A few questions from a recent switcher..

First off I'd like to give a bit of thanks to everyone on this forum, it was an invaluble resource in making my decision to purchase a MBP. Although as someone new to OS X and Macs in general I do have quite a few questions:

1. Are there any third party graphics drivers for OSx that would improve gaming performance? I tried playing World of Warcraft in OSx, and it was so bad that after 5 minutes I quit and uninstalled it. On a side-note there is a HUGE difference in performance in Windows vs. OSx , I was under the impression that OpenGL and DX were capable of about the same thing. Are the OSx drivers really that bad?

2. Any recommendations for a decent bluetooth keyboard? I've looked into the new Apple one, it seems nice, however if it has the same sticky-key feeling of apples previous keyboards I don't think I could use it.

3. Apples new Mighty Mouse looks intriguing, but I've seen some pretty bad reviews (the scroll ball breaking and such). The Logitech VXs also look very nice, though I would prefer a bluetooth mouse. Which should I get? / Recommendations on a bluetooth mouse?

4. When in Windows (via bootcamp) I've noticed that I am unable to access files on my OSx partition. Is it possible to remedy this?

5. I'm in the market for a notebook stand/cooler. I realize that Apples somewhat unique fan exhausts make these things vastly less effective, nonetheless I would still like one. Are there ones specifically designed for the MBP? If not, which one would you recommend?

6. What's a good program to monitor temperature and control fans in Windows XP? (I have SMCfancontrol and Istatpro in OSx)

7. I have copy MS office '04 for Windows. Think I would be able to use its serial for the mac version?

Thanks for the help
-Eric

P.S. Sorry in advance if these questions have been asked before .

 

I'm a recent switcher and I'll try answer as many questions as possible.

1. I also have installed WoW on my 2.2ghz MBP and it runs fine, very smooth, with average of 40-50fps until I hit Shattrah. Wat settings are you running it under? I noticed if I put it under 4x multi-sampling, I cannot run it smoothly no more. Perhaps reinstall OSX and try again, there should be no problems in playing WoW with a MBP under OSX.

2. Sorry, not much clue here, perhaps look at the Logitech range, I'm quite happy with my Apple bluetooth keyboard and was recommended by many people.

3. Done a bit of research here, and yes the Mighty mouse has its problems and lacks responsiveness apparently. I use a Logitech V270 and find it great (no problem in playing wow). My only gripe is it doesnt have the 2 side buttons that my VX revolution has, which makes changing stance (I'm a warrior ;p) annoying, as I shortcut it to my mouse when I play on my desktop. Another choice I heard that is great is the Bluetake BT510 bluetooth, however that is a bit more expensive (I plan on getting another VX revolution for notebook when I'm at home etc.)

4. I've heard you can setup a shared folder between the 2 OS to share files between them, but other than that, I do not believe Windows can read the OSX partition (correct me if I'm wrong). However, OSX can read windows if you partition it with fat32 (which is what I did). So when I run parallels on my bootcamp partition, I can direct copy files off my windows partitions. I tend to hate staying in windows/bootcamp for any more than 5min

5. Quite a few choices here, and no, I don't think theres an Apple specific one from Apple. Most people use the Griffin stand
http://www.griffintechnology.com/products/elevator/

I myself, like using my laptop on my lap/bed and during the day on the desk, so I'll be getting one of these iLaps
http://www.raindesigninc.com/ilap.html

There are more choices, do a search on these forums, like Microsoft makes some good stands too.

6. I use speedfan for windows, however, it doesn't show everything well. Perhaps someone else can recommend another one

7. No idea, I use Neooffice, which is free and works fine (I've heard some bad things about the Mac version of Office).

 

To question 4: Mediafour MacDrive is what your looking for. It allows reading/writing to mac partitions from Windows.

To question 6: iStat Nano is nice for OS X. Fits right in the dashboard too.

 

Just switched myself and in answer to your gaming problems - several wow players are reporting stuttering and bad lagging in wow ever since the last macbook update this month. I suspect it should be fixed soon but in the meantime I sorted it out by either running in windowed mode (seemed to work perfectly then and had a really smooth gaming experience) or limiting the frames per second to 29 (its a console command you can type from inside wow... I forget the exact command though so worth looking up if you think it might help).

One thing I haven't found yet but am looking for is a good apple image browser. On windows I used the wonderful and free faststone viewer. And before that compupic pro and acdsee. I was really suprised not to find such good support for browsing images/textures and organising thumbnails (iphoto seems very clanky in comparison...)

 

Wow currently has shuttering problem with the latest OSX update. A work around is to limit your max fps to 29 or 30. Type /console maxfps 30 to set your max fps. Other than that, you'll have to wait for fix.

 

1) Previously answered by other members.

2) Nopes, no recommendations .

3) Logitech V270 is a nice Bluetooth mouse. The Mighty Mouse, eh, I don't really like. Its an awkward design and the trackball looks and feels very fragile.

4) You'll want MacDrive, where you can read and write HFS+ (Mac-format) files on Windows.

5) Nopes, no recommendations.

6) iStat Pro and SMCFanControl are good applications for those tasks. I use both.

7) First, the Windows version is Office 2003 and 2007. The Mac version of Office is 2004 and 2008. Just wanted to clear that up . I don't believe it will work, as it is a completely different install. You can always try...