Thinking About Converting to Macbook Pro

Hello. I have been using desktop and laptop pcs since 2001. And before that I had amiga and atari. Have always been hands on with my hardware and software. Always tried to solve my problems without taking my pc back to the store. What I'm trying to tell is I'm good pc user with enough knowledge to keep things safe and smooth.

Bu now I want to have a notebook that;

1- Has a powerfull graphics card,
2- Has no heating problem
3- Has an os with an interface like ios (i'm in love with my iphone though I know os X and ios are not the same)
4- Has an os that does not make me configure billions of little tweaks to run smoothly.

I guess my answer is Macbook pro. But I wanna learn a few thing before I buy.


1- Which format I should reformat my Western Digital 3 TB external harddrive which is connected to my wireless router via USB 2.0 to access it again wirelessly easly as a network drive. And also I wanna be able to read/write 7-8 GB game images.

2- Will I be able to play games to the fullest without any peformance loss with bootcampped win7?

Thanks

2- depends on your definition of a heat "problem". If your definition implies that it doesn't get hot, then you have the wrong definition and every Mac notebook you get, the case is likely to be hotter than any plastic shelled PC you've owned. If your definition means having a "problem" when using the hardware to it's fullest capabilities, then there shouldn't be an issue.

4- It will definitely do that. There's not really much to configure on a Mac as far as the system goes. All those countless hours gone into keeping windows running well, will for the most part, disappear while you're in OS X. You'll continue doing exactly as you always have done on the Windows side. The tweaking in OS X will be limited primarily to setting your own personal preferences, not in tweaking / maintaining the OS. Though there is some maintenance to be done.




1- There is no need to reformat a drive that is accessed only via the network as the network does all the translation. You would only need to worry about the format of the drive if directly connecting it.

2- It will run exactly the same as the same hardware from any other manufacturer - no better - no worse.

bobtomay said:

2- depends on your definition of a heat "problem". If your definition implies that it doesn't get hot, then you have the wrong definition and every Mac notebook you get, the case is likely to be hotter than any plastic shelled PC you've owned. If your definition means having a "problem" when using the hardware to it's fullest capabilities, then there shouldn't be an issue.

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First of thanks. What here I mean I'll give an example. I now have a Dell N5010 notebook with core i3, 4 gb's of ram, 5400 rpm harddrive an ati hd5650 graphics card and win7. Even though it fairly new (3 months old) when I try to play games like Splinter Cell: Conviction (2010) or even Prince of Persia (2008 - the one that looks like a fairy tale tells the story of another prince) after some time it shuts itself due to overheating if I do not put some rubber thingys under it to elevate. Elevation makes air flow easier. That is obviously a design flow. (I'm using laptop in a an average dust environment which is my house and I use notebook on a normal mahogany table) Also when I dissasambled it to replace harddrive (the harddrive that came with the product was not enough for me) I saw that fan is very far away from cpu and has no air flow tunnels that keeps cpu cool. My previous notebooks had those flow canals therefore did not have that problem even though they started to overheat if I do not keep the inside clean. In my first post I wrote all these down but then I though I did not need to blabla about my old notebooks so I deleted that part

Anyway. What I mean as heating problem in one sentence is not to see my notebook shut itself down when running a 3 year old game with a very compatible spesification and not to have the nececity of elevating it.

bobtomay said:

1- There is no need to reformat a drive that is accessed only via the network as the network does all the translation. You would only need to worry about the format of the drive if directly connecting it.

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Then I must ask about that. What format should I format macbook pro's harddrive (the part I'm gonna seperate from system drive Mac OS X will be installed) AND the external drive that I MAY in the future connect via a normal usb port directly to mbp.

bobtomay said:

2- It will run exactly the same as the same hardware from any other manufacturer - no better - no worse.

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I was worrying about the possibility that it might act like simulating an operating system on another. That's why I though it might. But that really made me happy.

Should not have an issue with it shutting down if you're using it on a desktop like that. Using it on your lap and blocking the air flow which is at the hinge area, could be another matter. I've gamed on my machine for a great number of 4-8 hour sessions during it's almost 5 yr life now.

I must assume you mean the BootCamp Win 7 partition? Win 7 will only install to NTFS. You have no option. You will need to format the Boot Camp partition during the Win 7 set up as NTFS.

Depends - OS X can natively read, but not write to NTFS. Windows can neither read, nor write to HFS. There are apps to help with this and for the best compatibility, I recommend Paragon.

There is no simulation while booting directly to Windows from the BootCamp partition.

bobtomay said:

Should not have an issue with it shutting down if you're using it on a desktop like that. Using it on your lap and blocking the air flow which is at the hinge area, could be another matter. I've gamed on my machine for a great number of 4-8 hour sessions during it's almost 5 yr life now.

I must assume you mean the BootCamp Win 7 partition? Win 7 will only install to NTFS. You have no option. You will need to format the Boot Camp partition during the Win 7 set up as NTFS.

Depends - OS X can natively read, but not write to NTFS. Windows can neither read, nor write to HFS. There are apps to help with this and for the best compatibility, I recommend Paragon.

There is no simulation while booting directly to Windows from the BootCamp partition.

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Thanks a lot. I actually meant to ask wheter I'll be able to spare some of the harddrive to be kept as non-system drive (like in windows c is system drive and d/e/etc may be used as seperate backup drives) I want to to that and also be able to set a backup schedule for all my drives (that are in one disk in mbp) to a network location I mentioned earlier. My English is pretty poor. I hope you get the jist of what I mean. Also I want to know if default file system in macs (fat32?) can handle, read and write files over 5 gb?

OS X use HFS+. File size is not an issue.

There is really no need to keeping a separate partition. Using a separate partition on the same drive is kind of pointless. All of your data is gone "when" that drive dies. If you want a backup, you need an external drive.

There is no registry and OS X is not susceptible to the same sort of rot (system slow downs due to everything and their mother along with the kitchen sink writing to system folders) that windows is.

bobtomay said:

OS X use HFS+. File size is not an issue.

There is really no need to keeping a separate partition. Using a separate partition on the same drive is kind of pointless. All of your data is gone "when" that drive dies. If you want a backup, you need an external drive.

There is no registry and OS X is not susceptible to the same sort of rot (system slow downs due to everything and their mother along with the kitchen sink writing to system folders) that windows is.

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Ok. System does not rot like windoes does over time. But how about the fact that may want to reinstall OS X some time in the future? I would have to backup the files that are on the same drive as OS X. So my concern is not only drive failure but a possible full-reinstallation of OS.

Sorry, but this is just flawed rationale. The number 1 reason we see for re-installing OS X is a dead drive. Having your data backed up to another partition on that dead drive does you absolutely no good whatsoever.

It is extremely rare that there would be any need to reinstall OS X. If you do need to re-install, that's why you have a backup on an external drive, not on the same drive. There are several options available to restore your data from an external drive or another Mac, both during and after a re-installation of the OS.

Well, that is one obvious mentality diffrence between a mac user and a pc guy. I had several occasions in my pc life that even a restore could not straigh things out. I had to format and install win again. So there's still a fear in my heart that everything would go bad so I should not keep important stuff on a partititon that has an os in it.

On the other hand I see a mac user sees things like "If I ever have the need to install os again, it means that my drive is phisically failed" Thanks a lot for you help.

rolanddes said:

Well, that is one obvious mentality diffrence between a mac user and a pc guy. I had several occasions in my pc life that even a restore could not straigh things out. I had to format and install win again. So there's still a fear in my heart that everything would go bad so I should not keep important stuff on a partititon that has an os in it.

On the other hand I see a mac user sees things like "If I ever have the need to install os again, it means that my drive is phisically failed" Thanks a lot for you help.

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If you use Time Machine you can restore anything you lost or accidentally trashed very easy.

Sounds like you're talking about primarily using the Windows restore "feature". There is no such animal as that with OS X.

When you hear "restore" with Macs, what is implied is a re-installation of the OS and migrating your backed up data back into the fresh install.

There are two primary reasons that we see to do this with OS X. A dead drive and those folks that like to go in and delete system files and stuff that they don't have a clue what it is thus trashing their system. Aside from those two items, most folks will find they never need to re-install the OS until it's time to sell/give away that machine for a new one.

My wife's Mac is about to go through the 4th version of OS X on it (the 3 new ones all done as upgrades) without ever needing a clean install. Try that one on a Windows machine. Me, I'm one of those picky sorts and usually do put a clean install with a new version of the OS - just because of the 100+ apps that are on usually sitting on there that haven't been used in a year or more.

Remember, most of us here had that same habit you're talking about (myself included) in that other OS. Some things are just different with OS X. You're way more likely to have a hard drive failure than to have something go wrong with the OS if you're not putzing around in the system folders. The need to re-install will become a rare event rather than a common one. The need to keep your data backed up with the price of external hard drives today though, no one that can afford a nice computer has any excuse not to do so.

bobtomay said:

Sounds like you're talking about primarily using the Windows restore "feature". There is no such animal as that with OS X.

When you hear "restore" with Macs, what is implied is a re-installation of the OS and migrating your backed up data back into the fresh install.

There are two primary reasons that we see to do this with OS X. A dead drive and those folks that like to go in and delete system files and stuff that they don't have a clue what it is thus trashing their system. Aside from those two items, most folks will find they never need to re-install the OS until it's time to sell/give away that machine for a new one.

My wife's Mac is about to go through the 4th version of OS X on it (the 3 new ones all done as upgrades) without ever needing a clean install. Try that one on a Windows machine. Me, I'm one of those picky sorts and usually do put a clean install with a new version of the OS - just because of the 100+ apps that are on usually sitting on there that haven't been used in a year or more.

Remember, most of us here had that same habit you're talking about (myself included) in that other OS. Some things are just different with OS X. You're way more likely to have a hard drive failure than to have something go wrong with the OS if you're not putzing around in the system folders. The need to re-install will become a rare event rather than a common one. The need to keep your data backed up with the price of external hard drives today though, no one that can afford a nice computer has any excuse not to do so.

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I still feel like I have not been able to explain myself properly. I do not mean using backup/restore facility of windows. What I do in windows is keep all my files on d drive and appoint "my documents" folder to d drive when I reinstall windows.

That makes me feel better prepared just in case of OS failure. Since you strongly see no need to keep your files on a diffrent drive due to stability of OS X, I happily take that input and use it in my mac experience ahead of me.

Thanks.

Look at it this way.

Now to what you are thinking about: One can re-install OS X on the fly without touching your personal data. The Install Discs simply figure out what parts of the OS they are meant to replace and do only that. Your other programs are not touched, nor any of your personal data. When the computer is finished, all your data and other programs will work (if they should work with that version of OS X.)

Since Mac OS X does not use a Registry to keep up with all the other programs. To install a program on a Mac, one simply clicks on, drags and drops program in the folder Application (that is where the Windows task bar is, at the bottom.)

Kinda like we did in Windows 3.1.

One evening I took an hour and re-installed OS X, and then let it go get the updates from Apple. One could keep much of those updates on the hard drive somewhere just to keep from going online again. What is easier, to use up your own personal hard drive space, or the time to do an update on a high speed connection? Really depends on where you live.

All my programs and data were still there waiting to be used after the Install finished. I still needed to do the updates for OS X.

Same effect as what you are thinking, just no extra partition needed.

Apple Care, which is another way of saying technical support for Apple, allows one free phone support for the first ninety days, and hardware warranty for the first year. If one buys Apple Care, then one has free phone support for the length of Apple Care (up to three years) and replacement of defective parts with a few exceptions. Such as, I think the battery life is measured by number of cycles. If it is defective, Apple usually replaces it anyway. Apple Care is not on the hook for actual physical damage done to the computer, dropping it, stepping on it, getting liquid into it. A large number are driven over by cars. Person puts their computer on top of the car, or on the ground.

I have found the Apple Care phone support to be like having a geek who is a good friend, who will make time for my questions and needs anytime I call. They are polite, good natured, very competent, and know the right questions to ask about my issues that I never thought of.

You might look at what Apple calls "One on One" and see if it fits your needs based on cost, where you live in relation to an Apple store.

The install discs are cleverly hidden in the original packaging. Someone on the forum has a tagline, "Hold onto those Install Discs like grim death." He is right.

Sorry if I am giving you info you already know or have.

You might keep your eye on: Mac Buyer's Guide: Know When to Buy Your Mac, iPod or iPhone

purple said:

Now to what you are thinking about: One can re-install OS X on the fly without touching your personal data. The Install Discs simply figure out what parts of the OS they are meant to replace and do only that. Your other programs are not touched, nor any of your personal data. When the computer is finished, all your data and other programs will work (if they should work with that version of OS X.)

Since Mac OS X does not use a Registry to keep up with all the other programs. To install a program on a Mac, one simply clicks on, drags and drops program in the folder Application (that is where the Windows task bar is, at the bottom.)

Kinda like we did in Windows 3.1.

One evening I took an hour and re-installed OS X, and then let it go get the updates from Apple. One could keep much of those updates on the hard drive somewhere just to keep from going online again. What is easier, to use up your own personal hard drive space, or the time to do an update on a high speed connection? Really depends on where you live.

All my programs and data were still there waiting to be used after the Install finished. I still needed to do the updates for OS X.

Same effect as what you are thinking, just no extra partition needed.

Apple Care, which is another way of saying technical support for Apple, allows one free phone support for the first ninety days, and hardware warranty for the first year. If one buys Apple Care, then one has free phone support for the length of Apple Care (up to three years) and replacement of defective parts with a few exceptions. Such as, I think the battery life is measured by number of cycles. If it is defective, Apple usually replaces it anyway. Apple Care is not on the hook for actual physical damage done to the computer, dropping it, stepping on it, getting liquid into it. A large number are driven over by cars. Person puts their computer on top of the car, or on the ground.

I have found the Apple Care phone support to be like having a geek who is a good friend, who will make time for my questions and needs anytime I call. They are polite, good natured, very competent, and know the right questions to ask about my issues that I never thought of.

You might look at what Apple calls "One on One" and see if it fits your needs based on cost, where you live in relation to an Apple store.

The install discs are cleverly hidden in the original packaging. Someone on the forum has a tagline, "Hold onto those Install Discs like grim death." He is right.

Sorry if I am giving you info you already know or have.

You might keep your eye on: Mac Buyer's Guide: Know When to Buy Your Mac, iPod or iPhone

Click to expand...

It seems like Os X is he os that has found the right path to customer satisfaction. Thanks you all for your support. I guess in the days ahead I'll be spending a lot of time around here.