Leopard, Mouse buttons, heat, and other questions

Some quick (for now..) questions

1. Leopard. When will it be released? Is it worth holding off on getting a new notebook till then?


2. I have 4GB of RAM, standard notebook RAM.. Is such compatible with Mac hardware?


3. I love context menus. To death. Does the double-tap on the pad also translate as a right click in windows? I dont think i can work in windows without a right click.


4. Are the MBPs still having serious issues with heat, as they were before? Or has quality been improving yet?


5. Is Vista 64 compatible with BootCamp? (remember, 4GB ram )

 

1. The macbook pro hardware will not change before leopard. the macbook might but not sure.

2. If it is DDR2 667mhz PC5200 Sodimm then it should

3. Yes that works but an external mouse works better.

4. It gets warm when gameing but doesnt over heat.

5. Apple does not provide driver support. You can install it but its up to you to configer and install drivers. They will be hard to find so the easy answer is no.

 

This is my dilemma too. I'm not a student, so I'd have to pay $129 for Leopard plus $79 for iLife if that gets updated.

Part of me wants to buy now, since I know that Tiger is stable. Another part of me wants to wait, to save the money and not have to upgrade anything.

 

A quick point. Though the easy answer is though, the complex answer is maybe. I'm a developer, and have familiarity with both *nix and Windows, have set up my own server, had to deal with injecting drivers into the kernel and so forth before...

So, when you say they're hard to find, do you mean they're hard to find but exist, or hard to find and only heard people talk about them?

If it's something i *can* resolve, then that pretty much solidifies my desire for MBP. I would really like to use the full memory space <g>

I'd really like to hear more about this from others as well, especially with specifics.. I have read about the great many issues relating to sloppy thermal paste application, and wish to know if thatis still the case.. Any temperature readings would be greatly appreciated...

I liek to sit with my laptop.. .. in my lap. I'm able to do this comfortably, no matter my state of dress ( ) with a 17 inch gateway I am using from work... Is this a possibility with MBP15?

Thanks for the replies thus far, and for any that come.

 

The Macbook pro is basicly a Santa Rosa laptop. Intel has 64bit drivers for it. Nvidia has 64bit drivers for it. The Wireless should work too. The isight webcam might be a problem. The keyboard light and a few macbook only gadgets wont work i think. Maybe you can live without them. ACPI functions are one thing I would be worried about.

In 32bit WinXP/Vista the Apple bootcamp install setup the drivers in one go. It also configers your keyboard and touchpad and a few other things. It also adds a bootcamp icon in the control panel for easy swtiching between OSX and Windows boot. All this wont work in 64bit. The onscreen display for volume and screen brightness. I dont know if they work in 64bit or not. You will have to try and install them manually.

 

A giant aluminum heatsink is not something you'd ever want to put on your lap

Performing nongaming tasks (i.e. web browsing, office apps, video decoding, databases, etc.), I've seen temperatures go from 45-60ish on the processors. However, on the whole, internal temperatures don't get too bad - the fans scale up as necessary.

However, even when internal temperatures are low, it's not something you'd ever want on your bare skin. The palm rest feels quite warm, and the bottom of the laptop even more so.

 

there aren't any heat issues.

obviously you have to expect some serious heat if you load the processor and gpu (playing a game)- but you can counteract that with fan power.

you can use smc fan control to set the fans in osx, then reboot into windows and your settings will hold. i use that tactic if i know i am going into windows to play a game.

its hard to tell how the thermal paste is applied without opening the machine. obviously most people won't want to do this. the fact that the temps stay low is a good indication that thermal paste is applied correctly.

i forget my idle/load temps... im in windows right now and you can't check them... they aren't bad.

the trackpad doesn't work properly in windows yet. you will pretty much need an external mouse or you will get frustrated.

you can definitely find drivers for the gpu. the audio is just using a realtek audio driver, so that probably exists in 64 bit if you can find it.

the trackpad, eyesight, bluetooth, keyboard, infa red, and something labeled "system" is provided directly from apple. you won't be able to find "perfect" replacements for these, although maybe a general purpose 64 bit driver exists for some of these components. you could get around some of these things by using an external keyboard and mouse. its not ideal though.

the wifi, expresscard, ethernet, maybe some of the other port drivers, are outsourced to atheros, intel, broadcom, and marvell, but its hard to tell which ones represent what. those drivers are iffy as to whether or not you could find it.

other problems you might face are getting the boot camp software itself to run, getting vmware or parallels to run, etc.

alternatively, its hard to imagine not having 64 bit windows support after leopard is released and boot camp is released. its still in beta at the moment. i would just install the 32 bit version until then.

 

OT but is the discount only for college students or could i as a high school student get the discount?

 

you can get the student discount for just about anything.

girl? expect student discount.

friendly? definitely student discount.

student? WHOA yeah you will get it.

 

What if you're an unfriendly guy?

 

well, if you are an unfriendly male student, you will probably be ok.

obviously this only applies to in store purchases. my point is, that they are really lax about edu discounts and they give them to anyone who asks. if you are just like "yeah, i go to high school" thats more than enough. no one checks on them, they don't care, apple doesn't care- they still make a profit. go for it. connect 4.

 

are u kidding me? CRAP! ****! i wish ida known that when i bought my MB. o well.

 

I don't think you want to sit with the MBP in the lap. It doesn't overheat, but the underside of the laptop intentionally acts as a large heat sink. It gets *hot*. Its not good on naked thighs - personal experience

I don't put laptops where it could impede my ability to procreate but I do like to balance them on my knees and found the MBP pretty hot for that. I don't think there is anything wrong with it - just combine the normal temperature of the C2D, the less-than-1-inch-thickness, and the heat-transferring abilities of aluminum and it explains why that thing gets hot at the bottom. Has nothing to do with manufacturing defects - it's just physics. I think this is the way Apple makes a laptop that's way smaller than any other 15" machine.

As a side-note, I would think Vista can address 4GB RAM even in the 32 bit version, no? 32 bits is enough to address 4GB.

 

No, Vista 32-bit only reads 3.something GB.

 

thats true. but you could atleast get 4 just to sound cooler. :}

 

I was speaking to one of the guys at the Mac store and he told me that had to deny a father buying his daughter who is entering high school a Macbook. He didn't check if I had a college ID, although I am in college. Unfortunately, they didn't have any MBP 2.2GHz in stock, so I have to wait and keep calling until they do!

 

One of the most frustrating parts about BBS/communities is when someone asks a question as I did, and then never follows up with their own personal findings.

Here are mine.

On saturday I bought a MBP15.4. Quite beautiful. I was torn between that and the 17, only because the 17 was shockingly light, and its display was beautiful (1920x1200, I still long for it...).. Still I accepted the smaller display for the smaller form factor.

Now, after playing with OS/X for about ten minutes, I immediately dived into installing windows. Honestly if I was using any OS it'd probably be Ubuntu fawn, but I need to use windows for Development (Coding) purposes. My first shot was installing Vista 64 Home. Played around with that and noticed how horrifically warm my computer was. No heating issues indeed (more on that later, so please readon).

After playing with 64 for awhile I decided to explore driver options. I ran across this thread:
http://forum.insanelymac.com/index.php?showtopic=58373

Wonderful, wonderful stuff here. At first the input remapper didn't offer full functionality for vista 64 so I gave up and installed 32. Right before I went on installing this software again, there was an update to give control of the fans. This, I'd realized, is what I needed.

You see, for Vista 64, atleast, the fans simply.. don't turn on.

The computer ended up idling at around 70 degrees (yay).

I removed vista and then reinstalled with Vista Ultimate 64, followed with Input Remapper, and now have control of my fans. I tended to have them set at around 3000 rpm and they weren't even audible except when I was very, very close. I'd idle in the 50 to 35 range depending on the heat sensor. I now have it set at 5000 rpm, and there's a very audible but not annoying whoosh. It fades under the sound of my air condition. The surface of the laptop, instead of being warm enough to cook an egg (literally), it is very cool to the touch with only a few warm spots where the LCD and laptop join.

I had bought thermal compound in preparation for reapplication but have decided, given that I'm only using two of the Fans, it's not necessary nor worth the risk.

So for those of you concerned about the heat issues, they seem to atleast largely be a problem in Windows, and are a concern. If you don't think you can use this remapper, and fiddle with specifying the RPM of your fans, then avoid this alternative. It's not difficult at all, but if it'll scare you.. then..


Otherwise, use this to solve your Macbook Pro/Vista heat issues, even your vista 64.

Just remember to turn off the Device signing. Search for "Vista disable driver signing" in google.





In another note, my only disappointment is the lack of double-finger right click in vista. If anyone happens to be aware of a way to accomplish this, I'd be very grateful. The drivers from Boot Camp are incompatible with x64.