Anyone buy a Mac Book Pro just for PC use?

Zebo

Elite Member
Jul 29, 2001
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I don't know apple's os but the mac book pro has everything i want in a notebook.
-lighted keyboard
-LED glossy screen w/ ips tech for great viewing angles and high contrast
-tough
-decent enough ram to run XP 2 gb
-latest intel chips
-decent video
-thin and light for a 15.4" @ 5 lbs
-aluminium construction
etc, etc

just seems like the perfect laptop for me and i can get it for $1800 with a free ipod though apple education. Expensive compared to PC laptops sure but not when you start decking out an XPS same way you really get more bang for your buck for a MacBook Pro.

If I install Windows XP will it run just like a PC notebook? Are there any issues I should know about before purchase to run as a PC?
 

996GT2

Diamond Member
Jun 23, 2005
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I used my friend's Macbook Pro 17" for several weeks to get a feel for both OS X and Windows under boot camp (I considered buying a Mac myself, and wanted to try one first hand). What I concluded was that despite its ability to run Windows, it's definitely not without limits. For example, in OS X, the Macbook Pro would consistently get over 4 hours of battery life. While running Vista Ultimate, this would sometimes dip to at little as 1.5-2 hours even under everyday tasks such as MS Word and Firefox. I know Vista doesn't have the best reputation for managing system resources, but a 50% reduction in battery life while running Boot Camp is not acceptable.

Also, I found the single mouse button pretty annoying in Windows, since you have to use 2 fingers on the trackpad and click at the same time to do a right click. You also cannot tap the trackpad to click (Boot Camp doesn't allow this functionality yet, even though almost every other native Windows laptop does). So an external mouse would be the way to go. Lastly, to get all the functionality of the MBP to work (e.g. the display for volume level) on Windows, you need to install extra patches and drivers...not a walk in the park to do.

So in the end, while the MBP is an excellent computer from a design standpoint, I wouldn't buy one for using Windows on. Yes, it will run, but with some serious limitations (such as battery life).
 

Zebo

Elite Member
Jul 29, 2001
39,398
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I will be running XP not Vista - probably a Vista issue from reports of laptop wide reduced battery life.

I'm unfamiliar with boot camp but it sound like it's part of the Mac OS X operating system, right? So I won't be able just to wipe OS X and reformat drive to NTFS and install XP from scratch? Is there a site which explains the nuances of installing the extra patches and drivers "to get all the functionality of the MBP to work"

Thanks again 996GT2, your posts are always informative.:)
 

RESmonkey

Diamond Member
May 6, 2007
4,818
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Appleinsider predicts MBP to have get a facelift + montevina. I'm going to wait on that, if I get a MBP.
 

Parasitic

Diamond Member
Aug 17, 2002
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It's kinda annoying that after almost a year there is still no tap-click mousepad driver in Windows.
And yes, technically you can just format off the MacOS partition and redo it as NTFS/Windows, you can google it and see how that works. However why would you do that? I run bootcamp with Vista x64 and my time between OSX/Vista is like 90/10. Most of the basic things have an OSX counterpart.
 

996GT2

Diamond Member
Jun 23, 2005
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Originally posted by: Zebo
I will be running XP not Vista - probably a Vista issue from reports of laptop wide reduced battery life.

I'm unfamiliar with boot camp but it sound like it's part of the Mac OS X operating system, right? So I won't be able just to wipe OS X and reformat drive to NTFS and install XP from scratch? Is there a site which explains the nuances of installing the extra patches and drivers "to get all the functionality of the MBP to work"

Thanks again 996GT2, your posts are always informative.:)

What you're doing with Boot Camp is basically running a dual-boot. You could probably remove OS X altogether, but that's pretty pointless if you're buying a MAC in the first place.

Boot Camp is actually a pretty good solution for dual-booting. Once you have everything set up with Windows XP, you'll be able to press the "alt" button upon boot-up and the MBP will display two hard drives to boot from. If you click on the OS X partition, it will take you to OS X, and similarly with the Win XP partition. You should do some research on Mac Forums to find out about the steps necessary to install Win XP on Boot Camp. I didn't do the installing myself; the MBP was already set up by my friend when he lent it to me to try.
 

TheStu

Moderator<br>Mobile Devices & Gadgets
Moderator
Sep 15, 2004
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There are no extra patches or drivers. You get the MacBook Pro, you run the bootcamp assistant from OS X, you tell it how big you want the partition.

You drop in the Win XP SP2+ or Vista disc, you format the newly created partition, you install windows. When you are done, you drop in the discs that came with your Mac. You install the bootcamp driver package. Inside that are the keyboard, mouse, display, video, wireless, ethernet, audio, and chipset drivers. The keyboard drivers are all that it takes to make the media and brightness keys work, so no worries there.

The point about not being able to tap click is valid, but in my opinion, it is not that bad having to 2 finger right click, it can easily be done with one hand, so no worries there. The battery life concern is valid though, either Apple did not include the fan control software, or XP natively does not do it well, but either way, my MacBook always runs hotter, with the fans on more, in XP than in OS X, and that too leads to reduced battery life.
 

996GT2

Diamond Member
Jun 23, 2005
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Originally posted by: TheStu
There are no extra patches or drivers. You get the MacBook Pro, you run the bootcamp assistant from OS X, you tell it how big you want the partition.

You drop in the Win XP SP2+ or Vista disc, you format the newly created partition, you install windows. When you are done, you drop in the discs that came with your Mac. You install the bootcamp driver package. Inside that are the keyboard, mouse, display, video, wireless, ethernet, audio, and chipset drivers. The keyboard drivers are all that it takes to make the media and brightness keys work, so no worries there.

The point about not being able to tap click is valid, but in my opinion, it is not that bad having to 2 finger right click, it can easily be done with one hand, so no worries there. The battery life concern is valid though, either Apple did not include the fan control software, or XP natively does not do it well, but either way, my MacBook always runs hotter, with the fans on more, in XP than in OS X, and that too leads to reduced battery life.

Well, I guess everyone's experience varies, then, because my friend specifically told me he had to torrent extra/updated patches to get all of the stuff to work with Vista.

But yeah, you do bring up another good point. The fans do run hotter, and in the case of my friend's MBP, it makes a high-pitched "whining" noise in Vista that never happens in OS X. I think it's a Boot Camp related issue.
 

TheStu

Moderator<br>Mobile Devices & Gadgets
Moderator
Sep 15, 2004
12,089
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Originally posted by: 996GT2
Originally posted by: TheStu
There are no extra patches or drivers. You get the MacBook Pro, you run the bootcamp assistant from OS X, you tell it how big you want the partition.

You drop in the Win XP SP2+ or Vista disc, you format the newly created partition, you install windows. When you are done, you drop in the discs that came with your Mac. You install the bootcamp driver package. Inside that are the keyboard, mouse, display, video, wireless, ethernet, audio, and chipset drivers. The keyboard drivers are all that it takes to make the media and brightness keys work, so no worries there.

The point about not being able to tap click is valid, but in my opinion, it is not that bad having to 2 finger right click, it can easily be done with one hand, so no worries there. The battery life concern is valid though, either Apple did not include the fan control software, or XP natively does not do it well, but either way, my MacBook always runs hotter, with the fans on more, in XP than in OS X, and that too leads to reduced battery life.

Well, I guess everyone's experience varies, then, because my friend specifically told me he had to torrent extra/updated patches to get all of the stuff to work with Vista.

But yeah, you do bring up another good point. The fans do run hotter, and in the case of my friend's MBP, it makes a high-pitched "whining" noise in Vista that never happens in OS X. I think it's a Boot Camp related issue.

When did your friend set up Vista on his Mac? The past like 4 releases of the BootCamp software has had Vista compatibility, and from version 1.4 on, it has had signed Windows drivers, so there are no longer really any issues beyond the fans and lack of tapclick. I have heard that if you install the Synaptics drivers for the trackpad (those you will have to find elsewhere) you can get tapclicking, however that removes the ability to use two fingers for right clicking or scrolling.
 

slugg

Diamond Member
Feb 17, 2002
4,723
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Originally posted by: Zebo
I don't know apple's os but the mac book pro has everything i want in a notebook.
-lighted keyboard
-LED glossy screen w/ ips tech for great viewing angles and high contrast
-tough
-decent enough ram to run XP 2 gb
-latest intel chips
-decent video
-thin and light for a 15.4" @ 5 lbs
-aluminium construction
etc, etc

Tough? I dare you to drop a Macbook Pro. Or hey, why don't you look on Ebay and see how many broken MBP's there are for sale due to liquid spills? Now do the same with a Thinkpad. You'll reconsider the definition of "tough."

And have you ever seen how scratched up the MBP's can get? High quality plastic exteriors are much nicer for this reason. Magnesium alloy chassis + high quality plastic exterior = formula for a tough notebook.

Don't get me wrong, I love the Macbook Pro, but it seems to me that you like the MBP for the wrong reasons.
 

NaOH

Diamond Member
Mar 2, 2006
5,015
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I think by tough he means, refined. It is tougher than a majority of the notebooks out today though, so I think his claim is valid. (Thinkpad owner)
 
Feb 19, 2001
20,155
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Originally posted by: RESmonkey
Appleinsider predicts MBP to have get a facelift + montevina. I'm going to wait on that, if I get a MBP.

Not much of a facelift. I read enough macrumors and it just doesn't make business sense. What are you going to do, totally revamp the MBP after it's February Penryn refresh? At best they'll just swap the motherboard out, and that's it.

Macbook Pros are tough? I don't know. At 1" thick, I think they will snap in half if you drop them or do anything to them. There's a reason why the Thinkpad T61ps are suck heavy and thick bricks so that there's plenty of shielding and padding.

DON'T just install XP on it or Vista nd forget about OSX. Use both. I use Vista on my MBP and it runs flawlessly, but how often do I use it? Oh about once every 3 days for a bit? Skype seems a little better for Windows and so I can play sketch and stuff, but otherwise, I love my Macbook Pro.

Don't buy a Mac if you want to ditch OSX. Buy it if you think you will use OSX enough that dual booting is worth it. Because OSX86 is gonna be a PITA to do on any other laptop, so I figure if I wanted OSX I'd rather stick wtih a mac and just add Windows support.
 

Megatomic

Lifer
Nov 9, 2000
20,127
6
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Originally posted by: DLeRium
Don't buy a Mac if you want to ditch OSX.
:thumbsup: OS X has completely converted me. I don't even like using windows at work anymore.