Disclaimer: I'm "new" to Macs. I have little to no knowledge of the "new" Macintoshes - the last Apple product that I owned/used was a first-gen blueberry iBook (OS9), the first was a Macintosh SE under System 6.
I'm in need of a light, portable machine that will primarily be used for browsing and some light gaming over my university's WiFi between classes - I'm currently leaning heavily towards a 15" MBP. I was considering the Dell XPS M1330 until I saw that it was only available with a 8400M GS. That combined with a tiny screen killed the deal.
I don't foresee myself using OS X very much - there are applications that I couldn't possibly do without or too cheap to shell out more money for a Mac-compatible version (Guild Wars, foobar2000, Office 2007, MATLAB, VMware Workstation).
So, a bunch of questions:
1. How hot does the MacBook Pro get; is it so uncomfortably hot that I won't be able to use it on my lap for extended periods of time? When the fans kick in, are they terribly loud or whiny?
2. How durable is it? I'm coming from a long line of IBM ThinkPads (built like tanks) and they've all sustained a lot of wear and tear over the years.
3. The Technical Specifications page on the MBP states that the battery lasts up to six hours. I'm guessing that with light browsing and moderate gaming over WiFi that the quoted figure would drop significantly?
4. Is AppleCare worth it?
5. Will I void the warranty by replacing the stock components with better/cheaper/faster parts (HD, RAM) from Newegg?
6. Finally, are there any known issues with Boot Camp/Windows XP that I should be concerned about?
I'm in need of a light, portable machine that will primarily be used for browsing and some light gaming over my university's WiFi between classes - I'm currently leaning heavily towards a 15" MBP. I was considering the Dell XPS M1330 until I saw that it was only available with a 8400M GS. That combined with a tiny screen killed the deal.
I don't foresee myself using OS X very much - there are applications that I couldn't possibly do without or too cheap to shell out more money for a Mac-compatible version (Guild Wars, foobar2000, Office 2007, MATLAB, VMware Workstation).
So, a bunch of questions:
1. How hot does the MacBook Pro get; is it so uncomfortably hot that I won't be able to use it on my lap for extended periods of time? When the fans kick in, are they terribly loud or whiny?
2. How durable is it? I'm coming from a long line of IBM ThinkPads (built like tanks) and they've all sustained a lot of wear and tear over the years.
3. The Technical Specifications page on the MBP states that the battery lasts up to six hours. I'm guessing that with light browsing and moderate gaming over WiFi that the quoted figure would drop significantly?
4. Is AppleCare worth it?
5. Will I void the warranty by replacing the stock components with better/cheaper/faster parts (HD, RAM) from Newegg?
6. Finally, are there any known issues with Boot Camp/Windows XP that I should be concerned about?
