Use of MBP as a windows only machine...

[lookingatmac]

Maybe so, but you Lenovoe doesn't have the hardware (CPU, GPU) that the MBP has. Power reduces battery life UNLESS you build things into the OS like Apple seems to have done.

Uh, not exactly apples to oranges. The Lenovo I was looking at was the W520, which certainly matches and surpasses the MacBook Pro even with the high end options. And they advertise very long battery life.

Of course that is neither here nor there, because the main things I like about the Mac over the other offerings are the styling, glossy screen and long battery life -- given that it is a 17 inch machine versus a 15 inch lenovo. If the lenovo had a glossy screen I wouldn't even be talking about it - it would be done.

I appreciate all who suggest that I try the Mac OS. I don't hate Mac OS, in fact my first laptop was a Mac (14+ years ago). I could probably get used to it again, but most of the scientific programs I have already purchased (and cost 15+K) only run on Windows. So I won't be switching on a 3K computer just to have to buy several high end programs again to run it.


Thanks again.

 

[ender land]

Any PC I would buy would not be 1/3 the price. I am a research engineer, and I use my computers for computational fluid dynamics and finite element analysis of stress and thermal interactions, as well as 3D modelling and design...... I need some good hardware.

This sounds like a job for a dedicated desktop computer.

 

[lookingatmac]

This sounds like a job for a dedicated desktop computer.

Thanks, but I already have two of those for their respective purposes. The laptop would be for traveling and demonstration purposes for colleagues/clients. I need the laptop to be able to not just show off the results of computations done on the desktop, but to repeat (or possibly modify and recalculate) while on the road.

It is funny thinking about my old apple computer, it had 8 MB of ram and was a two color screen (if I remember correctly, the screen was a purplish tinge)! That was kick-*** when I got it (mid 90s). I wish I could remember the model... oh well.

 

[thermodynamic]

I asked this on another forum but only got one answer, and nobody that has done it replied.

I want to know if anyone can report success in completely wiping the Mac OS off of a Macbook Pro and using only Windows on it. I am worried about drivers for the dvd player and keyboard. I want to buy a completely decked out MBP 17 inch, and use Windows 7 on it exclusively. I don't ever see myself using Mac OS, so I am wondering if I can just do away with it completely.

If anyone has had success or knows for a fact that this is doable, please let me know ...

Thanks!

I did, with my 2009 MBP (17").

Thankfully nVidia had a driver download that was more recent than Bootcamp's drivers...

I ultimately went back to OS X. Mostly because of the apps - by now, Bryce has had updates (a plug-in Daz had crashed Bryce in OS X but didn't crash Bryce in Windows). And Logic Studio is one app I just can't divorce myself from, despite using it fairly rarely - it's that good and I do plan on using it more.

And OS X, despite some issues, is MUCH better than Windows (which has many more issues, that Microsoft can never fix (think "Registry", for example... "NTFS" for another...).)

Mac hardware, which is 99% the same as PC hardware, is tweaked and optimized for OS X. Windows will run, but you won't find fan control apps, the battery won't last as long, and the machine will run hotter.

 

[thermodynamic]

You're overpaying, and it's very stupid to do, as macs don't have a bios and you need OS X for firmware updates and the like.

How about buying a nice lenovo instead? You'll get more for your money and it runs windows from the getgo.


Oh and by the way, the battery life on macbook pros are advertised for OS X, you should at least halve that, OS X has optimized power settings under the hood that are tailored to the macbook pro, whereas windows doesn't. I would not expect anymore than 3 hours battery life with a MBP running strictly windows.

Agreed - for Windows-only, a Macbook is overkill -- unless you like playing practical jokes on people looking at you and your MBP and wanting to see what's being displayed and, oh dear, it's not OS X!

Under Windows, my 17" MBP lasted 3.5 hours. Under OS X, it'd easily last 7. Windows is also more system resource intensive and not for much benefit in return. (From its earliest days, Windows was bloated compared to other OSes. Then came Win95... then came WIN XP... and both of those were dwarfs compared to... Vista. Win7 takes as much disk space but they changed the caching mechanism or reverted to earlier code to get around the hogginess of Vista. But Win7 still has other issues, and one cannot gt rid of the registry (the ultimate regression, especially how it was implemented).

But most modern PCs sold come with an EFI as well. My Sony laptop (2010 model) has an EFI... An EFI is just a glorified revamped BIOS anyway; the BIOS being absconded because it reduces system performance. I vaguely remember the days of configuring it for enabling Shadow RAM (it copies itself into RAM to improve performance).

 

[Bobby Corwen]

Honestly I would recommend someone does this over getting a Lenovo just because there's no real reason not to. The engineering behind it all is way better and there's no harm in it. It's a super thin 17" laptop with a huge trackpad (that can still scroll). It has still great battery life on windows (which can be still optimized) and there is the mag safe and the speed guarantee and everythin is just the same or better so if I were you I wouldn't hesitate to go for it.

 

[lookingatmac]

Thanks Thermodynamic, very informative.

I am familiar with what you mean by having people see a Windows -only Mac. I went to Best-Buy and played around with the MBP for an hour or so. When I asked the "geek squad" the question about wiping OS-X the look on their faces was like someone kicked their mothers in the face.

I know people get hung up on "What I like is absolutely the very best and everything else doesn't even compare", but I don't really care. I could live with Mac OS. I love Windows too. For example, I have been using Vista for nearly 4 years (has it been that long already???) and have not had one single issue. No crashes, no viruses, no blue-screen, no nothing. Not that Mac OS has problems, I just don't believe the hype too much. I am sure it works great and is lighter than windows. I just don't care too much when Terabyte hard-drives and multiple Gigs of RAM are floating around. What is a few Gigs between friends anymore??

Thanks again...

 

[thejadedmonkey]

I run Windows more often than not on my MBP right now.

Things I notice: It's noisy and/or hot. The fans don't like to spin up, or they're on full. The trackpad sucks beyond belief. The keyboard function buttons don't work properly. Battery life is about 1/2 of the rated battery life on OS X... This last part is important to note is NOT a problem with Windows, but rather a problem with the Apple provided drivers. See, Apple doesn't want you to run Windows on a mac, and they go as far as they can to make your experience horrible, while still being able to advertise that it runs Windows.

P.S. Windows 7 on a descently speced PC actually feels lighter than Snow Leopard on a 'typical' mac, which costs about the same as a descent PC.

 

[TheUndertow]

My plan will be to Bootcamp likely for playing games and/or if I need to in order to use a Windows title I already own.

I guess I'm not expecting to get battery life when in Windows given what I'll be doing.

As with allllllllll of the battery life claims, they are as good as the health of your system, what you have running, potential drain points (USB battery drain issue with Core Duos a while back as an example), and most importantly, what you are actually doing at the time.


No computer is going to give you advertised battery life if you're pushing it and/or in a place that needs your screen brightness up for example.

 

[Bigmacduck]

I am sure it works great and is lighter than windows. I just don't care too much when Terabyte hard-drives and multiple Gigs of RAM are floating around. What is a few Gigs between friends anymore??

Thanks again...

Why don't you just work with the best of both worlds? I need to use Windows because some Enterprise applications of my company do not work on OS X. I use Parallels virtual machine with Windows XP and 7 installations. It has several advantages over bootcamp: I can use Windows and Mac applications concurrently mainly in Coherence mode, the windows applications can benefit from the touch pad gestures. Open email messages and preview panes in Outlook 2010 for Windows as an example can be zoomed using the standard touch gestures on the Mac. Under Bootcamp that is not possible. I found that Windows applications under Parallels VM become much more user friendly than they are under the native installation on Windows.