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Mac Hardware and Software |OT| - All things Macintosh

Trojita

Trojita

Rapid Response Threadmaker
I'm honestly surprised by the amount of bad reviews the Thunderbolt display has now. It appears to start going bad after a year. I was going to specifically pick a PC motherboard for my next build that uses thunderbolt (There isn't a lot), but I might not get that display anymore and instead just opt for the Cinema Display or a Korean IPS monitor. I wanted the Thunderbolt monitor to use with my Retina Macbook Pro, but it looks like it isn't worth it.

I don't know how much I'd like to have a display that doesn't have a power button.
 
C

Cetra

Member
So I just purchased a 13 Inch MacBook Air. I mostly intend to use it for school and such. Any recommendations for software? I'm totally clueless on that front. >.>
 
V

victreeb3l

Member
Trojita said:
I'm honestly surprised by the amount of bad reviews the Thunderbolt display has now. It appears to start going bad after a year. I was going to specifically pick a PC motherboard for my next build that uses thunderbolt (There isn't a lot), but I might not get that display anymore and instead just opt for the Cinema Display or a Korean IPS monitor. I wanted the Thunderbolt monitor to use with my Retina Macbook Pro, but it looks like it isn't worth it.

I don't know how much I'd like to have a display that doesn't have a power button.
Click to expand...

That's disheartening. I was thinking about a refurb with a MacBook Air but maybe I'll hold off for the next gen TBD. You know they'll have that sexy new form factor as the new iMacs.
 
Sapiens

Sapiens

Member
Don't forget to get Transmit if you plan on accessing directories over the net. Great program and worth the money from a great dev called Panic!

I can't live w/o this program.
 
C

Cetra

Member
LCfiner said:
You will likely need MS Office or Apple's Pages/ Keynote/ Numbers apps for school.

oh, and get Steam :)
Click to expand...

Do docs from pages play nice with docs from Word and vice versa?

Steam eh? I hadn't even really considered gaming on it. The purchase was purely driven by the need for a thin and light school notebook. Any games in particular that run nicely on it?

As for the other suggestions. I don't code. I'm in school for astrophysics haha. Occasionally I do math but mostly I just write papers. ;) Thanks for taking the time to make suggestions, though. It's appreciated!
 
L

LCfiner

Member
Dark Sun Cetra said:
Do docs from pages play nice with docs from Word and vice versa?

Steam eh? I hadn't even really considered gaming on it. The purchase was purely driven by the need for a thin and light school notebook. Any games in particular that run nicely on it?

As for the other suggestions. I don't code. I'm in school for astrophysics haha. Occasionally I do math but mostly I just write papers. ;) Thanks for taking the time to make suggestions, though. It's appreciated!
Click to expand...

they can be imported and opened but formatting will get messed up. it's not ideal to switch from one to the other. if you'll be working with others who have Office, get office. I only recommend iWork if you won't be sharing files with others.
 
H

hoverX

Member
Just bought a 13" retina. Screen is of great quality but It's weird going from an 11" air to 13" retina. Even though it's only 1.2 lbs heavier the thing seems like a beast!
 
1

123rl

Member
I just bought an Airport Express in Apple's sale. Stupidly quick and easy to set up and I get an excellent range throughout my house now. My last two routers struggled even though my house isn't that large. I've also noticed how much better my ping is now. I used to get about 40-75ms ping with my last router; I now get a consistent 15ms anywhere in the house.

One question though: my Iphone and Vita both show a poor wifi signal (2 bars or worse) even when right next to my router. My iPad and laptop will show a full signal at the same location. But, weirdly, I still get a great speed on these devices even though it only shows one bar. Any ideas? It seems a bit strange or maybe even a glitch somewhere.
 
F

fierrotlepou

Member
I've got a Macbook Pro - Early 2011. (15", 2.2GHz) and I think my harddrive is dying. I did a test with ... I can't remember the name, but there were a lot of failing sectors or something. I've checked this a while back.

My question is: which harddrive should I buy? Which ones are good? It can't be too expensive. I'm in Europe.
 
J

jcutner

Member
eravulgaris said:
I've got a Macbook Pro - Early 2011. (15", 2.2GHz) and I think my harddrive is dying. I did a test with ... I can't remember the name, but there were a lot of failing sectors or something. I've checked this a while back.

My question is: which harddrive should I buy? Which ones are good? It can't be too expensive. I'm in Europe.
Click to expand...

Replace it with an SSD perhaps? Crucial M4
 
D

Dennis

Banned
Dennis said:
I am considering the new 13" Retina Display MacBook Pro but concerned with the functionality of the Retina Display.

Can anyone share their experience of using programs such as Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Word or PowerPoint? Does it work or is it problematic?
Click to expand...

Anyone?
 
L

LCfiner

Member
Not many people here with the 13" retina model.

There are some benchmarks of professional programs at Macworld.com and barefeats.com

The lack of a GPU does leave it behind compared to the 15" model, as you might expect

On a side note, I demoed a 13" model at an apple store and did notice some slight chugging with scrolling and mission control animations when setting the desktop resolution to the "more space" options.
 
V

Vyer

Member
In terms of GPU - maybe at most light video editing - would 2011's Mac mini be a better option than the 2012 with the Intel 4000?
 
R

RBH

Member
LCfiner said:
Not many people here with the 13" retina model.

There are some benchmarks of professional programs at Macworld.com and barefeats.com

The lack of a GPU does leave it behind compared to the 15" model, as you might expect

On a side note, I demoed a 13" model at an apple store and did notice some slight chugging with scrolling and mission control animations when setting the desktop resolution to the "more space" options.
Click to expand...

As the Verge review mentioned, the 13" retina MBP does remind me a bit of the first-gen Air in terms of it being maybe a year too early.
 
C

CorrisD

badchoiceboobies
I apologise if this is a rather stupid question but I never really thought about it till now, the magsafe connector, I imagine both but at least the older one my MacBook uses, the magnetic side is only on the MacBook right and not on the power cord right?

I was just putting stuff in my bag and suddenly worried about sticking other gadgets next to the wrapped up cord end, lol.
 
T

The Real Abed

Perma-Junior
CorrisD said:
I apologise if this is a rather stupid question but I never really thought about it till now, the magsafe connector, I imagine both but at least the older one my MacBook uses, the magnetic side is only on the MacBook right and not on the power cord right?

I was just putting stuff in my bag and suddenly worried about sticking other gadgets next to the wrapped up cord end, lol.
Click to expand...
You can't even kill a hard drive without a super powerful magnet. Pretty much all electronic devices these days use a flash storage medium, not magnetic storage. You can't kill a flash drive with a magnet because it's not magnetic. I'd be worried if I kept credit cards next to it, but you're gonna be safe with pretty much every electronic device. Even then the magnet computer is not powerful enough for anything other than holding itself in place.
 
tsurugi no mai

tsurugi no mai

Member
Would it be okay to buy a 15" 2009 MacBook Pro on eBay? It's apparently in perfect shape and it has 8GB of ram. I was just wondering if it would be slower or more prone to problems since it's older.
 
T

The Real Abed

Perma-Junior
tsurugi no mai said:
It'll come out to just below $800.
Click to expand...
It'll definitely be slower. My sister has that model. It's showing its age now.

For just $200-400 more you could get a low-end 11" or 13" Air and get something much much faster. And you'd have a real warranty with the option to push it to 3 years within 12 months. A 2009 MBP is going to be well past its 3 year max warranty.

Better yet, Apple themselves has an 11" from 2011 refurbished for $750 right now. A C2D 2010 13" for $800 and a 2011 13" for $920. And all those options will give you real Apple warranty. (They also have a Pro right now but it's $1020. Guess no one's returning Pro's anymore. The Air really is their best seller now.)

Unless you require the ability to put a big HDD in or need an optical drive. Still...
 
T

The Real Abed

Perma-Junior
njean777 said:
Check on Craigslist most 2011-2012 MacBook pros for that price or maybe 100$ more will last you much longer and be a lot faster then an 09 model.
Click to expand...
I still recommend spending a little more and buying refurbished directly from Apple who can give you the correct service and you don't have to worry about being scammed. (You never know anymore. Especially with expensive purchases.)
 
M

Majine

Banned
I'm thinking about a Time Capsule to be my end-all storage and backup solution. How is it? Can you partition a 2TB TC to be 1TB Backup and 1TB harddrive?
 
tsurugi no mai

tsurugi no mai

Member
The Real Abed said:
It'll definitely be slower. My sister has that model. It's showing its age now.

For just $200-400 more you could get a low-end 11" or 13" Air and get something much much faster. And you'd have a real warranty with the option to push it to 3 years within 12 months. A 2009 MBP is going to be well past its 3 year max warranty.

Better yet, Apple themselves has an 11" from 2011 refurbished for $750 right now. A C2D 2010 13" for $800 and a 2011 13" for $920. And all those options will give you real Apple warranty. (They also have a Pro right now but it's $1020. Guess no one's returning Pro's anymore. The Air really is their best seller now.)

Unless you require the ability to put a big HDD in or need an optical drive. Still...
Click to expand...

Alright, the 09 model is out. Buying refurbished has never seemed right to me. I don't really want to buy something that's been broken before, ya know? I want the 15" screen of the MBPs, but I'm not totally against the 13" Air either. I mainly just browse the web and watch videos/anime.
 
H

Hcow

Member
Majine said:
I'm thinking about a Time Capsule to be my end-all storage and backup solution. How is it? Can you partition a 2TB TC to be 1TB Backup and 1TB harddrive?
Click to expand...

IIRC you cannot easily repartition the disk, but you can just throw whatever files on there. It's just that the Time Capsule backup disk images will slowly fill up all the available space on the drive and you can't tell it to stop at a certain size.
 
M

Majine

Banned
Hcow said:
IIRC you cannot easily repartition the disk, but you can just throw whatever files on there. It's just that the Time Capsule backup disk images will slowly fill up all the available space on the drive and you can't tell it to stop at a certain size.
Click to expand...

Won't it delete old disk images as soon as it encounters storage issues?

But if I can just throw whatever shit at it at any times with no cables, that was kinda what I was looking for.
 
T

The Real Abed

Perma-Junior
tsurugi no mai said:
Alright, the 09 model is out. Buying refurbished has never seemed right to me. I don't really want to buy something that's been broken before, ya know? I want the 15" screen of the MBPs, but I'm not totally against the 13" Air either. I mainly just browse the web and watch videos/anime.
Click to expand...
You forget. You have two options:

Buy a refurbished certified model directly from Apple with the same exact warranty as a new model that has been 100% fixed and in many cases was never actually broken to begin with...

Or buy a used machine from someone on eBay or Craigslist that you don't even know that may have hidden problems and things they're not telling you about.

Refurbished is the next best thing to new.
 
L

LCfiner

Member
Refurbished stuff from Apple is fantastic. I've gotten quite a few machines from the refurb store and they look and work great.

Unless you need a specific BTO config or can't wait for a model to show up in their listing, refurbs are a great way to save a few hundred bucks.
 
A

Anatoli Bacharach

Member
Majine said:
I'm thinking about a Time Capsule to be my end-all storage and backup solution. How is it? Can you partition a 2TB TC to be 1TB Backup and 1TB harddrive?
Click to expand...

I don't know much about the TC. May i recommend looking into the Synology Diskstation network drives? They work with time machine and they're super flexible overall. They won't be as simple to set up and configure as an apple product, though.

I've been using the DS112 with a 2 TB drive and it's really fantastic.
 
K

Ken Masters

Banned
Majine said:
I'm thinking about a Time Capsule to be my end-all storage and backup solution. How is it? Can you partition a 2TB TC to be 1TB Backup and 1TB harddrive?
Click to expand...

I don't know if you can make it half backup half hard drive but otherwise my experience with it has been flawless and it's extremely easy to setup


Apple better release the iMacs they promised this week
 
tsurugi no mai

tsurugi no mai

Member
The Real Abed said:
You forget. You have two options:

Buy a refurbished certified model directly from Apple with the same exact warranty as a new model that has been 100% fixed and in many cases was never actually broken to begin with...

Or buy a used machine from someone on eBay or Craigslist that you don't even know that may have hidden problems and things they're not telling you about.

Refurbished is the next best thing to new.
Click to expand...

If I bought one from eBay, couldn't I just buy AppleCare if I wanted protection against those potential problems?
 
jts

jts

...hate me...
I finally caved in and ordered an SSD from an amazon deal.

Now to put my old drive into an optibay caddie = instant fusion drive?

Does it work that way?
 
T

The Real Abed

Perma-Junior
tsurugi no mai said:
If I bought one from eBay, couldn't I just buy AppleCare if I wanted protection against those potential problems?
Click to expand...
Not if it's older than a year. You'd have to buy one that was being sold within 1 year of purchase. So any 2009, 2010, 2011 model is going to be out of the question.

And even then, the seller would need to transfer the machine to you else it'd still be registered under their name which would just cause problems if you did need to purchase AC or take it in later on.
 
tsurugi no mai

tsurugi no mai

Member
The Real Abed said:
Not if it's older than a year. You'd have to buy one that was being sold within 1 year of purchase. So any 2009, 2010, 2011 model is going to be out of the question.

And even then, the seller would need to transfer the machine to you else it'd still be registered under their name which would just cause problems if you did need to purchase AC or take it in later on.
Click to expand...

So say you don't have AppleCare and something goes wrong with the laptop. Can you still bring it in to an Apple store and have them fix it?
 
T

The Real Abed

Perma-Junior
Trust us, Refurbished is the next best thing to new. The literal only thing different to you, the end user, is the cardboard box it comes in.

The only thing.
 
D

DrEvil

not a medical professional
The Real Abed said:
Trust us, Refurbished is the next best thing to new. The literal only thing different to you, the end user, is the cardboard box it comes in.

The only thing.
Click to expand...


Yep, I often think 'refurbished' straight from apple is literally brand new product in a white cardboard box.. especially 'previous' gen stuff.. It's flawless. Bought my mac mini refurbished from apple, saved 200 bucks and it looked (still looks!) brand new.
 
L

Luthair

Member
I'm thinking of making the switch from PC to one of those new, sexy iMacs but I think they are going to miss their launch Window of November and December :-( Anyone know when the 27 inch ones will hit? The specs look pretty decent, though I dunno how good the mobile GFX card will do with some light gaming. (I just play Civ 5)
 
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