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PeterQC

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jun 30, 2008
727
0
Just ordered my brand new Macbook 2.4Ghz that I was waiting for, with everything that I wanted. I can't wait to receive this beauty! (Monday can't comme fast enough!)

I'm kinda familiar with Mac OS X, used it for around 2 months now.

It'll be my first real mac, and I got a few questions:

1) I'm a semi-hardcore gamer, I don't play any recents game, but not any single one can run on Mac OS X. Conclusion: I need Windows XP (no way Vista's going on my system). It would be great to be able to run these games no matter what on the desktop of my Mac, so why not use a virtualisation tool? so here's my first question: How right does games run on VMware/Parallels/CrossOver Game? Are the performances a lot worse then playing directly in Windows?

2) I might upgrade my mac to 4GB DDR3 when they get more affordable, will it help for virtualisation?

3) I saw that you can run Half Life 2 and Sources based games with a GMA 3100X, how good do you think it'll be with the new Nvidia 9400m ?

4) I play a little Mmorpg game with some friend sometimes, so it might happen that I let my Macbook opened overnight. Would I lost connection with the servers if I close the lid (ie: put in sleep mode) during the night? If yes, is it possible to close the screen while letting the lid open?

5) Is it harmful for a Macbook to be open for a long time? Would'nt it harm the graphic card or cause a prematured dead for the system? Would it be worse if I let the lid close?

That's mostly what I can think of for the moment. Thanks in advance!
 
only can offer insight on questions 1 and 5

1 ive seen parallels in action and works just fine... thatd be my recommendation

5 nah i leave mine open like all day doing stuff so no worries. might want to make sure the fans are kicking on though, if they have the same "hot" problem as the last macbooks
 
2) yes, not only because you can allocate more ram to windows, but having more for the host OS is also good, both because it is running the VM and for whatever tasks it has seperate, and we all know OSX will use whatever you give it.
 
Oh, and I got a new question:

-Is there some kind of maintenance programs or things that I should do to preserve the life and performance of my portable?
 
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