Mac Hardware - 5k Supremacy - The Something Awful Forums

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japtor: Oct 28, 2005

Maddalo posted:

I'd basically just be using it to run these programs:
Adobe Creative Suite Design Standard (includes Photoshop, Illustrator & InDesign)
Microsoft Office
Google Sketchup Pro
Autodesk Sketchbook Pro
Adobe Creative Suite Premium.

This stuff can be done on pretty much anything going a while back can't it? Ignoring that, go with what the others said and get a Sandy Bridge model at least.

MrEnigma posted:

I really hope things starting coming out for thunderbolt, at least as common as firewire. External video card enclosures seem promising, although i would just like an external hdd box. Still not crazy about cracking open the iMac, suppose that might change in 3-5 months when I'm wanting more speed...

Well you could stick an eSATA card in one of those enclosures for an overly elaborate expensive eSATA adapter (...I might do this with Sonnet's short one depending on price if nothing else comes out). I figure it'll be a while until there are empty enclosures just cause the bigger companies will probably be milking that space as long as they can.

# ¿ Aug 6, 2011 11:14

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# ¿ May 16, 2024 03:17

japtor: Oct 28, 2005

I'd guess stolen or scam, like they'll ask you to send money somewhere and they'll mail you the MBP. Or something is wrong or they're just getting rid of it without caring about the actual value (like desperately selling to feed some other addiction).

:iiam:

# ¿ Aug 6, 2011 17:05

japtor: Oct 28, 2005

On Unicornback posted:

Si. I was just wondering if I need to worry about buying a machine, for my outlined uses, that already cannot run the latest MacOS. I know everything should work fine now, but will it last a few years as well?

If the timeframe is "a few years" I'd go with a C2D one just so you can at least get to Lion for the foreseeable future, particularly if your other machines are or will be running it. Basically it tends to be easier if they're all running the same thing. I think the older C2Ds (Intel graphics) were 1.83 and 2.0ghz, and later models (with Nvidia graphics) came in 2.0 and up. The older ones had FW400, fast Ethernet, and PATA optical iirc, while starting with the later ones they had FW800, gigabit, and SATA optical (if you want to swap that drive). Also B/G vs N wireless I believe, if you plan to go wireless at all.

One thing I'm curious about :

quote:

I've found some older dual 2ghz G5 towers that would be perfect form factor.

What about them is the perfect form factor, particularly for your use case? They're literally like 20x the size of the Mac mini and can only hold 2 3.5" drives (I guess 3 if you replace the optical). That's ignoring the other factors mentioned, that it sucks much more power and is slower, and can only run up to 10.5. Depending on the condition it could be noisy too.

SourKraut posted:

Actually you can get Lion to run on Core Solo/Core Duo systems...

They took out nearly all the 32-bitness so I imagine it'd be a massive pain in the rear end at this point...now if you were talking about upgrading the CPU on it, then yeah that works. It's a big enough pain in the rear end that I'd suggest just paying a bit more for a C2D model.

japtor fucked around with this message at 03:48 on Aug 7, 2011

# ¿ Aug 7, 2011 03:43

japtor: Oct 28, 2005

I just realized I might be wrong on the fast/gigabit thing I wrote earlier. That might've been between PPC and Intel, so double check that if it's a deal breaker. (I would but I'm posting from the iPhone app :shobon:

)

SourKraut posted:

From what I've seen/read, they didn't take out any "32-bitness" in so much as Apple artificially locked out Lion from installing purely via a software check of system. There's apparently an installation method for installing to an external drive, deleting PlatformSupport.plist, and such.

Edit - Hmm, yeah, there may be limitations on this actually...

Yeah the plist is just a whitelist (and easily removed/renamed/edited), but afaik they stripped out most/all the 32-bit binaries, which is why you still need a C2D to run it. 32-bit libraries and whatnot will still be around for non 64-bit apps.

# ¿ Aug 7, 2011 05:19

japtor: Oct 28, 2005

ScooterMcTiny posted:

Currently have the following sitting in my Amazon cart ready to take advantage of the 20% off laptop deal...

15" MacBook Pro
Intel 320 Series 120GB SATA SSD
Western Digital 1TB Scorpio HD
8GB (2x4GB) Corsair Memory

If I pick up a HD optical bay caddy from Mac Sales or eBay or wherever, I should be good to go, yea? Anyone know of any issues with either the SSD or memory?

The 320 has a potential nasty bug where improper power off (power loss, hard shutdown, maybe hard restart) can leave it showing as 8MB. I'd wait until that's patched. They're not so hot without TRIM support but that's more of a long term thing that may not matter for you.

# ¿ Aug 7, 2011 19:10

japtor: Oct 28, 2005

Bob Morales posted:

That issue is so overblown. As is the lack of TRIM support.

poo poo can happen, they might as well be aware of it. And my G2 (in an external enclosure) is kind of sucking it up in 4k random, being a 40GB model probably accelerated the decline of course. I think it did around 15MB/sec in it before, now I'm down to 1-2MB last I checked on it. It still feels decently quick (cause access speed I assume) but there's been noticeable slowdowns here and there. The 80GB G1 in my main machine which is older and gets a shitload more use is fine though.
/completely anecdotal evidence

brc64 posted:

So I got my Air, brought it home, started playing with it. Not even an hour after setting it up, my wife is looking up Mac Minis online. Long story short, we go back to the Apple store and she gets an entry level Mac Mini, wireless keyboard and trackpad.

We decided not to spend the extra $300 for more RAM since crucial.com says we can max the sucker out for like $60 or $70, so we'll probably do that. The new Minis make RAM upgrades crazy simple compared to the old ones, apparently.

Hope she doesn't want the Cinema or Thunderbolt display now too :ohdear:

And it's actually $1300 to max it out :eng101:

. If it feels slow I'd suggest swapping a faster drive in, preferably SSD of course, but assuming you don't want to blow yet another $200+ on it, a bigger/faster RPM drive would work too. If she's ok with 120GB and uses it a lot I'd definitely think about a SSD though.

# ¿ Aug 7, 2011 22:04

japtor: Oct 28, 2005

illcendiary posted:

Hmm, my mom just gave me her iPad so this might be a nice solution. I'm wary of its responsiveness, however. Watching review videos now.

I've used some other VNC based ones just for mouse movement and they're kind of ok. There is a noticeable lag, a bit worse than an older Bluetooth mouse if you've ever used one of those, but usable. If you intend to mouse around a lot I'd stick with the actual hardware (particularly if your'e sensitive to lag), but if it's just now and then an iOS control app would be ok.

Kaleidoscope posted:

I'm using a late-2008 unibody 13.3" Macbook (the kind with the detachable battery). Apple support & forums haven't been any help in this matter so hopefully a goon can shed some insight.

I'm looking to upgrade my hard-drive. About 9 months ago I upgrade my ram in the Apple Store. It was expensive but it was fast & easy which was what I was looking for since I live overseas most of the year. The local outlet recently informed me they no longer offer that service and I would need to go to an Apple certified specialist (since they can't recommend I take care of this myself).

I can easily fine an affordable hard drive on Newegg but has anyone else heard of this Apple Store policy? Is this a process I can take care of myself easily enough? Also I have about a week and a half to get this done before I leave the country again. Thanks.

Appears to be user replaceable and should be quite easy to do: http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/macbook/macbook-unibody-faq/macbook-unibody-13-non-pro-how-to-upgrade-hard-drive.html

# ¿ Aug 8, 2011 07:06

japtor: Oct 28, 2005

htabz posted:

Is there something up with the 27' Thunderbolt displays? Shows a 4-6 week ship time direct from apple, and there's none on ebay.

My wild guess is that new Mac Pros/Sandy Bridge chips will happen to be out in 4-6 weeks.

flyboi posted:

It's not a limitation of bootcamp, it's a limitation of Windows. And no, there is still no workaround and I doubt that Thunderbolt will address this issue.

It might be possible if Windows can boot off a PCIe SATA card, but no one will know until adapters/PCIe chassis come out to actually test it.

evensevenone posted:

Usually the monitor does it. Some monitors are better/worse at sniffing out the size of the image and scaling it correctly. Some displays are better/worse at producing signals the display likes. VGA is really messy because it was designed for CRTs.

Does the monitor have any adjustments for size? You might be able to stretch the image out to fill.

Otherwise going to DVI will pretty much be guaranteed to fix the problem. And it will look better.

This basically. I was confused how it was happening until I realized you were connecting through VGA. Most LCDs I've seen with VGA input have some auto configure option which (ideally) figures out the resolution it's getting fed and scales everything properly. If yours doesn't have this or isn't reading it/TB port isn't outputting right for whatever reason you'll have to scale manually if possible. You've probably tried this, but have you completely powered off and unplugged the display? It might get it to reset the settings it had from the previous computer...or some other computery mumbo jumbo.

DEUCE SLUICE posted:

Found a more reasonably priced Mac Mini bottom hard drive cable on powerbookmedic.com. Out of stock now, but it was $35 shipped.

Now I just need to figure out what SSD to put in.

In case anyone else is looking, someone on eBay is selling them too (ended up just over $35 shipped for me):
http://cgi.ebay.com/mac-mini-922-9560-Cable-Flex-Bottom-Hard-Drive-Server-/160634677387?pt=Apple_Desktops&hash=item256692a88b
I saw most places sold out, or one of the first places people noticed...which has apparently been slowly jacking up the price on the part since then. I think it was around $40 last I saw, along with $16 shipping or something ridiculous on top of that.

# ¿ Aug 9, 2011 11:13

japtor: Oct 28, 2005

Forgot about something I read yesterday, Macworld's Mac mini review mentioned that the Radeon model could run three displays (two over TB, one HDMI). Not sure how they figured that out or if it's even accurate though.

And this Zotac DP/MDP to dual HDMI output thingy may be useful for some of you, if it works:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/4563/zotac-releases-displayport-to-dual-hdmi-adapter

brc64 posted:

Are there any super important keyboard shortcuts I need to know about?

This is a software question :ssh:

. While editing text I use option-arrow a lot. Left/right skips between words, and I think up/down does it between line returns/paragraphs. You've probably figured fn-up/down already (page up/down). And uh, combine any of those with shift and you can easily select chunks of text, like if I want to copy paste a few words I option-shift-arrow. You can also combine them with delete, so if I gently caress up a sentence I usually option-delete (to delete words at a time).

I think that's more or less it as far as text editing. In Safari you can do a lot of different stuff related to just holding cmd/opt/shift, like typing in a URL/search and hitting cmd-return will open it in a new tab, cmd-opt should be a new window, shift will reverse the foreground/background behavior, and this can be done with links and usually buttons.

Cmd-tab does the app switcher, and while still holding cmd you can shift-tab to cycle backwards, or just tilde (~). In App Expose you can also hit tab/shift tab to cycle between apps, or invoke the tab switcher there too to jump to a particular app. (last I tried it doesn't work in Mission Control like it did in All Window Expose before though

)

There's a bunch of other stuff too...basically if you have a cmd-letter command, many times there's a modified version with opt and/or shift, and rarely control. If you open a menu and hold those modifiers it'll show these commands if they're not in the normal menu.

DEUCE SLUICE posted:

As an aside, has anyone compared the 24" or 27" ACD's to the equivalent Dell side by side? I'm not terribly confident that Apple will be able to fix the issue with thunderbolt macs on the 24" ACD (as it's been around since the first thunderbolt Macbooks Pro,) so I'm considering just selling the ACD and picking up a U2412M (and a webcam, I guess.)

The Dell 27" is around $900 isn't it? I looked into it a while back and I think the panels were likely sourced from the same supplier(s), but the ACD had LED vs CCFL backlighting. Otherwise the ACD had speakers, webcam, and the whole glass on front gloss as gently caress design going on. With the TB display you have all the other ports as well of course, through a single cable no less (vs...two on the ACD).

The nice thing about other displays is that they usually have an abundance of inputs, so consider that if you have a bunch of stuff you'd like to connect and consolidate. That's the main thing keeping me from getting the TB display (well, next year), just one extra input would be nice.

# ¿ Aug 9, 2011 18:50

japtor: Oct 28, 2005

Jeratain posted:

I almost feel it's software related more than it's hardware related, but I've nothing to back that up. Maybe I'll get lucky and not have it happen again.

And just to re-verify: yes, I even ran my SN through the HDD replacement link and it said my system is not affected.

Off the top of my head other possibilities are a bad or just loose fan or perhaps power supply funkiness. I wouldn't rule out the HD either unless you're 100% sure on it. Just cause your iMac doesn't fall in the program doesn't necessarily mean the drive is fine.

Karsh posted:

From my experience, the drive needs to be formatted as something readable by Macs e.g. HFS+ or exFAT. Windows PCs can connect to them as long as you have Airport Utility installed.

Sure they do exFAT? In the past it's just supported HFS+ and FAT32, with serving done through AFP and SMB. I don't think drive format really matters outside of filesystem limitations, stuff like special characters in file name limitations and what not.

Chemmy posted:

Portability's not a huge deal in that I drive to work and have an iPad to travel light.

However I'm not really a power user. I'm an engineer in the semiconductor industry by trade so my work keeps me swimming in bleeding edge computer hardware and in terms of keeping laptops I generally keep them a while but only because I'm not much of a "power user" on my home PC.

There's nothing wrong with my current 2.2 C2D, I just think it still has value to sell so I might as well upgrade because the money isn't a big deal for me right now.

In terms of "desktop replacement" it'd be my only computer but I bought my wife a 13" MacBook Pro (she really wanted an optical drive) last week. I think my main dilemma is screen size. New high res 15 MBP is more pixels than my current MBP.

Well if portability isn't a big deal I'd mostly consider how much you want the SSD. If you get the 15" and buy a 256GB SSD you're basically looking at another $400 on the lower end, $200ish is you're fine with 128GB.

# ¿ Aug 10, 2011 05:54

japtor: Oct 28, 2005

Pretty sure it's just dual link DVI.

# ¿ Aug 11, 2011 02:03

japtor: Oct 28, 2005

SourKraut posted:

Oh in the past I've seen where people were concerned about linking to SA Mart pages where they were selling stuff, so wasn't sure if it was against rules or such. Good to know for the future that it's ok!

Oh hey, one question for you (and anyone else), since I didn't see it really get answered earlier: is the i7 upgrade in the 13" MacBook Pro worth it over the i5?

I figure it's debatable if you need as much CPU as possible. More cache along with ~17% faster base and turbo clock (2.9 vs 3.4ghz), and 1.3 vs 1.2ghz GPU clock according to Intel. There's also some other CPU features but I'm not sure how many matter for the Mac (right now at least) except AES, which is used to accelerate FileVault drive encryption if you plan to use that.

Intel's site comparing the two: http://ark.intel.com/compare/52231,52224
I'd probably just look out for the i7 on the refurb site if I decided to get it.

# ¿ Aug 11, 2011 06:20

japtor: Oct 28, 2005

Sinestro posted:

Should I get a iMac and a 13" Macbook Air or a 15" MBP and an Apple Thunderbolt Display?

I'd probably go iMac and Air for the flexibility (like leaving the iMac on as a server) and portability of the Air...but there's arguments for either route really. If you do a lot of computing on the road and need the extra power/features, or simply need everything with you, then go with the MBP I guess.

MEET ME BY DUCKS posted:

Maybe this is a redundant question too, but isn't upgrading the MBP to an SSD actually a good deal, compared to some of the other upgrades? It seems like getting an aftermarket SSD of the same size is $250 and Apple charges $100. Is there something about this I'm misunderstanding before I pull the trigger on an order tomorrow?

It varies depending on the cost of the upgrade. I'm guessing you're looking into a 128GB one, so yeah it's definitely a good deal at $100. Meanwhile on the Mac mini and iMac I think the only option is a 256GB one at $600 or so.

MEET ME BY DUCKS posted:

I'd get the Apple education discount and I want some other upgrades like the hi-res anti-glare so I think I need to get it from Apple, unless I'm mistaken and can get a model with the specifications I want on Amazon. Is the Crucial M4 better than what Apple would give me? Because for less than $230 I could get the a normal laptop harddrive on Newegg and an enclosure. And can you not buy Applecare if you buy through Amazon?

M4 is better and worse. It'd likely be faster at most stuff, but supposedly it kind of sucks without TRIM. You can buy AppleCare from wherever (assuming it's legit :v:

), but he's saying that it won't cover a third party SSD.

For upgraded systems, look into B&H. I don't know if they have the MBP config you want, but when I was shopping for Mac minis a few days ago I noticed that they had the dual i7 and various drive configurations which are all BTO options.

# ¿ Aug 11, 2011 09:14

japtor: Oct 28, 2005

You might even get people willing to pay a premium for the matte display since most people (probably) have glossy.

# ¿ Aug 11, 2011 09:36

japtor: Oct 28, 2005

They are that glossy. iMacs, Cinema/Thunderbolt Displays, iPads, and iPhones are too. It's the magic of glass without any anti reflective coat. MBPs might be worse off in stores with the overhead lights and angle you view them at...but still they're that glossy.

# ¿ Aug 11, 2011 10:44

japtor: Oct 28, 2005

MEET ME BY DUCKS posted:

So if I get the SSD with the MBP are there any potential issues to look out for when buying an old school hard drive to put in the optibay? Windows will boot from it? It doesnt look like a huge ripoff to get the drive and optibay package from mce. Although MCE doesn't give a brand for the drives they're selling.

Windows should be able to boot cause it's an internal drive, but otherwise I don't know what other possible caveats there might be. Well two general HD ones but I don't know the answer, does the optical drive bay implement sudden motion sensing? And I've heard of boot drives in the optical bay having wake from sleep issues, but I have no clue if it affects Windows.

SourKraut posted:

Didn't realize they'd be so expensive. As long as you're careful each time, unplugging and replugging should be ok.

What about an HDMI switch? I think those can be had for fairly cheap (such as $10-20), and you could simply use HDMI-> DVI adapters for connecting them?

I'm guessing most (all?) HDMI switches would be limited to single link resolutions since there's probably not that much stuff using HDMI that requires dual link.

And is $347 really the cheapest? I thought I saw stuff in the $200 range...which is still expensive, but maybe that was for single link and/or more devices.

# ¿ Aug 11, 2011 20:27

japtor: Oct 28, 2005

brc64 posted:

One of you was joking about hoping that my wife doesn't ask for a Thunderbolt Cinema Display, but just for kicks I looked online at them. Is that 27 inch beast the only size display they sell anymore!? It seems like they used to have at least a few different sizes, starting with a merely "very large" 20 inch and going up from there.

Her 22" Samsung is working well enough with the HDMI to DVI adapter that came with her Mac Mini, but she was complaining a little bit about the text (loving typography class she took in college permanently switched something on in her brain). I played with the color calibration thing, and I guess that helped, I don't know. But anyway, the only display they sell is $1000?!

Unrelated hardware question (and I checked the OP this time, I promise!):
What's the general consensus on Time Capsule/Airport Extreme/Time Machine?

Right now I'm just using the router that Verizon provided for our FIOS service, which is surprisingly robust, but it only does Wireless B/G. I'd love to get some Wireless N and gigabit LAN action going on in here, and having a nice automated backup source thing seems like a nice idea as well.

From the very little I've seen, Time Machine looks to be about as straightforward as backup systems get, but would appreciate feedback from other goons (I realize this is more of a software question, but whatever).

Finally, as for the wifi component, how much flexibility does it give you? Port forwarding? Static DHCP leases? VPN passthrough (straight up VPN support is probably asking too much)?

$300 is not exactly an impulse buy, but for a boost in overall network speed (we've got several devices that support wireless N, but just aren't using it) and a centralized backup system that presumably integrates nicely with our computers, it's not an unreasonable cost.

I think with the displays they just decided to gently caress it and only offer the higher end cause they're actually competitive in the 27-30" space price wise (at the 2560px wide res at least) vs being 2-3x the cost of other 24"s.

As for the TC/AE they're nice as routers, although I have no clue if it does VPN stuff. Backup wise I'm kind of paranoid about horror stories with it, but people have had success with it too :shobon:

(there's also stories about plain ol' direct attached Time Machine backups going bad to for what it's worth). Here's Anandtech's pretty thorough review: http://www.anandtech.com/show/4577/airport-extreme-5th-gen-and-time-capsule-4th-gen-review-faster-wifi-

flyboi posted:

I bought a Crucial M4 128GB

I'm going to put this in my MBP as it looks like there might be stuttering issues and move the 128GB C300 in my MBP to my iMac as I have had 0 issues with that drive and swapping drives around and poo poo is MUCH easier on the MBP. Cables and all should be here next Friday wish me luck!

I've heard the M4 is ok after the last firmware update. Skim the MacRumors forums for that stuff, there's a lot of :spergin:

people over there with specific threads about particular drives and individual Mac model forums.

movax posted:

If I understand correctly (which hopefully I do because I put this in the monitor thread OP):

2010 ACD = friends with everyone, it's DisplayPort
2010 iMac = target display mode only with 2010 Macs (no Thunderbolt)
2011 Thunderbolt = Thunderbolt bitches
2011 iMac = Target display mode only with 2011 Macs (Thunderbolt bitches )

2010 iMac target display should be able to work with 2011 iMacs since the 2011s can output DisplayPort fine.

DEUCE SLUICE posted:

iFixit has a kit out for adding a second drive to the new Mini.

http://www.ifixit.com/Apple-Parts/Mac-Mini-Dual-Hard-Drive-Kit/IF171-005

I already have the cable (and a similar bit driver kit) so I don't need it, but the grommets and screws look specific enough that you need them if you want to do the install "right." I might just throw the drive in there without mounting it. If you don't need to remove the HD bracket you can drop the second drive in without moving the logic board.

Yeah I'm probably going to plop the SSD in there and maybe ghetto rig some type of cushioning to more or less secure it in place�honestly just cause the proper installation looks like a massive pain in the rear end since you have to dismantle the whole drat thing.

BlackMK4 posted:

Lost:
Stock 250gb Hitachi (just now)
Stock 250gb Toshiba
500GB WD Scorpio Blue
640GB WD Scorpio Blue Refurb
2x 500GB Seagate Momentus XT

You are the new kapalama. If it makes you feel any better I think the Momentus XT kind of has a bad reputation to begin with at least.

unixbeard posted:

If i got a mac mini and this http://www.matrox.com/graphics/en/products/gxm/dh2go/ could I plug the dh2go into the displayport and run 2 monitors off that then run a 3rd monitor off the hdmi port? Is this possible?

If I get the mini with the Radeon + the Lightridge thunderbolt controller would it have enough grunt to run 3 24" at 1920x1080? I'm not doing anything particularly graphics intensive I just want the real estate.

Yeah kinda. The issue with Matrox dual head type things is that they work basically by combining both screens into one for the computer, then splitting the output, so the computer would end up seeing one 3840x1080 screen, and stuff like Lion full screen apps would span right across both. You might want to look into this thing. Looks like Monoprice has their own too. I'm not 100% on them, but it seems like they may be using the standard DP protocol to run multiple displays.

And the Radeon should be fine if you're only doing basic stuff with it. It's kind of a question of whether it'll actually support two displays off its Thunderbolt port. Apple doesn't say anything about it, but a Macworld review I saw the other day said it could, so� :iiam:

SourKraut posted:

Since you mentioned the 96 GB drive being equivalent to a drive Apple used last year, what about the 128 GB V+100? I thought I remember reading once that there some differences between the sizes for the V+100s, but can't remember if that's correct or not.

Bigger may be faster, otherwise it should be the same controller and everything else.

# ¿ Aug 13, 2011 11:54

japtor: Oct 28, 2005

The solution is to wait for a Sandy Bridge MBA refurb :eng101:

...I tried doing that for a Mac mini one but just gave in. I semi saved ~$200 by not getting the i7 upgrade ($100) like I originally planned and buying off Amazon ($30 off the normal price along with no tax).

# ¿ Aug 13, 2011 22:14

japtor: Oct 28, 2005

pipebomb posted:

* When I eventually get the monitor, is there a way to use it with both computers that you can think of, short of plug/unplug or RDP? I don't see a KVM solution anywhere for MiniDisplay port and it seems unlikely it would support Thunderbolt anyway.

Unless the display happens to have some unannounced feature like toggling between inputs (like the iMac switching internal/input) I don't think there's any options until someone figures out how to make a switch, if that ever happens. Screen Sharing is kind of nice in Lion though, particularly because full screen mode. Right now I have my old and new Minis together and just swipe to the next space over to control the old one.

The main issue is stuff like sound not passing through it, but for just controlling it and doing stuff it's fine. I'd say swapping the cable might work but then you might also have random peripherals hooked up, which could get messy if there are drives there.

SourKraut posted:

Thanks for the responses! I'm hoping that it might come up again at some point, since a 256 GB SSD would let me simply forgo a Optibay SSD + HDD combination. I had tried to buy the Shell Shocker deal at the time, but it sold out before I could fully send through my order.

If you're anal about benchmarks/dick waving it's not the fastest...but in actual use you'd probably never notice, especially if you haven't used one before. And if it goes for less than a buck per gig again you definitely can't complain.

movax posted:

Can I just boot with the Snow Leopard install DVD and use Disk Utility to clone my existing OS X partition to my Vertex 2? I have 75GB used atm, so space shouldn't be an issue.

I know people in this thread have been suggesting against OCZ, but it didn't BSOD once in my desktop under Win...are there Mac-specific things it fails at?

Yeah just go to the Restore tab, drag the old drive to the Source and other to the Destination fields. Just don't select "erase destination" or whatever, because then it does a block level copy and will fail (assuming you're going from a larger to smaller drive here). If you do want to make sure to clear everything off just do an erase separately right before that.

As for OCZ I'm not sure there's anything Mac specific, but you never know until you try it out :iiam:

# ¿ Aug 15, 2011 10:15

japtor: Oct 28, 2005

I assume this is the 4GB 11" MBA model y'all were talking about (if anyone is still having trouble seeing it):

http://www.amazon.com/Apple-MacBook-MC969LL-11-6-Inch-VERSION/dp/tech-data/B005CWIRPG/ref=de_a_smtd

I'm seeing $1390 from some third party seller, but Amazon's $1139 is right on the sidebar under "more buying choices" for me right now. B&H also has it for $1139 too (and other random BTO configs), along with a free copy of Bento 3 if you want that:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/812523-REG/Apple_MC969LL_A_11_6_MacBook_Air_Notebook.html

# ¿ Aug 15, 2011 21:31

japtor: Oct 28, 2005

SourKraut posted:

Yeah, what drives me crazy is that i7 on the 11" and 13" MBAs represents a good deal given it's only $150 (11") or $100 (13") to upgrade.

Then you look at the 13" MBP, where the i7 upgrade is essentially $300 more (not quite, since you get a larger HDD too, but that's relatively nothing...) and it's like "WTF Apple..."

I imagine part of it is Intel's chip pricing. Between the i5 and i7 on the higher end Mini the difference is 200MHz and a MB of cache for $100, which seems like a nice gouging...then you see how much Intel prices them at. The 2.3 and 2.7 there are the same as the MBP, but I'm guessing the 2.3 has no price cause it might be OEM only or something.

flyboi posted:

Should I be worried that HDD is 1C? I see that the actual hard drive reports the temperature properly. Can someone with a 2011 iMac check their sensors in istatmenus for me?

Can't answer that question but will raise another, should you be worried that your SSD isn't reporting a temperature? I've heard not all drives report it through SMART so that might be it I guess.

And those temps are so much lower than on my Mini :saddowns:

I'm guessing that's normal cause it's using laptop parts, just wondering if others are seeing similar ranges.

# ¿ Aug 16, 2011 10:57

japtor: Oct 28, 2005

flyboi posted:

It probably isn't reported because it isn't one of the sensors the iMac uses to judge fan speed. Also SSDs don't report temperature via SMART so HEH.

Huh, never noticed. Can you check the info window in Disk Utility on it? Mine (Samsung 470) apparently has an "Air Flow Temperature" number, just curious whether that's a common thing with SSDs or not if they don't do the number iStat is reading.

Phiberoptik posted:

Does anyone know if i could daisychain into a thunderbolt display with a 24" Dell LCD panel I have, using a Mini DP to DVI adapter?

Assuming you mean computer with TB to TB display to Dell LCD, I think that should work assuming your computer supports dual displays over Thunderbolt. At least that's how it's supposed to work afaik.

DEUCE SLUICE posted:

Just put my OWC SSD into my mini, and it was super easy. Remove fan, RAM, fan cowling, antenna shield, and hard drive, pop the logic board out just a cm or so, and the new drive slides right in. I didnt bother with grommets or anything after seeing how tightly the thing fits when put together, the top drive doesn't move at all.

If only I had created a full install stick beforehand...internet recovery is sloooooow.

. Cause I'm paranoid I've been scheming ways to secure the drive in place and bought some bumpers and crap from Lowes the other day. Some small squishy "soft dots" that came in one of the packs fit the bill and I got the drive jammed snugly in there (...hopefully nothing melts). I think the crap I had the most trouble with was getting drat cowling out and back in, and the bundle of wires (power connector I think) next to the drives.

I was annoyed that internet recovery didn't go straight to 10.7.1 though :colbert:

Star War Sex Parrot posted:

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.

OWC suggested not using it for theirs at least, supposedly they've seen some issues with it in their testing.

# ¿ Aug 17, 2011 08:20

japtor: Oct 28, 2005

Jolan posted:

I bought a Belkin F5L049ea Home Base a bit ago, a wireless USB hub basically, but I just found out that it not only doesn't support loading NTFS drives in MacOSX, it also seems to work on Rosetta so it'll be useless when I upgrade to Lion. Is there a similar device around that works reliably with MacOSX and can handle NTFS drives without a problem?

Edit: additional question: is it really worth dropping ~600 euro on a 256gb SSD in addition to the 1tb HD when buying a new iMac?

Is it for USB in general or just HDs? For the latter there's boxes that turn drives into a NAS basically, although I don't know enough about them to suggest any in particular, and NTFS might be a problem for all I know. If they do work you'll pretty much connect to it in the Finder like any other networked drive. If you have a Windows machine lying around I guess that's another option, hook it up and start sharing the drive from it.

As for the iMac SSD option it depends whether you want to bother trying to hack it up yourself. I don't know how euro prices for SSDs are, but in the US it's around $400 for a 256GB, vs $600 for the option. So about a $200 premium for not having to gently caress around with it, and getting a fully supported configuration in case something blows up. I guess you could wait for Thunderbolt drives/enclosures but that'll carry it's own premium too. The best option is probably just holding out for a refurb one with SSD, fully supported and a nice discounted price.

# ¿ Aug 18, 2011 00:43

japtor: Oct 28, 2005

SourKraut posted:

Or pre-order/ultimately at some point purchase Logitech's recently-announced K750 for Mac, which is awesome (wireless, but with no need for batteries since it charges via natural or artificial light).

I have a friend with the PC version and he loves it, and I'm thinking of picking one up for my MBP.

Nice, Mac layout even down to the number pad. drat their hate of Bluetooth though :argh:

Crush posted:

That's not a bad idea.

This is really cool looking, but it has white, non-backlit keys, right?

I doubt they'd want people to have to use a charging cable for a wireless keyboard, although personally I wouldn't mind a dual mode thing where it could work as a plain USB keyboard if plugged in cause pairing can be a bitch sometimes. And I'm not seeing anything about backlighting in the specs there either.

# ¿ Aug 18, 2011 02:40

japtor: Oct 28, 2005

Jolan posted:

It'd be mainly for hard drives and perhaps a printer if I ever buy one. I seemed to recall Apple having this themselves, but I can't find it; must be confusing it with Airport.

You're thinking of the AirPort Extreme, which would work if the drive weren't formatted NTFS. The Express can do printer sharing and its audio stuff. Other routers can do drive and printer sharing, but I have no clue about NTFS support with them. There's also enclosures like this one or other adapters like this one, again NTFS might be a problem though.

quote:

Let me rephrase: why do people pay a ton just to have a computer that boots up a little bit faster? Are SSD's really that revolutionary?

What JP Money said. The basic way to think about it is that the HD has been one of the main bottlenecks of computers for a while now. A lot of slowness in modern machines usually comes down to the system waiting on the HD something, whether it be accessing and loading up files, swapping, or other random crap. SSDs improve the situation massively.

This guy sums it up (albeit from a different user point of view): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7PJ1oeEyGg

# ¿ Aug 18, 2011 09:27

japtor: Oct 28, 2005

Star War Sex Parrot posted:

In terms of performance? Not even close.

No clue what's up with your Airport Express though.

Huh weird. Wonder why CNET got so much better disk performance out of it (graph towards the bottom, divide by 8 for MBps):
http://reviews.cnet.com/wireless-access-points/apple-airport-extreme-base/4505-3265_7-34837270-2.html?tag=rvwBody

# ¿ Aug 19, 2011 03:40

japtor: Oct 28, 2005

Mu Zeta posted:

If you're in school the iPad is definitely the luxury. Having a small laptop with an awesome keyboard owns. There's nothing the iPad can do that the MBA can't.

Anything involving handwriting or drawing...well you can with a tablet but it's a nicer experience drawing directly on the screen itself.

Star War Sex Parrot posted:

Not sure where you're reading that. Samsung and Toshiba's SSDs might not be top-tier fast, but they're hardly low-end SSDs.

Well they kind of are these days, but that's just relative to the newer super fast drives. They're all fast as hell and probably not noticeably different in actual use for most people. It's like this guy's :iiaca:

at 2:50.

# ¿ Aug 20, 2011 03:53

japtor: Oct 28, 2005

NerdsMcGee posted:

Also (COMPLETELY out in left field), is there anyone that has a slot-load BluRay drive? Fastmac seems to only support the original MBP 17" Non-Unibody, but that's 600 bucks anyway.

I've looked into this a few times over the years. The main issue is that no one seems to make a 9.5mm slot load BD drive, I have seen some tray loaders though. Admittedly I haven't looked in a few months so there may be something out now for all I know. I gave up a while back and just got a desktop burner...I have a Mac mini so portability wasn't a big deal obviously.

Momonari kun posted:

I asked when it was new, but was wondering now that people have had time with them. How is the Mac Mini for gaming? I like games a bit, prefer using Macs, and want a semi-portable machine for cheap. I'm playing mostly older games, but would also like to play stuff around the Witcher 2 level. I'm looking at the Core i7 Mac Mini with the AMD graphics card for about $1200 with AppleCare (I live in Korea, prices are inflated), but would I be better getting a base mini for Mac stuff (about $950 with AppleCare) and a $400 PC for gaming? It's more money than the mini, but even at $400, I'm not sure how good it'll be. The processor in the mini will be faster (i7 versus Athlon II), but graphics I'm not sure about.

I'd assume the PC would be better...but honestly I have no clue what $400 gets you these days. Technically you could tack on a Thunderbolt box and GPU down the line for a few hundred and perhaps be better off (barring the inconvenience of dual booting if you go that route).

You might want to save a little and get the i5 Radeon model, cause the i7 doesn't seem to be a huge boost for most uses, and if you go the PC route it's more money to add to that budget at least.

# ¿ Aug 24, 2011 03:42

japtor: Oct 28, 2005

I believe it's supposed to up the graphics performance, but other than that yeah, it should basically just be a little faster and more efficient. Integrated USB 3 is the other major thing I guess.

# ¿ Aug 24, 2011 22:27

japtor: Oct 28, 2005

movax posted:

USB 3.0 comes with the 7-series chipsets. If Apple really wants to not support USB 3.0 () they'll just keep using 6-series chipsets as they are compatible with Ivy Bridge CPUs, or ship 7-series-based machines with USB 3.0 disabled.

Don't give them ideas :argh:

# ¿ Aug 24, 2011 23:23

japtor: Oct 28, 2005

Binary Badger posted:

Lastly, the very first MacBook1,1 can't run Lion as it had a Core Duo, not a Core 2 Duo.

And don't try hacking it onto there because some stuff on the internet says it's possible. That only applied to the early dev previews, it's not possible with the release version.

# ¿ Aug 26, 2011 01:02

japtor: Oct 28, 2005

In theory that should work. Keep in mind you'd be limited to videos and stuff that works with external displays, i.e. no mirroring like on the iPad 2. What resolutions can the CRT display, 480p and 1080i or just an older 480i one? I have the VGA and HDMI adapters, but I've never tried it on anything other than 720/768p and 1080/1200p displays.

# ¿ Aug 26, 2011 08:42

japtor: Oct 28, 2005

Cozmosis posted:

What's the best current non-laggy way to use multiple external displays on a MBP/MBA? I see the Matrox Dualhead2Go, and a couple of crappy USB ones that seem to lag. Anyone using a good one? Since apparently you can't daisy-chain multiple thunderbolt displays on the current Macbooks.

One of these might work, but if it does it might only be for the 15/17" MBP cause the HD3000 can't do triple head (only two outputs, one already tied to the LCD).

Monoprice has a DVI one but apparently isn't passive like the Zotac.

# ¿ Aug 28, 2011 12:41

japtor: Oct 28, 2005

lelandjs posted:

So I got one of those $99 TouchPads and I've barely touched my 2010 MacBook Air in a week. Is it crazy that I'm considering ebaying the MBA and buying a 2011 Mac Mini? From what I can tell the base level Mini can handle Source games just fine and the fact that its got thunderbolt means that I'll theoretically be able to plug in a real graphics card down the line.

I think a lot of people have gotten by with doing something similar with iPads and the Mac mini or iMac. I've been doing that myself for the past year...although I've been thinking about a MBA for a while now to replace my old netbook for the times I need more computery stuff away from home (which hasn't been enough to justify getting one yet).

Just keep in mind a Thunderbolt box will cost quite a bit. I think the ViDock guy threw out $300 as a possible price (vs $200 for their current/soon to be last generation model), and on top of whatever the box is you'd need to pay for the card itself. You might as well spend the extra $200 for the better GPU now (or wait for refurb to save some money) if you're going to be gaming. Still not a great GPU but should hold off thoughts of upgrading longer at least.

# ¿ Aug 30, 2011 02:50

japtor: Oct 28, 2005

Star War Sex Parrot posted:

I haven't looked into it very much, but I'm pretty sure that's only in Windows. Granted, anyone setting up an external graphics card is most likely going to have a Boot Camp partition for games anyway, but I really don't expect OS X to support external graphics adapters over ThunderBolt. I'd love for Apple to prove me wrong though.

I've checked the ViDock Facebook page now and then and it sounds like they work in OS X. If I'm remembering that right, I guess the main thing is that ExpressCard and Thunderbolt are basically other forms of PCIe. The bigger problem is probably just getting a Mac compatible GPU to stick in the box.

...that said, the idea of possibly hot plugging a GPU is just :psyduck:

lelandjs posted:

I'm actually thinking that I may just be better off getting a Windows desktop... I will mostly be using it for gaming, after all.

It just feels so... wrong, somehow.

Well that'd be the logical choice :v:

. I've never been a huge computer gamer, so most of the stuff I'd play is pretty basic hardware requirement wise. Of course part of that is cause I've always been more of a console person which has made the lack of Mac gaming easier to handle all these years.

# ¿ Aug 30, 2011 09:15

japtor: Oct 28, 2005

Bob Morales posted:

SATA III issue, as OWC uses SandForce drives and they have the same problem. Jury is still out on whether it's the controller or the cable:

http://blog.macsales.com/9754-owc-offers-fix-for-2011-17-mbp-sata-problems

Basically, a shielded cable fixes it for some users, disconnecting the battery indicator fixes it for some, and it looks to be most common in the 17" MBP.

You can always get an Intel 320...

...which would get you another 50GB for about the same price. Or some other 256GB drive for about $170 less, I got my Samsung 470 for $400 or so recently and saw others in the same range too.

Space Racist posted:

Huh, I don't know why I didn't even consider that option. Obviously speed would be the same for the iMac, but how would it compare in the MBA's case to backing up via the AEBS? Any faster or slower?

I'd guess faster just cause the CPU, but depending on how you're connecting the MBA you may not get any noticeable improvement.

frogbs posted:

At work we have a late 2006 iMac (Intel!) that has started randomly turning off all on its own. I think its a bad power supply, any idea what Apple would charge for a new PS?

This was the first hit for "2006 iMac parts", and if those prices are any indication I'd guess $200 at least. No clue how easy or hard it'd be to replace it yourself if you wanted to go that route (assuming the repair cost is high).

# ¿ Aug 31, 2011 05:59

japtor: Oct 28, 2005

Mitsune posted:

I too was looking into putting a Samsung HD in my early, unibody MB. Moreover, are 5400 rpm drives more recommended for laptops (battery and heat)?

I got two of those, one internal and one external. The one I have inside seems slow compared to benchmarks I've seen...I'm thinking it may be fragmented to hell or something cause my external one does better :confused:

. Either way if you want that capacity your only choice is 5400 at this point.

Molten Llama posted:

For what it's worth, I was just told that doesn't cover anything substantially more expensive than the service; the logic board (mine being quite dead) was specifically called out as being an additional parts cost on top.

Weird, I've always heard that it covers anything and everything they find, that included the logic board when I was offered it a while back. I've also heard they only offer the flat rate for laptops, so anyone with a desktop can probably just ignore this stuff :shobon:

Star War Sex Parrot posted:

I could be wrong since I don't spend as much time in the enterprise world (especially in how it's marketed), but I think nearline SAS refers to "fat SAS," or larger SAS drives that aren't so concerned with performance. Think 3.5" multi-TB 5900 RPM SAS drives.

I got some "nearline" branded drives for my TiVo and G5 way way back. I think the schtick (at least back then) was basically that they were for reliable backup/archival storage like offline storage...but not offline so it could still be accessible like online storage, but not meant for normal constant online use either, hence the slower speeds being ok. Wikipedia has some more complex example with tapes but the basic concept is the same as what I remember.

# ¿ Sep 1, 2011 19:37

japtor: Oct 28, 2005

zenthursdays posted:

It came with no restore media. Before swapping everything out I tried what was mentioned in the software OP but couldn't get Lion to re-download. Called the Apple store and they don't carry the thumb drive either. Looks like I get to swap drives out again.

Got an external enclosure for it? If so, and if it already has Lion installed, you can boot from that drive's recovery partition and either do a fresh install to the SSD or clone the drive over, although I believe the latter won't clone the recovery partition.

# ¿ Sep 3, 2011 00:17

japtor: Oct 28, 2005

moron posted:

Does anyone know anywhere in the UK that carries OWC products?

I've got my eye on the OWC Mercury Elite Pro Qx2, but I'd rather not have to pay $100 shipping if at all possible.

You can probably find similar models from a local retailer/online shop, just look for 4 bay FireWire enclosures and a few near identical looking models will likely pop up.

Bob Morales posted:

Some people have had luck with 10600 RAM in their old MacBooks, some haven't. Not sure about the iMac but I wouldn't be surprised if it works on some and doesn't on others. In theory it should work but it doesn't always.

I remember someone a while back mentioned that they could do one stick of faster RAM in their machine, but not both. Might be worth a shot to save a little on an upgrade in case replacing all the RAM with 10600 doesn't work.

echobucket posted:

The new Airs and Mac Minis do not have a recovery partition. They have internet recovery built into the HARDWARE. It's like in the firmware, and can download Lion and install it onto a blank drive.

Pretty sure they do (like any other Lion install) otherwise you wouldn't be able to make a recovery disk with their assistant app, which I did when I got my Mac mini. (then found out the assistant limitation later on when making another recovery disk)

lol internet. posted:

3. How are apples product release cycle? When's the next time they'll announce the next generation version of the mini?

It just got updated. Pure speculation here, but they probably won't bother with another update until Ivy Bridge (Intel's next chip revision) is out, so probably mid next year or so.

# ¿ Sep 5, 2011 11:51

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# ¿ May 16, 2024 03:17

japtor: Oct 28, 2005

Zorkon posted:

So wait, if I got a new mac mini, and replaced the hard drive with SSD, I could then retrieve Lion "from the cloud" onto it?

Yep...takes a drat long time (however long your connection takes to download 4GB) but yeah, that's how it works. If you want iLife it'll ask you after the first boot or so whether you want to download the apps from the store.

Alternatively you can just clone the stock drive to the SSD first then swap them if you have a drive dock/adapter or enclosure around. You'll save a bunch of time, and more importantly just see whether the machine is DOA or not before messing around with the guts.

# ¿ Sep 5, 2011 21:11

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