1-day Week-19 17" MBP Review!

Question

Hello, all...
Well, I had been avidly reading the forums for the past week, waiting in eager and dreaded anticipation of my new MBP17 to arrive, coming straight from Shanghai (per the tracking number). Will it moo? Or whine? Or be scorching hot? Will I have to fix key alignment? Or hold the thing closed because the latch isn't working? Or maybe stare in disbelief at screen sratches, dead pixels, or dark blotches in the corners of my screens?
My specs: 17" MBP, 2.16Ghz, 1GB RAM, 100GB/7200rpm HDD (my first Mac).
My baby arrived yesterday in a beautiful little black box. With the utmost care and ease, I unpacked it ever so softly, easily placing all the packaging together neatly (in case I needed to return/ebay it in the future!). I must say first and foremost, Apple has the form factor DOWN. Gorgeous machine, sleek lines, streamlined design, and a pleasure to look at. Mine came with no physical defects at all.
I wanted to put mine through as much stress as possible so I could make my yay/nay decision within the 14-day return period. So I booted up, updated the software, tried updating the firmware (it was already up to date), pushed my remote menu button no less than 30 times, then went straight into Boot Camp and XP installation. I don't really intend on using XP much (although I may have to use CS2 and Studio in XP until the UB versions are released), but as I mentioned, I wanted to put this thing through the wringer right away.
Boot Camp installed fine, XP followed, and I was up and running relatively quickly. A few minor driver issues arose in XP, but they were quickly remedied. XP worked beautifully (or as beautifully as XP works) on the MacBook Pro.
During this whole process, I hadn't heard any whine... but I also knew that the whine dominated in OSX, not XP. So I spent a fair amount of time in OSX, playing with the built-in programs and such. Absolutely no whine or strange sounds. Period.
I knew that the heat test loomed around the corner. "How can I really test this thing out?" I asked myself. Enter my little brother, a gaming expert. I hesistantly handed the MBP over to his anticipating and impatient hands, praying that he break it in gently. He immediately went to work, installing Half-Life2, Steam, and Counter-Strike Source. After the never-ending installation process, he finally started up. With all detail settings on high, the game was stunning. Sharp, beautiful graphics and smooth gameplay. I assigned him the "task" of playing CSS for the next hour, which he did without hesitation.
An hour later, I came back to take my laptop's temperature (with my hand). I expected high temps with the load he was placing on the machine. The MBP was very warm, hot in certain places, very warm on the bottom. Possibly a "thermal paste" problem, but I can't say for sure. The fact that the case is aluminum comforts me tremendously (I have worked with metal extensively in the past and aluminum transfers heat very efficiently, especially when compared to other metals and definitely other materials such as plastic). The case acts as a huge heatsink. So when I imagine that all the heat I'm feeling is heat that could have been smothering my machine's internals, I don't dislike it nearly as much.
Could it be cooler? Yes, but it was only slightly warmer than my office G4 Powerbook 1.33GHz/512MB, especially on the bottom. Is it so bothersome that I will consider returning it? Absolutely not. I paid $3000 for a good machine and I feel I got one. I also understand the laws of thermodynamics and the properties of aluminum, so I'm less inclined to whine about that. If you ask me, I personally prefer a hot aluminum laptop over a cool plastic one. The former is constantly ridding itself of the heat, while the latter is essentially a convection oven.
The screen: beautiful. A noticeable bit brighter than the PB, but I don't know if I'd say "36% brighter." I specifically looked for dark blotches in the corners and didn't see anything. I noticed an extremely slight difference in brightness in the corners, but I'd expect that from a 1/4" laptop screen. When using the computer, it's definitely not noticeable at all.
Overall impression: I love it. I'm extremely difficult to please (I'm one of those guys that goes for the middle of the row of items when buying stuff off the shelf) and a perfectionist on top of that. But Apple [finally] got it right with this thing. The fact that it's a Week-19 machine may have something to do with it.
I hope this helps anyone on the fence. I read every thread I could find about the new MBPs so I could make an informed decision. Keep in mind that forums such as these usually attract the users with problems, not those who are happily using their machines and are satisfied with their purchase.
If I missed anything, let me know. By the way: what program can I use to take specific temperature measurements? I'd like to do that and post the results.
Good luck to everyone.
Regards,
Zayd
17" MacBook Pro, 2.16GHz, 1GB RAM, 100GB/7200rpm HDD Mac OS X (10.4.6)

Answer 1

My pleasure... I thought it would help to hear some good news for a change.
My MBP is still great. I got around to checking the CPU temp after an hour of intense gameplay: 64 degrees Celcius. I haven't seen it get warmer than this. With average use, I'm usually around 55 degrees. When first powered on, I'm at 30 degrees.
It is important to note, however, that the case does get warm -- warm enough to think that it's bad for my CPU. But, as I mentioned, I switched back to OSX and immediately checked the temp, which was always around 60-65 degrees.
Whine update: I've detected a minute whine from the processor -- likely the same whine everyone has been talking about. I can only really hear it when my ear is to the left speaker, so at normal usage distances, it's hardly audible. Definitely not bothersome at all.
Feel free to ask any questions!
Zayd