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keevo: Jun 16, 2011; WAKE UP

japtor posted:

Probably won't be upgraded any time soon, and if they are it'd likely be a minor spec bump.

Which laptop? Wondering if you might be running into the bad drive cable a lot of people apparently run into.

MacBook Pro 2009. It's a Western Digital 1tb and still in limited warranty.

# ? Mar 13, 2014 01:45

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# ? May 26, 2024 21:51

Super-NintendoUser: Jan 16, 2004; COWABUNGERDER COMPADRES; Soiled Meat

echobucket posted:

Can anyone recommend something to protect the bottom of my 15" retina MBP. I have slate tables at my house and whenever I sit it down I'm worried about the aluminum getting all scratched up. I want something light and minimal and mostly only need it to protect the bottom.

All my friends have this: http://www.amazon.com/keyboard-13-inch-Regular-display-Aluminum/dp/B001NJQ5PG
I use it too, it's not too bad, and I really like the feet that flip out on it.

# ? Mar 13, 2014 02:11

keevo: Jun 16, 2011; WAKE UP

empty baggie posted:

SMART Utility: http://www.volitans-software.com/smart_utility.php

Ah I didn't see this but thanks for this. It ended up working. My hard drive has 67 bad sectors. Thanks Western Digital for making such a solid hard drive.

# ? Mar 13, 2014 02:38

Pivo: Aug 20, 2004

empty baggie posted:

SMART Utility: http://www.volitans-software.com/smart_utility.php

Has SMART ever accurately predicted anything for anyone? I've had drives die with not a peep from SMART and bullshit drives keep ticking for years until I replaced them even with a bunch of nonsense coming from it.

Just saying, I think it's a poo poo implementation. Maybe it works better when you have a large (enterprise-scale) number of drives.

# ? Mar 13, 2014 03:09

~Coxy: Dec 9, 2003; R.I.P. Inter-OS Sass - b.2000AD d.2003AD

Malcolm XML posted:

I have never run into an issue using the TB adapter.

The usb adapter can't handle gigabit and gets really hot so it's not ideal.

Tried a USB3 gigabit ethernet adaptor? They can do ~40 MB/sec.

# ? Mar 13, 2014 04:20

BobHoward: Feb 13, 2012; The only thing white people deserve is a bullet to their empty skull

I'm dealing with a dying HDD myself at the moment. Disk failure porn:

code:

3/12/14 7:06:02.000 AM kernel[0]: disk3s2: I/O error.
3/12/14 7:06:08.000 AM kernel[0]: disk3s2: I/O error.
3/12/14 7:06:08.000 AM kernel[0]: disk3s2: I/O error.
3/12/14 7:06:26.000 AM kernel[0]: disk3s2: I/O error.
3/12/14 7:06:58.000 AM kernel[0]: disk3s2: I/O error.
3/12/14 7:07:01.000 AM kernel[0]: disk3s2: I/O error.
3/12/14 7:07:27.000 AM kernel[0]: disk3s2: I/O error.
3/12/14 7:07:30.000 AM kernel[0]: disk3s2: I/O error.

And there were several hundred more where those came from. SMART highlights...

code:

$ smartctl -A /dev/disk3
smartctl 6.2 2013-07-26 r3841 [x86_64-apple-darwin13.0.0] (local build)
Copyright (C) 2002-13, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, [url]www.smartmontools.org[/url]

=== START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===
SMART Attributes Data Structure revision number: 10
Vendor Specific SMART Attributes with Thresholds:
ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME          FLAG     VALUE WORST THRESH TYPE      UPDATED  WHEN_FAILED RAW_VALUE
  5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct   0x0033   090   090   036    Pre-fail  Always       -       437
187 Reported_Uncorrect      0x0032   001   001   000    Old_age   Always       -       2081
197 Current_Pending_Sector  0x0012   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       353
198 Offline_Uncorrectable   0x0010   100   100   000    Old_age   Offline      -       353

I'm tormenting it by doing lots of full-disk read/write passes. The error counts keep going up. It's still in warranty, so once I push the reallocated sector count or reported uncorrectable counts past their thresholds (the VALUE/WORST/THRESH columns are 0-100 health percentages), it goes back for a replacement.

If you have HDD troubles you can sometimes resurrect a drive by overwriting every sector, as I'm doing. This gives it a chance to reallocate bad sectors. You can do this by erasing the whole drive in Disk Utility with the write-zeroes security option selected. If the SMART reallocated sector count only shoots up by a little bit when you do this, and stabilizes, it might have been a one-time thing. But with my drive, error counts are going up and up and up. It's gonna die.

# ? Mar 13, 2014 12:01

cbirdsong: Sep 8, 2004; Commodore of the Apocalypso; Lipstick Apathy

benisntfunny posted:

I do but I wouldn't sell it for less than the 25 you can pick it up from eBay for.

If you want to sell it, send me an email or IM:

# ? Mar 13, 2014 14:43

revmoo: May 25, 2006; #basta

Can anyone recommend a laptop stand for a 15" retina Macbook that will (a) Clamp onto the back of a desk and (b) adjust the angle so I can have the laptop as vertical as the screen will allow?

# ? Mar 13, 2014 16:22

empty baggie: Oct 22, 2003

Pivo posted:

Has SMART ever accurately predicted anything for anyone? I've had drives die with not a peep from SMART and bullshit drives keep ticking for years until I replaced them even with a bunch of nonsense coming from it.

Just saying, I think it's a poo poo implementation. Maybe it works better when you have a large (enterprise-scale) number of drives.

Do you mean SMART Utility or SMART in Disk Utility? Because SMART Utility is always accurate for me, and Disk Utility is garbage and rarely catches anything.

# ? Mar 13, 2014 21:38

Pivo: Aug 20, 2004

empty baggie posted:

Do you mean SMART Utility or SMART in Disk Utility? Because SMART Utility is always accurate for me, and Disk Utility is garbage and rarely catches anything.

I mean SMART the system in general.

# ? Mar 13, 2014 21:45

waffle enthusiast: Nov 16, 2007

Figured I'd mention this here. I just picked up a landingzone dock for my 2013 MBA.

This thing is awesome. It's a little finicky to get docked since it basically just clamps into your existing ports. But man does it help with cable cleanup and just generally making a desk look not lovely.

# ? Mar 14, 2014 18:22

Super-NintendoUser: Jan 16, 2004; COWABUNGERDER COMPADRES; Soiled Meat

Dangerllama posted:

Figured I'd mention this here. I just picked up a landingzone dock for my 2013 MBA.

This thing is awesome. It's a little finicky to get docked since it basically just clamps into your existing ports. But man does it help with cable cleanup and just generally making a desk look not lovely.

What a bizarre homer-car dock. Why not just get a USB3.0 dock or a Thunderbolt dock? It's only two cables, data and power. That monstrosity seems like a huge pain to dock up.

This Belkin TB dock is cheaper and just connects with one cable. I don't see how that other dock is any more compact or neat. You still need a power cable for the MB, and with the 50 bucks you save you can just about get a second Magsafe and keep it on your desk.

EDIT: I'm a clean desk maniac. The majority of desk clean up is just having a monitor that is on a nice floating stand, and then the rest is just intelligent cable running. Get one of those cheap vertical macbook stands, a $30 monoprice clamp on monitor stand, a bunch of these, and some zip ties and you can make a perfectly clean desk.

Super-NintendoUser fucked around with this message at 19:42 on Mar 14, 2014

# ? Mar 14, 2014 19:38

wdarkk: Oct 26, 2007; Friends: Protected
World: Saved
Crablettes: Eaten

Any particular reason why I might not be able to verify or repair disk permissions on a non-system HFS+ volume?

# ? Mar 14, 2014 19:57

Binary Badger: Oct 11, 2005; Trolling Link for a decade

Jerk McJerkface posted:

What a bizarre homer-car dock. Why not just get a USB3.0 dock or a Thunderbolt dock? It's only two cables, data and power. That monstrosity seems like a huge pain to dock up.

It has a Kensington security slot and it seems to be extremely hard to pull apart (assuming you put faith in a grainy video of a unit attached to some testing rig), so right there it's valuable to corporate environments just for the lockability alone.

The Belkin dock doesn't do dick poo poo for security and most other MBA/Retina MBP locking solutions are pretty hackneyed, so I can definitely see that this unit could be useful certain situations. I know a bunch of doctors who would kill to be able to lock down their laptops with this.

Binary Badger fucked around with this message at 20:05 on Mar 14, 2014

# ? Mar 14, 2014 20:03

Super-NintendoUser: Jan 16, 2004; COWABUNGERDER COMPADRES; Soiled Meat

Binary Badger posted:

It has a Kensington security slot and it seems to be extremely hard to pull apart (assuming you put faith in a grainy video of a unit attached to some testing rig), so right there it's valuable to corporate environments just for the lockability alone.

The Belkin dock doesn't do dick poo poo for security and most other MBA/Retina MBP locking solutions are pretty hackneyed, so I can definitely see that this unit could be useful certain situations. I know a bunch of doctors who would kill to be able to lock down their laptops with this.

That's a reasonable explanation for it, but if you don't need to lock it down it's a really inelegant solution.

# ? Mar 14, 2014 20:19

waffle enthusiast: Nov 16, 2007

Jerk McJerkface posted:

That's a reasonable explanation for it, but if you don't need to lock it down it's a really inelegant solution.

Eh. Different strokes for different folks, I guess. I really like this dock over running cables (even two). The other solutions look cool too, just not my bag.

waffle enthusiast fucked around with this message at 21:43 on Mar 14, 2014

# ? Mar 14, 2014 20:33

Pivo: Aug 20, 2004

wdarkk posted:

Any particular reason why I might not be able to verify or repair disk permissions on a non-system HFS+ volume?

Do you actually have any packages installed there? The type of packages/installers that add stuff to the list of permissions to verify are typically installed on a system drive... There's probably no permissions to verify on that drive.

# ? Mar 14, 2014 20:36

japtor: Oct 28, 2005

Jerk McJerkface posted:

What a bizarre homer-car dock. Why not just get a USB3.0 dock or a Thunderbolt dock? It's only two cables, data and power. That monstrosity seems like a huge pain to dock up.

This Belkin TB dock is cheaper and just connects with one cable. I don't see how that other dock is any more compact or neat. You still need a power cable for the MB, and with the 50 bucks you save you can just about get a second Magsafe and keep it on your desk.

EDIT: I'm a clean desk maniac. The majority of desk clean up is just having a monitor that is on a nice floating stand, and then the rest is just intelligent cable running. Get one of those cheap vertical macbook stands, a $30 monoprice clamp on monitor stand, a bunch of these, and some zip ties and you can make a perfectly clean desk.

Get a little under desk shelf and you don't even need the computer on the desk at all!

wdarkk posted:

Any particular reason why I might not be able to verify or repair disk permissions on a non-system HFS+ volume?

I'm guessing cause it assumes there's nothing that really matters permissions wise on the non system drive...

Pivo posted:

Do you actually have any packages installed there? The type of packages/installers that add stuff to the list of permissions to verify are typically installed on a system drive... There's probably no permissions to verify on that drive.

User folders presumably, like if you have your main system stuff on a SSD and your user folder on a separate drive. In my case I just have my media/documents folders on a separate drive, but there's still stuff that can get screwy like iTunes bits I guess.

# ? Mar 15, 2014 09:22

BobHoward: Feb 13, 2012; The only thing white people deserve is a bullet to their empty skull

Disk Utility permissions repair only covers files installed by the OS X package installer: mostly system files, plus some apps. Nothing else can be checked in any sensible way, because there's no record of how things should be.

Command line junkies who want to know more should check out the man pages for "pkgutil" and "repair_packages", the tools Disk Utility uses to do permissions repair.

# ? Mar 15, 2014 09:51

Pivo: Aug 20, 2004

japtor posted:

User folders presumably, like if you have your main system stuff on a SSD and your user folder on a separate drive. In my case I just have my media/documents folders on a separate drive, but there's still stuff that can get screwy like iTunes bits I guess.

You realize verify permissions checks against a stored database of expected permissions, right? How would it know a drat thing about your user folders and if NOT_A_VIRUS.app is supposed to be +x or not?

I looked it up just to be sure and indeed, it can only be run on a startup disk.

# ? Mar 15, 2014 12:51

Super-NintendoUser: Jan 16, 2004; COWABUNGERDER COMPADRES; Soiled Meat

japtor posted:

Get a little under desk shelf and you don't even need the computer on the desk at all!

This is right, but I can't attach anything to my work desk with screws. My last desk has a little filing cabinet under the desk with a couple inches of space, just enough to slide a laptop. It was perfect.

# ? Mar 15, 2014 12:57

Binary Badger: Oct 11, 2005; Trolling Link for a decade

Trip report for a refurbished 5th generation Airport Extreme base station:

A client's 3rd generation AEBS was dying, wireless network kept disappearing; decided to get them a new one. No one there was using anything newer than a 1st gen iPad mini or Late 2011 MBP, so I figured I'd save them a few bucks over the latest ($85 vs $179 for the latest) and it was agreed.

Ordered one from the refurb site and had it delivered to a local Apple Store that was on my way to work. Five days later, got an email saying it was ready to be picked up. The 5th Gen AEBS came in a generic box that had the same exact dimensions as the original box except there was no printing on them, only a big sticker with my name printed in huge caps and a barcode detailing what was inside.

Everything that came with a new one (tiny booklet, power cord, cellophane wrapping around AEBS) came with the refurb. Couldn't see any scratches or signs of usage no matter how many angles I held it at. Took it to the site, replicated the settings of the original, everyone swore it was faster and I didn't even have to update the firmware, it already had the latest according to Airport Utility.

Pretty great, would buy again.

# ? Mar 15, 2014 18:09

Star War Sex Parrot: Oct 2, 2003

Yeah $85 for one of the best 802.11n routers on the market is a deal. I'll probably continue to recommend the refurbished AEBS to anyone who asks for a router at least for the next year or so, especially since 802.11ac still remains slow to take off.

# ? Mar 15, 2014 18:18

Pivo: Aug 20, 2004

I got the 802.11ac Time Capsule (for full price, ouch) but it's honestly the best. I just wish there was a way to log into its firmware from a command line and get more accurate info than Option-Clicking the 'Edit' button from Airport Utility gives you. Like for example good luck getting the DHCP server IP out of it, it'll only tell you what gateway you're connected to. Or I'd like to be able to ping/traceroute directly from it. I know that's not Apple's thing, but it doesn't have to be user-facing front and centre, just available... I wonder how they debug the drat thing themselves.

# ? Mar 15, 2014 18:37

Binary Badger: Oct 11, 2005; Trolling Link for a decade

One trivial postscript to that is that I got to open up the bad one. No blown caps, no signs of oxidation or leakage, no breaks in any circuit traces.

Only things I can think of is the timing crystals aging or reacting with the atmosphere? Oh well, poo poo breaks, just gotta deal.

# ? Mar 15, 2014 18:56

Star War Sex Parrot: Oct 2, 2003

Pivo posted:

I got the 802.11ac Time Capsule (for full price, ouch) but it's honestly the best. I just wish there was a way to log into its firmware from a command line and get more accurate info than Option-Clicking the 'Edit' button from Airport Utility gives you. Like for example good luck getting the DHCP server IP out of it, it'll only tell you what gateway you're connected to. Or I'd like to be able to ping/traceroute directly from it. I know that's not Apple's thing, but it doesn't have to be user-facing front and centre, just available... I wonder how they debug the drat thing themselves.

I was about to say that you can get a good amount of otherwise inaccessible info (network traffic, etc.) from an AEBS via SNMP, which third-party apps can then make much more pretty and understandable:

But apparently the 802.11ac AEBS doesn't have SNMP enabled.

Star War Sex Parrot fucked around with this message at 19:12 on Mar 15, 2014

# ? Mar 15, 2014 19:09

FCKGW: May 21, 2006

Pivo posted:

I got the 802.11ac Time Capsule (for full price, ouch) but it's honestly the best. I just wish there was a way to log into its firmware from a command line and get more accurate info than Option-Clicking the 'Edit' button from Airport Utility gives you. Like for example good luck getting the DHCP server IP out of it, it'll only tell you what gateway you're connected to. Or I'd like to be able to ping/traceroute directly from it. I know that's not Apple's thing, but it doesn't have to be user-facing front and centre, just available... I wonder how they debug the drat thing themselves.

I think the old Apple 5.6 Airport Utility did that. I'm not sure if it will connect to the new AC routers and you'll need to do some workarounds to get it to work under Mavericks but it's worth a shot.

http://coreyjmahler.com/2013/10/24/airport-utility-5-6-1-on-os-x-10-9-mavericks/

# ? Mar 15, 2014 21:49

japtor: Oct 28, 2005

Pivo posted:

You realize verify permissions checks against a stored database of expected permissions, right? How would it know a drat thing about your user folders and if NOT_A_VIRUS.app is supposed to be +x or not?

I looked it up just to be sure and indeed, it can only be run on a startup disk.

Hell if I know :downs:

. I was thinking of random installers that give an option to put stuff in the user Library rather than the system one (or just anything in the user Library I guess).

Star War Sex Parrot posted:

I was about to say that you can get a good amount of otherwise inaccessible info (network traffic, etc.) from an AEBS via SNMP, which third-party apps can then make much more pretty and understandable:

But apparently the 802.11ac AEBS doesn't have SNMP enabled.

Did they take out the logging option entirely?

# ? Mar 15, 2014 22:03

kode54: Nov 26, 2007; aka kuroshi; Fun Shoe

Does any AEBS or similar finally have QoS capability of some sort, or is this only a magical thing that exists mostly in aftermarket firmware for Linux routers? Or do people sitting behind AEBS normally not have moments where they could be making hundreds of connections at once in or out? (Yes, even Blizzard updater can involve Bittorrent crap, if you leave that enabled.)

# ? Mar 16, 2014 02:41

Star War Sex Parrot: Oct 2, 2003

kode54 posted:

Does any AEBS or similar finally have QoS capability of some sort

Nope.

kode54 posted:

is this only a magical thing that exists mostly in aftermarket firmware for Linux routers?

Yep.

kode54 posted:

Or do people sitting behind AEBS normally not have moments where they could be making hundreds of connections at once in or out? (Yes, even Blizzard updater can involve Bittorrent crap, if you leave that enabled.)

Can't say I've ever had an issue, but I don't run torrents on my home connection or play Blizzard games so I guess I don't fit the usage model for QoS.

# ? Mar 16, 2014 07:27

revmoo: May 25, 2006; #basta

I tried setting up QoS on my network on my linux router and could never get it to work because I'm on cable so the peak bandwidth varies throughout the day. Settings that work at one time will choke streaming video other times of the day. The only workaround I could come up with was to limit my network bandwidth to the lowest peak value and then parcel out priorities for that small amount.

I'm looking at getting a DSL line and so with that I'll just prioritize between cable/dsl depending on protocol, with a failover mode for if one of the lines goes down.

# ? Mar 16, 2014 17:28

Pivo: Aug 20, 2004

revmoo posted:

I tried setting up QoS on my network on my linux router and could never get it to work because I'm on cable so the peak bandwidth varies throughout the day.

Wow you have a terrible ISP if they allow node congestion to occur at peak hours and don't upgrade

# ? Mar 16, 2014 17:36

revmoo: May 25, 2006; #basta

Pivo posted:

Wow you have a terrible ISP if they allow node congestion to occur at peak hours and don't upgrade

I don't think so, American cable ISPs are well-known for providing a consistent and high-quality service.

# ? Mar 16, 2014 17:58

kode54: Nov 26, 2007; aka kuroshi; Fun Shoe

I must be incredibly lucky, as I never suffered from congestion during peak hours in either neighborhood of Riverside where I had Charter, and haven't suffered congestion with U-verse, either. Of course, I have suffered occasional down time along my network path, including customer premises equipment.

(Fun story. Back when I had Charter, I learned how to feed my exploitable Motorola Surfboard 4100 the ISP's config file for 1536/384 for several months undetected. Yes, they were still using old DOCSIS and throttling at the customer side. They only caught on to it when I discovered a tool for actually signing my own configuration files and bumped myself to 10mbps, which the network had no trouble obliging me with. I never uncapped or stole service again.)

# ? Mar 17, 2014 00:36

Super-NintendoUser: Jan 16, 2004; COWABUNGERDER COMPADRES; Soiled Meat

revmoo posted:

I tried setting up QoS on my network on my linux router and could never get it to work because I'm on cable so the peak bandwidth varies throughout the day. Settings that work at one time will choke streaming video other times of the day. The only workaround I could come up with was to limit my network bandwidth to the lowest peak value and then parcel out priorities for that small amount.

I'm looking at getting a DSL line and so with that I'll just prioritize between cable/dsl depending on protocol, with a failover mode for if one of the lines goes down.

QoS absolutely does nothing outside of your local network.

To be specfic, QoS is a process in which your network devices rate and prioritize traffic according to a specific set of criteria. Typically it's either type (udp or tcp), port, source/destination IP address, or specific QoS tags in the packet itself. Your router, firewall, or switches, will respect the settings you tell them too, but your ISP router or modem doesn't care about your QoS settings at all. It's even less likely your firewall passes the QoS tags anyways. If your internet line is slow or fluctuates through out the day, internal QoS won't help you. It's doubtful you generate enough traffic in your house to overwhelm your home network devices either, so its not helpful internally either.

# ? Mar 17, 2014 01:31

Pivo: Aug 20, 2004

Jerk McJerkface posted:

QoS absolutely does nothing outside of your local network.

To be specfic, QoS is a process in which your network devices rate and prioritize traffic according to a specific set of criteria. Typically it's either type (udp or tcp), port, source/destination IP address, or specific QoS tags in the packet itself. Your router, firewall, or switches, will respect the settings you tell them too, but your ISP router or modem doesn't care about your QoS settings at all. It's even less likely your firewall passes the QoS tags anyways. If your internet line is slow or fluctuates through out the day, internal QoS won't help you. It's doubtful you generate enough traffic in your house to overwhelm your home network devices either, so its not helpful internally either.

For QoS to work, at least work well, on consumer routers without a lot of buffer, it needs to know your bandwidth so it basically leaves overhead for the prioritized packets. If your max speed keeps changing, then QoS will be useless as it will max out your line with low-priority poo poo leaving no room for anything else, defeating the purpose.

Every consumer QoS solution I've seen requires you to tell it what your line speed is.

# ? Mar 17, 2014 01:39

kode54: Nov 26, 2007; aka kuroshi; Fun Shoe

The qos-scripts solution which lives in the OpenWrt repository is the only thing that really works for me. And it's 100% necessary to use the line for anything at all if something like Bittorrent is making hundreds of random connections, even if it isn't even coming close to maxing out either my upstream or downstream. No QoS, horrible lag ensues, killing even basic HTTP traffic.

Of course, it does nothing to help in situations where someone is maxing out the downstream with a multi-sourced HTTP downloader. Or in cases where someone is uploading 1Mbit/s of video to a streaming site. I have yet to find a solution which works perfectly with that. Not that I need to any more, the sibling who spontaneously picked up the desire to stream his raw gameplay of Deus Ex to just his friends on the Internet, has moved to Kansas to live with those friends, so there is nobody streaming video when I'm trying to have Skype audio calls and play online games.

# ? Mar 17, 2014 06:11

Maneki Neko: Oct 27, 2000

I haven't really looked around at Mac hardware in a while, but the waifus 15" MBP is getting pretty long in the tooth (last core2duo model I do believe) and she's due for an upgrade.

She likes the 15" rMBPs, do we still have to worry about getting janky panels (which seemed to doiminate the discussion around the 1st gen of the rMBP), or is that pretty much gone with the current version of the 15" rMBP?

Maneki Neko fucked around with this message at 19:55 on Mar 17, 2014

# ? Mar 17, 2014 16:26

barbudo: Nov 8, 2010; WHO VOLUNTARILY GOES DAYS WITHOUT A SHOWER FOR NO REASON? DIS GUY

PLEASE SHOWER YOU GROSS FUCK

I'm getting ready to start a graduate program in journalism and I'm looking to update my computers - was hoping for a recommendation. What I'm looking for is some combination of a portable and a home-based solution - something I can both take to class and the library as well as to work extensively at home with. I'd like as large a screen as possible (or a two-monitor setup) for research and writing and need the processing power to do video and photo editing. I got an extremely generous scholarship so I'm proceeding as if money isn't really an object, but of course, the cheaper the better.

Right now I have a 2011 13" MBP; its shell is pretty banged up - tons of dents and the keyboard is falling apart - plus the power cable is fried, it's slow and the hard drive is clogged with a bunch of bullshit. I'd probably reformat it and keep it as a backup but I may also reformat and sell it.

So far I'm torn between an 11" Air (to take to class) along with an iMac (for at-home editing and other work), OR a "13 MBP with some kind of dock setup and extra monitor, etc. The second option, of course, is a lot more economical, but it would also be a clunkier commute and I would hate for anything to happen to it and I lose my ability to do 100% of the work I need to get done. I'd really appreciate some feedback on either of those options, or a third suggestion - it's been awhile since I bought a Mac and I'm sort of overwhelmed by all the new options available now and I have no idea to tell what kind of new releases are reliably expected to come out soon. I'd hate to make a big investment just ahead of a big roll-out.

barbudo fucked around with this message at 21:51 on Mar 17, 2014

# ? Mar 17, 2014 21:48

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# ? May 26, 2024 21:51

Mercurius: May 4, 2004; Amp it up.

barbudo posted:

I'm getting ready to start a graduate program in journalism and I'm looking to update my computers - was hoping for a recommendation. What I'm looking for is some combination of a portable and a home-based solution - something I can both take to class and the library as well as to work extensively at home with. I'd like as large a screen as possible (or a two-monitor setup) for research and writing and need the processing power to do video and photo editing. I got an extremely generous scholarship so I'm proceeding as if money isn't really an object, but of course, the cheaper the better.

Right now I have a 2011 13" MBP; its shell is pretty banged up - tons of dents and the keyboard is falling apart - plus the power cable is fried, it's slow and the hard drive is clogged with a bunch of bullshit. I'd probably reformat it and keep it as a backup but I may also reformat and sell it.

So far I'm torn between an 11" Air (to take to class) along with an iMac (for at-home editing and other work), OR a "13 MBP with some kind of dock setup and extra monitor, etc. The second option, of course, is a lot more economical, but it would also be a clunkier commute and I would hate for anything to happen to it and I lose my ability to do 100% of the work I need to get done. I'd really appreciate some feedback on either of those options, or a third suggestion - it's been awhile since I bought a Mac and I'm sort of overwhelmed by all the new options available now and I have no idea to tell what kind of new releases are reliably expected to come out soon. I'd hate to make a big investment just ahead of a big roll-out.

13" retina MBP and then either a Thunderbolt Display (although these are getting a bit long in the tooth and will hopefully be updated soon) or Thunderbolt Dock+external displays sounds like what you want.

The 13" rMBP is barely any heavier than the Air, has a much better screen and has more thermal headroom for the CPU/iGPU to turbo up as required (such as driving external displays) while still being very portable and having excellent battery life. Thunderbolt dock means you can just come home, plug in power+Thunderbolt and you can use it like a desktop.

I'm currently doing this with my 15" rMBP (Thunderbolt Display at home, thunderbolt dock+monitors at work) so I can answer any questions about docks etc.

# ? Mar 17, 2014 22:02

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