Just got my first Apple (lovin' it!)

[hectigol]

Hello everyone,

I just got my first Apple product, a 13.3" MacBook Pro, and have been loving every minute of it.

I'm using it mainly for work (systems development and graphics design).

1) Salesperson from Apple shop strongly advised against keyboard protectors citing it causes overheating; he recommended regular vacuuming and blowing with compressed air instead. Is this true?

2) Will I see a noticeable performance increase with a 7200rpm HDD? Will a larger capacity and faster spinning speed of 7200rpm degrade battery life? How about heat issues?

3) I'm thinking of getting a matte screen protector to reduce glare and reflection. Will the matte screen degrade image quality and brightness. I seen several sellers (from HongKong) selling cheap ones at US$6 to US$9 with shipping on eBay, are they safe to use?

Here is one such example, http://cgi.ebay.com.sg/Anti-Glare-S...0?hash=item19b6bd2faf&_trksid=p3286.m63.l1177

Thank you.

 

[shambo]

Hello everyone,

I just got my first Apple product, a 13.3" MacBook Pro, and have been loving every minute of it.

I'm using it mainly for work (systems development and graphics design).

1) Salesperson from Apple shop strongly advised against keyboard protectors citing it causes overheating; he recommended regular vacuuming and blowing with compressed air instead. Is this true?

2) Will I see a noticeable performance increase with a 7200rpm HDD? Will a larger capacity and faster spinning speed of 7200rpm degrade battery life? How about heat issues?

3) I'm thinking of getting a matte screen protector to reduce glare and reflection. Will the matte screen degrade image quality and brightness. I seen several sellers (from HongKong) selling cheap ones at US$6 to US$9 with shipping on eBay, are they safe to use?

Here is one such example, http://cgi.ebay.com.sg/Anti-Glare-S...0?hash=item19b6bd2faf&_trksid=p3286.m63.l1177

Thank you.

Screen and keyboard protectors are for waldos'. I mean as a grown adult would you still wear a nappy to protect your trousers???

 

[maflynn]

1) Salesperson from Apple shop strongly advised against keyboard protectors citing it causes overheating; he recommended regular vacuuming and blowing with compressed air instead. Is this true?

Yes, there's no reason for keyboard protectors, they inhibit the air flow, look awful and I see no reason for it

2) Will I see a noticeable performance increase with a 7200rpm HDD? Will a larger capacity and faster spinning speed of 7200rpm degrade battery life? How about heat issues?

Mostly during boot up or other disk intensive activities, mostly no not that noticeable. The 7200 does not decrease battery life or increase the temperature. Some people have reported an increase in noise or vibration when they added a 7200rpm drive. I have one, and I've not had any issues.

3) I'm thinking of getting a matte screen protector to reduce glare and reflection. Will the matte screen degrade image quality and brightness. I seen several sellers (from HongKong) selling cheap ones at US$6 to US$9 with shipping on eBay, are they safe to use?

They look like crap, are impossible to add to a degree that there's no bubbles and if you needed a matte display, you should have purchased a MBP with the matte screen. I have the glossy and its great, just make sure you don't have any light emanating from the back, that will produce the glare.

 

[morrisman1]

2) Will I see a noticeable performance increase with a 7200rpm HDD? Will a larger capacity and faster spinning speed of 7200rpm degrade battery life? How about heat issues?

Modern 7200 rpm drives are almost as efficient and cool/quiet as their slower 5400 rpm counterparts. yes a faster drive most definitely will make a difference, you will notice it mainly when moving data from HDD to ram, ie booting and loading applications. a 7200 rpm drive is half way to an SSD, so if you cant afford an SSD like most of us then go for the 7200 rpm drive instead.

I have two 'macs', one is a macbook 5,1 with a 250gb 5400 rpm drive from a couple of years ago. the other is hackintosh, it has a much slower cpu (1.8 pentium dual core conroe, as opposed to a 2.0 penryn core 2 duo) and ram is only DDR2 but desktop performance is soo much better than on the macbook and i put it down to the 7200 rpm WD 'blue' drive which is used as the boot drive. Both 'macs' are running fresh installs of Snow Leopard.

 

[Azathoth]

Hello everyone,

I just got my first Apple product, a 13.3" MacBook Pro, and have been loving every minute of it.

I'm using it mainly for work (systems development and graphics design).

1) Salesperson from Apple shop strongly advised against keyboard protectors citing it causes overheating; he recommended regular vacuuming and blowing with compressed air instead. Is this true?

2) Will I see a noticeable performance increase with a 7200rpm HDD? Will a larger capacity and faster spinning speed of 7200rpm degrade battery life? How about heat issues?

3) I'm thinking of getting a matte screen protector to reduce glare and reflection. Will the matte screen degrade image quality and brightness. I seen several sellers (from HongKong) selling cheap ones at US$6 to US$9 with shipping on eBay, are they safe to use?

Here is one such example, http://cgi.ebay.com.sg/Anti-Glare-S...0?hash=item19b6bd2faf&_trksid=p3286.m63.l1177

Thank you.

2. I think SSD is the way to go - that's what I will choose for my next laptop, the pure #s increase in going from 5400-7200 isnt that high, though YMMV.

3. My experience with ZAGG (high quality) screen protectors is that they reduce contrast. Petition apple to make a matte 13" MBP :-s