<p>I cannot believe my bad luck. I bought the iMac today, and took my old Dell over to have them transfer the files, and when I got there, the stupid dell wouldn’t recognize the hard drive. It was working fine this morning, I shut it down and apparently that was it’s last act. I took it back home & tried everything to get it back up, but no luck. Wahhhhh.</p>
<p>The MBP 13 uses the Penryn processor which is previous generation. The 15 and 17 use Nehalem processors. Intel added integrated graphics to their CPU chips and the 15/17 MBPs can switch between integrated graphics and nVidia discrete graphics. The MBP 13 uses nVidia integrated graphics only - I think that they didn’t want to use Intel integrated alone as nVidia’s solution is quite a bit better.</p>
<p>The nVidia/Intel/Apple chipset issue was a mess for quite a while and it still is somewhat.</p>
<p>On the Dell system, put the disk in an enclosure, attach it to another machine and see if you can get the files off the disk.</p>
<p>Blankmind,</p>
<p>I was too lazy to carry in my old Dell for the file transfer to my new Imac. So I was lazy and simply copied everything I needed onto a large capacity flash drive and plugged it into my new Imac (love how easy it is to find the various ports because it’s all on the back of the big monitor) and simply pulled over files as I needed them and got used to the new operating system and file management system on the Mac. </p>
<p>Easy. Simple. Welcome to the Mac world!</p>
<p>“The MBP 13 uses the Penryn processor which is previous generation…”</p>
<p>BCEagle - Is this good or bad? Is 15/17 MBP worth the bother and additional cost? Is it true there’s no plain MacBook? I heard unless you need to switch between Windows and Mac OS, you are better off with plain MacBook, not Pro.</p>
<p>sewhappy, I wish I would have done that, because then I would have my files! I have my old dell backed up on carbonite, but it is not so easy to move the files onto a mac I am finding out. I am going to try to restore the files from carbonite onto an old laptop we have here, but someone (me) accidentally knelt on it and the screen cracked and it is very hard to work with. But if I can get the files on there, then I should be able to get them from the laptop to the imac.</p>
<p>Oh, and once I downloaded foxfire, I am loving this machine!</p>
<p>There are architectural improvements from Penryn to Nehalem so you miss out on those but the Penryn should be more than fine for most people. The decisions should be based on the computing needs vs the various models. Do you need a larger screen and/or higher resolution? Do you need maximum compute power? Do you need portability?</p>
<p>The regular MacBook should be able to run Windows with no problems.</p>
<p>Get Apple’s list of features and options and then make your own list of what you want and then see which model best fits your needs and wants.</p>
<p>It’s gratifying to read so much praise for the iMac/Macbook. I love Apple. Sorry to any pc users, but Apple’s staff has evolved and is now very friendly and helpful. I have had many problems trying to learn a video editing software and have had great success being tutored by the folks working the local store. So this is where the college grads work who majored in art/philosophy/lit. I work on a Macbook Pro 15", a hand me up from my high school student. We also have an iMac which is wonderful that my husband uses. But when we travel, he’s on my Macbook.</p>
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<p>The guy that sold me our iMac was a biology grad. He just saw working at the Apple Store as more appealing than working in a job in his major. Sometimes Apple Stores remind me of colleges. They take 1,000 applications to find about 60 people to work there and the people that they hire have experience and they mostly seem pretty bright.</p>
<p>The biggest reason that I decided to go with a mac after 30 years of pcs was the Apple Store nearby. My d has a macbook, and when she had a problem, we took it over, and they fixed it. No call to India, no waiting on hold for 3 hours, they just fixed it. Her ipod had a problem, and they gave her a new one. This is how I like to do business.</p>
<p>For me the tipping point was the security issue. Of course, Macs aren’t totally immune to viruses, spam, whatever but it is utopia compared to the windows world, imo.</p>
<p>Do believe in Windows platforms for most business purposes, however.</p>
<p>Apple attracts a ridiculous amount of attention and for reasons that are hard to understand some people have to hate it. It’s weird to me because it’s not like Windows computers aren’t common. It’s just a computer, not a belief in God.</p>
<p>That said, without Apple, where would computing be? When the Mac came out, publications like The Economist were saying that human interfaces weren’t necessary because companies would train employees to use software. I’m not saying we’d be without the GUI’s we now depend on, but Apple has led the way. They drove the move away from floppy disks by removing the drive, etc. They aren’t always or indeed often at the bleeding edge of technology but they’ve made industrial design decisions that have turned computers from disgusting looking and very loud to sleek and quiet. </p>
<p>Remember what phones were like before the iPhone? They reinvented phone software. It also seems that only Apple and Google have been smart enough to recognize that the world is shifting toward small or what some are calling “very personal computers.” Not netbooks, which provide a crummy experience that’s portable but the development of a genuine lightweight OS that’s now in the hands of millions through the iPhone, iPad and Google Android.</p>
<p>We like Macs so much our oldest chose a college that had a Maccentric computer lab, imacs in the lobby and * color classics* in the cafeteria!</p>
<p>;)</p>