A few questions about OSX

I will probably be switching to mac within 3 months (getting a macbook pro), and I have a few questions.

1. Is it worth the $500 difference between the 2.2ghz Macbook pro and the 2.4ghz macbook pro, along with the graphics cards differences? What are the noticeable differences between the two, performance-wise. How much more can the 2.4ghz model (15.4") handle, graphically?
2. How well does VMware Fusion work? does it run XP and Vista pretty well, or does it lag alot, or is it slow?
3. When running XP or Vista (using bootcamp) can it handle as much, graphically, as any PC based Laptop with the same specs?
4. For bootcamp, am I able to install my Windows partition to an external drive, and connect it when I want to boot to windows, or do I have to install the partition to my internal drive?

Thanks in advance.

2. I use parallels Desktop and I have XP on that. I normally put my virtual machine in suspension, which is like putting XP in hibernate mode. It runs pretty well for simple tasks such as MS word etc. However I have 1 gig of ram and it takes about 40sec-1-min for it to load up completely from suspension

3. Yep it can, because having windows under bootcamp is just like having windows under on a dell, acer hp etc....

4. I don't think you can install Windows under boot camp in a external HD, it as to be an Internal one

about 4. are you sure, or do you know if it will be supported later? because since I will be doing gaming on windows, and barely anything else, I just wanted to buy a small external drive to install it on so the games were not taking up a large amount of space on my internal drive.

Darkenedwing said:

about 4. are you sure, or do you know if it will be supported later? because since I will be doing gaming on windows, and barely anything else, I just wanted to buy a small external drive to install it on so the games were not taking up a large amount of space on my internal drive.

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Unfortunately, no - Windows can only be installed on an internal hard disk. This is a limitation of Windows itself and not the Mac - just as you can't install Windows on an external hard drive on a standard PC.

okay, thanks.

Does anyone have a answer to #1?

Edit:

http://guides.macrumors.com/Boot_Camp_Windows_XP_On_External_Drive

found a solution, if it works.

Darkenedwing said:

okay, thanks.

Does anyone have a answer to #1?

Edit:

http://guides.macrumors.com/Boot_Camp_Windows_XP_On_External_Drive

found a solution, if it works.

Click to expand...

That depends on what you are going to be using your computer for. Really only you can answer this for yourself. If you are a big gamer you might be better served by the faster processor and more graphics memory. If you are a casual gamer and won't be using the computer to do anything too graphics intensive you might be better served by the less expensive one. I just got my Mom a Mac mini and it runs windows in Parallels great. This is the base $599.00 model also, I just upgraded the RAM to 2GB and the HDD to 200GB myself. Windows runs better under Parallels on the mini than it did on her old PC.

Edit: It is possible to run windows off a USB hard drive. I have done it before, however I don't recommend it as it is difficult to pull off and can be problematic when actually trying to use windows. I would recommend getting the cheapest hard drive available from apple then go to newegg.com and buy a 250GB HDD. Install it yourself and create a 50GB partition for windows and use the rest for OS X. I think you would be much happier with this setup.

Darkenedwing said:

okay, thanks.

Edit:

http://guides.macrumors.com/Boot_Camp_Windows_XP_On_External_Drive

found a solution, if it works.

Click to expand...

It works, thats basically how I did it. Here is another source if you are interested:
http://www.ngine.de/index.jsp?pageid=4176

will any 2.5" hard drive work in the macbook pro's or do I have to have a specific brand or kind?

Darkenedwing said:

will any 2.5" hard drive work in the macbook pro's or do I have to have a specific brand or kind?

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As far as I know any SATA 3.0 / SATA 1.5 compliant laptop drives will work fine. I would buy a name brand one though. Hitachi, Western Digital, and Seagate are all great.

Edit: this looks like your best bet for a 250GB drive:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136123

alright, thanks.

One more question. I have seen alot of games ported to Intel Macs with Cider. does anyone know how well the Cider ports work on a Macbook Pro? I seen everything from Command and Conquer 3 to Call of Duty 2 and Quake 4, are they laggy, can you play them at near-max settings, do they look like their window's counterparts (shadows, antialiasing, etc), what FPS can you usually get with the games?
Also, for games ported with cider, do you need to burn them to a disc to get them to play, or do they not need the CD to play, or how does that work?
Also, what performance differences are there between the 2.2Ghz MBP and the 2.4Ghz MPB when playing games such as Call of Duty 2 and Quake 4?

...does anyone have an answer to those questions or know where I could find out more about them?

You'd be better installing Windows XP and playing those games on that OS with Bootcamp. OS X isn't really geared towards gaming and games wil usually have lower frame rates.

It's a simple procedure and once everything's installed, just hold down alt when starting up to boot into Windows instead of OS X.

http://www.apple.com/macosx/bootcamp/

Your 2.4Ghz will be an insignificant amount faster than the 2.2 when it comes to games. Maybe a couple of FPS.

A cider port takes a hit on FPS and is not recommended unless done well. Sometimes you get a good port, but otherwise its all slow. You will need a Mac pro to get decent frame rates. For gaming do the boot camp thing.

Darkenedwing said:

One more question. I have seen alot of games ported to Intel Macs with Cider. does anyone know how well the Cider ports work on a Macbook Pro? I seen everything from Command and Conquer 3 to Call of Duty 2 and Quake 4, are they laggy, can you play them at near-max settings, do they look like their window's counterparts (shadows, antialiasing, etc), what FPS can you usually get with the games?
Also, for games ported with cider, do you need to burn them to a disc to get them to play, or do they not need the CD to play, or how does that work?
Also, what performance differences are there between the 2.2Ghz MBP and the 2.4Ghz MPB when playing games such as Call of Duty 2 and Quake 4?

Click to expand...

I've played the Mac versions of command and conquer 3, call of duty 2, and World of Warcraft. They all work fine for me under OS X but I also have a Mac Pro not the MacBook Pro. World of Warcraft works fine on my 2.0Ghz core duo macbook, low frame rates, but its still playable.