17 Inch MBP Suggestions

[blitzraider]

What do you guys think about the new 17 incher? I am getting one shipped to my home at around February. I maxed out all the options except for the HDD (I chose 320gb instead of the ssd) Just wondering, what situations is 8gb of RAM needed? I dunno, but on the 4gb ram windows that I am using now, it will lag when I open 6-7 tabs on IE, word, and bt and msn at the same time. Any Ideas?

 

[Tallest Skil]

That's because Windows sucks at RAM management. You will scream on four gigs in OS X.

 

[apolloa]

What do you guys think about the new 17 incher? I am getting one shipped to my home at around February. I maxed out all the options except for the HDD (I chose 320gb instead of the ssd) Just wondering, what situations is 8gb of RAM needed? I dunno, but on the 4gb ram windows that I am using now, it will lag when I open 6-7 tabs on IE, word, and bt and msn at the same time. Any Ideas?

A machine like that will keep you going for a VERY long time. I don't know of any other laptop that sells 8GB of RAM? You'll be able to open plenty of virtual machines using that and windows in those.

 

[EmperorDarius]

That's because Windows sucks at RAM management. You will scream on four gigs in OS X.

True. It's like having 8 GB RAM on windows.

 

[pyrodex]

Does anyone know if you loose any performance on the hardware if you put a 4GB stick in the 17MBP along with a 2GB stick? Like Dual Channel?

 

[svndmvn]

Does anyone know if you loose any performance on the hardware if you put a 4GB stick in the 17MBP along with a 2GB stick? Like Dual Channel?

in most cases 6 will be better than 4gb

 

[kastenbrust]

You dont need 8gb in your Macbook Pro 17", and you wont for 6 months. So basically its a waste of money, 6GB maybe, but 8GB?!? you may as well buy it with 4GB inside and then upgrade it yourself from 4GB to 8GB in 6 months when Snow Leopard is released for about 1/3 the price. ($350) Its really easy to do, and wont void the warranty because the computers designed to have its RAM, Battery and Hard Drive upgraded at some point.

Pay $800 extra now, or $300 +- $50 in 6 months?

 

[pyrodex]

You dont need 8gb in your Macbook Pro 17", and you wont for 6 months. So basically its a waste of money, 6GB maybe, but 8GB?!? you may as well buy it with 4GB inside and then upgrade it yourself from 4GB to 8GB in 6 months when Snow Leopard is released for about 1/3 the price. ($350) Its really easy to do, and wont void the warranty because the computers designed to have its RAM, Battery and Hard Drive upgraded at some point.

Well honestly you don't know what I do for a living . However my question is it would be easier to pass by with the GF if I bought a 4GB stick here and say another one in another 2 months. Trying to squeeze out 1200$ upfront would be a big thing. So my question is would it degrade performance from a hardware standpoint without matching dimms?

 

[blitzraider]

Virtual Machines

How much RAM do virtual os (boot camp I'm assuming) take. It's my first mac so I am excited but I also need some apps that are only availible on windows.

It seems from the above replies that snow leopard needs 8gb RAM why?

 

[raymondu999]

Boot Camp and virtual are two different things. Boot Camp is the whole machine fully running Windows But Virtual runs Windows like a very big program, straight on top of Mac OS X

 

[blitzraider]

Thx, In that case I would like virtual. So that I could run 2 os! But in this situation would 8gb be better?

 

[raymondu999]

Thx, In that case I would like virtual. So that I could run 2 os! But in this situation would 8gb be better?

You can set the amount of memory on virtual. Heck you can set 6GB to OS X and 2GB on Windows and both would still go.

 

[blitzraider]

LOL thx for the tip.

Im pretty good with windows but a total cloud with macs. Thanks everyone for all the help.

One more thing, we just bought the wireless n dual band router. So I was wondering, does the 17 incher support wireless n at a frequency of 5ghz? If so, where can you set it.

Thanks again!

 

[amitdoc2b]

i went for the same thing except with 4 gig ram

What do you guys think about the new 17 incher? I am getting one shipped to my home at around February. I maxed out all the options except for the HDD (I chose 320gb instead of the ssd) Just wondering, what situations is 8gb of RAM needed? I dunno, but on the 4gb ram windows that I am using now, it will lag when I open 6-7 tabs on IE, word, and bt and msn at the same time. Any Ideas?