Want to "dip my toe" into mac hardware ... possibly mac book pro

[kracken]

looking to become a new mac laptop owner (never had mac system / laptop before) but got a couple of questions . . .

1) I dont see any option of a blu-ray drive mentioned anywhere , dont they do one ? and if not are there any plans in the near future to include one ?

2) I have read about the ability to run windows alongside OS X , is that just like dual boot menu ? Are there any restrictions in what can be run on windows or is it fully fledged as if you were actually running a windows (7 / xp or whatever)

3) I noticed a mac book pro on fleabay HERE thats listed as New MacBook pro 15.4" 2.8GHz/4GB/500GB/SD 15" , but dont see the option of 2.8GHz option on apples site ... is that a mistake by the seller or am i looking in wrong place on apples site ?

Im sure theres sum more questions but cant think of any for now

cheers
k

[parodyuk]

bought a macbook pro 15" 2.4ghz today from the apple shop in birmingham.
Shame it was for my friend and i was just the student, but there fantastic. Do it!

[kracken]

bought a macbook pro 15" 2.4ghz today from the apple shop in birmingham.
Shame it was for my friend and i was just the student, but there fantastic. Do it!

what student discount did you get ? and how many can you buy before they accuse you of "milking the system" and refuse

[B B Leo]

does it need to be so high spec?

[kracken]

does it need to be so high spec?

well i was presuming there are no AAA games for mac and dual boot into windows (via bootcamp ?) would be neccessary for titles like Crysis 2 ?

[blaggard]

If you want to play serious games you'll need a high end pro, graphics card won't be up to it otherwise. Pref one of the new i5 or 7 machines.

[casio]

they do have the new i7 in the refreshed mbp line up so you should be good to go especially with the discreate graphics chip inside the macs that pretty everything up and improve games etc
http://www.engadget.com/2010/04/14/m...ore-i7-review/

one thing I will say is that be it xp/vista or win7 Ive never had any machine as stable as my (now aged) macbook pro so even if you dont like osx you can just format and install win7 without needing to dual boot if you dont want to.

[ant3b]

well i was presuming there are no AAA games for mac and dual boot into windows (via bootcamp ?) would be neccessary for titles like Crysis 2 ?

Steam is coming out on mac with all valve games...

[kracken]

Steam is coming out on mac with all valve games...

nice to know ant3b , thanks.

i have just been quoted £1301 + vat direct from Apple over the phone for

MC373B/A 15-inch Macbook Pro

does that sound tempting ?

Spoiler:

[maltloaf]

To answer your earlier questions ref windows on mac, You can run windows via a service called Bootcamp which handles partitioning, installing and all of the drivers. It updates the drivers as part of the apple updating service.

When running the windows install via bootcamp, it is totally native and full speed

I also have a package called parallels on mine, where I can run windows in a window or even just a windows program in a window. You get a start menu on the mac and you can start progs as if they were native osx ones. You allocate an amount of ram to it and it runs at near native speed, with full access to usb etc. To be perfectly honest though, I hardly ever use either of them, OSX does everything that I need.

If you want to dip your feet and see how you like it, why not do what I've done and get a cheapy macbook ? I got a core2duo 2GHz macbook with 3GB ram for £320. It will run everything that the newest macbook pro's will run, just maybe not as quickly. I couldn't be happier with mine.

[B B Leo]

ive one of these
http://store.apple.com/uk/browse/hom...co=MTAyNTQzMzg
with 4gb ram..
also got one of these
http://www.apple.com/uk/imac/
with 8gb ram

run both with parallels and win7 on both

[gazza341]

do it!
i am a mac convert. i had never touched one before 2005 when i bought my macbook. i've upgraded a few bits since - memory and hard drive, but it has never given me any problems at all. 5 years on, it's now got snow leopard on, the 3rd os since buying it, and it's still flying along. how many pc laptop owners could say that, most of them virtually grind to a halt after changing the os by 3 generations.

[kracken]

Right I have ordered one and got confirmation through off Apple (shipped in 5-7 business days with eta of 12-17 May , altho I dunno how that equates at all ?? *confused* ).

I went for the upgrade of high res screen , but not anti-glare , is that a big mistake or is anti-glare essential ?

[B B Leo]

never been a problem to me

[Sanj[UK]]

Right I have ordered one and got confirmation through off Apple (shipped in 5-7 business days with eta of 12-17 May , altho I dunno how that equates at all ?? *confused* ).?

Well if it was like anything like my order back all those years ago..it be coming from China

[stu99]

I changed over a while ago. Started with the iPhone, then the MBP and more recently a Mac Mini as a Media centre. You'll not be disappointed.

You can get Parallels with a student discount (They don't check) http://www.parallels.com/landingpage/studentpack/

These are pretty good too

http://www.software4students.co.uk/

[kracken]

I changed over a while ago. Started with the iPhone, then the MBP and more recently a Mac Mini as a Media centre. You'll not be disappointed.

You can get Parallels with a student discount (They don't check) http://www.parallels.com/landingpage/studentpack/

These are pretty good too

http://www.software4students.co.uk/

I have been usin that site for over year :0) , it helps when you have a family member at uni ;0) . Also the Higher Education discount helped alot with the MacBook pro , just waiting for it to turn up sumtime as it's now been dispatched

[B B Leo]

have u got it yeat kracken?

[kracken]

no not yet mate , no updates after its been "shipped"

[B B Leo]

id be pulling my hair out... its was like waiting on the ipad coming out. then i said fuck it and bought a mac mini