Going to buy a Macbook Pro. Need advice

Hi folks.

I'm going to buy a macbook pro. I just have a little trouble choosing the right one.

I live in Denmark and the prices are really high. 14800 DKK for the cheapest which is about 1345 UK pounds. Without the educational rebate, which i can apply for.

On ebay.co.uk i found a seller selling the 2,4 Ghz SR 17" for 1400 UK pounds.
Would it be possible to find the 15" 2,2 ghz for about 1000 UK pounds on ebay? Im not really able to find one, but im still kind of new to ebay.

I'm going to use for school every day and i use my bicycle. Will the 17" be too heavy or too big? I have a regular The north face borealis backpack and i dont want anything bigger to fit my laptop.

And will I have problems with a UK keyboard? I am able to chance keyboard layout in mac os x to danish so i can type the æøå?

Also, i use my computer as a media center at home. I heard somewhere about a limitation about 1024x768 on output from the DVI port? I need at least 1280x720.

Also. If running in Windows XP/Vista, how come the heat and temp goes up?? Bad drivers still? Will it be any better when leopard arrives???

Thanks in advance. Frederik.

 

I'd never buy a MBP from ebay from some guy in another country. But OK - your choice. If the price is ridiculously good, chances are it's a scam or it's stolen.

That said at the current price difference of almost USD 700, there's got to be many gray imported MBPs.

You can probably buy a Danish keyboard. It would fit in and be recognized just fine, however, it will probably cost enough to destroy any price advantage you had. If you really want a Danish keyboard layout, you will need to buy in Denmark.
You can get all the special symbols using the standard or the UK keyboard but it's not as convenient, you have to push option-a for å, option-o for ø, etc.

If you are a 10 finger typist used to Danish keyboards who writes a lot I'd recommend you just buy in Denmark. Premium over German prices, say, seems to be around DKK 650.

The DVI port can drive a 30" cinema display at 2000-something pixels so it's definitely enough for 1280x720.

Haven't run XP enough to answer the last question, but in general the MBP does get hot. It's the price you pay for having the slimmest, smallest, quietest notebook with this display / class of processor / graphics card.

 

The DVI output issue is with the MB, not the MBP.
The MB has an artificial constraint on it under OS X, but I don't remember the specifics. It was a hot topic about this time last year.
You will have no problem running insane resolutions through DVI. I've done 1920x1080 on a 40" LCD.

 

I would say 17-inch notebooks are too large to carry around in a regular basis. I don't know, just me. I'd say 14-inch is the sweet spot.

Anyways, the MacBook can support up to 1920x1200 on an external display, the MBP much higher.

And yes, we'll assume a lot of the current issues with Boot Camp will be fixed by the time its released with Leopard.

 

Thanks for the replies. I think ill search the Danish market for a cheap used MBP.

 

You can change the keyboard layout in OS X and it will work just fine, I use an Irish MBP but Swedish keyboard layout. I don't look at the keys anyway, so it doesn't bother me that it doesn't say the right thing on the keys, up to you whether you can accept that or not.

As for size/weight, it's the smallest and lightest 17" you'll find I'm sure - but 17" is still large when you are going to carry it around. It comes down to personal preference. The weight should be no problem in a backpack though.

Display output is not an issue, as has already been stated.

The MBP is built with OS X heat control abilities in mind, something which Apple has not (yet, at least) been able (or perhaps wanted?) to fix in Boot Camp. Maybe that's something they fix when Boot Camp is no longer in beta, we'll see.

 

I have a 15.4 and that is a nice size to carry, but often feels a bit bulky. Should really consider that if you are going to ride a bike. And please invest in a brenthaven or a bag of that nature to protect your investment (yes macbooks are investments)