Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Using a macbook pro as your only station

Thats awesome.

I've always been overly cautious with using a laptop, afraid it will run hot and die, so I never use it 24/7. The 17inch Macbook Pro Core Duo I had was very zippy, I loved it. But I had a Mac Pro, so I never really used it except on trips.

I'll go ahead and just buy the macbook pro, and get a 20 or 23 to stick with it.

Any suggestions on wireless keyboards? I plan on using a wireless mighty mouse, but I doubt I can live with the apple wireless keyboard. I will likely get the wired one, and use an extension cable.

Also, does anyone know of a really good external enclosure that can house 4 sata 2 drives?

http://www.transintl.com/store/category.cfm?Category=2600#top

I know of this one, but at 400 dollars (or 350 for 2 that house 2) its a bit expensive. I could buy 3 WD 500gb's or if they are on sell 4 for that price, and this is just an enclosure.

Or any cheap NAS type enclosure that works with little worries and supports SATA?


http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0..._m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=0S4DQFKSM6XQMYETGGFC

Similar to that, but sleeker, and not too expensive.
 
As an Amazon Associate, MacRumors earns a commission from qualifying purchases made through links in this post.
I also use my MBP as my main machine. I love it! I seem to fill up 2GB quite fast, though. 4GB wouldn't be a luxury, especially since it's so cheap now. And yes, it gets pretty hot under heavy loads, but I guess it's normal for a metal case. My machine never exceeds 80 degrees celcius anyway.
 
I use my MBP as my only computer most of the time (about 90% of the time). I do have a windows XP machine that I use from time to time. In the last couple of weeks I've increased the RAM in my MBP from 2 to 4GB and, just today, installed a 250GB Western Digital Hard Drive (thanks to everyone here for giving me the confidence to do that). As far as an "only" machine, me personally, I like to have another machine, be it laptop or desktop, just in case my main machine breaks or has a problem.
 
I used my 2.4 Macbook Pro as my primary machine and it worked perfectly. 250gb of HD space and 4gb of ram was more than enough to run everything I threw at it.

Having the 17 Hires screen was nice as well. I just replaced it with a 2.8 Octo Mac Pro last week.

My MBP might be for sale if I can get a decent offer. I would put it in the market place, but I don't have enough posts (yet).
 
I do have a Pc desktop, but I haven't really used it since I got my macbook pro.

This machine is nearly as powerful as my desktop, and will be better in every way except for the graphics card once I upgrade this hdd to 320gb and I bought the base model macbook pro.

I used to be a big PC gamer, but I do more of that on consoles these days, so I'm thinking of selling my desktop machine.

I was able to fall back on my desktop when I was getting my MBP repaired, so that tells me that I'll probably always want more than one computer, but I like this laptop enough to try having it as an only computer
 
yes, Andrmgic, I may just buy a macbook or mac mini to keep as a backup.
I'm really concerned with space, and do not want to cloud my space with electronics.

And the new mac-mini's are pretty nice, I got a couple for some relatives and friends for Christmas last year. Core 2 duo, and very speedy for basic tasks like browsing the web. My cousin uses handbrake on his nonstop with great results.
 
i use mine for work school and anything else. never failed me. its the only computer i use anymore i have a 4000$ gaming rig that i never touch.
 
Two years ago when the MacBook Pros first came out, I bought a 2.16GHz model with the 256MB X1600 option and the 7200 RPM 100GB hard drive. I used it as my main machine and connected it to a 30" cinema display when at my desk at home. It all worked out quite well, but I soon found myself with way too little hard drive storage. This was when 160GB was about as big as you could get, and that still wouldn't have been enough. Now, I had plenty of external storage, but moving things on/off the notebook's HD when I wanted to taking things with me became a huge hassle to keep it all straight. So I eventually gave up and went back to a dedicated desktop.

Now that 320GB notebook hard drives are available (and 500GB are right around the corner), I could see myself going back to such an arrangement. I also decided that schlepping around a MacBook Pro daily just too much for me -- too big of a footprint. With the current Santa Rosa MacBooks having enough CPU power to run my apps without trouble, and with 4GB of RAM available, it would be far easier for me to run one machine again (though of course the 30" display would be out, but that's less of an issue).

I'll continue to use a desktop and laptop combo together for a little while longer, but perhaps with a 320GB HD (or larger) in the laptop, I could see myself using my little black MacBook + a desktop display for 90% of what I do.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back