I’ve recently purchased a 15-inch MacBook Pro (2.53 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 4Gb RAM), including a Mouse and a nice Covertec bag, all around 2,350€ (about 3,300$) in Spain.
This is my first post, and I’ve seen several awesome stickies, very helpful for new users like me, so the first thing is to thanks all the participants for this amazing work. What I really missed was a guide of pros and cons for new buyers (people like me who were hesitating whether it is worthy to switch from a PC). I found several good reviews in this forum, but what I mean is a summary. Pros and cons are spread in a lot of different posts, generally at the end of reviews. For instance, I spent 49 euros in an apple mouse that is completely useless for this laptop because the cable is too short (I work much quicker with the mouse than with the trackpad). I list my opinions about several other pros and cons. This is not a full review, only a short list of my first encounter with a MacBook Pro, after many years working with PCs:
1. Pros: - Laptop: Nice look, light and very comfortable to work on laps (no heat/no noise). - OS-X: Despite I was afraid, the switch from a PC is really easy. For me it is a lot easier to get a good organization with this OS than with XP or Vista (my other two windows laptops are a mess).
2. Cons: - Useless mouse: As I said before, if you like me are used to work with a mouse, don`t buy a standard Apple mouse unless you are left-handed. - Slippery: I have to be careful when opening the laptop, it needs to hold it because it is like the desk were slippery (my Fujitsu, a pound lighter than this, is much stable on the desk). - Several things to get used to: Clicking on the upper left of a window to close it; few USBs, and both situated on the left; DVD reader: on the right side of the laptop, just where I have the mouse or the cable of the mouse… (Does anyone know if this laptop was designed for a left handed?). - Delete: There is no Supr key to delete that all the PCs have; of course you can delete forward pressing two keys fn+del (it took me some time to find it out)....
I am in the market to buy a ssd for my new on the way notebook and I saw one of these on Craig's List, seller says it is Apple branded. Let me know what information you guys have on this drive!
I am picking up a new 13" MacBook Pro this weekend and I am curious if when you have an SD card in the reader slot if it is flush or sticks out a bit? If it is flush I would love to use it as a Time Machine back up drive for all my work documents, and not have to deal with an external drive.
I know the iphone is fragile as hell so everybody has all this protection for it but what about the macbook pro? I see it kind of odd to want to cover up that kind of beauty with a skin, but having never owned one, not really sure.
Is it impossible to avoid scratches on the Macbook Pros? My friend bought a MB Pro and after two weeks there are scratches everywhere in the aluminium and it doesn't look nice. Is it a bad mistake by Apply using this soft material?
I have yet to purchase a new 15" Macbook Pro of my own, although I am interested in the FPS that these new laptops can produce. I am an occasional gamer and realize that these new GPU's are about middle class and may be able to play a few of the newer games at mid-high settings although they have 512MB. Any FPS benchmarks out there with specs of their laptops? I had a i7 2.66ghz, high res screen 1680 by 1050 , 4gb RAM in mind.
I'm trying to figure out what graphics card could go into the new Macbook Pros if they did a refresh on Jan 26th. The 230m gt? Or possibly unveiling a new card a 330m or 340m? What do you guys think? Do we have any word on the new cards Nvidia is releasing in the short term coming up here? I know the Asus G51J series just had the 360m card put in them, and that makes me think it is possible Nvidia might be dropping a 300 series card into the next MBP line.
Do these latest MBPs allow for relatively easy end-user hard drive replacement?
Was hoping to use my own HD or SSD. Does popping open the MacBook void any warranties? Have not used an Apple computer for years, much less purchased one.
Is it greed? (more money for them) tricking the average person, who doesn't know much about computers? or seriously impossible... just wondering, b/c a macbook pro 15" with 9800M GS and 9400M hybrid power would really be one of the best notebooks out there. (considering the capability of running OS X and Windows and Linux (all legally of course)
Looks like our hunches about what's inside the next MacBook Pros are panning out: AppleInsider hears that Apple's got new MacBook Pros running that can switch between integrated and discrete graphics automagically, which exactly describes Nvidia's Optimus dual graphics tech.
If you remember, the unibody MacBooks from Oct. 2008 were the first to use Nvidia's GeForce 9400M, a combination chipset/integrated GPU that ridiculously outperformed Intel's own integrated graphics, and the Pro models at the time could switch between power-saving integrated and beefier discrete graphics, though it requires a logout.
Nvidia got cockblocked from making chipsets for Intel's latest-gen chips (read: Core i3, Core i5, Core i7), ruling out using Nvidia's better integrated graphics; Nvidia canned their chipset business entirely. So! Nvidia's Optimus tech works with Intel's crappier integrated graphics that are built onto the same die as the newer Core processors, but even more seamlessly than before—the computer automatically switches between Intel's power-sipping integrated and Nvidia's monster discrete graphics, depending on what you're doing. No logouts required.
In the demo we saw on a Windows machine, the automatic part of the tech has some drawbacks—namely, it's entirely dependent on software to tell your computer which graphics card to run. But Apple's obviously worked pretty closely with Nvidia on graphics before, so it seems logical they're doing so here, too. Though I don't expect we'll know until the new MacBooks finally arrive, whenever that happens (hopefully, soon).
I'm using (handbrake) software for conversions to iphone and the heat builds up and even with smc fan control set at 6000 rpms it hits 82 degrees and tops out, is there a notebook cooler for my unibody macbook pro 17", I could get to keep it cooler ?
should I worry about thermal paste drying up on this cpu inside this notebook ?
A friend has a macbook pro 17" with an SATA 113GB usable drive, Intel 2GHz core duo drive (not core 2). I normally work on PCs- I know very little about macs other enough to find system specs.
Is there any limit to the storage capacity size of a notebook drive I can install? I typically use the Seagate Momentus 7200 drives on laptops.
Also are there any links or threads to instructions on replacing the drive? I found the one for how to do it on Sony Vaios on this site invaluable.
Intel Claims Core i5-Based MacBook Pro Promotion a Marketing Error
Quote:
Spanish site faq-mac.com, which was first to note an Intel promotion yesterday apparently revealing at least one forthcoming MacBook Pro based on the company's new Core i5 processors, now reports [Google translation] that Intel has revised the promotion to offer HP Envy notebooks instead of MacBook Pros, blaming a marketing error for the incorrect promotional materials. [url]
Nvidia apparently has a solution to the problems faced by many in their notebooks powered by GeForce 8M series, that is, to encourage the OEM/ODMs to buy their new problem free chips. Of course, this doesn't solve the issues faced by current users and there won't be any replacement for them.
Nvidia has come out with a new GPU called NB8E-SET which is essentially NB8E-SE with the new underfill. NB8E-SE is used on many notebooks most commonly advertised as GeForce 8700M GT, GeForce 8800M GS or GeForce 9650M GS. NB8E-SET (G84-751) uses the new Hitachi underfill and is clocked at 625MHz core and 128-bit 800MHz GDDR2/3 memories similar to the current NB8E-SE.
Here's a note from Nvidia to their partners :
NVIDIA is committed to providing our customers with quality products that push the edge of technology and also continuously improve product quality and reliability. To help improve the product quality and ensure smooth and uninterrupted product supply during the current “end stage” of life cycle, NVIDIA strongly recommends that customers transition to this latest revision of the NB8E-SET GPUs as soon as possible. These latest revision units utilize “Hitachi” underfill packaging material that improves product quality and enhances operating life by improved thermal cycling reliability.
I have recently installed a 250 Gb Samsung 840 EVO SSD and Win 7 Ultimate (64 bit) on my Pavilion dv6-7002AX laptop (**NOTE** - purchased in Australia) and for the most part it went well. The current problem I have is with the SM Bus controller and USB controller being listed as problematic in Device Manager. It appears to be missing the drivers and I have obtained the hardware IDs listed below. Â SM Bus Controller Hardware IDs PCIVEN_1022&DEV_780B&SUBSYS_1831103C&REV_14PCIVEN_1022&DEV_780B&SUBSYS_1831103C PCIVEN_1022&DEV_780B&CC_0C0500PCIVEN_1022&DEV_780B&CC_0C05 USB Controller Hardware IDs [code]....
To start I should remind everyone that i'm not a mac user. I have never owned a mac or used OSX properly before today. As such, my opinions should be taken as coming from someone who has much knowledge and experience as far as PC's are concerned, but who is a total mac n00b.
First Impressions
When I first walked over to the Macbooks I was quite taken aback. The build quality is out of this world. In fact, I immediately walked over to the latest PC laptops to compare and immediately thought "manufacturing FAIL". Really, the Macbooks are italian sports cars, and PC's are 30 year old farm tractors to use the typical "car analogy".
The Macbook
I really only had any interest in the Macbook when I first went to the Apple stand, but came away with the intention of buying a MacBook Pro. Let me explain:
The MacBook's build quality is awesome. It's solid, no creaking plastic or flexable build, completely and utterly solid. Awesome.............
I have been speculating over this prospect giving the direction that Apple took with the starting price of the 24" iMac (upgrade everything else and downgrade the VRAM).
I mean, this is something I would like to see, but I wonder if it is a smart move on Apple's part given how much they make off the current MBP's with the so called Apple Tax.
And, if they made this move, one has to wonder if it still would be considered a Pro.
This is going to be my very first Mac. I'm really excited about it, but I don't know which one I should go for... I narrowed it down to these two models. Which one should I go for and why?
I bought a black macbook this summer and every night when I'm in bed trying to do work I can barely see which keys is which. Obviously this wouldn't be a cheap fix but is there a way or is it possible to install the new light up keys of the new macbooks onto a pre-remodel macbook?
I downloaded this updated for my unibody Macbook Pro, and I think it's pretty vital. However, it gave me this error when I tried to install it: "You cannot install Macbook, Macbook Pro software update on this volume. This update requires Mac OS X 10.5.5 or newer." Now don't tell me that I have selected the wrong partition to install the update, or that I need to update my OS to 10.5.5 because I already have 10.5.6 and I chose the Macintosh HD partition to install the update.
So I'm definitely getting a 13" Macbook or Macbook Pro. Apple has some great prices on refurbs so that's probably the route I'll be going however I'm having trouble discerning the difference between the 13" Aluminum Unibody standard macbook and the 13" Unibody Macbook Pro. From what I've read they both have the upgraded screen, they're obviously both unibody, both have the large button-less trackpad, and both have the 9400m. They even have the same dimensions and the only difference I can see between the images is a slightly different case bevel (also the firewire and sd card ports, both are useless to me).
Unfortunately, none of the Apple stores or BestBuys in the area have a non-pro unibody 13" Macbook for me to actually handle and compare. So, basically, what makes the pro version with the slower cpu and smaller hard drive at the same price point worth it?
If I make an image of my hdd from my white macbook with disk utility onto a hard drive I take out of a unibody macbook pro will it work and boot properly?
I will do this by taking the 250gb hdd out of the unibody macbook pro and putting it into a sata external usb hdd enclosure, then making an image of my current 120gb white macbook and writing the image onto the 250gb. After, I plan to put the 250gb hdd back into the macbook pro and boot it up normally as if everything from my white macbook was just copied onto the macbook pro.