question about the macbook pro

if im mainly doing school work (word processing etc) and music and film production with a little gaming on the side (all valve products, CoD, any truely must have heavy hitters etc) would a mac book pro be ok for me? i know someones gonna say a gaming laptop is an oxymoron, but thats not the real reason im geting it. but i would love to be able to play l4d and tf2 from time to time. as well as ep3 and sc2.

thoughts?

A Mac for gaming is an oxymoron. 9 out of 10 people that will reply to this thread will say Macs are horrible for gaming (which is true), but there will always be 1 person who says "omgahhhh i lyke uber max out ERRYTHING on my Mac!!!!1"

i understand that. but will it be ok for just the occasional gaming? like im not trying to play crysis or anything, thats what my desktop at home is for. i just need one i can have at college to do college-y things as well as the occasional gaming.

My friend cannot even play halo:combat evolved on his macbook...

soo...

Your biggest difficulty is going to be in finding games that can run on the Mac OS. Many people use BootCamp to dual boot XP or Vista. However, with the limited drive space available on Macs I wouldn't do that.

well, if youre looking for mainly wp and occasional gaming, i would think a pc, costs nearly 1000 usd less for same system specs as a mac book pro. or you could spend the same as a macbook pro and get a really good pc

Current Macbook Pros have Mobile versions of the Nvidia 9600, a good card by all means that can run all games at varying settings. My roommate has a previous version MBP witht a mobile 8600 GT and it Runs most games, save for tittles like Cryisis.

All in all they are great gaming laptops. Previous posts warned of "idiots" such as myself, however, they are the idiots. If they had ever seen a MBP game they wouldn't have made such commens. I have seen a MBP game and it handles itself just as any other similarly equipped windows-running laptop would.

It is a quality peice of equipment.

My friend cannot even play halo:combat evolved on his macbook...

soo...

samuraiguns

They allow mac users in here? ;)

well the main reason i want a macbook pro over a pc is the mac software. garageband especially. its just alot better for my artistic needs than a pc. but if i can get the best of both worlds that would be fantastic.

yea i can get 200 off for a macbook pro. the other lap tops im looking at are the 15 inch alien ware, and the xps16

yea i can get 200 off for a macbook pro. the other lap tops im looking at are the 15 inch alien ware, and the xps16

alastor_vj

ok ill check it out. and yea boot camp is what i was planning on doing.

um fx's are desktops :/ oh and im looking for a 15/16 in

um fx's are desktops :/ oh and im looking for a 15/16 in

alastor_vj

My friend cannot even play halo:combat evolved on his macbook...

soo...

samuraiguns

[QUOTE="samuraiguns"]

My friend cannot even play halo:combat evolved on his macbook...

soo...

tequilasunriser

My $800 Dell Inspiron 1520 had better specs than the Macbook Pros released back in 2007 (although I'm sure they have gotten more powerful since)

[QUOTE="samuraiguns"]

My friend cannot even play halo:combat evolved on his macbook...

soo...

powerwolff

that is exactly what i needed. thanks! anyone else have any recomendations for a 15in laptop? im sorta leaning towards the alien ware. i can get it for about 2100. 9800m, 4 gigs of ram, 500gig hard drive, 2.5 core duo.

$2100 USD? Either way PM me.

1k of a self built gaming desktop will eat even a Mac Pro alive in games.ryokinshin6x3

well that goes with out saying. you can never compare a desktop to a laptop. but im looking for a LAPTOP. i dont care how freaking awesome a desktop i can build would be, its not a practical thing to take to and from college.

While specs are an important part of any computer, it's also good to consider other little things like battery life, size and weight, and obscure-but-possibly-useful features. For example, all FireWire-equipped Macs, including every single MacBook Pro, has a little something called FireWire Target Disk Mode. Hold down T while the computer boots up, and it's now an external FireWire drive enclosure! It's useful for servicing the OS if something goes wrong, though you'll have to connect it to another Mac to actually see anything. Also, Apple laptops tend to put more emphasis on battery life, thus you won't have to worry quite as much about being tethered to AC power. Of course, you may still consider having a faster CPU and especially a better GPU to still be more important than any of those things, and opt for something else instead. That is your call to make.NamelessPlayer

wow i didnt know that. thanks alot. its still gonna be a while untill i get it, so im gonna try to get hands on on both of them.

I take mine to and from university, rent out house with friends all year. A desktop+cheap laptop will still cost less then a Macbook Pro. You have your high powered system and you have a portable that will keep a good battery life considering it's low usage parts.

well the main reason i want a macbook pro over a pc is the mac software. garageband especially. its just alot better for my artistic needs than a pc. but if i can get the best of both worlds that would be fantastic.

alastor_vj

you can always buy the mbp if you want and get a huge hdd and dual boot with windows so you have the best of both worlds. the only thing about pc is that they wont run mac os, but macs with run windows

ok ill check it out. and yea boot camp is what i was planning on doing.

alastor_vj

From what I've heard (and by that I mean, listening to music on a friends Macbook Pro) the speakers are trash too. That's another thing to consider. Most laptops have horrible speakers that's why most who buy laptops spend a little extra on good headphones.

Windows rating does not mean much.ryokinshin6x3

From what I've heard (and by that I mean, listening to music on a friends Macbook Pro) the speakers are trash too. That's another thing to consider. Most laptops have horrible speakers that's why most who buy laptops spend a little extra on good headphones.

grenadexjumpr

I've worked with Compaq Presario, Thinkpads, Toshiba Satellite/Tecras and a number of other different laptop series and my 17" MBP sounds a lot better than any other laptop I've worked with. Of course it's nothing near a surround system, and for games a headset is ideal but like I said my MBP makes a great wireless HDTV.

-Byshop

why not just get a pc laptop for a third of the price, format, and then hackintosh it? Same software, better hardware, and cheaper.