Macbook pro questions for MBP gurus.

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After many days of spending time on the internet and reading various forums I've decided of buying a 15" SR MBP instead of the 20" iMac. I've got a few question before I make my purchase.

1) I want to connect my MBP to an external monitor. Currently I have a Viewsonic 19" monitor but I was thinking going with a 22" or 23" monitor. What's the largest monitor I can connect to a 15" SR MBP? I know a video card has limitations and I want to get the maximum resolution out of it.

2)If I chose to go another monitor setup and buy two 20" monitors can I use both of them as dual monitors or I would need 2 video cards in order to do that?

3) Hard drive space.... I'm going for the 7200 RPM 160gig HD but I would always like a larger size. If I take my MBP to a certified Apple retailer/repairer location (CompUSA) and get a bigger hard drive installed by them will that void my warranty with Apple? If it does then I'll just settle for a external hard drive. Looking at a 250gig one with firewire 800. Any suggestions from any owners?

4)Gloss or matte? Yes don't hate me. My main purpose with my MBP is for digital photography, graphics (Adobe photoshop) and some video editing like Final Cut. I will be playing games on it like World of Warcraft. I'm torn between this because I'll be using the external monitor most of the time but if I have to go on a shooting set would the gloss finish not show the colors properly or would it?

5)Resale value? How are the resale value on MBP?

6) What are some accessories that I should buy with my MBP? I know a keyboard/mouse amnd external speakers are a given. What about the a stand for my MBP? Any other specific items?

7) Pararells. This has me very excited. My main question is some reason I get a virus on the XP paritition will that affect the Mac partition? Lets say XP OS keeps crashing, rebooting or I get the BSOD will be able to load Mac OS?
 
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1) I want to connect my MBP to an external monitor. Currently I have a Viewsonic 19" monitor but I was thinking going with a 22" or 23" monitor. What's the largest monitor I can connect to a 15" SR MBP? I know a video card has limitations and I want to get the maximum resolution out of it.

From Apple's site:
"simultaneously supports full native resolution on the built-in display and up to 2560 by 1600 pixels on an external display, both at millions of colors"

2)If I chose to go another monitor setup and buy two 20" monitors can I use both of them as dual monitors or I would need 2 video cards in order to do that?

You can't do this. That would require a separate graphics card.

3) Hard drive space.... I'm going for the 7200 RPM 160gig HD but I would always like a larger size. If I take my MBP to a certified Apple retailer/repairer location (CompUSA) and get a bigger hard drive installed by them will that void my warranty with Apple? If it does then I'll just settle for a external hard drive. Looking at a 250gig one with firewire 800. Any suggestions from any owners?

If you don't intend on having the larger drive installed at the time of purchase, then you are better off with an external drive.

4)Gloss or matte? Yes don't hate me. My main purpose with my MBP is for digital photography, graphics (Adobe photoshop) and some video editing like Final Cut. I will be playing games on it like World of Warcraft. I'm torn between this because I'll be using the external monitor most of the time but if I have to go on a shooting set would the gloss finish not show the colors properly or would it?

Any graphics work would require the matte screen. Glossy will distort the colors and not give a true representation of them.

5)Resale value? How are the resale value on MBP?

Macs do tend to hold value longer than other PC's, though you probably won't see any need or desire to sell it once you begin using it.

6) What are some accessories that I should buy with my MBP? I know a keyboard/mouse amnd external speakers are a given. What about the a stand for my MBP? Any other specific items?

Take a look around here, you will find all sorts of threads giving suggestions and tips for external devices. It all comes down to what you need in the end. There isn't any blanket list of things you should get.

7) Pararells. This has me very excited. My main question is some reason I get a virus on the XP paritition will that affect the Mac partition? Lets say XP OS keeps crashing, rebooting or I get the BSOD will be able to load Mac OS?

Windows will be susceptible to any viruses written for it, no matter how or where it is run. Windows viruses cannot and will not harm any Mac OS X installation, because quite frankly, they are Windows viruses not Mac viruses.
 

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