Bought a Mac Book Pro - Questions on Dual Boot and more

Hi all,

She's on her way. Will see her in 1-2 weeks I believe. So while I impatiently wait I have a few questions. I have had tons of laptops and this is my first apple since my II-Gs when I was like 6.

My choice was either this of wait for an Asus VX2s lambo laptop. Asus has always been a hit or miss with me. I recently bought an Asus W2 and it was stunning, liked the metal a ton, was very fast, but I dislike ATI video cards. I do own an Asus 696 PDA that is a mean little unit. Great wifi/fast gps lock, slim, well built, streams music/videos and more.

Does notebook review alow PDA reviews? If so I will review it.

I went with a 15" instead of a 17" since I may be travelling with this laptop and need something lighter. I wish it had sxga+ but then again I use an external LCD 24" and sometimes sit far from the screens. To me this was a slim laptop that offeres an nVidia card with GDDR3 that can also run Windows. Plus I am a fan of unix and it will be fun to play with OS X.

Here's what I want to do. Please make recommendations. I am a mac noob.
-Dual boot, OS-X and Windows XP so that at any given time I can have 1 or the other at full speed, no virtualization.
-If I am in OS-X can I run a program to load up Windows XP in a window while using OSX so I can have both running at the same time? This offers me the most flexibility while developing apps.

On another note, is the DVI-D to VGA adapter included or should I buy one? Is there an adapter cable that hooks into the dvi-d port and split into 2 ports, say 2 dvi if I wanted dual LCD with macbook closed? Can it support 2 LCDS + the laptop LCD for a total of 3.

Thanks all, let's see how the mac switch goes... I use external kb/mouse/hub etc so I don't think it will be a prob. Will my 85w adapter burn my apartment down?

 

First of all, NotebookReview is part of a group of websites known as Technology Guide. If you look at the "tabs" at the top of the webpage you'll notice there's Notebook Reviews, and then there's Digital Camera Reviews, and PDA Reviews, etc. So if you want to write a PDA review contact the admins there.

The sticky at the top of this forum will answer the dual booting questions you have.

The MacBook doesn't come with the display connection cables. You'll have to buy them separately, unfortunately.

I'm not too sure if the MacBook can power two external displays on top of its built-in one, so I can't answer that.

No, you're apartment won't burn down .

 

It cannot support two external monitors natively. There are boxes that allow you do connect up to three monitors to your notebook, and most are compatible with OS X. Unfortunately they cost about $700 if I remember correctly.

 

Boot Camp will do the first option there, while Parallels or Fusion will do the second.

the DVI to VGA adapter is included for the MBP. Not quite sure about powering separate LCDs - someone else can answer that. And no, I doubt you'll burn anything down...except with the blazing fast speed of your new computer!

 

Sam, with vmware you can have it run against a physical partition on your hard drive instead of a virtual image file. The drivers then become the problem. I am thinking Boot Camp -> Windows XP and then while in OSX use vmware of parallels to use the same partition to run off as. Is this possible? Or will driver hell just be too much.

 

The nVidia card supports 2 external LCDs. In the past go get this to work with other laptops I have bought a dock. I thought maybe apple had a dongle or something.

 

Ahh good to know about the card (I figured it would) - and yea, pretty sure there isn't a dual dongle, so I guess you'll need a slightly less elegant solution.

 

Yes, you can use the same partition as you use in Boot Camp in VMware/Parallels, if that's what you're asking.

 

However when I switch fom parallels to Windows via boot camp will it have a problem with my drivers that would make me have to install them everytime? I will have to test this and post my results. This IMO is the best solution. You can use parallels and boot into XP if it's not up to snuff running a game or something.

 

they do use a different driver set, but you don't have to install them each time. vmware tools (a windows application) runs when you start the virtual machine only. it virtualizes the drivers and they are loaded only for the virtual machine session.