06-11-2006, 03:59 PM

I finished upgrading my brother's 2ghz MacBook Pro yesterday - added a 7200rpm 100gb Hitachi hard drive, 2gb G.Skill ram, and Windows XP Pro. Just for kicks, I loaded up Half-Life 2 on it to see how it would run. This laptop has the 128mb x1600 video card. I wasn't expecting much, but I was blown away to see that it performed flawlessly at the native resolution of 1440x900 (be sure to select Widescreen and set it to 16:10, not 16:9 to get the 1440x900 option). No lag at all, looks incredible!

He got the glossy screen option, which I must say looks fabulous. I have a Gateway laptop similar to his MBP with a glossy screen; the MBP's screen is actually less glossy than the Gateway's (one of the reasons I chose the Gateway when I bought it was because it was a lot less glossy than the Sony Xbrite screen, which cut down on glare). I think they got it right with the MBP's glossy screen, because it's just glossy enough to make the colors pop out, but not so much that there is glare at every angle.

Anyway, I played through half of the first level and everything ran very smoothly. My only complaint is that Apple hasn't fixed the audio bug with Boot Camp - the laptop's speakers still play the sound even when headphones are plugged in. Other than that, I was extremely impressed. The graphics are eye-popping and playing it on a Mac made it even more fun. I'm definately jealous

06-12-2006, 05:29 AM

Just wondering about the ram, I know it's a brand known to be good for overclockers (well for PC users anyway), what is the spec of the ram? Do you think there is a performance increase for that particular type (compared to a cheaper 2x1 GB pair?)

06-12-2006, 12:35 PM

How hard was it to replace the hard drive? I'd like to upgrade mine but since it's my first mac, only computer and 3 months old...I'm a little uneasy about it. Not to mention that it'd void my warranty.

06-12-2006, 04:29 PM

The ATI Mobile X1600 is a PCI-X equiv for the laptop.. it roxxxxxxx!
You'll get great performance on quite a few games with it (I hear Elder Scrolls: Oblivion runs pretty good on that box description too)..

your bro is a lucky guy.. just pray the malfunctions of the MBP don't start hitting him.. They are all over

06-15-2006, 03:17 PM

Originally Posted by Mace

How hard was it to replace the hard drive? I'd like to upgrade mine but since it's my first mac, only computer and 3 months old...I'm a little uneasy about it. Not to mention that it'd void my warranty.

It's easy to take apart; it's not so easy to put back together. The pain is putting the keyboard/lid back on; it's really hard to get it seamless. I think part of my problem was that I yanked to hard on the bottom to pop the clips out and I bent a few tabs; after re-bending them it went back together pretty well. I did a detailed writeup here:

Considering upgrading your hard drive?

06-15-2006, 03:23 PM

Originally Posted by zeta101

Just wondering about the ram, I know it's a brand known to be good for overclockers (well for PC users anyway), what is the spec of the ram? Do you think there is a performance increase for that particular type (compared to a cheaper 2x1 GB pair?)

The ram's spec is DDR2-667 (PC2-5300). Here's a link to Newegg; price is excellent if you're interested in upgrading (just got some for my Mini!):

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820231069

Honestly, it doesn't really matter what the rest of the spec is as long as it's 667mhz ram. The brand doesn't matter too much nor does the CAS. As long as it works, it works. I've built and upgraded a ton of computers (PCs & Macs) and I've used really nice, expensive ram and really cheap, bottom-of-the-barrel ram. As long as it passes your memory tests, you're usually fine. Regarding CAS latency, I recently read a review comparing ram sticks of CAS 1, 2, 2.5, 3, etc.; there was essentially zero real-world difference in performance. Brand plays some part in that you want some kind of name-brand; I have had bad luck with no-name ram failing memory tests. If you're upgrading a Mac, run Rember, and if you're upgrading a PC, run memtest86+. Let it run overnight; if it has any errors, return it; if not, you should be good to go. So in a nutshell, buy what looks good and what is cheap - no sense in paying double for Crucial when Patriot, G.Skill, and Giga RAM do the same thing for much cheaper.

Also, I chose the G.Skill from other similar-priced ram options for the geeky ego-stroking ability to tell my PC friends that I was running G.Skill in my Mac

06-15-2006, 08:40 PM

Here's a link to Apple's ram specs for the Mini:

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=303378

Should be similiar for the MacBook, MacBook Pro, and Intel iMac models.

06-16-2006, 10:54 AM

Thanks for the replys, this is useful to know!