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Questions from a brand new Mac user

C

Crono451

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 9, 2011
2
0
So i am a brand new mac user (long time mac hater, testing the waters).
a couple of questions i have.

First of all i have the :apple: 2011 Macbook pro 15.4 inch i7(sandy bridge) 2.66ghz, 4gb ram, AMD 6490m
Model-MC721LL/A

1. currently using open office and just want to know if documents i create on it will open in microsoft word?

2. I am a starcraft player and just tried starcraft 2 on my new Macbook and it ran beautifully on medium settings(way better than i could have ever wished. I just want to know if anyone else is a starcraft 2 player and what are the best(optimal) settings that i should use on my macbook pro

3.just want some general temperature info; as i am typing this my macbook is at 73-31C and while playing starcraft i hit as high as 85C. Just want to know if these are normal operating temps and what temperatures i should begin to worry about

4. lastly as a new mac user any info/tips i should have to starting my new adventure with a mac. so far i've loved almost everything about my mac and i think i may be starting to be a convert to the cult of mac after my long love of pc. I just want to know what i can do to make this experience even better.
 
i got the low end 15" and I do play sc2. I happen to put everything on high not just medium. Also, if you do happen to have windows 7, try sc2 on bootcamp. It runs uber smooth on high! Snow leopard definelty can run on high, but there's small hiccups thats all.
 
Crono451 said:
So i am a brand new mac user (long time mac hater, testing the waters).
a couple of questions i have.

First of all i have the :apple: 2011 Macbook pro 15.4 inch i7(sandy bridge) 2.66ghz, 4gb ram, AMD 6490m
Model-MC721LL/A

1. currently using open office and just want to know if documents i create on it will open in microsoft word?

2. I am a starcraft player and just tried starcraft 2 on my new Macbook and it ran beautifully on medium settings(way better than i could have ever wished. I just want to know if anyone else is a starcraft 2 player and what are the best(optimal) settings that i should use on my macbook pro

3.just want some general temperature info; as i am typing this my macbook is at 73-31C and while playing starcraft i hit as high as 85C. Just want to know if these are normal operating temps and what temperatures i should begin to worry about

4. lastly as a new mac user any info/tips i should have to starting my new adventure with a mac. so far i've loved almost everything about my mac and i think i may be starting to be a convert to the cult of mac after my long love of pc. I just want to know what i can do to make this experience even better.
Click to expand...

First, the machine you reference doesn't exist. There is no such thing as 2.66 2011 Sandy Bridge MBP. You most likely have the 2010 model.

As for your specific questions:

1. This has nothing to do with a Mac, but in general as complexity increases in an Open Office document, the probability that it will not format exactly the same in Office increases. I've not run into any cases where it' won't open at all. For most basic things like school document, office documents, etc it works fine. Complex graphics and page layouts will likely encounter differences in formatting. This is true of any Open Office document regardless of whether it is create on OSX, Windows or Linux.

2. I don't play, can't help.

3. Temps depend on what is running. As a baseline I would say just having email, an im client, and a web browser running (not open to a page with flash) should have you in the 40-50c range. Without knowing exactly what is running, and exactly what it is doing, nobody can say. I will say that for games in general the temp you quote for starcraft seems typical.

4. After using your Mac exclusively for 1 month, force yourself to use only your PC for 1 week. If that doesn't convince you, nothing will. :D
 
thanks for all the help. i just cant help but smile when i use this thing. part of the appeal is just how shiny and pretty this machine is and how smoothly it runs.


oh and correction.... ya its the 2.0ghz not 2.66. i must have just pulled that # out of my butt.
 
In terms of SC2, since you have the quad core 2.0 and the 6490m is decent, I recommend you going HIGH settings on anything PURELY CPU related. Which includes, lighting, physics, some other things if you mouse over. Then leave medium shaders/shadows for your graphics. 1440x900 resolution full screen as well. But going MEDIUM across the board is fine too and you'll be guaranteed to have a solid experience.

Also google the framerate cap, should be two lines to toss in your variables.txt to keep your gpu from overworking in the GUI menus. I also cap my FPS in SC2 at 60FPS along with the 60FPS gui although I don't hit 60fps much. I could probably cap it at 30FPS to keep the GPU not working as hard.
 
my cpu is 70 degrees according to istat pro widget and im just running a couple of apps like itunes, firefox.
 
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