So my laptops' hard drive failed after watching Gasme of Thrones last night, which was awesome, and I have to buy a new laptop. I'm considering a 13.3 inch Mac book pro with 5i intel processor and 500 gb hard drive but I want to know if anyone has a Mac here and can tell me if CE runs smoothly on it since CE is my way of enjoying my favorite past time of wasting time.

Um... Masterz is very knowledgeable on Macs, I would ask him over anybody here. Try reaching him on PM or Xfire.

I have the latest Retina Macbook Pro. I know Vette19 uses a 2012 MBP as well.

The truth is, you should avoid getting a MBP with a hard drive, they stopped supporting that chasis and have just been doing small upgrades to it. In fact, I am pretty sure given a few kicks up in the GHZ, the one you are looking at is the same that Vette19 has.

You're better off going after one of the Retina 13" Pros, the Isis graphics are much much better than the intel HD 4000, as they are able to drive the retina display under normal use and all it's power can be used to support games at standard resolutions. The only problem with the Retina models is that the flash storage while superior, is also more expensive and the lowest end 13" only has 128gb. The next highest one is 256 GB and comes with 8gb of ram, I'd advise getting that one. Also if you are a student, you get a discount on all the models as well. Here is the link to the ones I am talking about (before discounts) http://store.apple.com/us/buy-mac/macbook-pro

I can't speak personally how well the Isis works for CE, as I can't use mine as Windows uses my Discreet GPU when I use bootcamp or Virtual Machine. What's really great though is if you install parallels, you can create a VM out of your bootcamp partition, so you can run all your windows apps including CE and the HEK alongside your OSX apps, and OSX features can tap into all your windows files. When you do need to harness all your computers horsepower, you can jsut go into bootcamp (which is what I do when I want to record 1080p footage for videos and stuff, or 2880x1800 pictures.

Also on another note, you can scale OSX to run at a higher scaled resolution with the retina displays. For example, my display is 2880x1800, but the way it renders everything everything is the size of a 1440x900 display, but super sharp. However, I can also set my display to render things as if they are 1920x1200 res, effectively giving me a larger desktop and workspace at the cost of sharpness (but the pixel density is so high you can't notice anyway)

why not asus? or msi like me? or one of those tablets with the detachable keyboard? my friend uses that and haswell i3 is good enough to do cmt spv3 with OS so it will be good enough for halo XD

There is a problem, with all those notebooks. They run W8.

Perhaps gaming is not the only thing he cares about in a computer.

http://www.amazon.com/Lenovo-Yoga-Convertible-Ultrabook-Tablet/dp/B00IQXSW6C/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1396904274&sr=8-6&keywords=windows+8+tablet+convertible+haswell

windows 8 works with halo ce. I know because my friend has w8 tablet and I had to install ce on it because he didn't have a disk drive for halo pc(I think that's a gift because now he plays halo ce)

heres another http://www.amazon.com/Acer-P3-171-6820-11-6-Inch-Detachable-Touchscreen/dp/B00CRY012E/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1396904487&sr=8-2&keywords=windows+8+tablet+convertible+haswell+detachable+keyboard#productDetails
Edited by rcghalohell on Apr 7, 2014 at 05:02 PM

Uh I run W7 alongside OSX simultaneously along with many other people. It all works flawlessly and having OSX be able to tap into my windows files and features makes it even easier to use and allows me to be more productive.

@Razorhog, here are the education discounts, http://store.apple.com/us-hed/buy-mac/macbook-pro. 100$ more for what you already payed will get you a significantly better machine.

Or the refurb
http://store.apple.com/us-hed/product/FE865LL/A/refurbished-133-inch-macbook-air-13ghz-dual-core-intel-core-i5
Edited by Masters1337 on Apr 7, 2014 at 05:05 PM
Edited by Masters1337 on Apr 7, 2014 at 05:07 PM

everione luuk how rich i am

I only thought portablilty from that size so I took in this

http://www.amazon.com/Transformer-TX201LA-DH71T-11-6-Inch-Detachable-Touchscreen/dp/B00H7WF6KI/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1396904625&sr=8-4&keywords=windows+8+tablet+haswell+detachable+keyboard#productDetails

down the page there are other models for your price



and this is the exact model that I put halo ce on for my friend back during winter break

http://www.amazon.com/Transformer-T100TA-C1-GR-10-1-Inch-Detachable-Touchscreen/dp/B00FFJ0HUE/ref=psdc1_t1_B00H7WF6KI_B00FFJ0HUE



with all these links, feel free to look

each of them can handle halo regardless


im too lazy to find any windows 7, but I can say these have good battery life if you are up for gaming in a café, or watching a movie somewhere, but have a flash drive handy for some of these portable devices, lol and here I am with a heavy laptop and loving power
Edited by rcghalohell on Apr 7, 2014 at 05:15 PM

Perhaps flashy looks and a locked down OS isn't all he cares about in a computer.

ಠ_ಠ

I've read your arguments in the past masterz, and I find myself agreeing, or at least relenting, with a surprising amount of the points you present, but it seems something of a misnomer to suggest a macintosh on a gaming forum, yes?

To answer the OP, the people over at MacGamingMods have their own version of CE you can get. Halo MD, I think it's called.

I've dual booted on multiple devices for ranging from multiple versions of windows to different linux distros.

What's great about parallels for virtualization on mac is you can run windows and applications from other operating systems alongside your native apps, and not self contained in their own sandbox. You also can't take advantage of OSX's features alongside windows when you dual boot or run a VM on a windows machine.

Edit: There is nothing locked down about OSX. iOS yeah sure, but there is nothing you are locked out of doing in OSX. To be fair, this isn't a gaming forum, it's a Halo CE forum for people who enjoy Halo and custom content. If he wants something to play games to their fullest extent, a laptop isn't what he should really be going for at all anyway.

Edited by Masters1337 on Apr 7, 2014 at 05:14 PM

It is, but you are also paying money right there and then when you buy the computer for a W8 license, and then you have to go through and reformat and reinstall everything, in addition to whatever the cost of W7 is for you, depending on your situation.

Edited by Masters1337 on Apr 7, 2014 at 05:18 PM

thing that kills me is that you need w8 pro for a dual boot
Edited by rcghalohell on Apr 7, 2014 at 05:16 PM

just weighing in here
macbook pro late 09 15 inch

plays halo like a charm

You know, I'm going to have to apologize there. I was drawing on the stereotype that mac users were people who wanted stuff that 'worked' etc. You say the main lure is the OS, but honestly that's entirely subjective.



Blatantly untrue. But the OP's been answered so I'm going to withdraw from this circlejerk of PC fanbois ejaculating on the one Apple guy here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFqlX2SFiI8 this thing begs to differ on whoever says anything about running games to the fullest extent :P like the tattoos at the end? who doesn't like wolves and dragons on their laptop?

loving the 9-cell battery on this, its useful for notes in class and the painful block classes i gotta take, its not exactly 17-inches its more like 16.85 in size
Edited by rcghalohell on Apr 7, 2014 at 05:23 PM

Just gonna drop this here...

http://blog.gameagent.com/why-are-macs-not-considered-gaming-computers-a-different-look/

Doesn't that make most of your arguments hypocritical, then?

i actually like Ubuntu, but i wouldn't put it on my solid state because i want to keep as much file space on this as i can, its a 120gb anyways, plus i wouldn't see myself using a second os unless i really need to

Just get a touchscreen W8 laptop, preferrably one of the convertable ones(they can flip round, so you can use them like tablets).

You could probably get a good one with better specs than a Macbook of the same price, even with the extra features.

Macbooks are horribly overpriced and anyone who suggests otherwise is kidding themselves.

The Macbook Air was actually quite good when it was first released because it had one of the best screens around, but at this point, other laptops exist with just as good or even better screens, and lower prices.


Although personally I wouldn't aim for gaming in a laptop anyway. Personally, I'd just get a good all-purpose laptop, and then opt into the Steam In-Home Streaming beta.(And get a decent desktop to stream games from)

Either that or wait a couple years until laptops start to make good leaps towards catching up to desktops.(Yeah, laptop components are rapidly getting more power efficient, and thus more powerful performance-wise as you don't have to compromise as much)
But that won't be for a few years, so personally, I think Steam In-Home Streaming's the best bet.

unless you are me and you are in college... then get a gaming laptop.. otherwise I agree, the links I provided are mostly convertables

As far as just asserting only hipsters get them.

I only have a Ubuntu partition for when Windows derps out. Tried to roll with it for about a year before just giving up on it as a pain in the ass to use compared to the other contenders.

This was off edging on topic to begin with so it has go on long enough and now must be closed. There are technical forums for discussing the merits of MAC and PC computers. This is not one of them.