Questions Before Purchase

I've been looking at Macbooks for a while (waited since october for the refresh) and am really enticed by the Macbook Pro 13, but I ahve a few questions to see if it is right for me.

1. I see that that 2010 macbook pro 13 has a better gpu than the 2011 but the 2011 has a better processor. I'm looking for a machine to edit video (college level) and play mainly source games (I have a good desktop). Which version would be better for these two things.

2. What is the realistic battery life on the 2010 model and the 2011 model?

3. When compared to the Sager 5160, how well does the Macbook Pro 13 and Mac OSX work with editing video?

4. Would it be worth it to spring for the high end Macbook Pro 15 for the better gpu and processor (I think $2000 for a laptop is a bit much but I can afford it).

5. I heard that when you want to upgrade things like flash on the Mac, instead of it being free you have to pay for the upgrade. Is that true/is there a way around that (without soliciting anything illegal).

6. I like to bittorent my films (most of my team uses bitorrent for sharing files between themselves) and was wondering if bittorrent or something similiar runs on Mac OSX.

7. In what ways can you make Mac OSX look like windows. I'm not saying I like windows more, I love both operating systems for different reasons and would love to be able to combine them (I like windows because I can get into all the files of an application and am able to click on shortcuts on the desktop to open things).

8. How would I transfer my files from the pc desktop to a mac (word, photos, videos, etc.) and do I have to buy a seperate microsoft office software pack for the mac even though I have an unused one for the pc?

Sorry for so many questions but this is a major purchase that i'm considering having never owned a Mac and not having had a real laptop in the past 4 years.

 

5) False. Apple used to upgrade/bundle Flash in it's software updates, but has now ceased to do so. All it means is that to update/upgrade flash, you have to do it separately and manually from Adobe. Adobe does not charge anything for this.

 

the 2011 is better for everything except if your gaming... if your gaming, you'd probably not be buying a 13"er anyways.

depends what your doing... battery drain isn't a constant level... anywhere from like 2 hours to 8 hours.

Don't know anything about the Sager... it all depends what software your using I'd guess. For most normal home use video editing, iMovie is really nice... horsepower wise its still very powerful because of the strong CPU.

Depends if you need the power or not...

Adobe doesn't charge Flash on any platform. Apple doesn't charge for OS updates or anything like that... just for whole new OS versions. So basically, theres no difference in how things are charged for in updates compared to the Windows world... besides the OS is usually cheaper when a new version is out.

There are many torrent clients for OSX... no problem.

you can get into all the files of the Applications and make shortcuts (even on the desktop) to double click and run and stuff like that on OSX... not sure what else you mean by like Windows... you might need to try OSX out for awhile before you ask stuff like this.

just as you would copy files from a PC to a PC... copy them across the network.. put them on an external hard drive... put them on a USB thumb drive... whatever...
Microsoft does make a Mac version of Office... currently MS Office 2011. A Windows version of Office will not really run... as no Windows software will directly. Of course just like Windows, there are many other office apps you can get to use instead of MS Office that will use MS Office formats.

 

My background: Owned a 2010 13" MBP for 6 months. Owned a 2011 13" i7 dual core model for about a week. Currently own the high-end 15" 2011 model. Been using OSX for about 4 years now.

1. I see that that 2010 macbook pro 13 has a better gpu than the 2011 but the 2011 has a better processor. I'm looking for a machine to edit video (college level) and play mainly source games (I have a good desktop). Which version would be better for these two things.

2011 still hands down. The 320m GPU is MARGINALLY better and the i5 has proven to make up any difference the HD3000 is lacking especially in OSX in terms of gaming. Boot camp, the 320m shows it is better (probably due to drivers as well) but in OSX most benchmarks I've seen show the i5 + HD3000 run even faster. L4D2 was one game that ran faster than the 2010 in OSX and I have experience with SC2 with it playing a lot smoother, less low fps dips.

2. What is the realistic battery life on the 2010 model and the 2011 model?

Realistically is a bout 7 hours dimmed screen, no flash videos. I used flashblocker. The 2011 probably can pull 30min longer but both very good. Wifi on.

3. When compared to the Sager 5160, how well does the Macbook Pro 13 and Mac OSX work with editing video?

I briefly had the i7 13" before moving to the 15" and I was pleasantly surprised in iMovie. The sandy bridge is so freaking amazing lol. C2D doesn't even come close to it especially in video editing. Rendering movies and encoding etc, the new CPU's are damn good. As far as compared to the 5160, does that have the quad cores? If so then the quad obviously will nearly double the rendering/encoding and it has the 540m so the GPU is better. Also it has a bigger screen if that bothers you. I think the 13" is fine for video editing though, but my experience is only in iMovie.

4. Would it be worth it to spring for the high end Macbook Pro 15 for the better gpu and processor (I think $2000 for a laptop is a bit much but I can afford it).

If you can't afford it, then no. Was it worth it to me? Yes, I game a little bit and just knowing I had the better GPU with the quad core is pretty nice. I love to do iMovie cuts and game in boot camp, which was my reasoning for ditching the 13" and moving to 15". But also I ran into some cash from resales etc and was able to do this. Otherwise, I would have been happy with the 13".

5. I heard that when you want to upgrade things like flash on the Mac, instead of it being free you have to pay for the upgrade. Is that true/is there a way around that (without soliciting anything illegal).

You heard wrong. A lot of good apps on Mac are free actually and flash is one of them. Although flash does get your cpu working in OSX, which can be annoying. Hence my use of flashblocker in Chrome browser.

6. I like to bittorent my films (most of my team uses bitorrent for sharing files between themselves) and was wondering if bittorrent or something similiar runs on Mac OSX.

Yes, there is utorrent for OSX.

7. In what ways can you make Mac OSX look like windows. I'm not saying I like windows more, I love both operating systems for different reasons and would love to be able to combine them (I like windows because I can get into all the files of an application and am able to click on shortcuts on the desktop to open things).

You can create shortcuts, here they are called aliases. Or you can just use the dock for what it was intended for and put your shortcuts on there. The dock is basically a "quick launch" for windows but it manages your multitasking as well, but expose is actually made for the multitasking part (and it's so much cooler).

8. How would I transfer my files from the pc desktop to a mac (word, photos, videos, etc.) and do I have to buy a seperate microsoft office software pack for the mac even though I have an unused one for the pc?

Yes Mac OSX uses Office 2011 which is different. You can always sell/rebuy for OSX if you really want office or use an open source. As for transferring, use a FAT32 formatted external drive and go from there. Both OS's can read/write to FAT32 granted you don't have 4GB or larger files.

Sorry for so many questions but this is a major purchase that i'm considering having never owned a Mac and not having had a real laptop in the past 4 years.

Good luck!

 

Editing video is CPU power. Playing games is GPU power. 2011 is better CPU. 2010 is better GPU. Choose your poison.

You need to read the Anandtech articles on this. He did extensive testing on just battery life between models. I believe 2010 MBP 13" was the king of kings for doing minimal stuff.

Quad i7 would be a significant boost for video editing. 15" and 17" also come with discrete so gaming is doable as well. The 15" is an extra pound of weight vs. the 13". I opted for the 15".

I herd you like cars, so I put a car in your car...

You can get uTorrent for Mac. It's a non-issue.

Here's what I came up with:


You might also find my guide to remapping MacBook keys helpful.

Check my signature link for Dropbox on steroids.