O and by SL I meant the new SL 3...thanks for your feedbacks in advance..

your kidding right? are you trying to showw off your specs? lol. those specs will be fine.

No I'm not...sorry if it seems that way ...I was think of upgrading the Ghz to 2.93 when I ordered it but decided to stay with 2.66 ghz didn't know if it was going to be good for vsl...thanks Ivmez for your response

The "upgrade" to 2.93gHz is incremental at best. In my opinion it's not worth either the $300 extra, or losing the ability to just pick one up in an Apple Store (as opposed to having it delivered).

I have the exact configuration you described (I put in the 7200rpm drive myself)...have had it since the first day they arrived in the Apple Stores, in fact, so it's been a bit over a month now. It's been working really well.

I'd definitely advise the first thing you should do is a clean OS install from the DVD, leaving out extra languages, printer drivers, and applications you don't need. Do not migrate an older OS install from another Mac. The new 17" model actually requires a newer OS build than the standard "10.5.6" you might have from an older machine, and Software Update will *not* make such an installation correct for the 17".

Hey dj mark so u telling me once I get my macbook pro to reinstall the OS system...right?....one other thing...I have a friend who once trying to delete stuff he didn't need and wanted to free space on his macbook ended up having a problem...he couldn't install 1.8.3 he downloaded it but when it came time to install it would ask him to choose an application to open the software with....many ppl in the forum said that he could have deleted his utility folder ...could this be true?

That's what I do whenever I get a new computer...it's not absolutely necessary, but doing the reinstallation allows you to save quite a bit of hard drive space (over 3gb are taken up just by printer drivers for a default Leopard install), and it's much easier and safer to save the space while doing the install than it is to try deleting stuff out of an existing OS installation.

It sounds like your friend tried the latter approach, possibly nuking the CoreServices folder from System/Library (just a guess).

Suffice to say, if you're not *very* sure of what you're doing, messing around with anything in the "Library" or "System" folders is an extremely bad idea.

So if I reinstall the OS ... how would I know how to install it...I've reinstalled windows xp before but macs are new to me and I'm not quite familiar with mac OS ... could u help out ...I'm getting my MBP by the end of this week maybe thurs or friday...

It's really super-easy. You boot from the installer DVD (hold down "C" while powering up), and select "erase and install". A little way in, you have the option to customize the install, and that's when you can pick/reject the printer drivers, languages, etc. The applications installers (for the iLife stuff, and GarageBand, etc.) is now on its own separate disc. There's nothing pre-installed on your drive that's not also on the discs.

Compared to any Windows installation (and I've done many of them), it's ridiculously simple.

Do let the installer "verify" the discs, at least the first time you install. And keep those discs in good condition, in a safe place. I keep them in the original packaging...among other things, keeping all that stuff makes a more desirable package when/if you sell the computer.

By languages you mean the type of language the keyboard can be set or something else?

By languages you mean the type of language the keyboard can be set or something else? I really don't wanna mess up.

You'll see in the options for custom-install....it's actually additional language support for applications and the system software. Totally un-needed if you just need English.

I basically un-checked everything except "essential system software".

You're not going to mess up :-).

What the essential system software..or what's it for?

It's what boots your computer and runs applications for you.

Seriously, don't worry, you can't even un-check the essential stuff during an OS install.

Hey dj mark ...question...if I waat to keep safari and itunes will I be able to choose those applications to install when I'm doing the clean OS install?

it will install those either way, the only thing you are taking out are languages and printer drivers, I do the same thing when i get new computers. The basic software like Itunes and Safari will always install no matter what

Hey guys thanks for all your help i got my MBP and installed the new OS it was easy thanks for your help now im organizing my library to use with scratchlive... Once again thanks guys Dj Mark and BriChi

Hey dj mark or briChi ... question...if I add songs to itunes in my MBP will that make double files in my MacBook and take up double space in my hardrive???

No problem at all, glad we could help.

yes on the itunes thing but if you go into ITunes preferences there is a box you can uncheck that says something like "Copy files to iTunes Music folder " if you uncheck that then it will add the song to the library but not copy it to the folder, you will only have 1 copy

Yea i saw that option and unchecked it...well now Im jus organizing my libraries and almost ready to have everything complete thanks guys once again for your help.

O one more thing ... is there a way with macbooks that I can do a diskclean up like I do with pc...its usually cleans temporary internet temporary files and files in my recycling bin and things like that... but it doesn't erase my music files

Or is it that with macbooks you don need to do that?

Onyx is a free maintenance utility that does what you're talking about, among other things.

www.titanium.free.fr

It conveniently lets you "automate" a bunch of different maintenance items, and works well (it's frequently updated, and in years of use I've never seen it screw anything up).

Ok so when I download this software is it ok to download it won't be dangerous for my mac and where do I save it in my mac, also what are the most common things to check in the maintance, rebuilding, and cleaning sections....sorry for being so annoying but I jus want to do things right...thanks dj mark

Smoke21, your concerns are very typical of Windows users switching to a Mac.

For the most part, the healthy paranoia you had using Windows can be dropped. Malware for the Mac is (at worst) exceedingly rare, and none of the regulars here (myself included) would recommend anything likely to harm your system.

That said, read the documentation for Onyx (and any other system-maintenance utility) before using.

I personally like for Onyx to live in the "Utilities" folder, but installing it elsewhere won't affect functionality (as long as you can find it).

Sorry didn't want to make it seem like you were recommending anything bad to harm my laptop but jus macs are all new to me but I will do what you said thanks dj mark...appreciate your help