somewhat confused with MBP 2.4s

[harmonica01]

Well I just spotted this forum and did some reading for the past few hours.

I am a senior at my university and work for the school writing consultation department. I have been using my "ultimate g4" as the apple store guy called it from 2005. 15" 100g Hd, 1.67 ghz, 2 gig ram, 128mb vram

My problem is that with the graduate classes I will be attending plus the new software at the writing center I will be needing to have windows with me but I am all too familiar with pc troubles having built an AMD 64 tower from scratch for 800 then selling it for 400 3 months later cuse I got tired of dealing with viruses and the upkeep on the pos.

The apple store here in houston galleria got me a pretty knowledgeable guy to speak with and I've set my sights on the macbookpro. Herein lie my questions:

1- I need the intel chip to run one of the newer pc emulators, from what I understood bootcamp over parallels is the better way to go why is this?
2-I need HD space - lots of it but 200gig at only 4200 rpm will piss me off.
-----So: I'm going with the 160@7200rpm, I am curious with the new slot on the MBPs - to my understanding I can connect an external HD and have my 100 gig of music on it and play it through iTunes seemlessly, how do I do that cuse then the 160 gig will be fine
3- Yes this is a desktop replacement, I have considered selling my old g4 powerbook to purchase one of the intel iMacs as well for my fiancé to use, but I am still under the 3 year warranty til May of 2008 so will wait til then to do any such thing.
4-Do the 15s really get that hot, what can I do to minimize this? I am at school 8am-6pm 5 days a week, and if I'm not using the mac I have a large assortment of consoles in my living room for necessary time wasting. I'll be using the laptop for note taking in classes, keynote presentations, a few new software apps that I don't know of yet for the applied classes in battle simulation...I don't wanna look like a dumbass with a 17" screen if possible yanno? portability and power is why ive decided on the 15" 2.4ghz and to me I consider it to be the flagship mbp, just want it to last

Let me know if I'm looking at this the right way going with the 15"
and can somebody explain how I can seemlessly run my music off an external HD with the macbookPro?

 

[Mackilroy]

1. Why? Because Boot Camp allows you to use all of your computer's resources, being that it's essentially like running Windows on any old PC. Parallels, on the other hand, can only use so much of your computer's resources, because OS X still has to run at the same time.

2. You could, but I'd have to remember the instructions on how to do it to tell you. It's definitely possible, though. You would want to get a drive that's bus-powered.

4. Depends on 'hot.' For some people, even low temperatures scald them, while for others hot temps don't bother them at all. They're definitely cooler than previous generations of the MBPs, and shouldn't feel too hot too you. To minimize it? Don't leave it in the sun, don't leave it running in a hot room, maybe get a cooler for it.

 

[BlueArctos]

1- I need the intel chip to run one of the newer pc emulators, from what I understood bootcamp over parallels is the better way to go why is this?
2-I need HD space - lots of it but 200gig at only 4200 rpm will piss me off.
-----So: I'm going with the 160@7200rpm, I am curious with the new slot on the MBPs - to my understanding I can connect an external HD and have my 100 gig of music on it and play it through iTunes seemlessly, how do I do that cuse then the 160 gig will be fine
3- Yes this is a desktop replacement, I have considered selling my old g4 powerbook to purchase one of the intel iMacs as well for my fiancé to use, but I am still under the 3 year warranty til May of 2008 so will wait til then to do any such thing.
4-Do the 15s really get that hot, what can I do to minimize this? I am at school 8am-6pm 5 days a week, and if I'm not using the mac I have a large assortment of consoles in my living room for necessary time wasting. I'll be using the laptop for note taking in classes, keynote presentations, a few new software apps that I don't know of yet for the applied classes in battle simulation...I don't wanna look like a dumbass with a 17" screen if possible yanno? portability and power is why ive decided on the 15" 2.4ghz and to me I consider it to be the flagship mbp, just want it to last

Let me know if I'm looking at this the right way going with the 15"
and can somebody explain how I can seemlessly run my music off an external HD with the macbookPro?

Let's see here...

1. Bootcamp is produced by Apple and is proven to function with XP and Vista. Keep in mind that Bootcamp is NOT an emulator - Bootcamp allows you to run a fully-functional, 100% genuine copy of windows. VMWare Fusion and Parallels are virtualization applications.

Most of us load Windows into Bootcamp first, then purchase a copy of Parallels or Fusion. With this configuration you have the option to run Windows singularly, OR you can boot windows via the virtualization application from within OSX.

As far as Fusion vs. Parallels - most people like both. I enjoy Fusion.
2. You'd probably do fine with the 4200 rpm drive. However, you could grab the 160 GB/7200 rpm, buy an eSATA express card, a drive enclosure, and a drive, and you'd be set. (I recommend the Rosewill card. See this thread for more information.) With a good SATA 3.0Gb/s drive and a sturdy enclosure, you could see performance speeds faster than the internal drive. And yes, you'll definitely be able to listen to your iTunes library with the external drive connected. (There are also plenty of good Firewire drives available, if you'd rather not work with eSATA)
4. The 15" is a fine choice. It'll run hot, but so will the 17". I'd say go for it.

To move your current iTunes library to an external drive, see the following guides:
Moving your iTunes Music folder
How to move your iTunes library to an external drive

 

[creator2456]

To help with the iTunes question. I have all my iTunes music on my external 160GB Seagate and it works fine. The only drawback of having it setup the way I do is that iTunes WILL NOT open unless the drive is connected.

Here is how I set mine up.

• On the external create a folder called 'iTunes' -OR- Copy your iTunes folder (Mac HD > Users > YOU > Music > iTunes) to the external. (I would do the second one since you are moving an existing library)
• Create an Alias of the iTunes folder.
• Move the Alias into the Music folder (Mac HD > Users > YOU > Music).
• Open iTunes > Preferences > Advance > General > Change > Mac HD > Users > YOU > Music > iTunes Alias > iTunes Music > Choose
• Have 'Keep iTunes Music folder organized' and 'Copy files to iTunes Music folder when adding to library' checked.

That should take care of setting it up. As for a drive I would suggest a 2.5" USB HD or a Firewire so you do not need external power for it.

 

[harmonica01]

man there's bound to be a way around the not being able to open itunes at all without the HD...

The heat on my older titanium g4 really got rough sometimes, even though its fan turned on after sitting on just one leg for a few moments. The aluminum g4 i'm using now gets hot in one location on my lap but on the podium mount it came with I hardly ever hear the fans engage unless I'm doing alot.

So what exactly is this express card deal on it? Is there anything nifty I could use that for?

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other World Computing/MEAQ7750GB16/
How's that look for an external hd? I've been using a 250gig older model of theirs, still going now, just it only connects via firewire 400, can take awhile sometimes

 

[iW00t]

1. Why? Because Boot Camp allows you to use all of your computer's resources, being that it's essentially like running Windows on any old PC. Parallels, on the other hand, can only use so much of your computer's resources, because OS X still has to run at the same time.

I disagree. I run mine with VMWare and never looked back.

If I want to run Windows using bootcamp I would much rather just buy a $500 Dell laptop and get the purchase decision over with. What is the point of buying a Mac when I cannot have my emails checked or my IM client running when I need to use a single windows application? (I like to keep my emails and IM chat transcripts searchable by spotlight so running a separate Windows-only email client and IM client is out of the question)

YMMV.

As for system resources, well I have too much of it anyway.