Macbook Queries

[sid872]

I've never had a Mac before but the Macbook has really impressed me in terms of look and design so I'm tempted to buy one in the near future but...I need a couple of questions answered before I do and I was hoping you could help me. I would probably buy the MacBook 13" 1.83GHz White and upgrade it's RAM, probably to 1 gigabyte. OK, so now onto the questions...

1) Can the Macbook have Windows XP installed onto it? I've heard you can use Boot Camp for some Macs but would like to ensure the Macbook can actually do this before buying one then realising I need a vital Windows program.
2) What do games run like on it and what specifications does the Macbook need for them to run effectively? If Windows can install on it then I might be tempted to install a few of my games. I wouldn't use it strictly for gaming but maybe for the odd one.
3) Finally, I would mainly use the Macbook for college work (word processing), wireless internet browsing, the odd game and photo storage so would the Macbook be suitable? Also, if you think another laptop is suitable then please state which one.

Thanks in advance!

 

[yankeefan24]

1) Can the Macbook have Windows XP installed onto it? I've heard you can use Boot Camp for some Macs but would like to ensure the Macbook can actually do this before buying one then realising I need a vital Windows program.
2) What do games run like on it and what specifications does the Macbook need for them to run effectively? If Windows can install on it then I might be tempted to install a few of my games. I wouldn't use it strictly for gaming but maybe for the odd one.
3) Finally, I would mainly use the Macbook for college work (word processing), wireless internet browsing, the odd game and photo storage so would the Macbook be suitable? Also, if you think another laptop is suitable then please state which one.

Thanks in advance!

1. Yes, I have had it up and down on mine all day.
2. For me, games have run fine. I tend to do less graphical stuff on it, and I chose not to install COD2 which I have laying around, but I have found it fine for most things. The more RAM the better, don't get less than 1GB, 2GB would be preferred. The 2GHz is better.
3. Yes, it would.

 

[Mitthrawnuruodo]

1) Yes. Use Boot Camp (for gaming and other hardware intensive tasks) or Parallels Desktop (for the occasional "ordinary" Windows application).

2) I have no idea. The only game I've played is a PowerPC version of Championship Manager 4.

3) The MacBook sounds perfect for that use. It's more or less exactly what it's made for. Just get as much 3rd party RAM as you can afford. More RAM is always better.

 

[sid872]

Thanks.

About the RAM, I was going to get the extra RAM put in before it was shipped as I don't know how to do it myself. Is it cheaper and easier to get 3rd party RAM and install it myself? On MacUniverse it costs £59.58 for 1GB RAM and £234.00 for 2GB and that's with them putting it in for you. Is that a good price?

 

[Mitthrawnuruodo]

I installed the new 3rd party RAM on two MacBooks myself. Wasn't difficult, but you had to use a near-excessive amount of force to get the RAM modules to "click" into place. The tips of my index finders hurt for a day and was numb for two days more...

I don't really know about RAM prices in the UK, but we paid ~NOK 1600 (?*£138) including 25% Norwegian VAT for 2 x 1GB TwinMOS RAM (cheapest brand available here ) and prices here are usually higher than in the UK.

If you compare this 1GB Corsair Value DDR2 SO-DIMM PC5300 module, that should** work in your MacBook, in the UK and Norwegian branch of Komplett, you'll see that it is £67 in the UK and NOK899 (>£77) in Norway. All prices include VAT.

**I've not tested myself, and cannot guarantee they'll work, but they should. Again emphasis on should.

 

[the Western zoo]

I use my MacBook exclusively for word processing, internetting, music, movies and occasionally a little photoshopping and so far it has been absolutely perfect for that!
Everyone is talking about installing windows on their intel macs and every time I read about it I feel so tempted to do it my self even though I have absolutely no use for it! And I don't even have an old WinXP laying around since I sold my old winXp desktop... But I would still like to try it just for the fun of it...
But why is it people feel that it is necessary to have WinXP when you've got Mac OS X? Because I can't figure it out! I switched from WinXP to Mac OS X and the first time I used my mac it just worked so much better than windows! So what is it you need in winXP you don't think you can get in Mac OS X?
I only wished I had WinXP once, and that was because I couldn't get a WMP-stream of an album to work with Flip4Mac...
This shouldn't be considered bashing - I'm just curious...

 

[netdog]

1) Can the Macbook have Windows XP installed onto it? I've heard you can use Boot Camp for some Macs but would like to ensure the Macbook can actually do this before buying one then realising I need a vital Windows program.

Yes, via Boot Camp or Parallels. If you plan to use Parallels (a great solution for most of us), then be sure to load up the MB with 2GB after you get it. Anyway, Windows runs great on a MB.

3) Finally, I would mainly use the Macbook for college work (word processing), wireless internet browsing, the odd game and photo storage so would the Macbook be suitable? Also, if you think another laptop is suitable then please state which one.

If it will run the games that you want, then it is a great machine for your needs. Others will have to answer that question for you. I would list what games you use here.

 

[netdog]

1) Yes. Use Boot Camp (for gaming and other hardware intensive tasks) or Parallels Desktop (for the occasional "ordinary" Windows application).

I would disagree with the use of the word occasional here. I have Parallels running almost all the time. Parallels isn't great for games that require lots of 3D graphic acceleration, but otherwise, for light or heavy use of Windows apps, Parallels is fantastic.

 

[Mitthrawnuruodo]

I would disagree with the use of the word occasional here. I have Parallels running almost all the time. Parallels isn't great for games that require lots of 3D graphic acceleration, but otherwise, for light or heavy use of Windows apps, Parallels is fantastic.

Actually, you're quite right. But I haven't tested it thoroughly, yet, and didn't want to seem to certain. I've only tried it a short while with an old Windows 2000 system I had lying around (which runs pretty good) and only use it occasionally (now there we have the reason why I used that word ) to look at how some of the web pages I'm developing looks in MSIE6 (usually looks terrible).

Oh... and I also did the Photoshop test... with pretty good results (especially considering that Parallels only use one of the cores on my MacBook) compared to PS under Rosetta not to mention my old iBook.

One hassle about it though: I've not been able to get Parallels to scale the screen resolution on the guest OS when I enter fullscreen mode, like it should...

 

[CNU182]

In my opinion..I just recently purchased a macbook so I am still quite new to the whole thing..

1. BootCamp::--::great if you want it. personally I got tired of it after a while and had alot of problems trying to remove it. Actually never really resolved it. Once you start using OSx, I think you'll find that you can do just about everything aside from gaming on the mac that you could on pc's.

I started trying to get my clients to switch to macs, but then i realized that i would not be nearly as needed (and compensated ) if they had macs.

2. less intense games run fine, haven't really tried too much.

3. PERFECT for those things