Macbook Pro compared to Windows Laptop

Hi,
I'm a long-time windows user and I'm looking for a new laptop pc. My main uses are 3d studio max 2009, autocad 2009, photoshop, premiere and various other windows software. I don't have any exotic peripherals beyond usb card readers, external hard drive and usb mouse.
The last time I bought my Vaio laptop, I was looking at getting a macbook, but bootcamp was in beta, and I felt that jumping to the MBP at that time could have been an expensive gamble.
Fast forward to October 2009, and the MBP now has some good graphics hardware and bootcamp appears to be a more mature product. I like the glossy screen, which seems to be as good as the dual-lamp screen of the Vaio FW11ZU which I am considering as a PC alternative to the 2.4ghz macbook pro.
I REALLY need to use certain PC-only software for the forseeable future, and would also like to take advantage of the gaming possibilities of the laptop, so my question is this (I got there eventually!!):
Is the macbook pro, when running in windows vista (via bootcamp) simnply a (beautiful) windows compatible machine? Are there any things which just don't work? Can I buy the MBP safe in the knowledge that the windows side of things will work as if I have a windows pc?
Any advice/links would be appreciated.
Cheers.

Hi snarffmax
I'm also a long-time Windows (& Mac) user. You would be fine getting a MBP to run all your Windows software with Apple's Boot Camp drivers. Basically, the Intel Macs are posh PCs, with v little difference in the hardware except they don't have a BIOS - EFI replaces it, and does the job of booting both OS X and Windows. Boot Camp was at v. 2 with Leopard, but earlier in the year Apple released an update, which is no doubt on the DVD the comes with the new unibody machines.
The only thing I would advise is as big a hard disk as you can afford for both the OSs. 250 GB is a bare minimum. When you get the machine, run the Boot Camp Assistant in the Utilities folder (in the Applications folder). Partition the hard disk, & then install Vista in the normal way. (You may need to format the partition as NTFS once in the Vista setup). As soon as you've logged into Windows for the first time, put the DVD that came with the Mac back into the drive & let Windows install the Boot Camp drivers. Once it's done this & rebooted, immediately install virus software. I use avast! free Home version which is extremely good. (The firewall with Vista is perfectly adequate. No replacement is needed).
Good luck, let us know how you get on.
Will

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