I did it.......Hope I don't regret it...

[OSXtasy]

Well all, after that log drawn out post I wrote a while back about "Apple Quality or PERCEIVED QUALITY/LACK THEREOF" I said screw it and bought myself a MBP. I got it on an auction as refurbed, and it "so far as I've seen" only has one cosmetic flaw, and that is a small bit of the case (the small piece of thin aluminum above the latch button) has been "tweaked/bent ever so lightly" in what seems to have possibly been a logicboard replacement maybe?? Well anyway, I've only played with it for 5 hours or so(really busy at work this week, but will play a whole lot more this weekend), lemme tell ya, it's quite nice. So nice, that even though I told myself I would just mess with it a bit and send it back, I'm having a hard time convincing myself to do that. Well I was told this was a refurb, and to be honest, I was also informed that most refurbs are better than buying a "new" one due to having been totaly overhauled. I am prone to believe this now, as it doesnt have "ANY" scratches, no "mooing", runs at decent temp "39-40 surfing, 43-60 under load" with BOINC distributed computing client, and although I feel the magsafe connector is quite cheaply made/prone to failure due to not enough of stress relief boot at the end, and the frail feeling of the wire itself, the magsafe does'nt get hot, and the power brick itself stays way cooler than any other laptop I've ever used. With all that said, I've either gotten lucky as hell (CROSSING FINGERS), or made a hell of an expensive mistake, especially since I don't "need" another computer (I have 8 desktops already and now with the MBP, 4 laptops), let alone another laptop. Anyway, kust thought i'd write this up, and let you all know, that i still dont think Apple is any "BETTER" than ANY OTHER computer manufacturer (as easily evedent by all the problems people have been having), but dam i gotta admit, this dam lappy is sexy as hell, and if she can make it thru a few days of hardcore burn-in test that i'm gonna put her thru this weekend(a few hours of: $ yes > /dev/null ), I may just have to keep her. I'll keep you all updated and give more details once I know if i wanna keep her!!!

[Swad]

Thanks, keep us posted!

[OSXtasy]

First update: I just set the MBP beside my HP ZD8000 (P4 3.4 EMT64 with hyperthreading/2gig Ram/80gig 7200/17 widescreen, radeonx600 256meg ram, running 10.4.6 at 1024x768 can't change resolution,built in wireless working,but no QE/CI, everything else works bluetooth etc) both on power, and this ZD8000 ABSOLUTELY SMOKED the MBP(2.0coreduo, 1gig ram, 100gig HD, 15.4inch with 128meg X1600 running 10.4.6)on boot up! I timed them seperately and this dam ZD8000 is a BEAST!!! Weighing in at 12lbs, triple booting XP, OSX86 10.4.6, and Suse 10,(Acronis Bootloader) the ZD booted in 22 seconds, the MBP booted in 45 seconds............hmmmmm, gonna be an interesting FIGHT!!!

 

 

Anyway, that is all for now, but can someone answer something?? If I "nuke" the MBP installation and reinstall from the discs(I want to remove all the languages and printer driver {censored} to save space), will the stock discs have all of the software that originaly came on this MBP, or will I lose all that stuff???? Answers would be greatly appreciated as soon as possible guys and gals, and stay tuned..............

 

 

P.S. evidently I had forgotten JUST how freakin POWERFUL this dam ZD8000 reall is!!! Dam it's fast running OSx86 in native.......whew, I'm re-stoked!!!!

[OSXtasy]

A few pic's for those interested:

[dtm3dd]

Anyway, that is all for now, but can someone answer something?? If I "nuke" the MBP installation and reinstall from the discs(I want to remove all the languages and printer driver {censored} to save space), will the stock discs have all of the software that originaly came on this MBP, or will I lose all that stuff????

Have you looked into using Delocalizer. It takes away any language resources you don't want to use. I used straight up on my OS X 86 install and it saved me roughly 2 gigs.

I also used Trim The Fat to get rid of any power pc code on my UniBs its incredibly easy to use (drag and drop) and again saved be around 1 gig.

Hope this helps

Danny

[OSXtasy]

Xbench Results are in:

 

MBP (finished first and fastest)=55.60

 

HP ZD8000 =21.80 (but remember no CI & QE and stuck at 1024x768)

 

So can I nuke the MBP and reinstall from the 2 disc set and still get all my "stock apps" back???? Comon' somebody, speak up!!!!! PLEEAASE!!! I really wanna nuke it tonight and do it "MY WAY", but not if I'lllose iphoto, photobooth, idvd, imovieHD, and all those other sweet progies that came already installed. I guess Ican always use dtm3dd's suggested method if I get no more responses..........

[Suspect]

So can I nuke the MBP and reinstall from the 2 disc set and still get all my "stock apps" back????

 

Yes. I did the same thing on my Intel iMac.

[OSXtasy]

Schweet!! Thanks for the reply Suspect. Well anyway, I put parallels on last night, and dam it runs windows XP fast as hell. I even installed an A/V in windows just for a little safety net. In addition, I cant seem to get the windows running in parrallels to boot into windows safe mode (f8 on boot) tho, as I wanted to do a couple tweaks. Did they disable that when using XP with parallels or did I miss something?? Well, it boots so fast I just cant seem to catch it, so I'll keep trying.........

[INFNITE]

using the restore DVD gets everything back to its default factory state.

[OSXtasy]

So I am allowed to choose what "not" to install, Like the trial Microsoft office, and {censored} like that right? I know already that I can leave out the languages and printer drivers for sure, as I've learned this in the past.

[OSXtasy]

I have now run the delocalizer proggie and removed all language packs i did'nt need, which saved me roughly 3.6 GIGS!!! After that I purchased and installed Parallels, then made a Winxp SP2 virt machine, and Suse 10.0 retail virt machine, both of which run flawlessly. In addition i went ahead and bought another gig of ram and a "portfolio like" cushioned carrying case. I expect them to be on the doorstep when i get home. I bought the ram just to see if i could run both virt machines at the same time (orig config was 1 gig 2x512) so I will be at 1.5 gig until i get the other 1 gig stick. Anyway, overall she seems to be a good lappy, but she feels just a little "frail" to me, but i think thats because of how heavy and bulky my ZD8000 feels compared to the MBP. I've got a few more days before I can't send it back, but it looks like i'm gonna keep it, if for nothing else, the portability factor alone (Weighs half as much as my zd8k). I just hope it turns out to be a good dependable laptop.

[OSXtasy]

Hi all, i got a very nice surprise when I opened up my MBP to install the 1gig stick of transcend ram last night. It appears my MBP had a single 1 gig stick (as opposed to the 2x512) I was expecting, so now instead of the 1.5 i thought I'd have, I now have 2gig. Anyway, I ran memtest for a full cycle, and no errors. Well, all is good, so just thought I'd update. In addition, for anyone interested, i tried to install Diable 2 in winxp in parallels last night, and though the install went well, she will not play. No errors, it just wont launch. i will try installing Fallout 1 and Fallout 2 tonight, and maybe starcraft in XP under parallels.

[munky]

remember if you're now running with two sticks of ram (provided they're a reasonable matched pair) you will have enabled dual channel mode. run your xbench and other benchmarks again and you should see some improvement.