output.

Also, can a Macbook Pro support HDMI out, DVI out (through their adapter) and normal panel display at the same time? This one's not a deal breaker, but it would be kind of awesome.

Yes, no problem. Apple officially support this, and the 15" has been shown to actually support 3x external + internal.

Also on the question of finance - can you pay a certain amount up-front (say £500) to reduce the monthly repayments? Or is it an all-or-nothing?

I didn't notice any option to pay any up-front when I got mine, so I think it's all-or-nothing.

[Mr.Clark]

I've heard that if I get a cable like this: Mini-Toslink to Optical Cable, I should be able to get 5.1 sound from videos that support it (my speakers have optical in). Couple that with HDMI to the telly and I think I'm away. Anyone here tried it?

Not tried it, but that's how it's meant to work. You obviously can also get multi-channel audio via the HDMI output.

I don't have any way of plugging HDMI into something with 5.1 out. I've got a cheapy TV with HDMI in, but no way of outputting from that into my speakers.

Also, can a Macbook Pro support HDMI out, DVI out (through their adapter) and normal panel display at the same time? This one's not a deal breaker, but it would be kind of awesome.

Yes, no problem. Apple officially support this, and the 15" has been shown to actually support 3x external + internal.

I'm only looking at the 13", but that's really cool

Also on the question of finance - can you pay a certain amount up-front (say £500) to reduce the monthly repayments? Or is it an all-or-nothing?

I didn't notice any option to pay any up-front when I got mine, so I think it's all-or-nothing.

Nuts. Oh well. I'll see how it goes.

Does anyone think it's worth spending the extra £150 to go from a 2.8GHz i5 to a 3.0GHz i7? Seems like a lot to me. I've already specced it up to 16GB RAM (if you can't upgrade it, go big...) and I'm still thinking about whether I'll need the 512GB SSD... I'll probably wait for Windows 9 before dual booting, but I will have OSX and Windows on there at some point. That said, with Dropbox now giving me 1TB of storage and a ~5GB NAS in the house, I don't need gobs of on-board space.

[Tinlad]

I've got the 13" 2.6 GHz i5, 8 GB, 512 GB.

I've never felt like I need any extra CPU grunt for my usage. I get the feeling that the majority of the perceived speed of the machine is down to the insanely fast SSD. I thought that the 512 GB SSD might be overkill, but it's now about half-full so I'm glad I've got it - remember that excess space is also good for prolonging the lifespan of the drive.

I sometimes wish I'd gone for 16 GB RAM, but to be honest I rarely use 8 GB. Plus Mavericks has all sorts of clever compression tricks to stretch RAM out further.

So, in summary:
16 GB RAM: yes.
512 GB SSD: maybe.
i7: I wouldn't bother.

Go for it, they're fantastic machines!

[kingweed]

I went full out.



I didn't see the point of just going for the 15'' when for a couple hundred more get a faster machine, higher capacity ssd and gpu.

Go for it

[Mr.Clark]

I've got the 13" 2.6 GHz i5, 8 GB, 512 GB.

I've never felt like I need any extra CPU grunt for my usage. I get the feeling that the majority of the perceived speed of the machine is down to the insanely fast SSD. I thought that the 512 GB SSD might be overkill, but it's now about half-full so I'm glad I've got it - remember that excess space is also good for prolonging the lifespan of the drive.

I sometimes wish I'd gone for 16 GB RAM, but to be honest I rarely use 8 GB. Plus Mavericks has all sorts of clever compression tricks to stretch RAM out further.

So, in summary:
16 GB RAM: yes.
512 GB SSD: maybe.
i7: I wouldn't bother.

Go for it, they're fantastic machines!

Cool. I've just tried, and there's no Saturday delivery option. I'm hoping that's because I'm too close to this Saturday. I'll try again in a day or two, but I'm boned if I can't order for Saturday delivery because I'm out of the house from about 7:45am until just after 7pm every day at the moment. Yeah, the commute is a motherfucker.

[Jezreel]

I thought that was bad for a minute, then realised that we're out from 7.20 until 6.00pm most days, so only a few minutes shy of that. Life's a bitch.

[kingweed]

Delivery is free but if you're wanting sat your looking at extra...

You can also find delivery costs at checkout, on the order acknowledgement email and online when you view your order on the Order Status website. You can choose a different Delivery Method for each item on your order:

Express Delivery - £8.00 + VAT
1 - 3 days after dispatch
Pre-Noon Delivery - £12.00 + VAT
1 - 3 days after dispatch, delivered before Noon.
Pre-9:30am Delivery - £15.00 + VAT
1 - 3 days after dispatch, delivered before 9:30am.
Evening Delivery - £15.00 + VAT
1 - 3 days after dispatch, delivered between 5:00pm and 9:00pm.
Saturday Delivery - £18.00 + VAT
3 - 9 days after dispatch, delivered on a Saturday.

[Ekona]

Get it delivered to work?

[Tinlad]

Unfortunately, if you're taking advantage of the 0% finance offer you have to have it delivered to the billing address.

I ran into the same issue, but fortunately the delivery arrived at about 7 pm anyway!

[Mr.Clark]

Hmm. The number of questions on the finance application was daunting.

How long have you lived at current address? Um... 2 months.

How long have you been at your employer? That would be 1 month.

Hope no-one who lived here before me had shitty credit :/

And I'll have to take a day off for delivery, if it gets that far. But still. Shiny shiny...

EDIT: Tits. Turned down. Moving house and job at the same time is a pain on so many levels. Hey ho. I guess I'll save up the cash and buy the damn thing outright.

[Ekona]

Go get a 0% credit card and chuck it on that. If they accept you, of course.

It's your employment that's likely killing you on this.

[Mr.Clark]

Probably. And if I can't get a 0% finance deal for that much, odds are a credit card wouldn't have a high enough limit anyway.

[Dan]

Hmm. The number of questions on the finance application was daunting.

How long have you lived at current address? Um... 2 months.

How long have you been at your employer? That would be 1 month.

Hope no-one who lived here before me had shitty credit :/

And I'll have to take a day off for delivery, if it gets that far. But still. Shiny shiny...

EDIT: Tits. Turned down. Moving house and job at the same time is a pain on so many levels. Hey ho. I guess I'll save up the cash and buy the damn thing outright.

Get on the electoral role, pay a few bills and have a couple more months employment and try again. Had no problems getting a 0% credit card 2 months after starting work 2 months after moving house this time last year. Have you checked your experian credit report (free) to check there's nothing unexpected lurking on there?