Another PC user possibly switching to Mac... I have some questions though...

I'll just start by saying I'm new here, so hi!
Anyway, my computer (HP desktop, ~6 years old) is broken yet again (it's on its third hard drive, aside from numerous other issues it's been fixed for) so currently it's with the Geek Squad (perhaps not the best place for it to be fixed, but it's under warranty so whatever) and I am awaiting the news on whether it's fixable or not. So in the meantime, I've been researching computers as I might have to buy a new one at this point.
I first thought about a Dell desktop because they're cheap, and we can get a discount on them through my work. Upon looking into them I realized Dell does sell cheap computers, but in order to make it work for me, it needs some upgrades, minor ones, but ones that reduce the cheapness factor. Which brings me to my next issue, I don't want Vista, especially since I'd be required to have at least 1GB (likely more) RAM in order to run the OS alone. All of a sudden I thought of a Mac, which I'd never considered before, but my brother got a Macbook this summer and he loves it and has been convincing me to take the plunge from PC to Mac.
I'm pretty close to doing so, but I need a few things clarified first.
1- You can run XP on a Mac, I know, but how easy is it to install? Will the Apple store possibly help me with it if I brought it in to them? And Boot Camp is free, but what is this Parallels thing I've heard about?
2- Can I run the Sims 2 (PC version) on Boot Camp? That's pretty much the only reason I'd need XP anymore anyway so I want to make sure I can play the game properly.
3- I plan on going with the $1099 MacBook, upgrading to an 80GB drive (from the base 60 gb) and to 1GB ram from 512 mb. IDK how big my hard drive is now, but even with all of my photos and music and programs it wasn't full. Is the upgrade to 80 necessary, would 60 suffice? I understand this is really a subjective question because it will depend on how big all the files I have are.
4- Is this issue with the Macbooks shutting down randomly (it had to do with something inside of it heating up and mafunctioning, I read) been solved? And what about the discoloration of the white Macbooks, I'd read people could send them back to get replaced but have they fixed that issue?

Any other advice/tips/reasons I should go with one or the other would be helpful, thank you!

I did a quick look around the forums to see if any of this had been posted, but as I'm using someone elses computer I don't have hours to read through everything, so sorry if I ask questions that have already been answered!

1. Windows XP installation with bootcamp is a breeze, and parallels is basically a virtual machine that allows you to run both osx and XP simultaneously, albeit not at top speed.

2. Yes, you could run Sims 2 with bootcamp, probably the graphics will need to be turned down as macbooks are just onboards, but yes it will work.

3. Well hmm that is really up to you, I have an 80 gig and I am happy.

4. These issues hae already been dealt with and fixed, but just in case AppleCare would take care of everything and unlike a lot of other extended warrantys this one is worth it.

My advice is a macbook is a great machine, and for general use is pretty much incredibly hard to top.

Welcome to the Fourm, aaaaliciaaaaa.

I went for 2Gb RAM, as Parallels likes all the memory you can throw at it. Also, at the time 2Gb only cost me around £85 (~ US$165)

I noticed last night that my 60Gb hard drive only had 7Gb spare so a larger drive may be arriving sooner than planned. I am going for a 160Gb drive - not sure 80Gb is worth it (for me) - its only about £30 extra for the 160Gb over the 80Gb, IIRC. But it depends how tight your budget is.

I'd like to add, that The Sims 2 is available for Mac for $49.95, and apparently good, so you might want to spare yourself the hassle of devoting precious disk space to Windows.

I have a MBP with 2GB ram and 160GB HD. I run parallels with no problem. Parallels does take memory into reserve while in use but it hasn't slowed down my system at all. XP is a breeze to install in parallels. You'll need a full retail version of SP2 - not OEM. I purchased a used XP retail disk on ebay and made a bootable cd with xp sp2 by slipstreaming. Worked great.

Welcome - you'll like it here!

yogi said:

I'd like to add, that The Sims 2 is available for Mac for $49.95, and apparently good, so you might want to spare yourself the hassle of devoting precious disk space to Windows.

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well I lost the first disc to my PC sims 2, so unfortunately had to buy the whole game again a few weeks ago, so I definitely don't want to buy it for a third time haha, but thanks for the heads up!

Forgive me for my ignorance, but what is OEM? I had bought XP for my computer awhile back, I hope it's the right version!

Thanks everyone for your replies!

If you were playing sims2 on a 6 year old hp desktop, then unless you upgraded the graphics card in the desktop, the macbooks graphics should be equal to or better than the card in your hp. The onboard graphics now are better than a 6 year old dedicated card. Bootcamp is better for gaming, at least I havr found that. It is an extremely simple install. My only problem with bootcamp and windows xo, is that I now have to get a bigger hard-drive. Windows needs dedicated hd space ao allocating hd space to windows cuts down on the space available to osx.

Jaster:
haha actually I couldn't play the sims 2 on my computer, it won't work, I play it on my boyfriends computer which I'm using right now actually.
How large of a hard drive do you recommend? Or should I say, how much space does XP take up? So far I'm going with the 80gb, and also planning on buying an external for my photos and music (which hopefully isn't lost forever on my broken pc).

OEM is "branded" to go with a computer at the time of sale. It can have restrictions, for example XP sold with a Dell system is not the same as XP sold with a Gateway system, etc. Some resellers have OEM software to sell - but it is different from retail. You want full retail. Parallels will specify during setup that it will not take OEM - but they don't tell you that beforehand!

Oohhh okay well my computer came with Windows ME (ugh!) so I bought XP at the store, so I assume that will be the right one, if I understand correctly!

I have an 80gb hd, windows itself is relatively small, but the applcations you want to use in windows take up space as well. I think I have 10gb allocated to windows. You get to choose when you install bootcamp how much space for windows, I don't have a lot of xp apps though, as I don't use it much. I find an 80gb hd is plenty, I streamlined my itunes down to 4gb, and burned most of my iphoto inventory to disks as well. I have 4.5 gb in my iphoto, and I still have quite a lot of diskspace left. So if you go for 80 plus an external, you will be just fine. Unfortunately you can't install xp onto an external, XP itself has to be loaded onto an internal.

aaaaliciaaaaa said:

Jaster:
haha actually I couldn't play the sims 2 on my computer, it won't work, I play it on my boyfriends computer which I'm using right now actually.
How large of a hard drive do you recommend? Or should I say, how much space does XP take up? So far I'm going with the 80gb, and also planning on buying an external for my photos and music (which hopefully isn't lost forever on my broken pc).

Click to expand...

I would say (and this is just my personal opinion) that 60GB is too small, go with the 80GB drive. Especially since you'll be devoting a chunk of that to Windows. Windows only needs about 4GB of space for the operating system, but if you'll actually use it and install software on its partition then 10GB or more would be better, leaving you with less than 50GB for Mac.

Just to further clarify - Bootcamp allows you to install Windows XP on a separate partition on your hard drive. You can then boot into Windows, but you must first restart your computer. Parallels creates a "virtual machine" inside your Mac OS desktop that allows you to have both operating systems running simultaneously. Bootcamp is not faster than running Parallels as another poster inferred, but when you're running a virtual machine, you don't get full 3D video card support, so games like the Sims 2 will not run on Parallels (yet - I'm told they're working on it).

Okay that does clarify things for me. 80GB it is. At work we use a virtual machine, as our systems run off of Linux but we need Windows for some applications, so I am familiar with the concept but I'm glad I know that sims might not run on that. Since it's the only thing I want windows for I'll just use Boot Camp when I want to play the game.

Now if only Best Buy would call me back and let me know the status of my computer I could get on with buying myself the Macbook...

I'd recommend getting the Mac. But if you stick with Windows, do not get a Dell. I have two Dells and both make me want to rip the hair out of my head. I've had my MacBook for two and a half months now, and I haven't thought of touching my hair yet.

aaaaliciaaaaa said:

Okay that does clarify things for me. 80GB it is. At work we use a virtual machine, as our systems run off of Linux but we need Windows for some applications, so I am familiar with the concept but I'm glad I know that sims might not run on that. Since it's the only thing I want windows for I'll just use Boot Camp when I want to play the game.

Now if only Best Buy would call me back and let me know the status of my computer I could get on with buying myself the Macbook...

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Just as a side note, I repair PCs as a side job (I work as a network admin and get a lot of business from my fellow employees). I can tell you that many of the computers I service are the result of failed attempts at repair by Geek Squad. I'm not saying that Geek Squad employees are all the same, but I've seen, read and heard about a lot of inaccurate diagnoses, gouging and other unsavory business practices from former customers. For the most part, my recommendation is to check with your local, non-corporate, Mom and Pop computer shops rather than a big conglomerate like Best Buy when you have problems. You'll usually get faster service, better pricing and more honest service from someone who's truly motivated to keep you as a customer (as opposed to the big corporate entities like Best Buy to whom you are just a number).

Just my $0.02.

aaaaliciaaaaa said:

well I lost the first disc to my PC sims 2, so unfortunately had to buy the whole game again a few weeks ago, so I definitely don't want to buy it for a third time haha, but thanks for the heads up!

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That's very unfortunate. It's a pity that you can't crossgrade the game because it's published by Aspyr for the Mac and EA Games for PC.

Lisa said:

I have a MBP with 2GB ram and 160GB HD. I run parallels with no problem. Parallels does take memory into reserve while in use but it hasn't slowed down my system at all. XP is a breeze to install in parallels. You'll need a full retail version of SP2 - not OEM. I purchased a used XP retail disk on ebay and made a bootable cd with xp sp2 by slipstreaming. Worked great.

Welcome - you'll like it here!

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I think the newest version of parallels can serve as a loophole for that rule. Parallels most recent build allows you to boot straight from your Boot Camp partition, rather than reinstalling windows. So if you installed an OEM windows through Boot Camp, you *might* (i dont know, since i havent tried, i used a retail version) be able to run it in parallels, because you are booting straight from an already installed Windows.

Ahh, so you can now run Parallels and Boot Camp off the same copy of XP? Before, I thought you needed a second copy (or there was some workaround). It would be great if you just needed the one copy. I'd prefer to just use Parallels myself, but for now, Boot Camp offers me the ability to do my gaming.

Waaahhhh

The geek squad for once did something right, yet oh so wrong. They can fix my PC (by replacing the hard drive for the fourth, count it fourth time in the 6 yrs I've had the computer), they say they probably can't get the files off unless they charge $200 to send it away - I have a possible guy who might be able to do it, and for free.
While that's all fine and dandy, I was hoping it was done so I could get the Macbook. Looks like I'll have to wait until it breaks for good, but you will all be pleased to hear that I am more than likely going to go with a Mac for my next computer. I can't wait to get it!
Just a note, I only took it to the geek squad because my computer is still under the warranty through Best Buy so they could fix it for free. But anyway thank you to everyone on here for convincing me further to go to the Mac side when it is time for me to get a new computer!
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