Mac Hardware and Software |OT| - All things Macintosh

Update 3:

Refund was processed for the return. Left a complaint with Apple and a bad review of them, so hopefully others don't have to go through the same experience.

Today I found a great looking used Macbook 2.6ghz so I ordered that along with an SSD. They should be here this coming week.
Quite excited to get back to OSX. That small time I had a Macbook really spoiled me, and it's been crap being back on Windows.
 
So, last week, I bought a Macbook Air. I love it.

Here are its specs:

K7OPELW.png


Got it for £632 with 3 year Applecare for free!

Also got £60 to spend in the Apple Store, been looking to buy a case/sleeve, but they're pretty expensive on there, and I think I can just get one for £10/£20 somewhere else. Any recommendations?

Oh and I'm running Yosemite. Pretty nice.
 
So what's the opinion on refurbished Macbooks? I'm a total Apple noob (I owned a 80 GB iPod Classic when I was in Highschool) but I'm looking at buying a Macbook.

Why is this one so heavily discounted? The rest on the site are discounted ~15%, but this one is reduced by $550 (32% off).
 
It's an early 2013 model which is basically a slightly bumped 2012 model. It only has HD4000. But it's still a fine machine. But those early models had GUI lag when running at higher resolutions.

It's fine. But it's effectively 2 years old. So it gets a bigger discount.

Apple returns are great. Same warranty options as new models and are practically new as it is.
 
The Real Abed said:
It's an early 2013 model which is basically a slightly bumped 2012 model. It only has HD4000. But it's still a fine machine. But those early models had GUI lag when running at higher resolutions.

It's fine. But it's effectively 2 years old. So it gets a bigger discount.

Apple returns are great. Same warranty options as new models and are practically new as it is.
Click to expand...

So it would be better to buy a newer model? Is the July 2014 version enough of an upgrade over the October 2013 model to justify buying brand new?

A bit more money, but 8 gig ram is nice.
 
SaskBoy said:
So it would be better to buy a newer model? Is the July 2014 version enough of an upgrade over the October 2013 model to justify buying brand new?

A bit more money, but 8 gig ram is nice.
Click to expand...

No, just get the referb Oct 2013 with 8gb of ram. It's the same machine with only a .2mhz processor bump. Both have the same Haswell processors.

Either way, avoid the Feb 2013.

Unless if you're a student, you can get $100 of the new mid range 13" plus you get a $110 gift card, so it is almost worth while buying new.

I just got the Mid 14 13" with 256gb and 8gb Ram for 1499, and used the gift card to essentially get 3 years of Applecare for $115. Total with tax in ontario came to 1800. You can order online through the student thing and I don't believe they check any id, only in store. Not sure how ethical that is though.
 
Rbk_3 said:
No, just get the referb Oct 2013 with 8gb of ram. It's the same machine with only a .2mhz processor bump. Both have the same Haswell processors.

Either way, avoid the Feb 2013.

Unless if you're a student, you can get $100 of the new mid range 13" plus you get a $110 gift card, so it is almost worth while buying new.

I just got the Mid 14 13" with 256gb and 8gb Ram for 1499, and used the gift card to essentially get 3 years of Applecare for $115. Total with tax in ontario came to 1800. You can order online through the student thing and I don't believe they check any id, only in store. Not sure how ethical that is though.
Click to expand...

I am a student. $110 gift card sounds nice!
 
SaskBoy said:
So it would be better to buy a newer model? Is the July 2014 version enough of an upgrade over the October 2013 model to justify buying brand new?

A bit more money, but 8 gig ram is nice.
Click to expand...
That's the thing. The discount is deep enough that it's almost worth it if you just want a nice machine and want to save a nice chunk of change. The early 2013 model is nothing to sneeze at. I don't know if there were any caveats with that model either. Since it was a "refined" version of the original it probably fixed any major problems there might have been. Just remember it only has HD4000 graphics. (The late 2013 models have HD5100 in the 13" models) So it comes down to a performance issue.

Note: You can currently also get an October 2013 model for only $120 more with the same specs except with the better GPU. If you're going to go refurb, I'd recommend doing that one instead just for the better performance. The one caveat being that the processor is 0.2GHz less. But it's also Haswell which should be better than the Ivy Bridge in the other model so it probably evens out in the end.

Here is the 2.4GHz with Intel HD5100

And there's also another for the same price, but instead of 2.4GHz it has 2.6GHz but 128GB less storage

In the end it comes down to what you need it for. Do you need speed? Get one of the two above. Do you need storage? Get either your first choice or my first suggestion. I recommend the extra $120 just for the better GPU. I don't know if the lag was terrible in real life trials, but it was vocal enough to be widely known. If you can scrounge up another $120, definitely go with the HD5100.

Of course you can always just run it at "Best for Retina" and have everything on the screen be super big. Or use a tool like QuickRes and just run it at non-retina resolution all the time.

Maybe someone else can chime in who owns the early 2013/late 2012 13" model. I could be overblowing the whole lagginess thing.
 
My son has had his heart set on a mbp for months now for when he goes to uni. Anyhow, it was his 18th birthday last Friday and he managed to snag around £600 cash in gifts, he already had some saved so I took him to the nearest apple store on Saturday and he got himself the 8gb ram 128 gb ssd 13" for £859 with the education discount (retails at £999).

He also got the £60 gift card and he got applecare for £48.

He is well pleased with it.
 
caramac said:
My son has had his heart set on a mbp for months now for when he goes to uni. Anyhow, it was his 18th birthday last Friday and he managed to snag around £600 cash in gifts, he already had some saved so I took him to the nearest apple store on Saturday and he got himself the 8gb ram 128 gb ssd 13" for £859 with the education discount (retails at £999).

He also got the £60 gift card and he got applecare for £48.

He is well pleased with it.
Click to expand...

I'm kind of taken back when an 18 year old is able to afford the same computer as me (or reversely, I'm only able to afford the same computer as an 18 year old.)

But good for him for saving up enough to buy a great computer. I really like the 13" retina. The USB connection freeze is annoying though.
 
caramac said:
My son has had his heart set on a mbp for months now for when he goes to uni. Anyhow, it was his 18th birthday last Friday and he managed to snag around £600 cash in gifts, he already had some saved so I took him to the nearest apple store on Saturday and he got himself the 8gb ram 128 gb ssd 13" for £859 with the education discount (retails at £999).

He also got the £60 gift card and he got applecare for £48.

He is well pleased with it.
Click to expand...

You get a 3 year warranty for free (basically Applecare without the phone support) when ordering from a university so he wasted a fair chunk of money there.
 
caramac said:
My son has had his heart set on a mbp for months now for when he goes to uni. Anyhow, it was his 18th birthday last Friday and he managed to snag around £600 cash in gifts, he already had some saved so I took him to the nearest apple store on Saturday and he got himself the 8gb ram 128 gb ssd 13" for £859 with the education discount (retails at £999).

He also got the £60 gift card and he got applecare for £48.

He is well pleased with it.
Click to expand...

Fantastic Computer !!!
 
The Real Abed said:
That's the thing. The discount is deep enough that it's almost worth it if you just want a nice machine and want to save a nice chunk of change. The early 2013 model is nothing to sneeze at. I don't know if there were any caveats with that model either. Since it was a "refined" version of the original it probably fixed any major problems there might have been. Just remember it only has HD4000 graphics. (The late 2013 models have HD5100 in the 13" models) So it comes down to a performance issue.

Note: You can currently also get an October 2013 model for only $120 more with the same specs except with the better GPU. If you're going to go refurb, I'd recommend doing that one instead just for the better performance. The one caveat being that the processor is 0.2GHz less. But it's also Haswell which should be better than the Ivy Bridge in the other model so it probably evens out in the end.

Here is the 2.4GHz with Intel HD5100

And there's also another for the same price, but instead of 2.4GHz it has 2.6GHz but 128GB less storage

In the end it comes down to what you need it for. Do you need speed? Get one of the two above. Do you need storage? Get either your first choice or my first suggestion. I recommend the extra $120 just for the better GPU. I don't know if the lag was terrible in real life trials, but it was vocal enough to be widely known. If you can scrounge up another $120, definitely go with the HD5100.

Of course you can always just run it at "Best for Retina" and have everything on the screen be super big. Or use a tool like QuickRes and just run it at non-retina resolution all the time.

Maybe someone else can chime in who owns the early 2013/late 2012 13" model. I could be overblowing the whole lagginess thing.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the help. I think I'm leaning towards buying new and taking advantage of the student pricing+$110 gift card. Just going to decide if I'll get the 128 GB or 256 GB.

Is Apple Care worth getting?
 
My iPhone 4S in an Otterbox looks like new almost 3 years in, so I don't think I'll be picking up AppleCare for my iPhone 6.

But good god did AppleCare pay out. I would have paid probably 3/4ths of the cost of the machine in repairs. I'm apparently fairly rough on my laptops.
 
Yeah I never buy AppleCare for mobile devices. But some people I know buy it and really need it. If you have young kids and/or you find that you sometimes break or mishandle your electronics then it is essential IMO.
 
Deku Tree said:
Yeah I never buy AppleCare for mobile devices. But some people I know buy it and really need it. If you have young kids and/or you find that you sometimes break or mishandle your electronics then it is essential IMO.
Click to expand...

That's why you only give them old crap to play with. I'm going to make my kid play on my old Mac Pro. He'll be more likely to hurt himself than damage that beast.

(that and I want my kid to play the same games I did. He will learn to love the original Sim City and Oregon Trail II.)
 
The Real Abed said:
Consider AppleCare part of the price. It's not worth not getting. Especially for a laptop.
Click to expand...
I get it if I see anything that concerns me in the first year while it is still under warranty. I had an issue with my MBP from 2005 and I bought 2 years of AppleCare. That paid itself off many times over.

But if I have no problems with the computer in the first year and don't see even a hint of anything wrong then I don't get it.

This policy has served me well having bought 5 Apple computers since 2005.
 
Fuchsdh said:
That's why you only give them old crap to play with. I'm going to make my kid play on my old Mac Pro. He'll be more likely to hurt himself than damage that beast.

(that and I want my kid to play the same games I did. He will learn to love the original Sim City and Oregon Trail II.)
Click to expand...

I agree with you. But I know people who just can't do that. Besides kids know even when they are very young which device is the cool latest thing based upon watching you and they get mad if you wont let them play with it.
 
bionic77 said:
I get it if I see anything that concerns me in the first year while it is still under warranty. I had an issue with my MBP from 2005 and I bought 2 years of AppleCare. That paid itself off many times over.

But if I have no problems with the computer in the first year and don't see even a hint of anything wrong then I don't get it.

This policy has served me well having bought 5 Apple computers since 2005.
Click to expand...
Ditto. I wait until close to the end of the first year and buy if I have any second thoughts. If I do buy, I consider it part of my purchase price, and I can save up for it during those first 11 months.
 
I'm sure there must be other people with 2011 MacBook Pros that have had logic board problems. Mine has just died for the third time, meaning that I'll be sending it off for repair for the 3rd time in four months. Unbelievable. The repair costs have been covered, but being without a laptop for a couple of weeks every month is seriously putting a dent in my love for Apple. Debating getting the new MBP, but what if the same issues pop up again in 3 years time?

I have an old 2007 MacBook Pro that's still chugging away, makes me sad to think they don't have the build quality they used to have anymore.
 
tanuki said:
I'm sure there must be other people with 2011 MacBook Pros that have had logic board problems. Mine has just died for the third time, meaning that I'll be sending it off for repair for the 3rd time in four months. Unbelievable. The repair costs have been covered, but being without a laptop for a couple of weeks every month is seriously putting a dent in my love for Apple. Debating getting the new MBP, but what if the same issues pop up again in 3 years time?
Click to expand...
I have a 2011 that had a GPU issue 2 months ago that would have ordinarily required the logic board to be replaced.

I instead went to a local place GPU reballed. Been purring like a kitten ever since. I find it very unusual that you'd have an entire logic board replaced and need to send it off for repairs monthly. Usually the entire point of them replacing the logic board is to avoid precisely that scenario. I wonder if they're loading you up with refurbs or something.

I suppose as long as it's being covered you mine as well continue doing that. But getting the GPU reballed is something you might want to look into if these "new logic boards" keep running like shit.
 
Dreams-Visions said:
I have a 2011 that had a GPU issue 2 months ago that would have ordinarily required the logic board to be replaced.

I instead went to a local place GPU reballed. Been purring like a kitten ever since. I find it very unusual that you'd have an entire logic board replaced and need to send it off for repairs monthly. Usually the entire point of them replacing the logic board is to avoid precisely that scenario. I wonder if they're loading you up with refurbs or something.

I suppose as long as it's being covered you mine as well continue doing that. But getting the GPU reballed is something you might want to look into if these "new logic boards" keep running like shit.
Click to expand...

I do suspect that they're being fitted with refurbished logic boards, it's not like Apple are making new ones anymore. Anyway, maybe after this round I'll look into reballing the GPU. Or just call Apple up and see if they'll give me a replacement mac. :P
 
tanuki said:
I do suspect that they're being fitted with refurbished logic boards, it's not like Apple are making new ones anymore. Anyway, maybe after this round I'll look into reballing the GPU. Or just call Apple up and see if they'll give me a replacement mac. :P
Click to expand...
I'd try the latter at this point. If there's a defect with the 2011 Pros replacing the parts would probably have diminished returns.
 
tanuki said:
I'm sure there must be other people with 2011 MacBook Pros that have had logic board problems. Mine has just died for the third time, meaning that I'll be sending it off for repair for the 3rd time in four months. Unbelievable. The repair costs have been covered, but being without a laptop for a couple of weeks every month is seriously putting a dent in my love for Apple. Debating getting the new MBP, but what if the same issues pop up again in 3 years time?

I have an old 2007 MacBook Pro that's still chugging away, makes me sad to think they don't have the build quality they used to have anymore.
Click to expand...

Yep, the AMD GPU's and older Intel processors caused a lot of heat issues. In 2012 they switched to Ivy Bridge and Nvidia GPU's and it supposedly cut down on a lot of the heat issues they were dealing with.
 
Picking up my new 13in. MacBook Pro today after work. I'm excited :)

I made a mistake when ordering online last night though. I forgot to change the email address on my account to my current one. I don't have access to the old email, so I can't get my $100 gift card. Will they be accommodating when explaining that to them in the store?

I hope so. I want that gift card !

Edit: Called Apple and they forwarded the gift card to my current email. All good now :)
 
@ I am super bummed out last night as I noticed a small crack in my rMBP 15 screen. Bought 9 months ago, never used outside the home.


It's a tiny crater almost in the middle of the screen and its noticeble particularly when the screen is dark. If it was a dead pixel I think I could live with it, but an actual crack?:/


I searched google for rmbp screen scratches, and I saw tons of other people who claim to have been careful as I have, and still gotten these. Apparantly this is due to small grains of dust, sand or something else that is on the keyboard. when you close the lid there is so little space between the LCD and the keys that a small grain of anything hard is enough to make a crack.

I've been so careful with it too... Cost of repairing seems to be 400-500 Euro, though one guy in stockholm apparantly got his screen replaced for free.



I don't have applecare, but I am not sure if apple care would cover my own negligence. I am just surprised that the screen is soo vulnerable when the iphone and ipad and previous macbook pros are build like absolute tanks. I've been so careful.. super sad.


There is no real apple stores in my country, everything is sold through a retailer called Humac, and they have a terrible reputation. I wonder if I should try sending it directly apple.com (I bought it on apple.com too) before it's been 1 year since I bought it!?

Do you think they can tell me up front what the price will be? I heard its so expensive because the entire panel and backplate aluminium will need to be replaced!! My screen is great, minimal backbleed, no IR (as I can see) and no yellow tint. gahhh:(
 
Vigilant Walrus said:
@ I am super bummed out last night as I noticed a small crack in my rMBP 15 screen. Bought 9 months ago, never used outside the home.


It's a tiny crater almost in the middle of the screen and its noticeble particularly when the screen is dark. If it was a dead pixel I think I could live with it, but an actual crack?:/


I searched google for rmbp screen scratches, and I saw tons of other people who claim to have been careful as I have, and still gotten these. Apparantly this is due to small grains of dust, sand or something else that is on the keyboard. when you close the lid there is so little space between the LCD and the keys that a small grain of anything hard is enough to make a crack.

I've been so careful with it too... Cost of repairing seems to be 400-500 Euro, though one guy in stockholm apparantly got his screen replaced for free.



I don't have applecare, but I am not sure if apple care would cover my own negligence. I am just surprised that the screen is soo vulnerable when the iphone and ipad and previous macbook pros are build like absolute tanks. I've been so careful.. super sad.


There is no real apple stores in my country, everything is sold through a retailer called Humac, and they have a terrible reputation. I wonder if I should try sending it directly apple.com (I bought it on apple.com too) before it's been 1 year since I bought it!?

Do you think they can tell me up front what the price will be? I heard its so expensive because the entire panel and backplate aluminium will need to be replaced!! My screen is great, minimal backbleed, no IR (as I can see) and no yellow tint. gahhh:(
Click to expand...

If it bothers you then yes send it back to them. You should buy AppleCare, but you are still within your one year warranty period. They MIGHT give you an estimate over the phone, or they MIGHT ask you to approve a certain amount for the repair, or they MIGHT fix it for free if you explain your story to them. Not sure...
 
I'm not sure if this is a hardware issue I have or a software issue so this post is in both the Mac Hardware thread and the WWDC14 thread.

Okay so I have an iMac 27" Late 2009 model and I have NEVER used the full sleep function. I only either turn the computer off (if I'm not gonna use it for a few days) or leave it on with the display but to sleep (set to automatically happen after 10 minutes of inactivity).

After reading the thread on GAF about "do you turn off your computer" I read that it is a good idea to sleep your iMac overnight, or during the hours you're not gonna use it. So I decided to try this when I go to bed overnight.

The problem is when I wake the iMac from sleep the wifi is disconnected and doesn't reconnect. I have to manually turn off the wifi and then turn it back on again. I'm on Yosemite Public Beta 2 and even on Yosemite Public Beta 1 this happened. Because I never used the sleep function before on the iMac I have never seen the problem previously (Snow Leopard, Lion, Mountain Lion, Mavericks). Any ideas?
 
VPhys said:
I'm kind of taken back when an 18 year old is able to afford the same computer as me (or reversely, I'm only able to afford the same computer as an 18 year old.)

But good for him for saving up enough to buy a great computer. I really like the 13" retina. The USB connection freeze is annoying though.
Click to expand...
Is this is a problem with other models as well? Want to buy a Macbook Air for music performance, and usb freezes would kill that.

Has anyone got experience with USB hubs in combination with the Air or Pro?
 
Xrenity said:
Is this is a problem with other models as well? Want to buy a Macbook Air for music performance, and usb freezes would kill that.

Has anyone got experience with USB hubs in combination with the Air or Pro?
Click to expand...
i have a 7 port usb3 hub plugged into my rMBP 2012 connected to five devices plus a four port usb3 hub on my dell monitor connected to two things. It works flawlessly. It acted slightly weird when I first got it but nothing since then. If my hub gets bumped then sometimes hard drives get disconnected but I try to keep it out of the way.
 
Deku Tree said:
i have a 7 port usb3 hub plugged into my rMBP 2012 connected to five devices plus a four port usb3 hub on my dell monitor connected to two things. It works flawlessly. It acted slightly weird when I first got it but nothing since then. If my hub gets bumped then sometimes hard drives get disconnected but I try to keep it out of the way.
Click to expand...
Sounds good! Any recommendations on which to get?
 
So I'm in a predicament here. I'm looking to buy a Macbook Pro and went and did some research this weekend.

It appears if you select the retina display you can only use a SSD for storage. I went to go price out a Macbook with 16GB RAM and a 1TB SSD and it was over $2k. That's more than I'd like to spend on a laptop.

I did see that there's still an option to order a Macbook Pro without the retina display. With this configuration you can use a regular HDD. With a 1TB HDD and 16GB of RAM that came out to be about $1400. That seems much more reasonable...

So my question for you guys is do any of you have a Macbook with a SSD in it? How do you manage the storage for it? I'm a web application security engineer and I'm going to use it primarily for running guest operating systems like kali linux and windows(for cain and abel). Aside from that I'd like to put my music on there also which might be around ~300GB's.

Any input is appreciated. Thanks in advance.
 
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