Dont laugh im a n00b!

Hey guys
im new to the mac scene. Ok dont laugh but this is my story, i do a lot of photoshop, 3dstudio max and autocad work primarily on a PC (sony vaio laptop) as 3ds max and Autodesks Autocad arent compatible with macs. The thing is Macs now use Intel chips so i can use bootcamp for windows. I would like to use a macbook pro for 85% or more whilst on windows xp as after looking around at many of the laptops for sale none quite hit the specifications like the MBpro mostly with the Grafix card and Hard disk, the Dell equivalent or suprerior is much more expensive but has a 17" screeen which is far from portable and i really dont wanna strip out a hardisk (is it easy) from a brand new laptop... so what do u think, i hope to get this baby before september, hopefully merom is out then?

1.how big is the minimum partition for MAC os
2.will it be perfectly stable running predominantly on Windows
3.can u suggest an alternative laptop without that crappy virtual memory on the grafix card that wont be too much more than a 2.16, 2gb ram, ati X1600 256mb, 100gb 7200 rpm, 15" MBP?

Cheers in advance (dont flame me )

1) You can actually only install windows, completely foregoing a mac partition. With bootcamp the minimum is 5GB.

2) No, it will however be as stable as windows can be.

3) No.

I second Aptmunich.

While what Aptmunich stated is true, I would have to say in my opinion that a Mac would not be an ideal choice for you.
If you plan to spend the vast majority of time running Windows (85% of your time or more), then you would be much better served with a Windows based laptop. Just because you can install Windows on a Mac now, doesn't mean that you should in every case.
If you feel that a new laptop is in order, there are several choices out there and many sites have an extremely intricate build-to-spec option, that would still cost less than the MBP.
Speaking from my decades of PC and decades of Mac use and experience (and at the risk of being chastised for this, ), I find it just a little bit silly to get a Mac for the sole purpose of running Windows on it, especially if you already have a Windows laptop that would seem to be performing well for you.
You should get a Mac not only for the machine, but for the OS it comes with. Installing Windows on it is nice, but should be seen and used as a secondary OS on a Mac and not a primary.

Just my $0.02 on it.
:black:

I agree with D3vL8OY. Don't get a Mac in your situation. I have the perfect notebook for you. Take a look at the hp nc-8430. It has pretty much the same exact specs as the MBP for a little bit cheaper. And since it comes from hp's business class it is well-built. That is the notebook for you I believe. Here's a link:

http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/us/en/sm/WF25a/321957-64295-89315-321838-f1-1839150.html

Ger a Mac, and as you play with OS X(when your not using XP) you will slowly fall in love with it, and start to move your Apps for OS X

thanx for your replies, another reason why i wanted to get the mac was so that i cud attempt the mac os transfer whilst both worlds were still available on the same laptop.

Cashmonee thanx for the suggestion, that HP is **** expensive, the MBP qorks out cheaper for me because i get education discount, would this sway your decision is the price was in favour?

also is boot camp an unlimited use beta?

cheers again

aptmunich, from what i understand the minimum partition you can set for the windows OS is 5GB and 5gb less than the total free space (Boot Camp setup guide). what i would like to know is how much free space is available when your macbook pro is new and also did u say that i can actually not have apple os installed (not that i want that)

thanx again

if you do photoshop work and stuff, why not just use the mac versions? they are optimized for mac and os x runs a heck of a lot smoother.

Boot Camp has a unknown expiration date built-in. Presumably the release of Leopard will also be the expiration of Boot Camp. You must be getting a sweet price on your MBP, because that hp should have come to about 1900 unless you were going with the 2.16.

If you choose the MBP, give OSX a shot at being your everyday OS and use Windows on an as-needed basis. Given a week or two, you will find yourself frustrated by Windows and loathe having to use it. I cannot stand the way you gotta mickey mouse with things to get Window to do what you want sometimes. It is really annoying.

im looking forward to using mac os actually as ive heard a lot of praise, i can get a macbook pro 15 inch, 2.16ghz, 100gb 7200 rpm, 2gb ram for approx £1450 gbp(new), is that a good deal to be had? to be honest the other laptops look dated in comparison

i would like to ask a few questions if i may!!!
1. when new how much space is taken up by the OS and applications on the 100gb harddisk

2. should i opt for the glossy screen

3. is core 2 worth the wait in terms of performance boost as i can wait till end of august....will it be out?

4. is their much of a community for apple OS aplications on torrents for file sharing?

.....hang on im sure i saw benchmarks showing that photoshop ran much faster on the windows partition compared to mac os on the macbook pro....something to do with the original coding of program or something :S, i will try and find it

g33 said:

aptmunich, from what i understand the minimum partition you can set for the windows OS is 5GB and 5gb less than the total free space (Boot Camp setup guide). what i would like to know is how much free space is available when your macbook pro is new and also did u say that i can actually not have apple os installed (not that i want that)

thanx again

Click to expand...

You can configure how much space the default install should take up, I think normally it's around 10GB (with all the iLife media, every conceivable printer driver known to man & language support for Arameic & Catalonian- just in case )

There is a way of not installing OS X, I read a how-to on a german message board somewhere...

Now for the rest of your questions:
1) See above.
2) I like the glossy, depends on whether you'll be using it outdoors much- if yes, go for the matte.
3) Personally, I think the next MBP revision won't be until November - and I wouldn't be willing to wait that long. Core2Duo will bring a lot of additional performance to the table, but I'm guessing more in the desktop chips... the advantage over the CoreDuo is likely to be less substantial - at least for the first batch of chips and the next MBP rev.
4) No, because that's wrong and illegal and we don't like that sort of thing here unless you want to be banned...

Last post:
Photoshop isn't currently optimized for the intel version of OSX, so you're basically running a powerPC application on a different chip type. Rosetta is an inivisible software that translates the application for the intel chip - but it obviously has some overhead and reduces overall performance.

When the apps are available in intel-native versions, OS X & Windows performance should be roughly equal...

thank u aptmunich, u da man!!! sorry if i offended any1 by asking about peer2peer software! im poor im a student....definitely poor after i get this macbook

portable 3d rendering boxes will always be mighty expensive... and you're always going to pay a whole lot less for a whole lot better in desktop equiv for 3d rendering...
But if you absolutely need to model on the fly, Macbooks are pretty handy.

If you can find an OS X equiv for the software you use, you probably will merge over pretty quick. I'd feel much safer modeling/doing anything in OS X than I would in Windows, once you start running and stress testing OS X you'll understand what I'm referring to. (Stability).

But really with how you want to run your box, just get the cheapest possible. The cheapest for the things you need will still be mighty expensive, so being a poor college student... hehe. If it's mac, so be it.. if it isn't mac.. that's fine too. Nothing you listed makes you specifically need to buy a MacBook except for the interest in learning/playing around with OS X.

there's those os virtualization software that you can use - other htan boot camp.. you can run multiple os's within osx. although the software isn't "by apple" i belive it was called parallel.. or something the program's doesn't cost too much either i think $60 usd (this is by memory so dont quote me on this)..

DCraver said:

if you do photoshop work and stuff, why not just use the mac versions? they are optimized for mac and os x runs a heck of a lot smoother.

Click to expand...

Unfortunately that's not true at the moment. Adobe's programs are not universal yet and Photoshop runs like molasses on an Intel Mac right now. Once the Universal versions are released sometime next year that will be a different story. I strongly suggest if Photoshop is very important that you don't buy an Intel Mac, buy an older PowerPC Mac.