How good is the MacBook Pro ?

Dear member:
I am considering the purchase of a new MacBook Pro to replace my aging notebook. After reading reviews and reports from customers it became apparent to me that many users are experiencing problems with the new Intel technology and the new notebooks.
1. What problems are all of you experiencing with the new notebooks ?
2. How does the performance compare with that of the Power PC notebooks ?
3. How are companies doing in regards to converting their software to run on the new Intel machines ?
4. Initial reports on Rosetta seem to reveal it is not as fast as Apple initially claimed. How is Rosetta running and what software can't be run with it ?
What other advice would you have for me ? Should I purchase the new MacBook Pro or wait until all issues have been properly addressed ?
Thank you in advance for your help and suggestions.
Best regards,
Joseph Chamberlain

1. What problems are all of you experiencing with the new notebooks ?
I only have two complaints. The first is the display 'buzzing' if it's not turned onto maximum brightness. I run my display at maximum 90% of the time, so it's not that big of an issue. The second complaint is that every once in a while I can hear a slight buzz, which some have attributed to a noisy power supply within the MBP.
2. How does the performance compare with that of the Power PC notebooks ?
I used a 15" G4 Powerbook for years, and this is much faster. Like night and day faster. I wouldn't go back.
3. How are companies doing in regards to converting their software to run on the new Intel machines ? It's hit or miss, but I think Apple has been so quick on getting the machines out (and demand for them has been so high) that some companies are struggling to get their software out as quickly as they'd like. The universal binaries that I've used have been great and fast.
4. Initial reports on Rosetta seem to reveal it is not as fast as Apple initially claimed. How is Rosetta running and what software can't be run with it ?
Honestly, I haven't seen this. I have a dual 2.0Ghz, and MS Office runs just fine under rosetta. I don't use any pro apps so I can't speak for those.
Seriously, just buy it. I love mine. Best laptop I've ever owned.

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I'm running on the 2013 15" Retina, with dedicated graphics chip though; However the Activity Monitor shows that it is using the Iris chipset to run Minecraft.
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Hello All,
I've been waiting for the problems with the MacBook Pro to slow down before I purchase one. But, I've recently read numerous stories (on this and other forums) about the case bending in various places.
From what I have read, it sounds like the aluminum case has weak spots and will bend with little pressure.
The complaints I have read indicated that the area around the CD-ROM drive may bend slightly where you rest your palms while typing.
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So it is very stiff then?
I guess I got the impression that over time the panel would bend slightly from resting your hands on it.
I am wanting something that is very durable, and won't become easily damaged when I finally purchase another computer.
Some people have mentioned that it bent slightly, or that the edges of the CD-ROM drive could make an impression on the case from the weight of your hands resting on the case (or maybe with a little pressure).
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I should add that I do also have a young daughter that will sometime use the computer to play with her programs and such.
So, structural strength is very important.
I am generally not concerned with out current machines because the keyboards are very solid (especially with the Mac Mini and iMac G3).
But, with a machine that has the keyboard and palm-rest built-in, I would be concerned that it might be easily damaged if the material is not strong enough.

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tmorphey,
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Hey samraymond,
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Apple - MacBook Pro with Retina display - Technical Specifications
http://www.apple.com/macbook-pro/specs-retina/
Testing conducted by Apple in July 2014 using preproduction 2.5GHz quad-core Intel Core i7–based 15-inch MacBook Pro units, preproduction 2.2GHz quad-core Intel Core i7–based 15-inch MacBook Pro units, and preproduction 2.8GHz dual-core Intel Core i5–based 13-inch MacBook Pro units. The wireless web test measures battery life by wirelessly browsing 25 popular websites with display brightness set to 12 clicks from bottom or 75%. The HD movie playback test measures battery life by playing back HD 720p content with display brightness set to 12 clicks from bottom or 75%. The standby test measures battery life by allowing a system, connected to a wireless network and signed in to an iCloud account, to enter standby mode with Safari and Mail applications launched and all system settings left at default. Battery life varies by use and configuration. See www.apple.com/batteries for more information.
If you’d like to learn more about maximizing your battery life, see this helpful resource:
Apple - Batteries - Maximizing Performance
http://www.apple.com/batteries/maximizing-performance/#macbook
Thanks,
Matt M.

How well does the MacBook Pro 2.0Ghz run games?

I am quite interetested because from the looks of the specs, it doesn't have the 'muscle' that you would see in a PC. Does it not need the high clocking speeds and memory that a PC needs? I pay quite a few game, mostly FPS and though I have a PC as my main gaming machine, I am wondering if this will be able to play games fluently. Games include (for both PC and Apple) Counter-Strike: Source, America's Army, Battle Field 1942, etc. Sorry if this seems... off.. but I am new to the Apple way.
-Ryan

Macs until this January ran on PowerPC CPUs, but the switch is on to bring them all into the "Intel inside" world. Apple realized this transition would be very hard for software vendors who would have to recode their products for the new CPUs so they basically bought a company called Transitive for its translation technology, which Apple calls Rosetta.
Under Rosetta PowerPC code is translated to Intel code. This means there is considerable overhead on startup and when new code is needed by the application during use, but it's much faster than emulation which is basically a virtual hardware machine made out of software within the OS - pretty technical, and not fast.
Anyway what you need to know is that PowerPC programs, the vast majority of them, run just fine under Rosetta, but at somewhat of a performance penalty. In something like a text editor this would be almost undetectable, but in a 3D FPS it could really drag down frame rates and overall performance.
The answer is Universal Binaries: programs that are compiled to run natively on both Intel and PowerPC. More and more are released every day. UT2004 patch 3369-3 (I believe it is) is a good example; it's over 100MBs but contains code for both PowerPC and Intel Macs, making the game "hardware agnostic" and giving you great performance on either CPU.
Hope this explains it.

How durable is the MacBook Pro?

I woke up to a loud bang and somehow my MacBook had fallen off my desk, there Afars to be no major damage, but when I close the laptop it seems to not want to close quite all the way, and it make a slight scraping noise when I open it but other than that it seems ok should I be concerned?

1. Backup your data.
2. Take the computer to an Apple store for a free diagnosis.
Best.

HT6065 How long is the MacBook Pro upgrade supposed to take, I think something must be wrong... Been installing for 4 hours.:(

Started the update of software by accident actually, it has been installing for 4 hours, help what do I do?

I did just power down. Guess I won't upgrade until I hear it works!

Hi, I bought the macbook pro 15 3 months ago. I wanna upgrade the hard drive to 128G ssd drive. How much I should paid?

Hi, I bought the macbook pro 15 3 months ago. I wanna upgrade the hard drive to 128G ssd drive. How much I should paid?

Qingfeng wrote:
Hi, I bought the macbook pro 15 3 months ago. I wanna upgrade the hard drive to 128G ssd drive. How much I should paid?
Well you won't have very much storage capacity with a SSD that small, also SSD has limited writes, so it wouldn't be good for on-loading and off-loading a lot of files.
SSD isn't being securely erased due to steps to prevent their premature wear, so despite what you do in Disk Utility Secure Erase, your confidential data can still be recovered if you pass the machine on to someone else for instance.
Other than those reasons, small SSD's can be extremely fast, loading your programs and OS much faster. But the real benefit in high speed storage is transfering large amounts of files on/off the computer to ANOTHER fast device. This comes in handy for video and large music collections and so forth.
Since the SSD because of it's limited writes doesn't fit the bill as a large file transfer medium.
If you want to get a SSD drive, you can upgrade it yourself simply by ordering one online at locations like Other World Computing or NewEgg and have a 00 micro phillips head screwdriver handy.
There are instructions over at iFixit for opening your MacBook and replacing the hard drive with the SSD.
Preferably you will want to clone your present boot drive to a external drive using Carbon Copy Cloner, then making the switch and hold option to boot from the clone and then clone from the external to the new internal SSD drive.
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This is currently the fastest SSD availalbe
http://www.harddrivebenchmark.net/hdd.php?hdd=OCZ-VERTEX3+MI

How good is the MacBook Pro ?

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