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ItBreathes posted:Speaking of which, if I wanted to pick up a Mac capable of running System 9, what's the best model I could expect to get at a reasonable price? The best possible Mac that runs Classic under OS X Tiger is a late 2005 Power Mac G5. You can pick a dual core model up for like $150-200 on eBay if you're lucky. Quad core models barely ever show up and fetch a premium. It's a very different story if you want a Mac that boots into OS 9. You would be looking for a 2002 Power Mac G4 with mirrored drive doors. Make sure it's not a 2004 model with Firewire 800, which looks almost identical but will not boot into OS 9. I have absolutely no idea what the supply of these units are or the typical price. Cough Drop The Beat fucked around with this message at 07:23 on Apr 10, 2019 |
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Apr 10, 2019 07:21
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Electric Bugaloo posted:the right year of mac mini to buy, apparently... How so ?
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Apr 10, 2019 10:18
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japtor posted:I’m curious how much it cost. £340 Inc postage.
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Apr 10, 2019 10:19
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Cough Drop The Beat posted:The best possible Mac that runs Classic under OS X Tiger is a late 2005 Power Mac G5. You can pick a dual core model up for like $150-200 on eBay if you're lucky. Quad core models barely ever show up and fetch a premium. I actually have a Power Mac G5, though I think I'd need to downgrade the OS. Though, since this is all purely for nostalgia, running OS9 natively would be neat. I remember OS9 being prone to crashing and taking the whole system with it, but I don't remember if Classic Mode had any notable downsides.
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Apr 10, 2019 13:22
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ItBreathes posted:I actually have a Power Mac G5, though I think I'd need to downgrade the OS. Though, since this is all purely for nostalgia, running OS9 natively would be neat. I remember OS9 being prone to crashing and taking the whole system with it, but I don't remember if Classic Mode had any notable downsides. Classic has zero downsides, besides the very rare application that doesn't run, but you can't boot into Mac OS 9, yeah. Otherwise, it's a fully functional OS 9 layer running inside OS X.
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Apr 10, 2019 14:56
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BobHoward posted:240GB is not a SSD size Apple has ever sold. It has to be a user installed upgrade from the factory HDD. Should be relatively easy to upgrade to a bigger sata SSD, see ifixit for instructions and a list of the tools required. Pretty sure 256GB and 240GB SSDs are the same thing and the discrepancy comes down to how much is reserved for firmware/spare sectors or just whether the OS is reporting the size in gigabytes or gibibytes.
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Apr 10, 2019 16:33
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mfny posted:How so ? Sorry, I don’t actually mean to be an rear end about it. The 2014 Mac Mini is disliked because Apple went from a design that featured user-upgradeable components and up to a quad-core CPU in the 2012 model to basically stuffing the dual-core guts of a MacBook Air inside, with absolutely zero ability to change stuff like RAM, etc, and then mating that board to a slow platter drive. It was a downgrade in parts and performance in literally every way and it made a lot of customers really annoyed. Then Apple kept it like that for four years without any changes or upgrades, with everybody constantly speculating that this would finally be the month that Apple quietly killed off or replaced the design. The 2012 model became inflated on the used market, and up through 2018 you could potentially expect to pay more for one of those than for a newer, less capable, one from Apple. Then finally in November of 2018 Apple took the same chassis, painted it dark gray, and gave it the internals that people wanted (for the most part). And now people love the Mac mini again. So we’re giving you crap because you bought the “bad” model Mini. But you seem to have gotten a decent price for it and if you’re dipping your toes back into Mac ownership after 20 years then it’ll probably be perfect for your needs. It’s just unfortunate that you 1) can’t tinker around with the guts in the same way that you can with the older/newer ones 2) will need to replace it outright if you find that you need a bit more capability. ItBreathes posted:I actually have a Power Mac G5, though I think I'd need to downgrade the OS. Though, since this is all purely for nostalgia, running OS9 natively would be neat. I remember OS9 being prone to crashing and taking the whole system with it, but I don't remember if Classic Mode had any notable downsides. I dunno, I mean this kinda sounds like a great excuse to pick up a G3 of some kind. A dude near me was selling a “near mint, fully working, original owner” Bondi Blue tower for $125 and I’d have prolly grabbed it if I wasn’t broke/moving in 4 months.
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Apr 10, 2019 18:01
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Cough Drop The Beat posted:Make sure it's not a 2004 model with Firewire 800, which looks almost identical but will not boot into OS 9. I have absolutely no idea what the supply of these units are or the typical price. While this used to be true, the guys at OS9lives.com were able to modify the installer so that the FireWire 800 MDD can install and boot directly to OS9.2. Everything works fine except the FireWire 800 port is nonfunctional. The modified installer is available on their site. I was very happy to find this out, since I unknowingly picked up one at a thrift store for $35, thinking it was a 2003 model.
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Apr 10, 2019 18:07
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Weedle posted:Pretty sure 256GB and 240GB SSDs are the same thing and the discrepancy comes down to how much is reserved for firmware/spare sectors or just whether the OS is reporting the size in gigabytes or gibibytes. It's not just OS reporting. Long before SSDs were a thing, the HDD industry settled on the standard that a gigabyte of capacity on the spec sheet means the user gets at least 10^9 bytes of usable capacity (note! Not 2^30 bytes). SSD manufacturers chose not to rock that boat. If one drive is advertised as 256 and another as 240, the amount of data you can store on each differs by approximately 16 * 10^9 bytes. (Approx because they round off rather than advertise an exact fraction.) The truth to what you say is that the raw media capacity of a 256 and 240 GB SSD might well be the same, but the amount of data you, the user, can actually store on each is different. Apple generally stuck with SSD capacities that were a multiple of 128, so a 240 probably isn't an Apple OEM drive.
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Apr 10, 2019 18:32
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Yeah sandisk and a few others made 240 gig ssds back in the day I have a few of them because they were super cheap vs the 256 ones.
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Apr 10, 2019 19:00
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JnnyThndrs posted:While this used to be true, the guys at OS9lives.com were able to modify the installer so that the FireWire 800 MDD can install and boot directly to OS9.2. Everything works fine except the FireWire 800 port is nonfunctional. The modified installer is available on their site. This is amazing and I love vintage Mac hobbyists. 
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Apr 10, 2019 20:32
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Electric Bugaloo posted:
The G3 powerbooks and the G3 clamshell iBooks are the coolest laptops Apple has every made. Just make sure you replace the iBook screen with a 1024x768 one. https://ibookmod.livejournal.com/559.html I did it to mine, it is sweet.
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Apr 10, 2019 22:03
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The first G4 Powerbook was the best. It was made of titanium instead of aluminum.
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Apr 11, 2019 02:30
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Mu Zeta posted:The first G4 Powerbook was the best. It was made of titanium instead of aluminum. I wish I’d kept my tiBook it was an awesome machine.
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Apr 11, 2019 02:32
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mfny posted:How so ? People think the 2012 model is better because it was easier to upgrade and had quad core as an option. I'm not really sure but I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong. Some people don't like it when Apple solders/glues on components making it harder to upgrade them. Can't say as I disagree.
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Apr 11, 2019 02:53
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Smashing Link posted:People think the 2012 model is better because it was easier to upgrade and had quad core as an option. I'm not really sure but I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong. Some people don't like it when Apple solders/glues on components making it harder to upgrade them. Can't say as I disagree. Not wrong, but there's more.. it (the Late 2012 model) was also the last Mini you could upgrade yourself with RAM for six years; it also had USB 3, Thunderbolt 1, optical out audio ports, and one of the first semi-decent Intel integrated GPUs (the HD 4000.) Also had an optional 256 GB SSD. The next model, the late 2014, was where Apple said "hold on, we're making the Mini TOO good" and they released it with non-upgradeable RAM, difficult-to-upgrade storage, and most damning, dual core machines ONLY. Intel released their NUC which made the 2014 Mini look retarded, it took four years of bitching at Apple (and likely plummeting sales of Minis) to get them to Mini in its now-upgradeable state with multiple core choices. IMHO Apple huffed their own farts after the 2015 rMBPs and came out with the 2016-2018 rMBPs which will forever be known as the "ones with the keyboards." Who knows what will happen with the 2021 rMBP and its 16-inch display, everyone is hoping for a new design, most notably the keyboard. Oh yeah, get a gander at this: https://appleinsider.com/articles/19/04/09/apples-t2-chip-makes-a-giant-difference-in-video-encoding-for-most-users It looks like a fully tricked out new 2018 T2-equipped Mini is better for video encoding than even a brand new 2018 rMBP! Thanks to the T2.. Of course the T2 actually can't handle video out of certain bounds, and it falls flat on its face if you exceed those bounds, but it's nice to see Macs getting some loving benefit from iPhone research, as the T2 is literally just a modified A10 chip. Kind of interesting how they stop short of calling it a co-processor. Binary Badger fucked around with this message at 03:56 on Apr 11, 2019 |
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Apr 11, 2019 03:36
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Binary Badger posted:Apple huffed their own farts New thread title?
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Apr 11, 2019 03:48
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Binary Badger posted:everyone is hoping for a new design, most notably the keyboard. Which is of course some monkey's paw poo poo.
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Apr 11, 2019 03:51
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squirrelzipper posted:I wish I’d kept my tiBook it was an awesome machine. I also wish I kept mine, but between the hinges breaking, the paint flaking, the chassis bending, and all the other things, they weren't exactly the peak of reliability. They sure did look sweet though.
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Apr 11, 2019 03:56
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Data Graham posted:Which is of course some monkey's paw poo poo. All they have to do is keep Jony Ive locked in a room in Vegas with hookers and blow for a few months or just not let him near the design of the new machine and I'd bet it would be decent. I get the feeling that Jony wasn't involved very much with the design of the 2013-2015 rMBPs, which is why they were so successful (think he was taking a break from the business around that time?) but once he came back he threw a tantrum (HOW DARE YOU SUCCEED WITHOUT ME) and he just had to create the mess that became the TouchBar Nightmare With The Decrepit Keyboard.
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Apr 11, 2019 04:03
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I’ve said it before but I regret being lazy about getting the top case on my black MacBook replaced for free (or later at all) after my palm rests chipped and I’d retired it for an Air. Otherwise impeccably maintained, and it was my college laptop, no less. Binary Badger posted:I get the feeling that Jony wasn't involved very much with the design of the 2013-2015 rMBPs, which is why they were so successful (think he was taking a break from the business around that time?) but once he came back he threw a tantrum (HOW DARE YOU SUCCEED WITHOUT ME) and he just had to create the mess that became the TouchBar Nightmare With The Decrepit Keyboard. This is crazy people talk.
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Apr 11, 2019 04:05
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Well someone's in charge of this kind of thing, so if not Ive then who?
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Apr 11, 2019 04:18
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kefkafloyd posted:I also wish I kept mine, but between the hinges breaking, the paint flaking, the chassis bending, and all the other things, they weren't exactly the peak of reliability. Yeah, the original tiBook had problems a thousand times worse than today's keyboard problems. The plastic frame was not Apple's finest hour. Very flexy, as you say, and prone to cracking at weak points like the Superdrive slot. They partially fixed its problems in later revisions, but the aluminum machines were a giant step forward in reliability.
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Apr 11, 2019 05:30
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Yeah, and the paint they used near the palm rest was susceptible to a greenish corrosion, I believe that put them off using paint ever again on a laptop.
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Apr 11, 2019 05:54
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kefkafloyd posted:I also wish I kept mine, but between the hinges breaking, the paint flaking, the chassis bending, and all the other things, they weren't exactly the peak of reliability. I couldn't find any pictures but got me to remember the P-p-p-powerbook at least.
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Apr 11, 2019 08:03
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Binary Badger posted:Yeah, and the paint they used near the palm rest was susceptible to a greenish corrosion, I believe that put them off using paint ever again on a laptop. Since the chassis could flex and the surface was painted, Ive wondered why they bothered making it out of titanium at all 
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Apr 11, 2019 13:58
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The 2018 mac mini, what bits are user upgradeable? RAM? SSD?
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Apr 11, 2019 14:09
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Steakandchips posted:The 2018 mac mini, what bits are user upgradeable? RAM? SSD? RAM is upgradeable, SSD is not. TB3 SSDs are plenty fast though. Data Graham posted:Since the chassis could flex and the surface was painted, Ive wondered why they bothered making it out of titanium at all Exotic materials was the in thing for chassis design. Titanium was also lighter than magnesium alloy, the other popular chassis material. I had a busted hinge on my Tibook, along with a lousy battery, but I never suffered the paint flaking or oxidization. Had a few scratches here and there but generally no non-wear paint problems. My TiBook also had the common display failure issue, but thankfully was fixed under AppleCare. Even the pre-unibody aluminum machines had chassis flex issues, but the hinge design and internal layout of those machines was so much better than the TiBook.
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Apr 11, 2019 14:25
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Smashing Link posted:New thread title?
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Apr 11, 2019 14:26
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SSD is soldered, so only RAM. It is mounted below a metal shield so you have to take half of the machine apart but it is doable: https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Mac+mini+Late+2018+Memory+(RAM)+Replacement/115309 e: oops, late
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Apr 11, 2019 14:27
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Note that the MacBook Pro used to help us get the first image of a black hole- https://appleinsider.com/articles/19/04/10/apples-mac-helped-capture-worlds-first-image-of-a-black-hole  is a motherfucking good ol' 2013-2015 rMBP, -not- a TrashBar model.
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Apr 11, 2019 16:16
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Mac hardware is the standard in any kind of scientific field. I work in high energy physics and 99% of the population uses a macbook. The laptop itself probably didn't do much number crunching, rather they ssh into a server that does the real work and bang out some code code, run it, and then get a window popped up when results are done. You do see the one in a hundred dweeb trying to do this on a Windows laptop, but the posix underpinnings of OSX and the fact that most computation is done on systems running linux make the two a natural marriage. It's infinitely less painful to integrate into such an environment with a mac. These people are also perpetually underfunded and normally use 5+ year old laptops. Butterfly keyboards are slowly taking over where I'm at though.
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Apr 11, 2019 16:38
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Ppl who write a lot aren’t holding onto their old MacBook Pros exclusively because they’re broke.
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Apr 11, 2019 17:00
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So Mini arrived today and all is good so far ? This thing should be just fine for what I am doing which is basically general computer "stuff" + modest music/audio shenanigans with MOTU Digital Performer 10 Probably the wrong place for this but I have to rant though... Apples system to recover IDs if you do not have the original phone used to set up 2 factor is THE loving WORST. Just ask me some stuff like birth date or last digits on CC or something, rather then have me wait for weeks for a further automated phone call I will(and have) missed so I have to do this poo poo all over again... I get that Apple is super twitchy about privacy but this is dumb as hell.
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Apr 12, 2019 00:08
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Electric Bugaloo posted:Ppl who write a lot aren’t holding onto their old MacBook Pros exclusively because they’re broke. For what it's worth, I prefer the keyboard on the 2017 to the earlier generation. I publish between 4-6000 words a week, and write probably twice that. The short throw of the 2017 doesn't bother me, and I prefer having an evenly weighted keyswitch to what I always felt were really mushy keys on the older hardware. I've also had no mechanical issues since August of 2017 when I bought it, but it also lives inside a laptop sleeve and only gets used on solid surfaces, not at weird angles or on clothing or fabric. The downside of having an extra long keyboard replacement does suck quite a bit, but when you're relying on a piece of hardware to function in a professional capacity you need at least a few backups -- all of my stuff is stored in 3-4 cloud locations, with external SSDs archiving larger projects.
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Apr 12, 2019 02:16
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I’m a fan of the newer keyboard as well. I like typing on it. It’s just a shame about the mechanical reliability. I had a 2016 that needed a top case replacement after a year. My dad has that one now and it’s still going strong. Haven’t had an issue with the 2018 model I currently use.
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Apr 12, 2019 03:19
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Binary Badger posted:Note that the MacBook Pro used to help us get the first image of a black hole- There's two TB MacBook Pros being used in the background. Admittedly, I fully intend on flipping this 2018 13" MacBook Pro whenever a proper refresh happens and before the AppleCare+ expires. Hopefully these keyboard issues have convinced them not to glue the battery to the goddamn topcase. Corb3t fucked around with this message at 04:28 on Apr 12, 2019 |
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Apr 12, 2019 04:22
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I know it isn’t going to happen but a refreshed 2015 MBP with the two thunderbolt ports changed for TB3/USB-C would temporarily solve a lot of issues until the butterfly keyboard is fixed. They didn’t have a problem doing this with the iPad mini (2012 design) and to a lesser extent the iPad Air 3 (old Pro).
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Apr 12, 2019 06:03
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Gay Retard posted:Hopefully these keyboard issues have convinced them not to glue the battery to the goddamn topcase. They've been doing this for the past seven years because it saves them some kind of cost somehow? That ain't gonna change, but if they can roll back expandability for the Mini, who knows.
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Apr 12, 2019 16:34
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They glue things together to force you to upgrade instead of fixing stuff.
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Apr 12, 2019 19:30
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