Apple MacBook Pro???

[NEALROSENBLUM]

Is there anybody out there using a MacBook Pro for Pro|E? (Wildfire 5.0)

Sincerely,
Neal Rosenblum
Geometrix Engineering, Inc.
201 N. 13th Avenue
Hollywood, FL 33019
Ph: 954-920-2049
Fax: 954-920-9574
Cell: 954-649-9399
neal@geometrixeng.c

[NEALROSENBLUM]

I just called MAC. They said that I can custom order a MacBook Pro and that they WILL make an exception and take it back if it does not work out. They typically do not take returns on customized computers.

So what will be the benefit of running Windows XP or 7 on a MacBook Pro running Bootcamp? I am not sure other than the quality of the computer might be a bit better. Windows might even run faster on a Mac than on a PC. The cost of the Mac is about $1000 less than the Dell M6600, but I cannot get the RAID configuration and a bunch of other options that I can get on the Dell. Also, the graphics card on the MacBook Pro is the ATI Radeon 6750M. This is not on PTC's list of supported hardware.

Sincerely,
Neal Rosenblum
Geometrix Engineering, Inc.
201 N. 13th Avenue
Hollywood, FL 33019
Ph: 954-920-2049
Fax: 954-920-9574
Cell: 954-649-9399
neal@geometrixeng.c

[Jim.Tierney]

A similar question was asked a few weeks ago so I'll respond to the
group.



BootCamp is a boot loader for the Mac. You can basically load windows
onto a partition and when you start the machine, holding the option key
will give you the choice of running windows (xp, vista, or 7 - whatever
you install) or OSX. This is running windows natively so performance
would equal a comparable PC laptop.



The other option is to run an emulator (Parallels, or there is an open
source one Virtual Box). The benefit there is you can run windows
inside OSX, but you now have two operating systems running off the same
ram. There will be a performance hit doing this.



I've run Pro/E on my iMac running XP and it works. The graphics will be
the biggest factor. It should work, but there are better cards out
there for running Pro/E. With Apple, you get what they offer.



I did see that PTC will start offering parts of Creo on OSX, I think I
read Creo 2.0



Hope that helps,



Jim

[NEALROSENBLUM]

Thanks everybody for your replies. I have had so much trouble with Dell in the past 48 hours that I am seriously considering converting to the MacBook Pro.

The largest assembly that I work with is 100 parts or so and of these, many are screws,nuts, washers, etc.

I am looking for a stable system on which to run Wildfire 5.0 and beyond. I just cannot have any major showstoppers like frequent freeze-ups, crashes, etc. (no more than with my current Dell M90).

Will the MacBook Pro do this for me?

The spec's that I am currently looking at are as follows: (this is for a refurb)

neal@geometrixeng.c

[kelly]

Neal:

I love using Bootcamp on my MacBookPro 2010 edition (with the Nvidia GForce
GT 330M video board). It is very stable (it wasn't with early versions of
Bootcamp, but the latest versions of Bootcamp have been much better).
However, I don't run ProE on it (I only run ProE on my desktop).

In my experience a lot of ProE crashes, lock-ups, and display anomalies are
caused by poorly performing graphics boards and buggy drivers. Based on past
experience and from doing some research, I would suspect that using an AMD
graphics board would be more likely to give you problems than an Nvidia
graphics board for an OpenGL-graphics intensive program like ProE.

I am surprised that your M90 isn't stable, since it is a "mobile
workstation" and is running an nVidia Quadro (the professional version of
the GForce) graphics card. Have you tried mucking about with different
driver versions and changing some of the OpenGL options? One of our clients
has several M4400 mobile workstations and they have no issues (running
Wildfire 4.0).

Best regards,
Kelly

[NEALROSENBLUM]

All,

I finally made a decision to stick with the Dell M6600. While I love the MacBook Pro, I was a bit skeptical whether it would meet or exceed the performance of the Dell Precision Workstation. My biggest gripe with Dell was the manner in which they handled this entire problem...it could have definitely been handled better.

Thanks for your opinions about the MacBook Pro.

Sincerely,
Neal Rosenblum
Geometrix Engineering, Inc.
201 N. 13th Avenue
Hollywood, FL 33019
Ph: 954-920-2049
Fax: 954-920-9574
Cell: 954-649-9399
neal@geometrixeng.c