Waiting for my MacBook Pro…
Well, I did it! 30th of April I placed my order for the new MacBook Pro 13″ in Apple’s online Store.
The line-up was refreshed the 13th of April, with better batteries and GPUs. The more expensive 15″ and 17″ models have got Core i5 and Core i7 dualcore CPUs now, while the 13″ range sticked with Core 2 Duo and got a little speed bump. All models now have 4 GB DDR3 memory by default.
My order
My order was for the 13″ model, since I need a portable notebook – and I really wanted a Mac. The price diff between a 13″ and a 15″ is 500 – 600 euros, which was outside my budget. So it was either getting the 13″ MacBook Pro or no MBP at all. A 15″ would have been great too, but this is why I went with the 13″:
- I don’t need a beefed up CPU/GPU, this notebook isn’t for gaming/video editing etc
- 500-600 euros for 26% more pixels (1280 x 800 vs 1440 x 900) isn’t worth it for me
- I don’t even have 500 – 600 euros extra to spend!
That’s why I ordered the 13″ model, but I increased the HDD size to 320 GB (instead of the stock 250 GB). This costed 39 euros or so and I couldn’t resist that!
<3
Dutch keyboard layout (NLD)
I noticed that when you buy a Apple notebook here in The Netherlands or order a default configuration online, you get a ‘Dutch keyboard layout’. Sounds fine eh? Well, it isn’t! Even though Dutch is our national language, all Dutchies here use the ‘USA/English’ layout. Differences are the enter, shift, tilde (~) keys and a few more. Even all laptop retailers here sell their laptops with USA/English layouts, but Apple doesn’t. To get the usual USA/English layout, you have to order a custom configuration (CTO / BTO) online. This also means that it will be built in Shanghai (China), so it takes a week or so before it ships.
So, my custom configuration consisted out of:
- MacBook Pro 13″ 2.4 GHz / 4 GB DDR3 / NVIDIA 320M
- 320 GB HDD instead of 250 GB
- USA/English keyboard layout instead of Dutch
Sleeve & spendings
Next to the notebook I also ordered a sleeve for 13″ MacBook Pros (Incase Neoprene sleeve, €39 euros). I got a student discount of 12%, so my total spending were €1085 euros. I’m fully aware that you can get a PC (Windows) laptop with better hardware specs for 50% of the money, but I wanted a Mac so badly after running it in dualboot / VMware and seeing it in the store etc. Mac OS X runs better on lower-specced hardware than PC laptops, because both the hardware and software (OS) are made by Apple. So the hardware is finetuned for the software and vice-versa. What I get now is a…
- Super portable, lightweight aluminium unibody Apple notebook with a 13.3″ LED-lighted screen
- Mac OS X, Apple’s operation system. I’ll dualboot it with Windows 7 though for when I need Visual Studio
- 10-hours battery (according to Apple, convert to real-world values… 7 – 8 hours, that’s ALOT)
- Multi-touch trackpad which is awesome, I have used it in the Apple Store and was amazed how awesome this is. Haven’t got a mouse with it, might connect a USB mouse for games
- Notebook sleeve (Incase Neoprene 13″)
Usage
This will be my first notebook (and first Mac) and I’ll be taking it to college (comp science) and where not. As I said, the order was placed the 30th. My bank payment was processed May 3rd and it shipped from Shanghai the 7th. The online Order Status says that it will arrive 21 – 22 May, but I expect that it will be sooner. Valve’s Steam (online gaming platform) will come to the Mac 12th of May, so when I finally get the laptop I’ll be sure to install Team Fortress 2 etc on it!
I can’t wait to receive the laptop and I’ll surely post more info on it when I get it. Heck, I’ll even make some pictures for you guys! 
I’d also like to thank all of you that have donated to me in the past weeks, these donations have greatly helped me in making this purchase. This notebook will be used for a long time before I pass it on to my brother/sister, so really: thanks guys! 
* Nils resumes F5′ing at the Order Status page
Lucky guy.
Promise to blog about Steam on Mac!
I did the same thing with my new macbook 13. It’s supposed to be here by the 13th, and the ups site says that it is still in china, so hopefully it will be here this wednesday
o O, Good news nils..
Can’t wait for Steam on mac. Then I’ll be able to play CS:S when I am out .
Well. Hopefully (yn)
Why won’t it? Steam for Mac will come out tomorrow. Games like Left 4 Dead 2, Counter Strike: Source, Portal, Half-Life 2 series, Team Fortress 2 etc will be available from the start!
And you don’t have to re-buy it or something.
Wrong so far out of all my games only Portal is out, TF2 is due wednesday i believe
Noticing the part I skipped that you upgraded the hard drive to 320GB exactly the same as me, It just doesn’t seem to fill.
STEAM has only got Portal and some other shit game on the Mac at the moment
I just saw the press release on the STEAM website.
I decided to get the 15″ stock macbook pro with a 500GB hard drive instead of the stock 320GB.
Countdown till I order it! 18 DAYS! (i order on the last day of may [when i get paid
])
wooooo
Gratz, mine will come somewhere next week. How did you get the money for a 15″ btw? Here in Dutchland the diff is like 600 euros. 0.o
i have a part time job – decided to wait the extra month so i could get the better CPU/GPU
(Prices in my country: http://store.apple.com/nz/browse/home/shop_mac/family/macbook_pro?mco=MTAyNTQzMzk )
(!)
i miss waldkorn T___T
please nillus, open the waldkorn or suelake… or tell me the link to create V1 server.
[...] Waiting for my MacBook Pro… | nillus! blog [...]
“Mac OS X runs better on lower-specced hardware than PC laptops, because both the hardware and software (OS) are made by Apple. So the hardware is finetuned for the software and vice-versa.”
You seriously believe that?
Try running 10.6 on a only 3 year old High End Mac… whats that? You can`t.
Try windows 7 on a high end 6 year old PC, Works perfect!
With ‘So the hardware is finetuned for the software and vice versa’, I meant that each release of the OS is finetuned for a particular hardware model of the notebook / desktop. (eg, iMac7,1)
That way, you know that Apple has tested the OS for your computer, and has done a best effort to get the max out of the hardware while maintaining efficient power usage and stuff.
What I did NOT meant is that you can slap any version of OS X at any Mac model, and expect that it will run just fine. Still, thanks for your comment!
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