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got your C2D MBP? please tell us....

fear

Hi ya!

First of all: I'm Italian so please excuse my English :p

I'm completely new to Apple Macs, but as I was planning to migrate since very long, I finally found the money to buy myself a nice new MBP 17". You might think I'm crazy, I know, because the laptop I'm going to buy is a professional machine I don't really need (I'm a 22 years old common student ) but this has been a dream to me for so long and I now wish it to become true (I guess many of you will understand me).

Anyhow, I'm completely new to Mac Os also, so you will probably read me very often asking for help on these pages

I'm planing to buy the machine around the 13th on November, but I have tremendous doubts: I'm afraid it is too soon. Look, I've been reading a lot about noisy fans, hot processors, flashing keyboards and much else and for old MBPs I don't want to buy a machine I need to send for repair after two weeks I received it because as I told you I'm looking forward to forget about PC's

So please, can you tell me if someone already experienced small problems with their new core duo 2 base MBP? I already had bad experience with my present laptop: It brooked after a month and I had to send it back to the assistance, I haven't seen it for weeks... Now it still has a quite noisy fan and the wifi is very week.

Can you give me some infos? Thx!!!
 
bob_hearn said:
That's pretty funny -- I called and tried to change mine from the 160 to the 200, and they wouldn't let me.
Click to expand...

I just got off the phone with Apple support. Totally fast and easy and he let me change it with no problem. Except... he said it'd be delayed a little longer but I don't mind. The older you get the more you can be patient and realize time flies and one month isn't anything at all. Now I'm looking at beginning of December rather than November 21. Man, these things must be going fast. I'll have FFXII to keep me til it comes anyways!
 
MBP arrived

Ordered the 2.33 Ghz MBP with the 160 GByte drive.
Ordered: 24 October
Shipped: 27 October (estimated ship date was 31 October)
Arrived: 30 October (estimated delivery date was 7 November)

I just had standard shipping. FedeX did a great job. They sure pack these machines well.

My machine has the Hitachi 160 GB drive in it FWIW. It is quiet and not hot.

Question: ILife came pre-installed on the machine. I didn't get an ILife disk. What I got was 2 install disks. Is the Ilife programs on the install disks?

Ron
 
Igot a stock 2.16 C2D MBP from the Bethesda Apple Store on Friday and these are my impressions (I have experience with the original MBPs and a Blackbook):

- Certainly seems cooler than the old MBPs. I'm idling at about 49C, but more importantly the case (especially the keyboard) seems cooler.

-there is no whine when running on battery. When running off the power adapter, there is a whine when you stick your head up to the upper left of the keyboard. This is no where near as bad as the original MBP running off battery and I only noticed it because I was looking for it. My Blackbook does the same thing. For the heck of it, I loaded ShhMBP and it does get rid of the whine off power adapter for those that are really picky.

-no mooing.

-one strange thing that I assume I'll be able to walk into the Apple store and get replaced. The power adapter doesn't illuminate orange when charging. Also, when my computer is fully charged and the power adapter is green, when I disconnect it from the MBP it stays green! Weird.

Hope this helps.
 
You Can Ask To Pick-Up And They Will Hold It. You Do Not Need To Wait For 1st Attempt

villanova329 said:
If it's FedEX, they wont allow you to call them to leave it at the pick up center until they've attempted a first delivery. I haven't read all the threads but if they're already attempted it, i say go for it. But yeah, I just wanted to let you know that thats protocol for FedEX, they have to miss the first attempt for you to modify the way you get it.
Click to expand...
I have a different experiece with Fed-Ex. I know this for a fact because I have done it many times myself.

You give them your tracking number and they hold it for you without ever sending it out on a truck. Call them and ask for a hold and they will do it.

You have to call the day before it arrives at the depot at the latest - not the same day it arrived. If you call the same day it's already on the truck and they will not pull it from the truck. I have, however managed to rendevous with the Fed-Ex truck to get my PowerBook G4 sooner 3 years ago. :D

My apologies for the former rude composition. Villanova has had different experience than I have. Maybe it's different in different parts of the country.
 
Sluggish Cursor Anyone?

Have a 2.33 15" C2D MBP. Been running it for an hour or so...

Anyone else with a C2D notice a sluggish cursor after closing a program? Mine seems to take a second or so to respond after closing a program...
 
MichaelLatta said:
I think that with the stated issue being carrying a computer in a pack on deployment the physical dimensions are only part of it. The extra weight is also an issue. For me that is not an issue since I use a wheeled bag when traveling (and have a 17 on order).

Can people please stop trying to convince the rest of the world that their view is correct when this is clearly a matter of need and personal preference.
Click to expand...

agree'd, i think personal preference its like someone aruging to get a macbook cause its cheaper when the macbook pro's were same spec minus the IG on the macbook.. its all up to prefrence then it comes to need some people might need a large portable desktop incase i would suggest the 17" MBP to anyone, its basically a portable imac with almost the same options. also it weighs about 25 lbs less:cool:
 
macuserflorida said:
Have a 2.33 15" C2D MBP. Been running it for an hour or so...

Anyone else with a C2D notice a sluggish cursor after closing a program? Mine seems to take a second or so to respond after closing a program...
Click to expand...

Nothing like that here. That sounds like a software thing. Maybe reinstall the OS if you haven't done much yet?

Question for you: does yours whine on AC. Mine does a bit if you put your head to the keyboard and you move the cursor.
 
Best of luck with it. I'm in a similar boat, ordering from Italy. I ended up opting for an International English keyboard & OS, with the following codes:

BkLit Keyboard/Mac OS-ZH
Country Kit-T

Frankly, I've no idea what the hell I'm getting into really. All I wanted was a good ole US keyboard on the damn thing, but no, that was impossible according to the guy I spoke to - despite it all being BTO in China anyway.

I'm gonna freak if I can't configure this thing to act like a US machine. The Apple rep said the keyboard layout was the same as US, but I'm dreading it will be locked to some "dead key for accents" nonsense that I can't switch off :mad:

I just don't know why this kind of thing is such a problem on a tiny planet like ours.

Kelmon said:
Welcome to my world. I'm trying to get a 17" MacBook Pro with a full UK specification and the 200GB hard drive delivered in Belgium and this is apparently causing enormous problems. While the Customer Service agents say that this request can be satisfied (and I have successfully purchased English software through the Apple Store for delivery in Belgium in the past) it seems to be causing problems this time as I keep ending up with an order showing a Belgian/Dutch keyboard and Finnish country kit. By virtue of the fact that the current Country Kit is non-Belgian for a Belgian delivery I'd say that getting a different Country Kit is possible but actually controlling the one that you'll receive seems to be more problematic...

I'm waiting on a call from Apple for tomorrow now to confirm that this debacle has been resolved but now that it looks like I'll be in the UK on Monday I am now contemplating trying to buy one off-the-shelf from either the Apple Store in Regent Street or the Birmingham Bull Ring, sans the 200GB drive. I've already called the Regent Street store who was hopeful of units by Sunday but they wouldn't offer to reserve one even for someone coming through from Belgium for it :mad:. If push comes to shove I'll have to ask my sister to buy it for me since she works near Oxford Street.
Click to expand...
 
HItachi 160 What? Please Specific Model Number In System Profiler

xlii said:
Ordered the 2.33 Ghz MBP with the 160 GByte drive.
Ordered: 24 October
Shipped: 27 October (estimated ship date was 31 October)
Arrived: 30 October (estimated delivery date was 7 November)

I just had standard shipping. FedeX did a great job. They sure pack these machines well.

My machine has the Hitachi 160 GB drive in it FWIW. It is quiet and not hot.

Question: ILife came pre-installed on the machine. I didn't get an ILife disk. What I got was 2 install disks. Is the Ilife programs on the install disks?
Click to expand...
Congratulations Ron. You are the winner of first 160 sighting. Yes iLife '06 is on the second Install Disc.

So there we have it boys and girls - Hitachi got the contract. Now if we might have the specific Hitachi model number please?

I thought for sure it would be Seagate. My bad. I didn't even know Hitachi made a 160. Duh. Hitachi drives are super high quality. Formerly known as IBM DeskStars. Couldn't have happened to a nicer foreign corporation. :p
amislove said:
Post #1331 I just received my CTO 15" this morning, with the HD upgraded to the 160GB @ 5400rpm. The drive is a Hitachi HTS541616J9SA00, revision SB4AC7CP. Thought you all might want to know.
Click to expand...
shecky said:
uhoh... multimedia is not going to be happy about that.

the drive IS a PMR. here is a link to the product page:

http://www.hitachigst.com/portal/site/en/menuitem.dac393208bfae6f199558fe7eac4f0a0/
Click to expand...
Thank you and congrats amislove. I'm not upset - only surprised. Hitachi drives are excellent. Wonder how they stack up in benchmarks vs. Seagate?
 
S i said:
Best of luck with it. I'm in a similar boat, ordering from Italy. I ended up opting for an International English keyboard & OS, with the following codes:

BkLit Keyboard/Mac OS-ZH
Country Kit-T

Frankly, I've no idea what the hell I'm getting into really. All I wanted was a good ole US keyboard on the damn thing, but no, that was impossible according to the guy I spoke to - despite it all being BTO in China anyway.

I'm gonna freak if I can't configure this thing to act like a US machine. The Apple rep said the keyboard layout was the same as US, but I'm dreading it will be locked to some "dead key for accents" nonsense that I can't switch off :mad:

I just don't know why this kind of thing is such a problem on a tiny planet like ours.
Click to expand...

I have a PB G4, and I have the Canadian Country Kit. Basically what happens is that there's an icon in the top right of my screen (beside clock, battery) that shows a canadian flag. I can click on that flag and scroll down to an American flag. Under the Canadian flag, I have some keys that act as accents, so I switch to the American mode and it works perfectly. This shoud be the same on your machine.

I can also enter another menu ("Open International...") in System Preferences where I can choose from any keboard config, from any country. Trust me, you'll be fine.

Hope that helped.

Heres a screenshot:
 

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Multimedia said:

135º is half way between vertical and horizontal 90º + 45º = 135º. That is where it is - half way. :D

It looks a little less because the photo is not dead on from the side. I love the photo work though. You guys deserve a medal for effort. Who did that composite with all the angles in color? Fantastic work! Love you all.
Click to expand...

I did the first overlay, but then someone else added the degrees for all you non-engineers who have never seen radians or a unit circle before. Nice
 
So, I have been reading for 2 hours now and coming up with nothing in my searches. Has it been decided if the 160GB 5400rpm PMR hard drives are actually faster than the 100GB 7200rpm LMR drives?

I am no expert and until last night while browsing this thread I didn't even know there was a difference. I ordered a 17in 2.33ghz C2d 2gigs of ram with the 100gb 7200rpm drive in it on tuesday morning (my first mac ever, very excited!) with the belief that as a mobile unit I wouldnt really need the extra 60 gigs of space as I have external storage space available @ my place of work as well as home.

So I opted for what I had thought would be the best speed option. Now I am wondering if I was mistaken.

The applications I use are below:

Macromedia Suite: DW, FW, Flash etc
Photoshop
FTP (not sure what program as I Am a new mac user)
World of Warcraft, and possibly the occasional FPS game such as BF2142 etc running under Bootcamped windows if necessary.

Am I going to be slowing my self down with that 7200rpm LMR drive instead of the 5400rpm PMR or is it even going to matter? The space isn't really an issue for me, it's just the speed.

Thanks so much, the information here is wonderful and has me sittin on the edge of my seat wondering when my new 17in MBP Will finally ship! (saying nov6th delivered nov13th for me, I ordered the 2day shipping option but not sure if that really makes any difference)

Thanks again!
- New excited mac user
 
My Apologies To Villanova • Corrected Rude Post #1355

villanova329 said:
You know you can be an adult and just say im minsinformed. But it would make sense for FedEX to at least make the first attempt because anybody can get your name and your tracking number, tell FedEX to not deliver it, and the oh-so-smart people just glance at your "ID" and confirm its you, ANYONE can make a fake ID and grab your package. Some way of protecting your packages. I'm rather glad that thats the protocol that I had to go through.

I've called FedEX on a few occassions and they are consistent with the policy of having to make the first attempt before I can ask to leave it at the distribution depot. So my "misinformation" isn't based on assumption, its based on actual experience
Click to expand...
My bad. Thanks for the human heads up. We have different experiences with the same company. Wonder why? Please forgive my rudeness. Too much coffee last night.
 
Multimedia said:
My bad. Thanks for the human heads up. We have different experiences with the same company. Wonder why? Please forgive my rudeness. Too much coffee last night.
Click to expand...

Ahhh its fine, I'm not so happy myself. I've been dealing with these Apple people about getting a freakin tracking number for my replacement MBP, and after 5 long days, I finally get an Order Status that could have been given to me in the first place.

Estimated Ship Date is October 31st, 2006. Gee, I wonder how true that will hold
 
Multimedia said:
Congratulations Ron. You are the winner of first 160 sighting. Yes iLife '06 is on the second Install Disc.

So there we have it boys and girls - Hitachi got the contract. Now if we might have the specific Hitachi model number please?

I thought for sure it would be Seagate. My bad. I didn't even know Hitachi made a 160. Duh. Hitachi drives are super high quality. Formerly known as IBM DeskStars. Couldn't have happened to a nicer foreign corporation. :pThank you and congrats amislove. I'm not upset - only surprised. Hitachi drives are excellent. Wonder how they stack up in benchmarks vs. Seagate?
Click to expand...

Multimedia,
Here is the disk info on my new C2Duo 15" 2.33 MBP:

Intel ICH7-M AHCI:

Vendor: Intel
Product: ICH7-M AHCI
Speed: 1.5 Gigabit
Description: AHCI Version 1.10 Supported

Hitachi HTS541616J9SA00:

Capacity: 149.05 GB
Model: Hitachi HTS541616J9SA00
Revision: SB4AC7CP
Serial Number: SB2401SJGB129B
Native Command Queuing: Yes
Queue Depth: 32
Removable Media: No
Detachable Drive: No
BSD Name: disk0
OS9 Drivers: No
S.M.A.R.T. status: Verified
Volumes:
Macintosh HD:
Capacity: 148.73 GB
Available: 130.14 GB
Writable: Yes
File System: Journaled HFS+
BSD Name: disk0s2
Mount Point: /

Acually it's not my machine. Our daughter is in her first year of college and this is the college notebook I promised her back in June. Right now she is using her 700 mhz Ibook. But this machine too nice for college... Would I be a bad person if kept it for myself and let her keep using that old G3 Ibook with only one working USB 1.0 bus? :)

Ron
 
Changing Hard drives later

I am considering a pro 15" at 2.33... I thought it would make sense to get it with a 120gb hard drive for the moment and then replace that with a Seagate Momentus 7200.2 (at 120gb) next year when they are released.... My questions are...

- If i got the drive fitted by a registered apple retailer, would my warranty still be voided?

If the warranty is voided (Ruling the seagate out)
- Does the lmr (120) drive offer a much better performance from the pmr (160)... (mainly for audio recording)?
- does pmr get close to the performance of a 7200 rpm drive or not?
 
SWEET! Found *one* in the dc area. 2.33 15" glossy, come to papa!

Now comes the drive to annapolis.
 
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