Mac Hardware - 5k Supremacy - The Something Awful Forums

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Serious Hardware/Software Crap > Mac Hardware - 5k Supremacy

Star War Sex Parrot: Oct 2, 2003

movax posted:

Thunderbolt port for the future

This too. The jury's still out on if Thunderbolt will be The Next Big Thing, but it's looking promising. It would be a shame to see a ton of great TB peripherals in a couple of years that you can't use.

I understand being a student on a budget, and how there's always the "for X dollars more you get Y more" argument no matter how much you spend with technology. There's always the hi-res upgrade, more RAM, and an SSD. Some of those can be added later. But just estimating your budget right now: Arrandale to Sandy Bridge for an additional $90 is going to be the absolute best bang for your buck.

# ¿ Aug 6, 2011 05:59

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ¿ May 9, 2024 23:14

Star War Sex Parrot: Oct 2, 2003

MrEnigma posted:

Still not crazy about cracking open the iMac

It's a bit daunting at first, but the drive swap was actually pretty easy if you have the right tools, a nice clean workspace, and the iFixIt guide printed out ahead of time.

# ¿ Aug 6, 2011 06:15

Star War Sex Parrot: Oct 2, 2003

Enigma89 posted:

I went into the SF store yesterday to buy a Macbook air. The prices were different than they were online. A macbook air with an i7 was about $1,699.

That's the correct price for a 256GB, i7, 4GB of RAM MacBook Air both in-store and online. Not sure where you were seeing anything different.

# ¿ Aug 6, 2011 19:35

Star War Sex Parrot: Oct 2, 2003

Electric Bugaloo posted:

How does the i7 compare to the best i5 on the MBAs? Is hyperthreading that important? I want it to replace my blackbook as my primary surfing/dicking around/basic work machine and I'd like to keep the 13" form factor- though I still haven't ruled out the 11" portability and price. It sucks that the i7 on the 13" is only available on the most spec'd out model, because I don't need that much memory/can't justify the price.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4554/apples-11inch-macbook-air-core-i7-18ghz-review-update

edit: Also they all have Hyper-Threading.

Star War Sex Parrot fucked around with this message at 20:47 on Aug 6, 2011

# ¿ Aug 6, 2011 20:01

Star War Sex Parrot: Oct 2, 2003

KidDynamite posted:

The reason I'm "spergng" is I want to get an SSD soon and doesn't swap decrease an SSD's life?

You're never going to hit the limit of write-cycles on flash in the lifetime that you own it. You're also never going to stop an OS with proper memory management from swapping, regardless of how much RAM you throw at it.

# ¿ Aug 8, 2011 18:19

Star War Sex Parrot: Oct 2, 2003

Jack's Flow posted:

Just ordered AppleCare online (from Apple) and it's supposed to be here on the 16th. Cutting it close.

Wait why did you have it shipped to you? You should have been able to do electronic delivery and have it registered automatically.

# ¿ Aug 9, 2011 18:44

Star War Sex Parrot: Oct 2, 2003

Mu Zeta posted:

You have to call them and they can charge you and register it over the phone.

I was fairly certain you could do it through the "Extend Coverage" button when you check your AppleCare status on their site. I know you can do it for iPhones since I just did it a few days ago, and I thought that's how I purchased AppleCare for my iMac as well. Maybe they don't let you do an electronic purchase for AppleCare for computers.

# ¿ Aug 9, 2011 22:52

Star War Sex Parrot: Oct 2, 2003

The most interesting thing to me to come out of that review was that you can swap the drive in a Time Capsule.

Star War Sex Parrot fucked around with this message at 23:36 on Aug 9, 2011

# ¿ Aug 9, 2011 23:12

Star War Sex Parrot: Oct 2, 2003

FCKGW posted:

Make sure this isn't your system.
http://www.apple.com/support/imac-harddrive/

Make sure you know how to read.

Jeratain posted:

I have a 2011 iMac 27...(it does not have one of the known HDD issues that needs replacing)

# ¿ Aug 10, 2011 01:44

Star War Sex Parrot: Oct 2, 2003

Corbet posted:

What time of networking protocol does the Airport Extreme use when sharing a USB attached drive to a windows device?

Pretty sure it's just SMB for Windows clients, so file system doesn't matter.

# ¿ Aug 10, 2011 04:36

Star War Sex Parrot: Oct 2, 2003

SourKraut posted:

I know everyone has kinda already touted the "Air" horn since, well, it's the new sparkling thing to want, but out of curiosity: how long would you likely keep it, and does portability come into effect at all?

If you do plan on keeping it awhile, and portability isn't a concern, I would almost say go with the refurb 15" Sandy Bridge MBP. The quad-core i7 will likely last a decent-bit longer performance wise into the future than the i5 or i7 available for the 13" Air, and while it's not the greatest, the performance of the discrete GPU (Radeon 6490M) in the entry-level 15" MBP is still quite a bit ahead of the HD3000.

Plus, you can always either swap out the existing HDD for an SSD, or even remove the optical drive and put an SSD in for a SSD+ HDD combo. Also throw in the ability to double the RAM to 8 GB (versus being fixed at 4 GB with the Air), and if you do plan on having it for any lengthy period of time, personally that's what I'd go with.

If however it's mostly just for a year or two, yeah, go with the Air.

Just catching up with this since I wanted to reply but didn't want to type it all out on my phone. If I cared about specs that much or price-performance optimization, I generally wouldn't be buying a Mac. I had a 15.4" i7 MBP before the new Air, so I know what I gave up. To me, the portability is way more useful than the extra horsepower. I have a quad-core iMac for the heavy lifting. The Air is never going to be in the sweetspot of the price/performance ratio, but that's because you're paying for subjective qualities like portability.

That said, this is my 4th Apple laptop since I switched to Macs 5 years ago, and my 6th Mac in total. I average more than one machine purchase a year, if that answers your question on how long I keep my machines. Although, the previous machines never quite fit their roles as well as I would have liked and I think I've finally found a balance between my 27" iMac, MacBook Air, and iPhone 4.

# ¿ Aug 11, 2011 02:25

Star War Sex Parrot: Oct 2, 2003

SourKraut posted:

I'd have directly linked it but not sure if that's allowed.

Why wouldn't it be? :psyduck:

# ¿ Aug 11, 2011 04:25

Star War Sex Parrot: Oct 2, 2003

KidDynamite posted:

Why not just get the i7 13" MBA? It's only $100 more and is probably quicker because of the SSD.

MBPs are quad-cores. That's important and more critical than an SSD to some people.

# ¿ Aug 11, 2011 08:29

Star War Sex Parrot: Oct 2, 2003

flyboi posted:

I'm getting so impatient for the little big disk and sad realizing it's going to be upwards of $800 for 250GB that I'm about to drop money on a ssd and just shove it inside my iMac.

It's really not that difficult.

# ¿ Aug 11, 2011 16:26

Star War Sex Parrot: Oct 2, 2003

All you need is the temperature jumper if you just want to swap the drive. If you want to add it as a second drive, then yeah things get a bit more complicated.

# ¿ Aug 11, 2011 16:41

Star War Sex Parrot: Oct 2, 2003

You don't need a jumper if you're doing a second drive installation. You just need a SATA cable and one of these to split power.

Of course that's the hacked-together way. Using Apple parts is waaaay more complicated.

# ¿ Aug 11, 2011 17:31

Star War Sex Parrot: Oct 2, 2003

Mu Zeta posted:

I have the exact same machine and agree with your assessment. I just wish AMD would put out new Boot Camp drivers. 6 months?!

Also SWTOR runs pretty well on it.

# ¿ Aug 11, 2011 23:58

Star War Sex Parrot: Oct 2, 2003

Kilometers Davis posted:

What do you pc building/upgrading enthusiasts do to not get rid of your macs and go back to a desktop pc?

I got tired of the noise, the cable management, and general headaches of having a Windows PC along with my Macs. I switched to an iMac and never looked back. Performance is more than adequate for every PC game, and though I still have to deal with idiotic Windows updates, antivirus, and driver updates whenever I boot into Windows 7, it's still a better experience than when I built PCs. Also I just don't game nearly as much as I did a few years ago, so it doesn't make sense for me to constantly invest in new PC hardware for a hobby I spend so little time with; especially when I already have a PS3 and Xbox 360 as well.

# ¿ Aug 12, 2011 21:05

Star War Sex Parrot: Oct 2, 2003

IUG posted:

Page 30, so yeah, please someone put it in the OP.

It's already there. :jerkbag:

# ¿ Aug 12, 2011 21:06

Star War Sex Parrot: Oct 2, 2003

UndyingShadow posted:

This time, I just don't give a gently caress. The mac just works, and I haven't turned on my desktop since I got it.

This is basically what happened to me. I had a gaming PC, Mac Mini, and MBP. I realized I hadn't turned the gaming PC on in around 6 months so I sold it, my Dell U2410, and the Mac Mini and paid for a high-end 27" iMac.

If in 2 years a PC game comes along that the iMac won't run and I absolutely have to play (highly doubtful), I'll just build a cheap gaming PC and plug it into the Mini-DisplayPort on the iMac.

# ¿ Aug 12, 2011 21:22

Star War Sex Parrot: Oct 2, 2003

Doctor Zero posted:

This is my experience entirely. If you still find fiddling with your computer and ripping it apart and struggling with some horrible 3rd party driver for hours to be fun, then the Mac won't scratch that itch. If you're sick of all that just want to use the drat thing, the Mac is great.

I work in a lab doing black-box testing with several thousand computers, swapping components and often installing dozens of OSes a day in every flavor of Windows, Linux, and OS X that you can imagine. The last thing I want to do when I get home is have to fight with my computer. So yes, this was another reason I switched to Macs. When you work all day with computers, I just want poo poo to work.

# ¿ Aug 12, 2011 21:24

Star War Sex Parrot: Oct 2, 2003

If anyone wants an SSD, today's Newegg shellshocker (96GB Kingston V+100) is a great deal for Macs. Why? Because it's basically the same drive that Apple used in its SSDs last year due to its excellent TRIM-independent garbage collection.

movax posted:

That has to be mind-numbing, jesus.

Some days, yep. But it's also very low stress, in the field I want, and they're paying for me to get a degree. I actually love the job.

# ¿ Aug 12, 2011 21:43

Star War Sex Parrot: Oct 2, 2003

I said come in! posted:

This actually sounds like an awesome job. What would you call this exactly?

It's actually in the SH/SC Job Fair thread right here. We've got a few goons through that post now -- another just started this week actually. I guess you'd call it a firmware development technician.

Star War Sex Parrot fucked around with this message at 06:23 on Aug 13, 2011

# ¿ Aug 12, 2011 21:54

Star War Sex Parrot: Oct 2, 2003

MrEnigma posted:

Is it worth it to go sata III/6gbs? I think I might take the dive and get this drive, and rip apart the iMac.

Few SSDs can saturate SATA II/3gbps anyway. Unless you're willing to invest in a high-end SSD, don't worry about SATA III/6gbps. And even if they do saturate the bus, you'll have a hard time telling the difference in most usage scenarios, unless you're doing a ton of sequential writes. The order-of-magnitude-faster random performance is what makes SSDs so great.

# ¿ Aug 12, 2011 21:57

Star War Sex Parrot: Oct 2, 2003

movax posted:

I thought SWSP reported that his 2011 MBA was not working with his 2010 iMac when it came to Target Display Mode, but I may be wrong.

Incorrect! I haven't tested it yet.

# ¿ Aug 13, 2011 19:19

Star War Sex Parrot: Oct 2, 2003

Phat_Albert posted:

I'm 99% sure I'm making the jump from PC to Mac. I have a couple of laptops and a tablet I can sell and buy a MacBook with.

Star War Sex Parrot posted:

Sandy Bridge refurb

Get this guy if you can afford it. It's got plenty of horsepower and can be upgraded to 8GB of RAM if your pro apps really need it. For your workflow and future-proofing purchases, I'd strongly advise against getting a Core 2 Duo-based refurb. Anything newer than that should remain capable for quite a while.

# ¿ Aug 13, 2011 21:48

Star War Sex Parrot: Oct 2, 2003

SourKraut posted:

Also, I wasn't sure whether to ask this in this thread or the SSD thread, but going to ask it here: anyone using one of the Western Digital SiliconEdge Blue 256GB SSDs in their Macs? If/when Newegg or another site ever brings it back for $199, I was wondering whether it'd be a good general-use drive.

There were a couple of us with the 64GB version for a while. I think FCKGW still has it in a MacBook. Even without TRIM, I think it has pretty good garbage collection. If you can score the 256GB for a good price like the shellshocker a little while back, it's a good deal.

# ¿ Aug 14, 2011 08:32

Star War Sex Parrot: Oct 2, 2003

pipebomb posted:

That all said, I have an extra 512gb Apple ssd kit I need to unload still if anyone is interested.
:-)

It has native TRIM support, right?

# ¿ Aug 14, 2011 18:44

Star War Sex Parrot: Oct 2, 2003

mayodreams posted:

You can download the standard mobile drivers from AMD and install them on Windows 7 without an issue. I just updated them on my 2010 27" iMac with the 5750.

http://support.amd.com/us/Pages/AMDSupportHub.aspx

This worked beautifully! I know in the past I had to use Mobility Modder to get newer Catalyst packages, but it's nice to know that they just work straight from AMD now. Thanks!

# ¿ Aug 15, 2011 17:13

Star War Sex Parrot: Oct 2, 2003

Mu Zeta posted:

Any noticeable changes/improvements?

Games that have come out since the last package from Apple in January (Crysis 2) run without issues now. There were some graphical oddities that I could only dismiss as old drivers. I was concerned for BF3 as well, since AMD and NVIDIA will no doubt be focusing heavily on optimizing drivers for that.

# ¿ Aug 15, 2011 17:51

Star War Sex Parrot: Oct 2, 2003

dissss posted:

I guess what I'm asking is would the Air trackpad provide a worse experience than what I'm used to in a generic Asus Windows laptop or be comparable?

It's still better than most PC laptop trackpads, but just not as good as in OS X. It's not as smooth in my experience, and I don't think there's any way to enable natural-scrolling which can be a bit of a mindfuck if you've gotten used to it in Lion. Maybe there's an invert scrolling option in Windows that I'm just too lazy to look for.

# ¿ Aug 16, 2011 01:45

Star War Sex Parrot: Oct 2, 2003

There's a pretty nice mid-2010 15.4" MBP over in SA-Mart with quite a few upgrades: i7, hi-res matte screen, and extra video memory.

# ¿ Aug 16, 2011 04:05

Star War Sex Parrot: Oct 2, 2003

Shmoogy posted:

Samsung SSD and panel.

Samsung/Samsung buddy!

# ¿ Aug 16, 2011 19:19

Star War Sex Parrot: Oct 2, 2003

KidDynamite posted:

Alright I'm replacing the HDD in my 13 MBP with an SSD. I'm going big because I just got a nice bonus at work.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820147064 Any problems at all with that SSD?

That's the drive Apple uses, except with slightly tweaked firmware.

# ¿ Aug 16, 2011 21:02

Star War Sex Parrot: Oct 2, 2003

SourKraut posted:

I'm guessing the "slightly tweaked firmware" also means that the consumer drive he linked wouldn't have TRIM enabled by default upon installation?

Correct.

# ¿ Aug 16, 2011 22:09

Star War Sex Parrot: Oct 2, 2003

SourKraut posted:

It's annoying though that what is nearly an identical consumer drive to what they offer can't have TRIM support though.

Apple enables TRIM on drives that they've qual'd. The changes in firmware for Apple drives go beyond just a different model string, and while TRIM is part of the SATA spec and (in theory) should behave the same across all drives, the reliability and performance from different SSDs is a complete crapshoot right now. I can understand why Apple only feels comfortable enabling TRIM on hardware that they've tested.

# ¿ Aug 16, 2011 22:19

Star War Sex Parrot: Oct 2, 2003

SourKraut posted:

without TRIM enabled in the OS the drives suffer from rather bad performance degradation quickly due to infrequently doing garbage collection, while TRIM helps to remedy it when available.

Just use TRIM Enabler. I haven't heard of any disasters from people that have used it. As long as reliable backups are in place, I'd have no hesitation to try it.

# ¿ Aug 16, 2011 22:32

Star War Sex Parrot: Oct 2, 2003

Doc Faustus posted:

Does Amazon not sell a MBP with high-res screen, or am I just not searching right?

Nope. It's not a stock configuration so they don't carry it.

# ¿ Aug 16, 2011 23:34

Star War Sex Parrot: Oct 2, 2003

DEUCE SLUICE posted:

I like bluetooth keyboards too, but I've never been able to get them to recognize startup option keypresses, so I have to go bust out the USB keyboard when I'm trying to change something around.

It definitely works with the official Apple keyboard and my 27" iMac, though I think Apple rolled support for that into EFI. I have no other explanation for why the BT keyboard and Magic Trackpad work in Windows setup when my experience in the past for Windows setup is that you need wired peripherals.

# ¿ Aug 18, 2011 03:26

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ¿ May 9, 2024 23:14

Star War Sex Parrot: Oct 2, 2003

Electric Bugaloo posted:

I sort of miss the green battery indicator lights and "breathing" sleep light on the MBA.

Coming from a mid-2010 MBP, I miss them as well. But hey at least we got a back-lit keyboard this time!

# ¿ Aug 18, 2011 04:09

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Serious Hardware/Software Crap > Mac Hardware - 5k Supremacy

«‹›24 »