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

[eyvind]

Also, filling a drive to above 80% capacity has no effect on performance - where are you getting that information from?

Drives have higher transfer rates to and from the outer tracks, which are filled first, so if 80% of your disk is full, any new files you create will be in the slower region at the end of the drive. Mac OS X actually keeps track of which files are most frequently accessed and moves them to the start of the disk.

Check out any moderately "techie" hard disk review (eg this AnandTech review, first picture), they'll usually have a graph of the transfer rate as a function of head position.

 

[Platonist]

Keyboard issues?

I am wondering how the keyboards are holding up on the newer MBPs. I have a PowerBook that suffers from the 'sticky keys' phenomenon, and am hoping that this has been fixed on subsequent MBPs. For those who don't know of this issue, the sticky keys problem is where the white membrane underneath the keyboard doesn't adhere properly. Thus, when typing on certain keys (which vary) there is a popping sound as the white membrane sticks and unsticks to the top case. This has been known to get worse with age, and even appear on otherwise fine keyboards. I know of quite a few people who have had this issue with PowerBooks, anyone experience this with MBPs? Being an academic, the keyboard feel of a laptop is crucial.

I am VERY tempted to upgrade the PowerBook, so any input would be great!

 

[mleary]

actually yes, when you fill up ur hard drive above a certain level, then there is not enough space for mac os x to put the swap files/ temporary files and eventually will cause unstability, kernel panics, crashes etc...

Ok, but 80% of a 120GB leaves you with ~20gb... You are not going to run into problems until you are well below 2GB available and that is only if you are swapping heavily.

 

[mleary]

Drives have higher transfer rates to and from the outer tracks, which are filled first, so if 80% of your disk is full, any new files you create will be in the slower region at the end of the drive. Mac OS X actually keeps track of which files are most frequently accessed and moves them to the start of the disk.

I've never heard of HFS+ doing this, do you have a link or anything, i'm curious.

 

[Chrispy]

I just booted up my new Core 2 Duo MBP for the first time. Wow is that thing sexy. Here are my observations so far as the OS reinstalls (to remove unneeded items).

The Good

• System is VERY QUIET. The whine seems to be all but gone finally!
• Keyboard has no keys off alignment or anything like that
• No dead pixels that I can see so far... keeping my fingers crossed
• Very cool operation so far (been on about 25 mins installing OSX... still cool to the touch)
• Screen is very bright
• DVD drive is very very quiet... much more silent than my old PowerBook G4 15"

The Bad

• The screen brightness is uneven... much brighter on the left side than the right
• These seems to be a gap between the top of the case and the front where the CD/DVDs go in. I didn't notice this before I put in the install DVD so maybe it will go away when I eject the disc

Overall, I am very impressed with this system so far. The screen's uneven backlighting does not bother me too much. Every powerbook I had in the past had it darker on the left side than right so this one is just the opposite. I would much rather have that issue than a dead pixel so I'm more than ok with it. If it gets worse down the road, Apple can just repair the screen... no biggie.

I am so thrilled that this system does not have the dreaded whine. Also, I think this system might actually be cool enough to use while in bed haha. Way to go on this one Apple!

 

[alaibubu]

Is the 100gb 7200rpm hd PMR?

Just curious. If it is, then it should be very fast.

 

[urrl78]

Looks like this hijacked truck is ready for unloading...

What does a grey market Macbook Pro C2D sell for in Pudong?

 

[Chrispy]

The Bad

• The screen brightness is uneven... much brighter on the left side than the right
• These seems to be a gap between the top of the case and the front where the CD/DVDs go in. I didn't notice this before I put in the install DVD so maybe it will go away when I eject the disc

Wow, I'm impressed with the level of service I got from MacConnection. The separation of the case on the front on my new MBP was started to get a little worse so I just called to see if they could do anything. Immediatly they offered me a replacement and sent it out next day air for Monday delivery. Way more than I expected! I just hope the new one is pixel perfect as well and does not have any case warping.

 

[coolpal]

mine shipped today!!!

so... I finally, recieved the ship confirmation... Shipped by Fedex to NJ, USA..

The fedex site says... Nov 3rd 6.09PM Left Origin Shangai CN
and then it says, 6.09PM Picked up Shangai CN.... Package received after FedEx cutoff

Based on ur experiences, can someone tell me when I can expect it to be delivered to me?? I opted for standard shipping...

Can't wait to see mine... waited too long.. this one should be possible...

Original ship date was Nov 6th and Delivery estimate 14th... Now they pulled out everything from the order status page and replaced with the tracking link.

thanks,
pal

MBP C2D 2.16/160GB/Glossy

 

[countach]

This is not really true, filesystem overhead is taken into account when OS X reports available space. Having a lot of very small files will still waste space however.

Oh, is that where the 111 MB came from? I thought it was a mathematical conversion number. Oh well anyway, OSX may take into account inode tables, but it can't calculate indirect blocks, because that depends on the size of files used. And as you say, small files waste the end of the block as do all files. So the average file wastes half a block.

Also, filling a drive to above 80% capacity has no effect on performance - where are you getting that information from?

Yes it does have a massive effect on performance. It's always been recommended that you don't fill UNIX file systems (or any file system) past about 80%, because performance starts to degrade. It is because once you get closer to full, it becomes harder and harder to find contiguous blocks. This situation would be lessened somewhat if you do regular defragmentation.

 

[countach]

I've never heard of HFS+ doing this, do you have a link or anything, i'm curious.

If you go to the idefrag page for OSX, it mentions the "hot area" of the disk, and how OSX treats it specially.

 

[ColdFlame87]

so... I finally, recieved the ship confirmation... Shipped by Fedex to NJ, USA..

The fedex site says... Nov 3rd 6.09PM Left Origin Shangai CN
and then it says, 6.09PM Picked up Shangai CN.... Package received after FedEx cutoff

Based on ur experiences, can someone tell me when I can expect it to be delivered to me?? I opted for standard shipping...

Can't wait to see mine... waited too long.. this one should be possible...

Original ship date was Nov 6th and Delivery estimate 14th... Now they pulled out everything from the order status page and replaced with the tracking link.

thanks,
pal

MBP C2D 2.16/160GB/Glossy

Mine shipped increadibly fast it said it would arrive on Nov 7 but it came on October 31 and i ordered it on the 26 took only 4 days to arrive including the weekend, to go from Shanghai to where i live it took only 2 ays and it even made a stop in Alaska, shipping was increadibly speedy. I guess it also depends on where you live since i live in California.

 

[deadpixels]

Ok, but 80% of a 120GB leaves you with ~20gb... You are not going to run into problems until you are well below 2GB available and that is only if you are swapping heavily.

i suppose you r right, 20gb is a lot of space, i remember the virtual memory size to be around 7gb sometimes, on my alubook under tiger so with virtual memory this big it culd affect the system way before only 2gb are left on the hard drive, i aint sure, just thinking out loud.

 

[giggity goo-ru]

got my computer!! This thing is soooooo awesome!! Just one minor issue... every time i click on the airport icon it hangs for like 5 seconds before giving me the drop down menue... and it also won't connect to my open wireless network any ideas?

 

[palter]

Oh, is that where the 111 MB came from? I thought it was a mathematical conversion number. Oh well anyway, OSX may take into account inode tables, but it can't calculate indirect blocks, because that depends on the size of files used. And as you say, small files waste the end of the block as do all files. So the average file wastes half a block.

It is a conversion issue.

OS X reports sizes using 1GB = 2^30 (1024 * 1024 * 1024) bytes.
Hard drive capacities are given by manufacturers in decimal so 1GB is 1 billion bytes exactly.

So, when a manufacturer (and Apple, check the footnotes on their specs pages) reports a drive as 120GB, they mean 120 billion bytes.

120,000,000,000 / (1024 * 1204 * 1024) = 111.75GB as reported by OS X.

There was a class action suit against the hard drive manufacturers about this many years ago.

 

[eyvind]

I've never heard of HFS+ doing this, do you have a link or anything, i'm curious.

There's This Apple technical note. "Hot files"... Sounds a bit dodgy, doesn't it?

While we're on the subject, almost-full disk volumes tend to get more fragmented than half-full disks do (statistically, the less free space you have, the less likely it is that you'll have an empty area big enough to fit the file you're trying to write), which is another good reason to not fill your disks up completely.

 

[QurazyQuisp]

I've been a lurker here for quite a while... but now I have a question...

So, I ordered a new MBP C2D 2.16 Ghz 160 GB hard drive and I purchased 1 GB more ram from newegg...

I'm wondering if anyone has any idea what "Custom configured" means on the order status page... I didn't say that the day I purchased it, it showed up yesterday... My question is, did they build it and they are just waiting to ship it out, or did apple update their order status page to show that instead of the specs?

 

[tsaxer]

I've been a lurker here for quite a while... but now I have a question...

So, I ordered a new MBP C2D 2.16 Ghz 160 GB hard drive and I purchased 1 GB more ram from newegg...

I'm wondering if anyone has any idea what "Custom configured" means on the order status page... I didn't say that the day I purchased it, it showed up yesterday... My question is, did they build it and they are just waiting to ship it out, or did apple update their order status page to show that instead of the specs?

Mine did the same thing. My guess is that it'll be shipping out on Monday.

 

[MichaelLatta]

I've been a lurker here for quite a while... but now I have a question...

So, I ordered a new MBP C2D 2.16 Ghz 160 GB hard drive and I purchased 1 GB more ram from newegg...

I'm wondering if anyone has any idea what "Custom configured" means on the order status page... I didn't say that the day I purchased it, it showed up yesterday... My question is, did they build it and they are just waiting to ship it out, or did apple update their order status page to show that instead of the specs?

It means your order is not a stock configuration. You upgraded the hard disk to 160GB.

 

[kgarchar]

Got the C2D MBP today. I had another gig of ram from my MB, so now I have 2GB of ram. This thing flies.

 

[smueboy]

Foofbags and sleeves

Anyone used a Foofbag for their MBP?
I want a soft sleeve for scratch/dirt protection, since i use a backpack for day to day use.

I'm also looking at getting a Booq Vyper M2 for my MBP, which should give more protection for travel.

Comments/experiences/reviews on either or both of these would be greatly appreciated, especially while i wait for my C2D MBP to ship....

 

[vader26]

got my computer!! This thing is soooooo awesome!! Just one minor issue... every time i click on the airport icon it hangs for like 5 seconds before giving me the drop down menue... and it also won't connect to my open wireless network any ideas?

i just got mine today as well, this thing rocks!!

after reading your post, i looked in the airport menu and same thing, takes a few seconds to drop down, but the others are instantaneous. strange...

 

[mleary]

I'm wondering if anyone has any idea what "Custom configured" means on the order status page... I didn't say that the day I purchased it, it showed up yesterday... My question is, did they build it and they are just waiting to ship it out, or did apple update their order status page to show that instead of the specs?

They updated the order status page and changed the wording a little, it's nothing specific to your order.

 

[QurazyQuisp]

They updated the order status page and changed the wording a little, it's nothing specific to your order.

Ah ok, I guess it doesn't matter as it's supposed to ship out monday anyways...

 

[coolpal]

Mine shipped increadibly fast it said it would arrive on Nov 7 but it came on October 31 and i ordered it on the 26 took only 4 days to arrive including the weekend, to go from Shanghai to where i live it took only 2 ays and it even made a stop in Alaska, shipping was increadibly speedy. I guess it also depends on where you live since i live in California.

I ordered on 29th... was really glad to see mine being shipped today... but now, I guess I am really upset that it probably missed the last flight before monday... I hope they take good care of it at the airport or shipping facility...

BTW... I live in New Jersey... hope it somehow magically comes to me by monday

pal