Got a macbook, would like to dual boot, A few questions

[NYYFAN]

Got a macbook the other day for college, and the one reason I went with mac was so I could dual boot it. I got a few questions though.I am not computer savvy at ALL so if the questions seem dumb, its because I am when it comes to these things.

1. If I dual boot, I'll be able to play pretty much all PC games(mainly halo/gears of war/ other xbox games i cant play since i don't have one)

2. I just bought the macbook new, so Its running Leopard I assume, which has the Boot Camp app. Would dual booting be as simple as getting a copy of windows and putting the cd rom into my macbook?

3. Which windows would be best? I mainly plan to use it for programs my mac can't run and games as well?


Thanks in advanced,
Your forum computer noob

[commandersafi]

1. You wont be able to play ALL PC games. The reason you can't play ALL games is not because you have a macbook, but it's because your macbook doesn't meet the specs needed for all games. i can play pretty much every pc game on my macbook pro, but your macbook will only be able to play a few amount of games because it has an integrated graphics chip

2. Yup, just get a copy of windows then launch bootcamp. With bootcamp you set the partition sizes you want and restart the computer with the windows disk in and it will set up just like you would normally install windows. After you install windows you will need to put in your mac os x disk and install some of the drivers needed to get everything functional in windows (such as webcam and various other things)

3. XP for sure. But remember...to dual boot XP on a mac it MUST be windows XP SP2. You can't install XP SP1 and upgrade it to SP2...it has to be SP2 to begin with

[NYYFAN]

Originally Posted by commandersafi

1. You wont be able to play ALL PC games. The reason you can't play ALL games is not because you have a macbook, but it's because your macbook doesn't meet the specs needed for all games. i can play pretty much every pc game on my macbook pro, but your macbook will only be able to play a few amount of games because it has an integrated graphics chip

2. Yup, just get a copy of windows then launch bootcamp. With bootcamp you set the partition sizes you want and restart the computer with the windows disk in and it will set up just like you would normally install windows. After you install windows you will need to put in your mac os x disk and install some of the drivers needed to get everything functional in windows (such as webcam and various other things)

3. XP for sure

Thanks for the input. I know i won't be able to run games like Crysis, but I imagine Halo 1 and 2 and Gears will be able to right?

[commandersafi]

Originally Posted by NYYFAN

Thanks for the input. I know i won't be able to run games like Crysis, but I imagine Halo 1 and 2 and Gears will be able to right?

I have run Halo 1 and Halo 2 on my macbook pro...i don't know about gears though..i've never tried it. But you have to remember, i have a macbook pro and yours is a macbook. You don't have an independent graphics card in your macbook, so you won't be able to run all the games that i can

[NYYFAN]

Yeah, I will ask on some mac forums before buying anything

[EriCKY]

You will most likely have trouble running even halo.

When I had a macbook I couldn't get Postal 2 to work on it well. Return the macbook and get a macbook pro

[BinoPanda]

I'm not a mac user but it looks like if he has the new mac book he should be able to play halo 1 fine because while he has integrated he has more than enough for halo 1 but not halo 2 or gears of war. But i don't know how windows games run on mac hardware. I'd try the demo of halo for mac and see how it runs (sadly buying the full copy of halo for mac is over $100 on amazon) here is the link: http://www.macgamefiles.com/detail.php?item=18748

p.s. if you do dual boot I know that you can run the original counterstrike and half life1 which makes it worth it in my book.

[NYYFAN]

Originally Posted by BinoPanda

I'm not a mac user but it looks like if he has the new mac book he should be able to play halo 1 fine because while he has integrated he has more than enough for halo 1 but not halo 2 or gears of war. But i don't know how windows games run on mac hardware. I'd try the demo of halo for mac and see how it runs (sadly buying the full copy of halo for mac is over $100 on amazon) here is the link: http://www.macgamefiles.com/detail.php?item=18748

p.s. if you do dual boot I know that you can run the original counterstrike and half life1 which makes it worth it in my book.

Yeah. I looked first on amazon for halo. It would be cheaper to buy an xbox with halo then to buy the mac version.


Thanks for the link. Ill try it now.


@ericky: Not an option. It was a gift for graduation from my parents and I can't really ask for more than a $1200 laptop. I also do not have the money myself to make up the difference so this is more than enough, after all its mainly for school.

[BinoPanda]

did it work?

[NYYFAN]

Yeah, everything worked fine. Few jagged edges but the games is what 4 years old or something? No big deal for me

[BinoPanda]

I think then If if you were dual booting windows you could play a fair amount of games, take a look at some games and see if you're system meets their requirements, here is the page with the macbook specs: http://www.apple.com/macbook/specs.html also steam's website is a good place for getting system requirements because they are at the bottom of every games page.

[Purespeed]

I'd check and see if your system meets the requirements. Personally I'd think that your Macbook should be able to run games such as Gears of War and Halo on Windows bootcamp. Really you should compare specs from the computer and the games boxes to check.