First Apple computer... EVER (MacBook Pro 15 Core i7)

[wildhawker]

As a longtime Windoez user (and a fan of Winslows 7), I just committed some act of sacrilege. I bought a MacBook Pro.

I'm equally excited and apprehensive. The touch trackpad is a real selling point, and I hope it lives up to expectations. The new operating system may take some time to figure out, and I am eager to see if this can replace my dying Lenovo T60P 15.4" 2.16ghz Core 2 Duo rig on Win7 (that runs too hot and views too dark). I don't do any serious gaming or photo/video, although I'd like to do more basic video editing now that I have this.

So, I figured I would post this relatively trivial occurrence and bump the CGN threadcount up a bit.

Specs for those who care:

MBP 15" hi-res w/ antiglare
Intel Core i7 2.66
4GB RAM
500GB HD (probably swap to SSD soon)
OS X 10.6.3

[Gigan]

Nice and Welcome to Mac!

[Longhill]

Nice and Welcome to Mac!

what he said! Life is good

[2Bear]

Ahhh... Sveet. I've been a long time user of both, but always a Mac owner. (Apres Vic20).

i5 and i7s are impressive laptops, with reasonable power consumption.

No problem running Final Cut Pro in HD and applying 3D layers. Amazing, really.

Wise to get the HD screen option. (Sadly still not 1080 though...)

You will go down in memory quantity if you go to SSD, nay? SSD still pricey...

[wildhawker]

I may wait another 6mos-1yr to move to SSD and let the $/GB fall and drive capacities creep up; I can deal with a drop to 256GB local as most of my data and archives are setup offsite, but a drop to 128GB would hurt. Right now, a 256GB SSD is $500-650. When it hits ~$350, I'll jump.

[bigmike82]

Congrats on the sweet new toy.

Condolences on the move to the Mac platform.

[2Bear]

It is fun to run Parallels and Windoze simultaneously on your i7, (not that there's ever any good reason to do so...).

The new 11" Macbook Air with a 128GB SSD at $999 is a nice item, albeit pricey for a subnotebook.

Be sure to play with Garageband... Open the loop browser and drag and drop loops. "Who da' man?"

[Gryff]

Remember that you can use Boot Camp and install a Windows partition on the computer. You would be able to boot it as a fully functional Windows machine for those times when you are feeling nostalgic.

And if you ever have any issues, let me know. I've done tech gigs for Apple for the past 12 years.

[brassburnz]

I bought a 13" MB Pro during the Summer. No probs so far. Light video stuff, iMovie of kid's sports and music performances is the most I'll do.

You'll like the performance.

[JDay]

I am eager to see if this can replace my dying Lenovo T60P 15.4" 2.16ghz Core 2 Duo rig on Win7 (that runs too hot

Clean the dust/hair out of the heatsink and the temps will drop, this happens to all laptops over time.

[blackberg]

welcome!

maybe now your pdfs wont come out all black

you can probably find parallels on sale or in a bundle somewhere so you can run windows for those apps that require it. I just use it for the OBD2 software/hardware I have.

feel free to call/email if you have questions

-bb "mac user since before they where cool "

[wildhawker]

Clean the dust/hair out of the heatsink and the temps will drop, this happens to all laptops over time.

Yep, I generally do every few months. Seems like the fan's failing, and the machine continues to run hotter at the same loads.

[wildhawker]

Thanks all for the kind words, condolences, and generous offers of help if needed!

[high_revs]

good luck wildhawker! and have fun with it. I bought a macbook too years back, only to play with it. couldn't really get into it and i sorely missed the right-click of a pc. i ended up not using it as much and sold it pretty cheap. i regret it though since i could've just dual-booted it with windows so i only had 1 machine, instead of 2 physical ones. found out too late about that possibility

just as jday said, i have to clean my heat sink often too. i had my laptop shut down unknowingly in the past and only stays after i pass compressed air thru the sink.

[OMGofWar]

congrats on the new purchase! have fun with it.

i just ordered a low-end 13" MacBook Pro today to replace my aged G4 iBook as well. this is my first new computer since my desktop G5 back in 2005.