Getting a Macbook

glimpster

So I'm selling my Dell Inspiron 9300 on ebay right here, in hopes of getting a macbook. I'm not sure whether I should do it or not, but I've heard the integrated intel 950m plays cs: source quite well, so I'm not worried about it. However, I am going from a 256mb video card on a notebook to shared graphics memory. But CS is the main game I play, so I shouldn't worry. I'll just get the first model for $1050 with educational pricing. I'm tired of the Pentium M / Centrino laptops anyway. Time to move on.

Phantasos

Unless you plan on burning DVDs the baseline is the way to go. Just don't forget to max out the RAM (2 gigs for as low as $120). That'll help with the overall speed naturally but also give the integrated graphics a boost and save you some battery life.

trogdor9

Trust me, you do NOT want integrated graphics. Ever. I can't imagine integrated graphics playing CS:Source with more than 10 FPS. If you have a desktop I suggest you keep the desktop your gaming box and your MacBook your school/work box.

crowe

I would say that if you want to run CS:Source, get a Macbook Pro, since it actually has a video card (as opposed to integrated). Macbooks are great laptops, but they won't be able to do any recent games, even with Boot Camp. (CS1... maybe.) Even my Macbook Pro has trouble with the Source engine...

glimpster

Don't worry about CS: Source. I've heard it gets very good performance on the macbook, not to get it confused with the macbook pro. The only game that didn't do well from steam, was hl2, which was just a little bit choppy. Other than that, I'm happy. And if anyone would like to buy a cheap gaming notebook at 7.8lbs, come here http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ih=013&item=230016720493&rd=1&sspagename=STRK%3AMESE%3AIT&rd=1 .

glimpster

So I guess the Core 2 Duo chip (Merom) is going to hit macbooks and macbook pro's in late august or early September. But if I get my laptop sold, I don't care whether or not the new chip is out. The performance increases are so minimal that you'd only be able to see the difference in rendering movies, and that's about it, and battery life. I'd just assume get the first core duo, because the way this first macbook is heating up inside is bad enough.

Dammit, I hate Ebay. I'm selling my laptop, and everything is going well, and I'm messaging a guy back and forth who wants to buy it. And he bids twice, but then a scammer bids at the last second and wins. Then I'm unable to contact good dude on a second chance offer, because ebay doesn't let you contact people that you have "nothing to do with." I wish I would have known there was a preferences section where I could change who could actually bid on my items. Now I know. Maybe with all this shit happening on ebay, I'll HAVE to wait for merom.

kenjura

I doubt the macbook can handle any modern 3d games.

I'm using a macbook pro (2 ghz core duo, Ati x1600 128 MB), and I was not impressed by the performance. I'd say it's probably mid-range for gaming, assuming you get at least 1 GB of RAM. This is with the X1600 GPU.

Mac OS X or Windows doesn't make much difference, just remember you can install only 1 internal hard drive (the largest available 2.5" hard drives are currently 160 GB, not an option from Apple), and you must partition it to run both OSes. Modern games take up a lot of hard drive space.

Also, the machine runs extremely hot, and that goes double under Windows. I haven't really stress-tested any games, just run them for a few minutes. I doubt they'll crash under either OS, but I wouldn't be surprised to see slowdown.

In any case, I recommend against using a laptop for gaming, and against using a Mac for gaming (BootCamp or no). A Mac laptop...goes without saying. But the macbooks do make excellent work/school laptops, and are very portable.

glimpster

I've seen a million people playing games on the white macbook on youtube and google video. I'm not to worried. And if it doesn't play games well, big deal. As long as it runs well on the lowest settings, I'm fine. And that's another thing too about school. I need something I can carry around with me and not be pulled down by a 8 pound gaming laptop (Dell Inspiron 9300). And, I'm sure the macbook is exactly what I want. I've already tried windows on it, then I went to CompUSA last night and checked it out. Now I can't wait to get my hands on it.

glimpster

So the macbook is coming in on Wednesday. Can't wait! I'm going to make opening it a ceremony. That white box with all that sweet packaging. I got the one with the 2GHz core duo and the DVD Burner. I mean, I have to have a DVD writer to burn iso's. Don't I?

Selling my Dell Inspiron 9300 on ebay was a nightmare, but it finally went through and I just immediately bought the macbook through an ebay seller.

So, I ended up paying &1250 for the new laptop, and that's counting in shipping.

tuttle88

I am offering to test a mac book for anyone considering buying one, just send me a money order for AU$1,700 and I will happily try it out for you.

EsonLinji

I will beat Tuttle88's offer by testing a macbook out for just AU$1500, if anyone is interested.

glimpster

I bought a GB of RAM yesterday. Is that really eeeded. I'm guessing it is with shared graphics memory and all that. If I keep the gig, I'll have that, plus one of the 256MB sticks that are already in the machine. I'm sure doing that will be better for playing games anyway.

Any more info on bootcamp? Do you have to have SP2 on the windows CD or DVD?

tuttle88

Well if yo want to go for price over quality, then by all means use Eson.

Phantasos

You definitely want to keep that gig and potentially get another one in the future. They way the memory is laid out the dual cores work much more effeciently if both slots are loaded with identical ram. Not to mention the fact that the more memory you have you a) won't notice the graphics leeching as much b) will page to the HD that much less and save yourself some battery life and c) be that much faster in general.
Yes, you need a single windows install disc that has SP 2 on it. It cannot be added later. It cannot be spread across multiple discs.
BootCamp has been out for a while now so just about everything you could want to know about it is known. If you have questions you should probably check out Apple's Setup Guide (PDF Link) before you begin the process.

glimpster

So my laptop got here on Friday. Wow, I love it! I've installed bootcamp with windows xp home and I've gotten CS 1.6, HL, HL2, and Halo to work. However, I've been unable to get CS: Source to work, which is a bitch. I've narrowed the problem down to DX9. For some damn reason, I have to run CSS under DX7, which if you know anything about DX7, it's too shitty to run the steam games of today. Everything else but it, is getting great peformance.

But basically, when CSS starts up, it shows the loading screen with the CT and T crouching there, and then just stops and shows a black screen... unless, I integrate it with DX7 under the launching options.

What am I supposed to do? If HL2 works well, why can't CSS?