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mrufrufin · Jun 2, 2006, 12:42 AM

Hi, guys,

My Macbook has been shipped out today. I figure its about time to place an order for an XP copy so i can use XP on it whenever i have to. At newegg.com where i usually buy my computer stuff from, i found an OEM copy of XP-home which is much cheaper than a retail version. If i wasn't mistaken, isn't an OEM program supposed to be bundled with a hardware (like my current XP that came with my dell)? Can i get this copy for my macbook instead of a retail version? Thanks a lot.

icruise · Jun 2, 2006, 05:03 AM

They probably sell it with some trivial piece of hardware (like a fan) to get around the OEM rules. Or they might require you to buy something yourself. In any case, it shouldn't be a problem to buy it.

Angus_D · Jun 2, 2006, 05:10 AM

No, they don't sell you anything with it. You can resell an OEM "kit" until you open the box, at which point it becomes a license which must be bundled with hardware (which is a computer system with several key components, so you couldn't just bundle it with a fan or anything).

paul w · Jun 2, 2006, 05:13 AM

I just did this myself - bought an OEM copy of XP Home Edition from newegg. No extra hardware purchase necessary anymore. Installed XP on Parallels yesterday, and it works like a charm.

mrufrufin · Jun 2, 2006, 09:05 AM

Thank you guys for your help. I just place the orde along with a 1g ram.

Paul: How much ram do u have on ur mac? im just wondering if 1.25g is enough to run XP on Parallels smoothly

iMacfan · Jun 2, 2006, 09:16 AM

Remember that in a Macbook, the integrated graphics really require you to have two identical memory modules, otherwise you'll see a big performance drop.

David

mrufrufin · Jun 2, 2006, 09:27 AM

Really? i read about this in the Macbook forum and most of ppl were talking about a few percent of performance loss with unmatched pairs (but no one seemed to have done the test but reading from the web). If that's ture, i could live with that. Has anybody done the comparison on a Macbook?

iMacfan · Jun 2, 2006, 04:10 PM

OK - I can't really claim to be a guru on these matters - my fastest Mac is a 12" Powerbook (a speed daemon, I think you'll agree...), but as far as I understand it, the dedicated GPU on the Macbook Pro and iMac means that pairing DIMMs isn't too important, but both the integrated graphics and the main CPU really need the extra bandwidth.

David

Tsilou B. · Jun 3, 2006, 04:31 AM

David is absolutely right - on a MacBook, you'll lose a LOT of speed (> 20%) if you don't have pairing DIMMs.

mrufrufin · Jun 3, 2006, 11:30 AM

THank you guys for the opinions. I'll max out my ram with 2x1g then since memory modules are not too expensive ($70 each)

Angus_D · Jun 4, 2006, 04:16 AM

Originally Posted by Tsilou B.

David is absolutely right - on a MacBook, you'll lose a LOT of speed (> 20%) if you don't have pairing DIMMs.

The only statistics I've seen strongly disagree. Do you have any actual reference for your assertion?

ghporter · Jun 4, 2006, 09:20 AM

The Microsoft Windows OEM program has apparently recently been modified to delete the requirement to sell the disc with hardware.

But put ALL questions about ANY OS OTHER THAN OS X on ANY DEVICE in the Alternative OS forum. That's what we set it up for.