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best things to do to a brand new MacBook pro?

M

mattmattroman

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jun 16, 2008
8
0
hey guys! I've been looking into getting my first MacBook pro for about a month and I'm finally getting it on Sunday. I'm getting the 2.5 ghz 15 inch MacBook pro with 4gig of ram. Since this is my first mac I just wanted to know what I should do as far as helpful apps, making backups of everything, external hard drives etc. To ensure I do everything right while its brand new so I get same amazing years and functionallity out of it. Thank you!:D
 
1. Put it down

2. Read MacRumors.

I just got my 2.5 Rev 3 macbook , still in shipping box. I'm going to post a FULL BLOWN walk through complete with from theft protection all the way up to hardware/software maintainence and everything in between.
 
Get an external 500GB or 1TB HDD for back up.

Go to www.applepeelz.com and grab the whole peel for the 15" MBP since there is nothing else that will compare.

Get a keyboard cover if you wish, they tend to put grease on the LCD monitor but keeps hair and dust out of the keyboard, your choice.

Keep your backups regularly and you will be fine.

Apps are strictly up to you, since we all work differently and use different apps for different things.
 
Eddyisgreat said:
1. Put it down

2. Read MacRumors.

I just got my 2.5 Rev 3 macbook , still in shipping box. I'm going to post a FULL BLOWN walk through complete with from theft protection all the way up to hardware/software maintainence and everything in between.
Click to expand...
would you be able to take video of the unboxing lol?
and upload it to youtube?
 
is it your first mac? if so... and in no particular order.

1.) go through each icon of the system preference pane to get familiar where everything is and what you can do.

2.) run software update (twice just to be sure).

3). explore the internet for awesome apps. (just make sure you have a good back up before you do this in case you mess something up.
 
thanks for the quick responses! And yes this is my first mac. My dad bought one about a year ago so I have a general knowlegde about them (not to mention basically living off macrumors for the past month) but this will be my first personal MacBook pro. I'll be going to school in fall for graphic design/multimedia so I'm extremely excited.
 
Yeah it should be some good stuff. I won't get my extra 2 gb of ram until the 18th, and my incase sometime..eventually. I just got the Malware Protection pack deluxe (had to drive to 2 apple stores to get it) as well as the iskin keyboard cover. need to clean off my elevator, wireless mighty mouse and apple alumn. bluetooth keyboard.

If i play my cards right, I won't have to touch the machine while its nude. I'll also be installing the ram in a data center environment to prevent any dust from entering the chamber :D.

I'm open to names of the project. Cool/creative names will receive credit!
 
Love it.

But seriously, I don't even have a mac yet. :rolleyes:
Perhaps in a few days.
 
I'd say first thing to do is check for stuck/dead pixel and then check what type of lcd panel it is.

Then do the usual, reinstall osx and take out stuff you dont want then install bootcamp, parallels and other programs that you want/need.!
 
1 - external HDD. 500GB or 1TB might be a bit overkill. I've only got a 300GB on mine (120GB HDD in my Mac), and that's got plenty of room for all of my data to be backed up for months/years in the future. That's your call completely though. Then just set up Time Machine and forget about it.

2 - Apps - iStat menus is pretty killer; especially if you want to get a good idea of what's going on with your new notebook at a glance while you're running various apps (i.e. which ones make your fans spin up, etc). Aside from that, its gonna depend entirely on what you're using your notebook for.

3 - Don't inspect with a fine-tooth comb for problems. If its something major enough, it'll show up PDQ, and then that's what you have Apple-Care for.

4 - If you've got any questions or anything at all, read through MacRumors (and other forums online as well). If you can't find your answer, post a question. As I'm sure you've found out, the Mac community is pretty good at answering questions with only minimal teasing of the T/S :)

5 - ENJOY!
 
Wirelessly posted (iPhone: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU like Mac OS X; en) AppleWebKit/420.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.0 Mobile/4A102 Safari/419.3)

Calibrate your battery! :) mine was way off, and it drove me up the wall.
 
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