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Help! issue with mbp/gaming/storage

J

javierkos

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Nov 30, 2014
2
0
Hi guys!
This is my first post in this forum as i am currently deciding on buying a new laptop, and for the first time in my life I might lean towards the possibility of buying the newest macbook pro 15''.

Nevertheless, i have some doubts: i will probably buy the mac book pro which includes about 500 gb of ssd storage, bt i will be wanting to bootcamp the macbook in order to run steam on windows and be able to play games like farcry 4 etc. However, i dont feel like 500gb are enough, so the following doubt arises: Is it possible to bootcamp windows through an external ssd thunderbolt drive and run windows from said ssd? If so, how hard is it to do and will it run as smoothly (if not, how much gaming experience will i lose out on). Thank you very much!

I would also appreciate if you could hyperlink me to a guide that explains a process on how to install windows on the external drive, or jst explain it urselfs.

By the way, im not planning on using my macbook pro exclusively for gaming, as i will be needing it for computer science at university, this is why i need the internal storage for my ios.

Ty in advance :D
 
Thunderbolt gives you pcie speeds so that's enough to run a OS on it. However I've never tried running windows on another partition but i think you should not have any problem. As long as you connect the drive and then restart the computer so you can select the partition! If not, you could allocate about 60GB to windows and have all your applications and games on your ssd.
 
javierkos said:
Hi guys!
This is my first post in this forum as i am currently deciding on buying a new laptop, and for the first time in my life I might lean towards the possibility of buying the newest macbook pro 15''.

Nevertheless, i have some doubts: i will probably buy the mac book pro which includes about 500 gb of ssd storage, bt i will be wanting to bootcamp the macbook in order to run steam on windows and be able to play games like farcry 4 etc. However, i dont feel like 500gb are enough, so the following doubt arises: Is it possible to bootcamp windows through an external ssd thunderbolt drive and run windows from said ssd? If so, how hard is it to do and will it run as smoothly (if not, how much gaming experience will i lose out on). Thank you very much!

I would also appreciate if you could hyperlink me to a guide that explains a process on how to install windows on the external drive, or jst explain it urselfs.

By the way, im not planning on using my macbook pro exclusively for gaming, as i will be needing it for computer science at university, this is why i need the internal storage for my ios.

Ty in advance :D
Click to expand...


Just an option, but this is what i do:

Buy one of the 128gb nifty mini drives, and keep itunes/music/movies/pics/docs on this. You've just saved 128gb of space, and its a fraction of the $400+ upgrade to 1tb from apple.

Install windows to a 100gb bootcamp partition. configure/install software and games as you like.

This leaves you roughly 300+gb for mac. Again, install software/games as you like.

Only install the games you plan on playing in the immediate future...this is a huge behavior change (even for me) as i tend to leave games installed forever. And when your done, save the profile/save file off someplace and uninstall.

Use an external drive for additional storage and backups (3tb are $100 now, there's no excuse not to have this if your buying a 2k+ laptop =P)

At this point you have options...booting back and forth between mac/windows in bootcamp, or install parallels and use coherence mode to open your bootcamp windows install. Now you can open windows software from within mac (at a cost of performace, depending on the app/game)

Done. Welcome to mac's :)
 
It is not possible to install Windows on an external drive with Boot Camp. However, you can put Windows on a smaller partition on your Mac's internal drive and then use the external one for installing your games.

Regarding the suggestion to install Parallels - that's OK if you're playing older games, but you're going to want a full-on Boot Camp install for for recent titles.
 
n0id said:
Just an option, but this is what i do:

Buy one of the 128gb nifty mini drives, and keep itunes/music/movies/pics/docs on this. You've just saved 128gb of space, and its a fraction of the $400+ upgrade to 1tb from apple.

Install windows to a 100gb bootcamp partition. configure/install software and games as you like.

This leaves you roughly 300+gb for mac. Again, install software/games as you like.

Only install the games you plan on playing in the immediate future...this is a huge behavior change (even for me) as i tend to leave games installed forever. And when your done, save the profile/save file off someplace and uninstall.

Use an external drive for additional storage and backups (3tb are $100 now, there's no excuse not to have this if your buying a 2k+ laptop =P)

At this point you have options...booting back and forth between mac/windows in bootcamp, or install parallels and use coherence mode to open your bootcamp windows install. Now you can open windows software from within mac (at a cost of performace, depending on the app/game)

Done. Welcome to mac's :)
Click to expand...

Thanks man, really helpful. I'll buy an external ssd drive for files like music and images! Thanks again!

saturnotaku said:
It is not possible to install Windows on an external drive with Boot Camp. However, you can put Windows on a smaller partition on your Mac's internal drive and then use the external one for installing your games.

Regarding the suggestion to install Parallels - that's OK if you're playing older games, but you're going to want a full-on Boot Camp install for for recent titles.
Click to expand...

I will also use an external ssd drive to save larger game files once i've installed windows on the internal mb's storage system. Thanks for your advice too!
 
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I use bootcamp to game on my rmbp with 512 SSD...Never had space issues. Unless your planning on having 20+ games installed simultaneously you shouldn't either. I only use a 150g for my partition so you could allot more if you are worried about it.

p.s you don't need an external SSD for images/music.... get a large HD for that (3 terabyte)? Don't need fast storage for that type of media...unless you planning on transferring large volumes of it back and forth constantly and not using it directly to use them.
 
Samuelsan2001 said:
If you are mainly using your macbook for windows and games then buy a gaming laptop with windows on it. I would reccomend the 14 inch razer blade for your use case.

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias=aps&field-keywords=razer+blade+14

It seems silly to buy a macbook pro with an inferior graphics card if thsi is your primary usage.
Click to expand...

i agree getting the 14 inch razer blade or building a custom desktop pc if you do not need the mobility would be much better for gaming.
 
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Just a word of caution: you won't be happy with the rMBP and Far Cry 4. Its GPU is really aged by now and you'll have to crank down both the resolution and the quality to reach 30+ fps.
 
leman said:
Just a word of caution: you won't be happy with the rMBP and Far Cry 4. Its GPU is really aged by now and you'll have to crank down both the resolution and the quality to reach 30+ fps.
Click to expand...

This is more for my own information, but is it at least playable (steady 30+ fps) on the 750M at 1280x800 and medium details?
 
saturnotaku said:
This is more for my own information, but is it at least playable (steady 30+ fps) on the 750M at 1280x800 and medium details?
Click to expand...

According to the benchmarks I've seen, it should even run slightly better than that. But I think that's it a shame to buy an expensive new laptop and then be forced to play with bad quality like that if you are into gaming.
 
Beware, MacBook Pros with discrete GPUs are not designed to last more than 2 or 3 years.

The 2011 models are already failling.

I would get the base model and a PC for running Steam, and you will also probably get better preformance.
 
javierkos said:
Hi guys!
This is my first post in this forum as i am currently deciding on buying a new laptop, and for the first time in my life I might lean towards the possibility of buying the newest macbook pro 15''.

Nevertheless, i have some doubts: i will probably buy the mac book pro which includes about 500 gb of ssd storage, bt i will be wanting to bootcamp the macbook in order to run steam on windows and be able to play games like farcry 4 etc. However, i dont feel like 500gb are enough, so the following doubt arises: Is it possible to bootcamp windows through an external ssd thunderbolt drive and run windows from said ssd? If so, how hard is it to do and will it run as smoothly (if not, how much gaming experience will i lose out on). Thank you very much!

I would also appreciate if you could hyperlink me to a guide that explains a process on how to install windows on the external drive, or jst explain it urselfs.

By the way, im not planning on using my macbook pro exclusively for gaming, as i will be needing it for computer science at university, this is why i need the internal storage for my ios.

Ty in advance :D
Click to expand...

Thunderbolt would work as a boot drive, but not USB 3. The better/cheaper way to do this is to make a relatively small windows install on the internal SSD and then use a cheap USB 3 external drive to install all the games.
 
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