OT: (My) first look at the MBP 17"

Hi,

now I got my MBP 17" and I've played with it a little. Here is my first experience after playing with it for two days:

- Compared to the old G4 17" PowerBook, the mechanical parts of the MBP's display are better. With the old G4 PB I had some problems with the lock of the display and it also was a little "wabbely" when closed. The MBP does that better.

- The display itself of the MBP is not that good compared to old G4 PB. If you move your head away from the center position to the display, it quickly gets darker. The old G4 PB was better, as the display looked good from about every direction. When I set desktop background of the MBP display to white, it is also brighter in the upper right corner and gets darker to the lower left corner. :-/

- Airport Extreme is great, but Im not going to use it. As we all know, WEP encryption is not safe!!! Read here:
[www.oreillynet.com]

When I setup a direct computer-to-computer connection to a Mac mini (also equipped with Airport Extreme), there is option to select the safe WPA encryption. I only can select a WEP encryption for the connection. Again: :-/

- Airport Extreme Speed: Airport Extreme claims to be as fast as hell. Well... the (my) reality is, that it's speed drops damatically with the distance to the connected access point. With my 16 MBit/DSL internet connection I can get download speeds of up to 1.7 MB (megabytes) per second. So I've uploaded something big (150 MB) to my server and watched the how fast I can download it. On the Mac Pro (hoocked up directly on the intranet) I get a steady 1.7 MB/sec.. Always! On the MBP I get about 0.9 MB/sec, when I am about 3 feet away from my Airport Extreme base station. It drops to 0.6 MB/sec with 15 feet distance and drops to 0.1 MB/sec with 30 feet distance (with 2 brick walls in between). Even the 0.9 MB/sec. are only about 8 MBit.... So where are the claimed (up to) 540 MBit/sec ?
[en.wikipedia.org]

- The MBP is faaast. The 2.66 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo Prozessor does what I have expected. Here are some speedtests with Cinebench:

Mac Pro, Quad 2.66 GHz: 1450 points
17" MBP, Core 2 Duo, 2.66 GHz: 748 points
Dual 2.7 GHz G5: 697 points
(My souped-up) Mac mini, Core 2 Duo, 2.16 GHz: 687 points
PC: Dual 3.06 GHz Xeon: 650 points
Dual 2.5 GHz G5: 649 points
PC: AMD Athlon 64 3400+: 438 points
PC: Intel P4 (Northwood), 3.2 GHz: 383 points
G5 (single) 1.8 GHz: 259 points
PC: AMD Athlon 64 2400+: 246 points
17" PB, G4, 1.5 GHz: 154 points
Mac mini, Core Solo, 1.5 GHz: 218 points
iMac, G3, 233 MHz: 23 points (gg)

- Too bad that there is no more modem in the MBP. Sometimes I am in in hotel rooms with no wireless-support and so I need a modem to connect to the internet. The additional 55 Euros (much more expensine here in germany than in the US) for the Apple USB-Modem are quite expensine.

- 160 GB is way enough for a portable machine. I never used up the 60GB of the old G4 PB... so what shall I do with the 160 GB of the MBP ? (gggg)

- The trackpad with the additional functions, like scrolling with two fingers, is great. I love that feature.

- The magnetic power connector is cool. I've heard that some people broke their PB when they pulled to hard on the power connector. Even though I never broke that connector on the G4 PB, I definitely break it on the MBP.

So much for now.

--
Christoph Vonrhein

[www.chv-plugins.com]

Hi Chris

Have you got all the updates for the Airport including the Firmware for the base station?

[www.apple.com]

[search.info.apple.com]

Also if you want to use the AirPort Extreme 802.11n you have to purchase the software update from the Apple store - its about $1.99 (£1.25 or ?1.95)

Look in the Apple Store then on the left column under Mac Accessories > AirPort & Wireless and for the AirPort Extreme 802.11n* Enabler for Mac

You are correct in saying not to use WEP as it is easily hacked - better to use WPA2 - make sure you are running Tiger on all your systems and use a really mad mU1t1ch4r4c73r password.

Ben

PS I have a new 15" MBP and its lovely too...



For instant answers to more than one hundred common FCP questions, check out the LAFCPUG FAQ Wiki here : [www.lafcpug.org]

My MBP 17" Core 2 Duo is the first laptop type computer that I ever wanted. it runs Final Cut Studio very well and that screen real estate is sweet. Not bad for a computer built in China.

These puppies are only going to get better as time goes on. I wish the battery charges lasted longer but thats getting better too. The change to the Express 34 slot has caused problems for we HVX200 P2 users as well.

I only hope the batteries don't have the same problem that the one is the older 2.16 Ghx MBP 17" had.

Hi Ben,

> Have you got all the updates for the Airport
> including the Firmware for the base station?

Yes.

> Also if you want to use the AirPort Extreme
> 802.11n you have to purchase the software update
> from the Apple store - its about $1.99 (£1.25 or ?1.95)

Got that too. This was included for no extra charge with the purchase of the station.

> You are correct in saying not to use WEP as it is
> easily hacked - better to use WPA2 - make sure you
> are running Tiger on all your systems and use a
> really mad mU1t1ch4r4c73r password.

I've found the "Extreme" problem: I was trying to connect my Mac mini to the MBP and was expecting that this also works with WPA. But such a connection is only possible with the WEP encryption. Now I have setup the AirPort Extreme Station correctly and I connect the computers to the station. WPA now is functional. :-)

I'll do some more speedtests. My Apple dealer said that these rates are way too low and there must be some other problem. I'll invetigate and see if I can get it to fly.

Christoph Vonrhein

Christoph Vonrhein Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

> - The MBP is faaast. The 2.66 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
> Prozessor does what I have expected. Here are some
> speedtests with Cinebench:
>
> Mac Pro, Quad 2.66 GHz: 1450 points
> 17" MBP, Core 2 Duo, 2.66 GHz: 748 points

Whoopsie... of course it's a 2.33 GHz MBP.

And here is a follow-up: I've now updated all my Airports to 802.11n (except for the AirPort Extreme in the Mac mini, which is an "old" refurbished and then souped-up one and does not want to be updated).

Now I can get greats speeds over the new. But still: When I put some distance between the AirPort Extreme Base station and the MBP, the data rate dropps quite quick and becomes unstable. So I can't confirm the "promised" 165 ft range for a 802.11n connection. Maybe there is too much interferance coming from the people living around my place.

Christoph Vonrhein

You might want to read these Christoph

Me thinks you are not alone

[www.macintouch.com]

[www.macintouch.com]

Michael Horton
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