Multiple questions concerning the Macbook Pro

[Vorian]

Hello all, as of now, I plan on buying a MBP this upcoming summer for college and I've just got a few questions.

First of all, I wanted to know if there are going to be any new releases in the Mac notebook area. I know the Air was just released, and I'm pretty sure nothing new is coming out, but I just wanted to check.

Secondly, I do a bit of gaming and was wondering how the whole process works with playing PC games on Mac. I've heard of a program called BootCamp or something, but I'm not totally sure. Are you having to run an emulator, or are you going to need to dual boot Windows?

And finally, are there any hidden disadvantages in buying refurbished MBPs? Reading through Apple's description, it sounds like a really good way to save money on the Mac, but at the same time I'm hesitant because its a preowned notebook. anyway your thoughts on this would be appreciated.

I would greatly appreciate for any of these to be answered!
THanks so much

 

[theLimit]

The MacBook Pro was just updated.

Boot Camp is Apple's software to partition the hard disk to enable you to install Windows in a dual-boot environment. For gaming, this is by far the best solution as Windows is running natively on the machine.

There are also softwares such as Parallels and Fusion which run Windows in an emulated virtual machine. There is also Crossover, which is an adaptation of Windows APIs on Unix-based architecture. It allows fairly good performance for many Windows applications including games without the need to buy or install Windows.

In my experience with buy Apple refurbs, it is definitely a great way to save money. I bought a Mac mini and several iPods refurbished, all were identical to new except they came in a plain brown box instead of the standard slick packaging.

 

[Vorian]

Oh ok. So Boot Camp is the dual-boot program. Does that come standard with Mac, or is it a program I will have to buy?

Awesome, I'm glad to hear that about the refurb deal. I've been reading other posts concerning refurb, and it looks really good to me.
Thanks so much for your help by the way ;D

 

[maccanuck2006]

Boot camp comes standard with OS X and is accessed from the Utilities folder. It allows you to partition your drive into an OS X and a Windows partition and then allows you to install windows. You have to supply your own full version of either Vista or XP SP2.
There was a time (I think it was Nov 07) that the 2.4Ghz Santa Rosa MBP was rated the fastest Vista notebook by PC World magazine. So yeah, dual booting Windows on the newer Penryn MBP with a 512mb 8600m GT should give you a great gaming experience (unless you're trying to compare it to a 10 pound SLI enabled Alienware with 1.5 hrs battery life....)

I haven't bought a refurb computer from Apple, but I've read on these forums that the quality is supposedly excellent as they have to fix whatever problem made the original buyer return it before flipping it around. I did buy a refurb nano and it works great.

 

[zainjetha]

one thing to note:

not trying to offput you or anything

have a MBP and whenever i try to do anything intensive such as play games or DVD ripping MBP gets extremely hot... especially when i used to run vista... put XP on the MBP for gaming only and you will love OSX for everything, takes a little time to get used to... but is amazing..

 

[Vorian]

Boot camp comes standard with OS X and is accessed from the Utilities folder. It allows you to partition your drive into an OS X and a Windows partition and then allows you to install windows. You have to supply your own full version of either Vista or XP SP2.
There was a time (I think it was Nov 07) that the 2.4Ghz Santa Rosa MBP was rated the fastest Vista notebook by PC World magazine. So yeah, dual booting Windows on the newer Penryn MBP with a 512mb 8600m GT should give you a great gaming experience (unless you're trying to compare it to a 10 pound SLI enabled Alienware with 1.5 hrs battery life....)

I haven't bought a refurb computer from Apple, but I've read on these forums that the quality is supposedly excellent as they have to fix whatever problem made the original buyer return it before flipping it around. I did buy a refurb nano and it works great.

ALright! Thanks so much. Yeah, I won't be doing to much hardcore gaming, just some every now and then. And I don't plan on running Vista. I was in a PC repair class when Vista came out, so we got it the day of it's release. After about two weeks of meddling around with it, almost the whole class went back to using XP, including me haha. But I'm excited about getting a Mac. I've used them a bunch at friend's houses and other locations, but I've never owned one. I'm pretty excited about getting one! Once again, thanks so much for your help!