MAIN QUESTION: do you know how much McAfee antivirus will slow down my computer? Will it slow my computer down a considerable amount, or will it be for the most part unnoticeable?

I have a 15-inch, 2.66GHz MacBook Pro running on Intel Core i7, with a 4GM memory, 500GB hard drive. The laptop runs great (contrary to my past Macs), but I am going off to college, and in order to access the school's WiFi network you need to install McAfee antivirus software, which they provide you with. I am pissed off about this, because I know that antivirus software slows your computer down, and that Macs are already for the most part protected from many of the viruses the software scans for.

I am just wondering how much the McAfee antivirus software will slow my computer down. My past two Macs never lasted more than 3 years each, so the last thing I want is for a $2,200 computer to only last 3 or 4 years before it becomes to slow. Also, once I finish college, or perhaps transfer (if I find myself in that situation), can I deinstall the software, and if I do this will my computer go back to running as efficiently in speed as it did before? How much overall will the antivirus software effect my computer's performance? Thanks

Anti-virus? Probably only for windows systems..

If you turn off automatic scanning then you'll hardly see any effect at all. Especially with that quad core i7 ;)

First of all, they probably can't enforce that you have the AV on. Especially not if you're on a Mac- whatever systems they have probably would only work on a Windows system.

Second, you can probably disable most of the components of the AV. You'd still have it, but it wouldn't really do much that could slow you down.