MacBook Pro exceeding expectations!!

So, I've had my MBP for about a week now and it has totally exceeded every expectation I had. Before I start with the MBP itself, let me say that I love my new screensaver! Anybody else have Electric Sheep installed? If not, get it... this generates amazing things.

Well.. to start, OS X boots up lightning fast. At the same time I would normally be watching BIOS register my system memory on a PC, it seems I am already browsing my inbox on my mac. I have yet to get used to the absence of boot time.

Ok... For anyone who wonders if the MBP can handle Bioshock... it plays beautifully at 1440x900 resolution in Bootcamp!! I was not expecting the game to play at max settings, but IT DID!! I've already played the game from beginning to end, and I can count on one hand the number of times I noticed a lag in the frame rate. I am soooo impressed with this thing!!
I am not sure if the extra 2 gigs of RAM had anything to do with gaming performance, but I do have the MBP equipped with 4 gigs. Please note that I did not pay the ridiculous $649 Apple was asking for 4 gigs, rather I bought two 2 GB sticks of Ram from newegg.com which are now selling for $75 a stick. It is really easy to install the RAM on a MBP, and it does not void your warranty to do so, so there is really NO REASON not to do it yourself. It will save you $500 + it will get you more intimately acquainted with your mac.

The 15.4" matte screen looks amazing. I had a glossy screen on my previous notebook, so I was crossing my fingers that I would not regret the decision to go with matte this time round. I am completely satisfied with the matte screen's ability to display crisp clean dark colors. I've watched at least 2 movies on this so far, and both have been displayed in splendor

I've never been a fan of touchpads. I used to always have a USB mouse plugged in; however, I've actually grown quite comfortable using the touchpad on this machine. The two-finger right-click function feels incredibly
intuitive, and makes the use of the touchpad very easy on the hand and wrist.

I have grown accustomed to installing a sound blaster card via the pci slot on my other notebooks to compensate for the horrid sound cards that typically come manufactured in the system, but there is no need for that with this system (although it is not really an option anyway). While playing Bioshock I used a 2.1 desktop speaker system when I was alone and my Grado Labs SR125s when my wife and daughter were home (just the sounds from that game would give them both nightmares for a week). The MBP pumped excellent quality sound through both setups.

Both the Airport and Bluetooth functionality have worked perfectly. Whether I'm hopping on my Apple network at the studio or my PC-based network at home, the connection is almost immediate after startup. And the range is incredible!! My home wireless signal is broadcast from my garage, and I used to get a very weak signal when using my previous notebook in the living room; however, my MBP has been getting super fast download/upload speeds from the same spot.

Heat has not been a problem. Granted I wasn't gaming with the MBP in my lap, but the lap temperature while blogging, surfing, quicktiming, etc... was definitely tolerable. I purchased the iLap simultaneously, and although I haven't used it in my lap as of yet, it works great on a desktop (without the cushion), and kept the notebook temperature down even while playing Bioshock for 8 hours straight.

Hmm...

I am beginning to get the impression that Apple is simply... better. Nevertheless, I am still going to continue wearing my iPood shirt from Jinx.com.

 

Actually, installing RAM does void your warranty unless the Apple Store does it with RAM you buy in the store. Or that's what they told me.

Good review, though. Gives me something to think about.

 

If you have access to the RAM slots I doubt it. However, **** that, just install the modules you've had with the MBP & send it to repairs afterwards, if needed.

 

The people who work in the sales end of Apple are instructed to tell you that it does void your warranty to install RAM yourself. Where as, in fact, it does NOT. Please see the screen capture I took moments ago--





I am not entirely sure why the sales people tell us otherwise, but I'm sure it has something to do with them wanting us to pay $649 for a memory upgrade. Why does everything have to be about money!?

 

Wow... thanks for that. I'll have to print that out and use it to get myself bargaining leverage. Maybe write an angry letter. 0>: )

But yeah, I'm serious on that. Lying to customers is a bit of a faux pas.

See, you just made the prospect of buying from Apple a great deal more possible for me.

 

Thanks for a great summary of your week of getting to know your MBP. My next notebook will be a MBP and I think you sold me on the matte screen even so many seem to go for the glossy. And I definitely will take your advice about the RAM. I am very envious of your new machine.

 

I was wondering about upgrading the Hard Drive on the Macbook Pro. Have heard conflicting stories that it will or will not void warranty. I have two Apple stores by my house and neither one even installs the hard drive upgrade.

It doesn't look difficult at all to upgrade the hard drive. Maybe if my computer breaks down I can just put the old hard drive in and send it for repairs? From the instructions online, it doesn't seem like there are any seals to be broken during hard drive removal..

 

congrats on your new killer rig! i'm in the market for a new gaming/all-purpose notebook myself and it's down to the Asus G2S-A1 (with the 8600m GT) and the Macbook Pro 8600m gt 256mb. the Asus would be a heck of a lot cheaper, especially once you factor in getting a copy of a windows vista or XP license for boot camp.

i think i'm leaning towards the Macbook Pro simply because of Leopard! now i just have to see if i can get a student friend of mine to score me that discount!

 

Welcome to (and God bless) capitalism.

 

As Zombie Lenin says... "MUST... CRUSH... CAPITALISM... RAHHRRR."

 

"The Soviet Union is pleased to offer amnesty to your wayward vessel."

"Soviet Union? I thought you guys broke up."

"THAT IS WHAT WE WANTED YOU TO THINK!!"

 

Don't kid yourself. It was always all about money (or whatever it was you used to barter with at the time) long before capitalism even had a name. People just want things they don't have. Capitalism just made self-interest seem justifiable instead of making people feel bad about themselves

 

The point really wasn't to turn this into any sort of discussion on economics, but if that's how you want to run with it...

 

Yeah... thanks for that.

 

Thanks for your thoughts, sagebrush! Glad to hear you're enjoying your MBP .

Upgrading the hard drive on the MBP does technically void your warranty. Only the RAM can be upgraded on the MBP.

 

man...I'm ultra satisfied with my MacBook. It more than meets my needs for the most part. Now that I've grown accustomed to the OS and learn some shortcuts I wish i could do more things towards entertainment. Games are pretty much out of the question (except for Warcraft III which I STILL can't get to work) so I dunno what I'm gonna do. I wish I had a MacBook Pro but seeing how my parents bought my computer I guess I can't complain...

 

I concur Sage, I've had mine for two weeks now and I love it. It actually runs F.E.A.R. and some other programs better than my HP HDX which is a $5,000 notebook. I still had some reservations about spending $2,700 on a 15.4" notebook but I am very impressed with this things power.

Now to upgrade the memory to 4GB and I will be set. Out of curiosity what do you get for a Vista Experience Rating with 4GB installed?

Not like I judge things by it but I was wondering if it would have any effect.

 

Vista's WEI doesn't measure how much RAM you have as far as I know. More likely, it probably measures the clock speed or something.

In any case, you'd likely get 4.8 with 2GB or 4GB of RAM either way.

 

I was just curious to find out how it actually rates the things anyway. I currently have 4.8 for the 2GB. However on my HDX I have 4GB and get 5.4...

Thus my curiosity

 

I wish I had a MacBook Pro...

=(

 

Every (well, almost every ) MacBook user wishes .

Since I got my MacBook for free, I'm not really complaining though .

 

You'll need to change your forum user name then.
A MB doesn't warrant a namechange, but a MBP definitely does!

Well maybe not - if you get the Samsung LCD screen on the MBP...

Incidentally, what'd you use before your MB Sam?

 

I have XP Pro running on my Bootcamp partition, and I have absolutely no idea what a Vista Experience Rating is, but I can connect the dots as far as the word "Vista"...

F.E.A.R. is actually the next game I hoping to install... I've heard great things about it. Sure is comforting to know it will run like lightning on this thing
Seriously... i have never been so pleased with a computer purchase as I am with this beauty!!

 

A desktop PC. Yes, I did not own a Mac until about May 2007 .

 

Newb

 

Yeaps, its Sam the n00b.

 

lol, you know I'm just joking, right?

I'm actually extremely impressed about how much you know about Macs - from your previous posts I would have thought you've been a Mac user since the 80s!

 

Are you saying you thought that Sam was a 50-something year old solder-jockey with a grizzled beard and a paunch?

 

Sam has picked up a lot over the past few months. He is setting a great example for the switchers and n00b out there.

As someone who has been drinking the coolaid for way too many years it's good to see all of the new faces here. Keep it coming.

Speaking of solder jockey...that brought up old memories. Take a look at what I was getting myself into when I bought my first Mac. Oh the memories. LOL

 

Apple + FreeBSD .

 

Yeah, I know, I left out the smilies p ) out on purpose, to try to convey a different effect in my post .

And thanks .

 

I just bought the 15.4" 2.2ghz MBP last week and I can't stop gushing over it. I am somewhat of a gamer though, and am kind of wishing I got the 256MB card and bigger HDD Anyone have any gaming experience with the 2.2 MBP with the 128MB 8600 card? I'd love to hear how things run on it as it seems kind of underpowered for gaming! thanks!
-redfive

 

Hahaha, who knows?

 

You should for sure, the multiplayer aspect is downloadable and playable for free!

www.joinfear.com

You have to signup for a registration code and whatnot but it's great. I own the game and seem to play the multiplayer aspect of it by far the most.

To give you some idea of how it runs:

I play with settings 100% maxed out and with 1440x900 resolution and it still flies, and thats under..... Vista!

I recommend going to laptopvideo2go.com and using their drivers ofcourse as they are much better than the stock drivers and have been totally solid for me. Let me know if you have any questions or whatnot, and enjoy the MBP

 

Hey, im looking to buy the same latop with the same specs, how does Windows run on the Macbook Pro? is there going 2 be a refersh of the Macbbok Pro ne time soon?

 

I have no experience with Vista, but XP Pro SP2 runs perfectly on my MBP, both in Bootcamp and Parallels. Granted... I only use the XP OS for gaming, opening the occasional executable file (.exe), and writing to my NTFS external hd, but I've had no problem with those tasks.

Other than updating the chipset in early '08, I have no idea what other changes will be done to the MBP.

If you're looking for 2GB sticks of memory for your upgrade, I grabbed these, and they work great!

 

Thanks for the info, Airman! Perhaps I'll see you in multiplayer sometime. Do you go by the Airman alias??

 

but ofcourse


If I'm playing you can find me on the [AGDG] Sgt. Intropees TDM server.

 

Windows will run fine on the MBP, Vista and XP. As for the possible refresh, the earliest I would expect a MacBook Pro update is January 2008. That is when Intel Penryn is released, and the MBP should be updated promptly after the launch.