Some MBP questions from a Newbie.

I am PC to this point, so bear with me: There are some refurbished MBPs at my local store: C1D, 80G HD, 512 RAM, 128 GPU, 1-yr. warranty (but can buy the 3-yr. AppleCare, I think), OS X and the usual bells and whistles. I have a super-tight budget, so a refurb is not a problem(!). And I would hit NewEgg for some RAM, but here are my questions.

1) I want to run Boot Camp and install XP. Is this going to glut my HD right off the bat? (I’ll be doing mostly higher-end audio work, but games and some graphics, too. I’d be happy to swap out for a 120 or 160, but don’t want to void the warranty. Maybe an external?)

2) Does Windows work “as usual” (and just what is that?!) as a second OS, or are there glitches I should know about?

3) Is the smaller graphics card enough to handle good gaming in a MBP?

That’s it for now – any two cents would be appreciated. Hey, at least I’m on the cusp of converting! Btw, I would pay less than 1200 for the unit, so I think the deal is good in any case. I just don't know about these issues. Thanks!

 

Hard drives are usually considered user upgradeable. Boot camp runs pretty good, but it is still a beta. The x1600 is still a good card though it is underclocked on the MacBook.

 

Replacing the HDD in the Macbook Pro is not for the faint of heart, it requires pretty much taking the entire thing apart. Google it a bit and you can find some guides, and then you can decide if you think it's worth the trouble.

I think the X1600 is clocked higher in the C2D MBPs too, but then again I think it's controlled by the temperature. I'll know for sure when mine arrives next week.

 

dnjjr

I'd like to put a plug in for Parallels for Mac. I just got a black Macbook with the 120 gig hard drive. I also purchased a copy of Parallels and I already had a copy of Windows XP. I messed up my XP install in Parallels the first time because I only made the hard drive 8 gigs and quickly filled it up.

I used Parallels to expand it to 30 gigs, but you then have to use something like Partition Magic to expand the size of the hard drive. Not have Partition Magic, I tried a Linux program, but it screwed up my XP install so I had to start over.

I reinstalled XP in Parallels and created a 40gigs hard drive and have installed just about everything that I have on my Thinkpad T60. This morning, I took the Macbook to the coffee shop for 2.5 hours and did my normal software development and web surfing chores. Everything worked extremely well.

Yes, there are just a few things to get used to, but for the most part, I'm pretty convinced that you can have your cake and eat it too. I'm learning about OS X and the continuing to do my Windows development work.

Parallels is a phenominal tool to allow you to run a guest OS on a Mac. By the way, they have this wonderful "fullscreen" mode, so it looks like I'm running a dual boot system because you literally can not see any part of Parallels in full screen mode.

I would strongly recommend this setup for anyone who needs to run Windows apps. Yes, it is somewhat more expensive than the Bootcamp option, since you have purchase Parallels and an additional copy of XP, but I have run into no issues thus far.

For reference, I'm a desktop Windows developer so I can never stop using Windows and developing for OS X seems like a long shot since there just aren't enough users our there. However, my experience with Macs will now allow me to offer my "business" software to Apple users who are willing to make the additional investment of buying Parallels and a copy of Windows XP.

Incidentally, after I installed my Windows XP copy that included just SP1, it took almost an hour to fully patch it with all the security updates. Simply rediculous. The Macbook found 3 updates when I first booted it up and it took about two minutes to install them.

 

If you are going to be doing mainly PC stuff, there are lots good options that will come in under the Mac price wise.

 

I have a glitch in Boot Camp where I had to put an icon from the CD drive onto the desktop to eject CD's, although others say they can eject CD's normally. Other than this minor glitch for me everything in Windows via Boot Camp seems to work fine. Printer, Bluetooth, etc.

With an 80 gig HD I think an external HD would be a good idea.

Graphics wise the Core 2 duo MBP's are clocked higher than the Core Duo type. I have C2D and can play Tomb Raider Legends at 1400x900 VERY smoothly. I just got Oblivion but need to set that at a lower resolution for smoother gameplay. I need to experiment with that further though to find the best resolution setting, although it is playable at 1400x900 you will get noticibly slower frame rates.

If there is any way for you to buy a base model C2D Macbook Pro I would say BUY IT, since it starts out with a 120 gig HD and higher clocked X1600, along with DL DVD drive and Firewire 800. Plus the MBP C2D has no noise problems and runs cooler than when the first MBPs came out; at least mine does. Seems like Apple really got it right this time.

By the way, Boot came shows full screen also; you can't tell the display from a Windows machine, also if you want the best gameplay from graphically intensive games like Tomb Raider Legends, Boot Camp is your only choice.

 

Thanks for these responses. I've since learned some other things.

I plain goofed when I opted for an 80 G HD, so I looked into bumping it up. Apple said they "couldn't do it" (wha??), but recommended the authorized TekServe here in NYC. So a new 160 G HD will cost around 390 bucks installed, to keep my warranty, but Apple will not warranty the HD!! Only TekServe will do that, and for 1 year. I got the machine so cheap that I may still come out ahead.

Thanks for the Parallels info, jjfcpa, but I hear one gets much better Windows performance via Boot Camp, and I don't need to quick-switch my OS's as you need to. Nice to hear, Buddy1065, that Bluetooth will work, etc.

Yes, Apple doesn't want you to mess with the merchandise. Swapping the HD -- which I'd gladly tackle -- DOES invalidate all warranties. And speaking of jacking up GPU specs, Apple doesn't like that either. No soup for you!! (I'm still going to play with it, though. Doesn't 410 Core/310 Memory sound safe?? This is the 128 MB card -- any ideas on this?)

So if I take this much further -- duh -- I may as well have waited for the $$ to get a C2D. Patience, man -- but I had to get going!

I have other questions re. how Windows acts on the Mac. Like, how do you defrag the separate partitions? (Apple says, Don't run the Windows Defragger under any circumstances!) Etc.

 

Hey, if your doing high end audio work, you'll likely run into the problem with the new MBP not havin ga 7200 rpm drive, which is pretty much vital for audio work, as there is a noticable difference between 5400 and 7200 rpm drives in audio programs.
Reaplcing the HDD in the MBP will void the warranty.
The 160 GB HDD uses perpindicular recording, and I'm not sure how that effects it's read/write speed compared to a normal HDD.

The video card is more than capable of gaming. I've played both Dark Messiah and Civ4 on it (under windows through bootcamp).

On a sidenote, you may find an external HDD through firewire is fast enough for your audio work.

Parallels works GREAT! I'm not sure if it's fast enough for audio work as well.

I'm not sure about defraggin under windows. Thats an interesting though.

 

Thanks, Hollownail (Your tag evokes some cool mental imagery...). Yeah, I've read that the perpendicular (160) HDs, performance-wise, are right up there. But I don't know about build and durability and all that. I guess the jury is still out. User reviews are mostly good, though.

I've never used an external, but soon may be trying one. I know they're good for storage, but not really for "active" work inside programs -- playing games, for example. But good to know the audio work will fly. I'll definitely go for the 7200.

According to your gaming advice, I'll leave the GPU clock speeds alone -- for now, at least. I'm going for this notebook, btw, thanks to these responses. Should be a great upgrade -- learn OS X and keep XP. Can't beat that.