[mrtrip]

Ok, I'm a big time windows user... always have used it since i was 8 or so.

I do alot of graphic design for my work, so i was looking at a MacBook Pro 2.0ghtz...

but now ive been reading through these forums, and it looks like, in exchange for my $3000, I will be getting:

-really bad heat issues
-really slow software use until 2007
-bad battery life
-and some sort of humming noise

Now, my question is... how much of this is true and how much of it is just people over reacting?

And also... how does speed compare on a mac vs a windows pc? My home PC is a 2.2ghtz AMD 3700+ with 3 gigs of ram... is the MBP going to be a snail compared to it?


Any words of advice are appreciated.


edit: and also, is it worth waiting for the next edition of the MBP? If so, when should it/could it come out?

[mduell]

Originally Posted by mrtrip

I do alot of graphic design for my work, so i was looking at a MacBook Pro 2.0ghtz...

but now ive been reading through these forums, and it looks like, in exchange for my $3000, I will be getting:

-really bad heat issues
-really slow software use until 2007
-bad battery life
-and some sort of humming noise

Now, my question is... how much of this is true and how much of it is just people over reacting?

And also... how does speed compare on a mac vs a windows pc? My home PC is a 2.2ghtz AMD 3700+ with 3 gigs of ram... is the MBP going to be a snail compared to it?

- Where did you hear about heat issues? I haven't seen any in the MBP forum. All say it's the same as or better than the previous PowerBooks.
- Lots of native software is available today, with more becoming available every day. Apple's pro apps will all be native next month. Adobe may have Photoshop available before the end of the year (7-13 months from today).
- Battery life is reportedly 3+ hours.
- Humming noise doesn't affect all models or some people can't hear it.

2Ghz Core Duo generally benchmarks about the same as an Athlon 64 3800+.

[mrtrip]

thanks for the quick response...

and im a little shocked you asked me about the heat issue... ive just started browsing the forums not 1 hour ago, and its one of the larger complaints from some users. I'll grab a link when I finish going throught the rest of my posts I earmarked.

One thing i forgot to asked... ill edit my post and add it.

[mrtrip]

any more helpers?

[romeosc]

Originally Posted by mrtrip

any more helpers?

You'll find you have to take everything read here at MacNN and other sights tend to ove exagerate the problems... since most users are Mac fanatics (not a bad thing). We love our Macs and often are very critical of anything that doesn't meet our outrageously high expectations.

Many early adopters want to be the first to report a problem. Don't panic over reports.... use some discretion.

[JKT]

The heat issues are being highly overplayed. They are no worse/not much worse (and could even be better) than the current generation PowerBooks. People finding them to be "really" hot are probably those coming from older generation Apple laptops which ran very cool compared to the AlBooks. If you have used an Al PowerBook for any length of time the heat issues being reported are very familiar.

People are complaining about the battery life because it isn't better than the last generation Macs. It was expected by many that switching to Intel chips would increase the battery life, but that hasn't happened. The battery life is also comparable to the Core Duo PC laptops.

For your situation - using design apps (assuming you mean mainly Adobe) apps for work, I would wait until either a) they are universal binaries, or b) a solution arrives that allows you to run the Windows versions on a MBP at native or near native speeds (e.g. maybe emulation, more likely virtualisation or less likely dual booting).

[demibob]

i dont think you have to wait that long.
I dont think it will take to long for all the big graphic programs to be converted to universal binary

[skyman]

Originally Posted by mrtrip

Any words of advice are appreciated.


edit: and also, is it worth waiting for the next edition of the MBP? If so, when should it/could it come out?

I would strongly suggest that you go to your local Apple Store and test drive a MBP to resolve these questions for yourself.

Most if not all of the non native software will run at the same speed as they did on a 1.67GHz PowerBook. I really don't see it being an issue.

[Hash]

Originally Posted by mrtrip

Ok, I'm a big time windows user... always have used it since i was 8 or so.

I do alot of graphic design for my work, so i was looking at a MacBook Pro 2.0ghtz...

but now ive been reading through these forums, and it looks like, in exchange for my $3000, I will be getting:

-really bad heat issues
-really slow software use until 2007
-bad battery life
-and some sort of humming noise

Now, my question is... how much of this is true and how much of it is just people over reacting?

And also... how does speed compare on a mac vs a windows pc? My home PC is a 2.2ghtz AMD 3700+ with 3 gigs of ram... is the MBP going to be a snail compared to it?


Any words of advice are appreciated.


edit: and also, is it worth waiting for the next edition of the MBP? If so, when should it/could it come out?

dude, just go and buy some Acer with Windows XP. That way you will get really nice software, no heat issues, great battery life and no noises. Isnt it what you wanted to hear?

[CyberPet]

Comparing my old PowerBook with my husbands PC laptop, the heat is not an issue with Powerbooks compared to PC laptops... honestly. Mac users are picky and really loves to whine. Plus heat is a very relative matter. I work a lot in Photoshop and sure, my PowerBook is hot after a few hours of heavy editing of RAW images and running some filters, but note that I do sit with my BARE LEGS many times when I do this. Too hot? Not really.

[Perfesser]

Originally Posted by mrtrip

-really bad heat issues
-really slow software use until 2007
-bad battery life
-and some sort of humming noise

Now, my question is... how much of this is true and how much of it is just people over reacting?

I use mine on my lap all the time, heat is not a problem. Warm? yes, but not a big deal.
Almost all my PPC software (excepting some shareware and Virtual PC) works just fine, most of it very fast. Photoshop CS works just fine, but I'm not doing any real processor-intensive stuff.
Battery life-still fine. about 4 hours in normal use with display at 1/3 to 1/2 brightness. The darned thing is so bright that's where I keep it, full bright is blinding!
No noise that I've heard.
Still, lurk some more and visit an Apple Store or retailer, and do some more research before plunking down $2000+

[mrtrip]

Originally Posted by romeosc

You'll find you have to take everything read here at MacNN and other sights tend to ove exagerate the problems... since most users are Mac fanatics (not a bad thing). We love our Macs and often are very critical of anything that doesn't meet our outrageously high expectations.

Many early adopters want to be the first to report a problem. Don't panic over reports.... use some discretion.

haha wow, that's hilarious... my buddy who is a mac-tech guy @ an apple store said the exact same thing almost verbatim.


anyways, thanks for all the info guys, im going to drive down and check one out for myself =D.

[aristotles]

The noises are either imagined, isolated to some models which need repair or caused by using really cheap headphones with no shielding. Any laptop will generate some interference from the components.

Heat issues are again imagined for the most part.

Battery is equal to or greater than G4 laptops.

Photoshop performance even under emulation:
http://forums.macnn.com/showthread.p...394&page=5

Not as bad as some people assumed. In fact, it seems to be about the same or faster than a Dual core 2.0 G5 Powermac. This leads me to believe that many operations in photoshop are less about raw number crunching and mostly I/O based. It seems that the memory allocation routines in Tiger are giving macs an advantage over the windows version of photoshop.Don't forget that these number are for code running under Rosetta emulation. The native versions will be even faster and rumour say the universal versions may come out by summer with a cheap or free cross-grade.

If you throw enough ram in your machine, photoshop should be fast enough and apparently using it more makes the emulation even faster.

As always, do your own research.

I always get a chuckle out of this page and it kind of puts the complaints in perspective.