1) Install a bigger and faster hard drive (came with 120GB 5400 RPM; replaced with 320GB 7200RPM)
2) Install more RAM (4GB)
3) Migrate my Time Machine backup from the Hacintosh (which worked flawlessly, surprisingly)
4) Install Windows
Wait, hold up, install Windows? Yep, for the family's Zunes (we have 3) and for gaming. And I really like Windows 7 a lot. I've really enjoyed beta testing it, but I hit several brick walls right off the batt. First, my Leopard disc wouldn't let me install 64-bit drivers, so I formatted the partition and put Windows 7 32-bit on. Then the video driver wouldn't work right, and I couldn't get MacDrive (to see the Mac partition) to install. I gave up after that and just put XP Pro on.
I have a full retail version of Vista Home Premium just sitting on the shelf, collecting dust (the computer I had purchased it for died and was never fixed), so why didn't I use that? I know perfectly well that Vista is stable, and would run fine on my MacBook, but in the back of my head, there is still that perception that Microsoft screwed up with Vista. I've run Vista before with no problem, and Service Pack 1 improved it more. So why do I have that perception? It's not because I'm a Mac fanboy (remember, I have 3 Zunes and love Windows 7). The media. Simply put, there has been so much false anti-Vista propaganda put out there that even though I consciously know it's fine and good, my subconscious says to stay away. XP might have a little edge in gaming, but the difference is probably negligible on my MacBook (I don't benchmark, I just speak from my real-world experience). XP is more compatible with older games (I particularly wanted to play Knights of the Old Republic 2), so it worked out in the end anyway.
I spent a week with XP (just long enough to beat KOTOR2) before diving into the Internet and figuring out how to get Windows 7 up and running. I had to trick the Leopard disc into allowing the 64-bit drivers (they were on there, but the setup program wouldn't let me use them since I didn't have a MacBook Pro), separately install the video drivers, and actually pick apart the .msi file for MacDrive to allow Windows 7 (it works just fine, so I don't know why they haven't allowed it in recent updates). So now I run 64-bit Windows 7, which is pretty blazing fast with 4GB of RAM.
Would I put Vista on here in retrospect? Of course, like I said, there's no problems with it. Had I thought it through at the time, I wouldn't have installed XP. My brain just literally skipped over the fact that I could install Vista. Vista would have been fine, but the media changed my perception without me even knowing it. It's a very strange revelation to come to.
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