jayel Posted March 16, 2007 Share Posted March 16, 2007 (edited) Alright, simply put I do love my Macs (PowerMac G5, and PowerBook G4), and I do hate my PCs (Random Dells. My father gets them for free). Now it has come time to replace my PowerBook. It had served me well for the past 2 years, but it is just not the machine it used to be (unfortunately). So I took the liberty of ordering myself a new IBM (Or Lenovo, whatever) ThinkPad T60p. Of course I thought of purchasing the MacBook Pro, but I dunno, there was something about the Lenovo that I liked so much. The Lenovo is similarily equipped to the MacBook Pro 15" 2.33 GHz. My Lenovo: Intel Core Duo 2 2.33 GHz 2GB RAM 100 GB 7200 RPM HDD ATI Fire GL V5250 256MB DVD Burner ThinkPad 11a/b/g Wi-Fi wireless LAN Mini-PCIe 15.4" Widescreen And it can cook my breakfast while doing my laundry. The only true difference between the Mac and Lenovo is the video card (And OS, obviously, but that is why I am here). Now a few questions: 1. This laptop is brand new to the market (The T60 is not, but the T60p is!) Of course, with all of Lenovo's latest stuff. I have, in fact, checked the compatibility list for the T60p on the Wiki, and for what's listed, it says everything works, but will it truly work? The question (This is a long question, I know) is how much of the features with my new laptop will actually work? I know it is different for each laptop, but in general? 2. Will I regret instaling OSx86? I'm sure it's not really all that work to install it, but still. It must be better than windows, but how well can an OS work on a computer it is not meant to be on? 3. Keyboard! What's the deal here? Will it work in general with letters/numbers/symbols but then blow up whenever I try to use an extraneous keys or volume buttons? 4. Games! Games games games. Will my new ATI Fire GL work? I'm sure I can download ATI drivers for the X series card, but I am the odd-man out here with a Fire 5. Boot Camp? I believe in the install wiki I noticed for dual/tri installs, it is said to use GRUB (Which I am actually a big fan of. It has always worked well for me), but is it possible use Boot Camp instead (I have never used Boot Camp before, but I'm sure it's pretty neat)? I believe that is all. Thank you for the help in advance. If I posted this in the wrong forum, I apologize; I tried my best! Thanks! Edited March 16, 2007 by jayel Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/45430-oh-my-should-i-really-bother-with-this/ Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mathieu Posted March 16, 2007 Share Posted March 16, 2007 Hello, I have a very similar laptop (T60p with Core Duo 2.15 and the FireGL 5200). It runs Mac OS X 10.4.8 fine with a few limitations: - no power management. I have the battery meter, but it's not possible to sleep the laptop - no accelerated graphics (no QE/CI). Native resolution works fine (1600x1200 here), but without QE and CI games will not run (or rather very very slowly), and Parallel is a pain to use - no wifi. That's the Intel 3945, experimental drivers are being developed but for now you won't have it. - no line in, no mic in. You can listen to music, but forget about iChat, ... unless you buy an USB mic of some kind. And it doesn't have an integrated camera. What's working: both cores are working (but mine is a Core Duo, not a Core 2 Duo), USB and Bluetooth are working. The keyboard is working fine, but feels weird: Alt is Apple, Windows is Option, Ctrl is Ctrl. The sound volume control work but without feedback on the screen. You will not need BootCamp: install Windows XP first, and then Mac OS and you will have a dual boot menu. Overall, you will not want to use Mac OS X full time on this laptop. It's a Windows laptop, and can run Mac OS X with a lot of limitations. You will miss the real thing (note that upgrades may break your install). If you want to run Mac OS X and you can choose your laptop, then you should choose a MacBook or a MacBook pro. Mathieu. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/45430-oh-my-should-i-really-bother-with-this/#findComment-324955 Share on other sites More sharing options...
munky Posted March 16, 2007 Share Posted March 16, 2007 Should've bought a MacBook dude. FYI, Apple have some rather nice deals on refurb MacBooks and MacBook Pros - I picked up a sweet MBP 1.83Ghz Core Duo for £899 here in the UK. Maybe you could sell your Thinkpad for a reasonable price and put the money towards a refurb? Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/45430-oh-my-should-i-really-bother-with-this/#findComment-325017 Share on other sites More sharing options...
lord_muad_dib Posted March 16, 2007 Share Posted March 16, 2007 free laptops? send one here! Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/45430-oh-my-should-i-really-bother-with-this/#findComment-325021 Share on other sites More sharing options...
jayel Posted March 16, 2007 Author Share Posted March 16, 2007 Hello, I have a very similar laptop (T60p with Core Duo 2.15 and the FireGL 5200). It runs Mac OS X 10.4.8 fine with a few limitations: - no power management. I have the battery meter, but it's not possible to sleep the laptop - no accelerated graphics (no QE/CI). Native resolution works fine (1600x1200 here), but without QE and CI games will not run (or rather very very slowly), and Parallel is a pain to use - no wifi. That's the Intel 3945, experimental drivers are being developed but for now you won't have it. - no line in, no mic in. You can listen to music, but forget about iChat, ... unless you buy an USB mic of some kind. And it doesn't have an integrated camera. What's working: both cores are working (but mine is a Core Duo, not a Core 2 Duo), USB and Bluetooth are working. The keyboard is working fine, but feels weird: Alt is Apple, Windows is Option, Ctrl is Ctrl. The sound volume control work but without feedback on the screen. You will not need BootCamp: install Windows XP first, and then Mac OS and you will have a dual boot menu. Overall, you will not want to use Mac OS X full time on this laptop. It's a Windows laptop, and can run Mac OS X with a lot of limitations. You will miss the real thing (note that upgrades may break your install). If you want to run Mac OS X and you can choose your laptop, then you should choose a MacBook or a MacBook pro. Mathieu. Well it seems as if most of the stuff works then, so I will try it out Thank you! Should've bought a MacBook dude. FYI, Apple have some rather nice deals on refurb MacBooks and MacBook Pros - I picked up a sweet MBP 1.83Ghz Core Duo for £899 here in the UK. Maybe you could sell your Thinkpad for a reasonable price and put the money towards a refurb? Haha, well many of my friends have MacBooks Pros, and I do like them, but one of the main reasons why I bought the Lenovo was because I am pretty clumsy. My friend Charles had his MacBook Pro for only a week when it was in his backpack on his way back from class and when he got to his dorm the MBP was bent in one place and dented in another. Turns out simply his books did all the damage to it. The Lenovo's are built out of Magnesium, have a Magnesium roll cage, steel hinges, and the keyboard is vented, meaning if you spill a cup of water onto the keyboard, it simply filters out through the bottom of the laptop and does not affect the laptop at all. So I believe this will actually last me a bit longer than the MBP. But it's not like I didn't have the money, as my Lenovo was $2,800! I'll try out OSx86, and if I don't like it, I'll just throw Gentoo on it like I always have free laptops? send one here! Haha, well if you are refering to the free Dells, then I have some bad news. They are not laptops, haha. Just desktops. I am trying to get rid of some of them though. We have way too many sitting in the guest room doing absolutely nothing. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/45430-oh-my-should-i-really-bother-with-this/#findComment-325411 Share on other sites More sharing options...
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