[ozstrike]

I took delivery of my brand new macbook pro on friday, and I'm messing around with it now. Has anybody else installed windows with bootcamp?
It is much of a hassle? I want to see how games etc run on it, but I'm a bit apprehensive about messing around with my brand new baby.

Who's done this before?

 

[grawk]

Try parallels or vmware first. You might be able to get the performance you want that way, and not have to run bootcamp. But now is probably the best time to install bootcamp, since you haven't put much on it yet.

 

[Flashpoint603]

Personally, I hate it. Although, that might be because I just installed 57 minimacs with bootcamp at work. ewwwwww

The hospital I work at uses minimacs in a small "COW" computer on wheel and they run windows with bootcamp.

It seems like once I started getting payed to work on computers, I hate everything about it unless I am working on mine. So you might actually like it.

 

[ojnihs]

I agree with Grawk and suggest you try Parallels first.

 

[krmathis]

I have heard numerous horror stories about Bootcamp. Which is to be expected from a beta software, which might not be stable.

I recommend you play it safe with VMware Fusion or Parallels Desktop. Then eventually go Bootcamp when its out of beta...

 

[ozz]

i was told by some friends that fusion works like a champ.

 

[krmathis]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ozz /img/forum/go_quote.gif i was told by some friends that fusion works like a champ.

Yes, VMware Fusion works great.
I am running a minimal Windows XP installation (450MB total) on Fusion, and its stable and fast.

Might not be suitable for 3D games though.. Hmmm

 

[InSides]

I have been using Windows with Boot Camp almost exclusivelly on my MBP ever since I got it [middle of June]. So it is the latest MBP with the Santa Rosa chipset. Started off with BootCamp 1.3 as it just came out at that time with updates for the latest MBP's, and recently moved on to BootCamp 1.4.

I have never had any issues with BootCamp other than the standard issues you might have on any typical Windows computer [possibility of spyware/trojans etc]. All the drivers work perfectly [including iSight], the keyboard lighting sensors etc.

My main reason for acuiring the Mac was that I needed to also have a development machine with OSX [in addition to Windows]. The looks were quite a bonus.

With that said, should you follow all of the instructions with BootCamp to the letter, I don't see you having any issues with it. Most of the reported problems were due to user errors. Two observations, though:

1. Make sure you properly calculate how much space you need on the Windows partition. Once you install Windows, the only way to resize the partition is to reinstall Windows.

2. The battery capacity is a bit lower on the Windows side. Some people have said that this is due to OSX's better power management.

And have fun. The MBP is a great machine. And for the money at this point, I don't think you can get anything better.

 

[binkgle]

I've also got the santa rosa MBP, and bootcamp works very well. I have only two issues with it, one minor and one medium:

1) The driver for the bluetooth card never wanted to install, so every time I booted into windows (I got rid of bootcamp a few days ago, I didn't really need it) I would have one of those "install new hardware" wizards pop up that I would have to cancel. Annoying but not a big issue.

2) I have a program for os x called smcFanControl, which I use to monitor the temperature and fan speeds of my computer. I didn't find a good fan control app for windows xp (granted, I didn't look that hard, and I didn't know of one from my pre-MBP days since my windows pc didn't have controllable fans), so my computer ran quite a bit hotter than it does under os x.

That's it for issues, though!

 

[escaflo]

I also recently just got a Macbook Pro. After using Mac OS X for a while, I realize that Mac really sucks quite badly as a media player. I decided to go back Windows XP for most of my daily usage.

So far, it is pretty alright but I did experience once or twice bluescreen of death after I woke up the laptop from sleep. I think most of the issue has to do with the bluetooth driver. I've recently just disable to bluetooth driver and so far, it has been working fine after several sleep and wake session. I can't be sure if it is definitely the bluetooth driver problem but so far, it ain't giving me any problem with it disable so I ain't trying my luck.

That's about it for issues I have with Bootcamp anyway..

 

[dr.morton]

If you have just a Macbook without the Pro runnning Windows for games does not make much sense. The grafic card is simply not strong enough to run most newer games.

 

[umcloud]

I've been running bootcamp on my new iMac to play games, and I've had no problems whatsoever. The only thing is, your Windows XP disc has to have SP2, or it won't work.

 

[ozstrike]

I looked into vmware and parallels and they didn't seem to support games very well, so I gave it a shot and it all seems to be running smoothly.
I'm only really going to be using Windows for a spot of casual gaming, as the macbook is actually better than my main PC. It runs FEAR quite well.

I'm loving OSX though, I just dislike itunes. I need something better, with FLAC support.

 

[hakuryuu]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ozstrike /img/forum/go_quote.gif I'm loving OSX though, I just dislike itunes. I need something better, with FLAC support.

I'm in the same situation. I got my MBP a few weeks ago and just haven't bothered to use it for anything but streaming pandora.com because I haven't found a good flac player.

 

[krmathis]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ozstrike /img/forum/go_quote.gif I'm loving OSX though, I just dislike itunes. I need something better, with FLAC support.

What about one of these players?
* Play
* Cog