I would probably do the graphics card and memory, but it wouldn't be until Summer/Fall 2013 anyway, so we'll see what hardware comes out next.
I was just shocked she was actually interested in it.
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Mac Hardware and Software |OT| - All things Macintosh
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I would probably do the graphics card and memory, but it wouldn't be until Summer/Fall 2013 anyway, so we'll see what hardware comes out next.
I was just shocked she was actually interested in it.
polyh3dron
Banned
Any idea how I'm supposed to go about upgrading my Boot Camp partition from Windows 7 to Windows 8?
Hi guys,
I'm planning on getting a 27" imac soon and was trying to decide between the base model and the higher end model. In particular, I'm wondering if its worth upgrade to get the 675MX with 1GB over the 660M with 512MB?
I don't really see myself gaming on this machine most of the time but would like to eventually play Project Eternity on it (hopefully at full resolution and max settings), as well as The Witness, and perhaps a few other titles, though no 3D shooters or anything of that sort.
Also, gaming aside, is any other reason I might want to go for the upgrade?
I'm planning on getting a 27" imac soon and was trying to decide between the base model and the higher end model. In particular, I'm wondering if its worth upgrade to get the 675MX with 1GB over the 660M with 512MB?
I don't really see myself gaming on this machine most of the time but would like to eventually play Project Eternity on it (hopefully at full resolution and max settings), as well as The Witness, and perhaps a few other titles, though no 3D shooters or anything of that sort.
Also, gaming aside, is any other reason I might want to go for the upgrade?
Autumn Wind
Member
Yes, because the increased graphics memory will handle the resolution of the iMac better. You may opt to go for the 2 GB 680MX.
Keep in mind that (for now) it's not possible to install bootcamp on a 3TB Fusion Drive.
Well, as I mentioned in my post, I won't be gaming much. Surely getting the 680MX is overkill?
The Real Abed
Perma-Junior
Apple laptops and devices constantly charge their batteries to 100% then drain slightly to help prevent decay. Also 96% after 3 years is very good. There's nothing wrong with your battery I'm betting.
Do you calibrate it occasionally? That is let it drain completely then recharge it fully once a month?
Macho Madness
Member
Yeah, 96% after three years? I'd think most people would love for that kind of life. My iPad 2 is starting to show signs of battery drain, and it's a year and a half old.
polyh3dron
Banned
Oh shit, that is good to know since I was about to pull the trigger on that config some time early next year.
The Real Abed
Perma-Junior
So the MacBook Air is just a SD slot, right? Not an SDHC or whatever? What's the largest SD card I can get for a MacBook Air compared to what something like the Pro can handle?
The Real Abed
Perma-Junior
Quite a bit small for anything useful. What I really need is a lightweight external drive of some sort with a large capacity. I think 1TB might be better though, (I noticed SD cards went up to 128GB on SDXC which could be useful.) so now I'm looking for the right USB3 powered external HDD with 1TB at least. I have a few tabs open to NewEgg with pretty cheap options. (Three Seagate's all for $90 each with good ratings all on sale. Normally $130.)
But I hesitate to purchase because I've had bad luck with external drives. I had a Western Digital Elements 1TB portable drive that simply shit the bed after less than a year and has finally died completely. Useless. All my drives had been WD up until now. In fact recently I bought a 3TB Seagate USB desktop drive because the WD Elements drives I had been buying up until now (I have 5 or 6) have become hard to find. And the Seagate was on sale and USB3 (Even though the Mac mini I currently have is 2.0. I'm futureproofing.) so I bought it. So I am wondering about Seagate's external drives.
But I hate to make the purchase after the bad experience I had with the WD Elements. (Not only did it die quickly but it was slow as hellllll. Slower than moles asses in winter. It was uncharacteristically slow. I was amazed at its slowness.) I just want to be assured that this is not a typical experience with external portable drives.
Question, what is the maximum speed one can expect from a USB 3.0 based HDD? Is the USB 3.0 bus faster than the HDD's read/write speed itself making its max speed whatever the drive is capable of?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822178245
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822178104
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822178105
Ive always used seagate drives for my externals. All bus powered, haven't had a single issue or hangup.
Actual speeds for USB are so far off of theoretical speeds. I have a USB3 1TB seagate and its quite a bit faster than my USB2. And by quite, its substantial. And im pretty sure the bus speed on USB3 doesnt surpass the write speed of an external drive.
Does that expansion series drive work out of the box with a Mac?
You changed your avatar and I didn't know it was you.
The Real Abed
Perma-Junior
I want to say it works because I got the Expansion desktop version (3TB, the one I mentioned above that I started replacing my WD drives with) and it works great after formatting. I can't see how a HDD would not work on OS X in this day and age without simply being formatted. But it does seem strange that it doesn't list OS X as compatible. I don't find requiring a format out of the box a drawback though as I do that even if it's already formatted as Mac anyway.
I like the silver one though. It's the same thing as the third black link but in silver apparently. The only differences being OS X listed and the cable is only 18" instead of 4'. Which I'd prefer actually. (I actually plan on attaching the drive semi-permanently to my display so I can have it with me at most times, but still remove it if I don't need it.)
Also, I needed a Christmas themed Abed avatar. There really aren't many moments in the three episodes that match. It was either this one or something from Uncontrollable Christmas.
CrudeDiatribe
Member
Incorrect. It's a SDXC reader, though it looks like almost nobody who's tried it bothers to post on the internet. (I haven't, my 11" lacks the slot altogether, unfortunately). If you do buy a lot of SDXC cards and they don't work, a USB reader is less than $10.
SDXC is still going to be slow compared to an external HDD or thumb drive.
Yep. I let it drain completely once a month, though not on purpose on occasion.
Just caught me off-guard, really. Still concerning, but I figured three years is when I'd notice something like this. My warranty also just ran out a couple of months ago, so anything I see that's unusual is making me jumpy.
Crazymoogle
Member
Yep. However,
(a) As SDXC, it does support very large SD cards (64GB+). I have a 64GB MicroSDXC for it right now.
(b) It's still a great solution for static content, like iTunes content, particularly with the almost-done Nifty Minidrive.
You ought to be able to just run the upgrade from within Windows 7, but I haven't tried it myself.
If you're talking 27" w/ a Fusion drive, it'd run circles around the rMBP.
If you are using a traditional HDD in the iMac, then it'd be a mixed bag is my guess. The rMBP would have much faster disk operations, but sluggish GPU performance.
For me a 1TB fusion drive would be just fine. 3TB seems huge for most people.
Not so fast
http://www.macworld.com/article/201...equipped-with-fusion-drives-cpu-upgrades.html
macworld benches (real apps, not just geekbench) show the 2.6 rMBP to be very, very close to the 3.4 i7 iMac with fusion drive.
The only bench where the imac runs away (2X speed) is handbrake encoding
Cool, I stand corrected on the implication CPU is much different.
In real-world use, though, I've experienced all sorts of obnoxious graphics slowdown/stutter when using rMBPs, which I doubt non-gaming benchmarks would capture well. That's more of what I was speaking to.
oh yeah, that's true. Although i wonder how much of that could be fixed with software updates. The webkit nightlies have doubled scrolling speed on webpages, for example. I don't know if it's possible to improve on the mission control animations, though. or if other apps can get improved like Safari will.
Hopefully the Haswell rMBP will make the issue go away entirely.
The Real Abed
Perma-Junior
Has anyone confirmed this?
I think I'd rather go with a portable HDD though as I'd get more use. If I had a big SD card it'd be used to store stuff like my iMovie events and projects. But who knows how slow it'd be. I'd rather get a 1TB drive (The silver one I mentioned above is on sale on both NewEgg and Amazon this weekend so now I just have to decide which one to buy from.) so I can hold more stuff and access it faster. I'd probably move my iMovie stuff at the very least, maybe some Steam games if the Mac version ever lets you move games like the WIndows version does. Also a lot of files I currently keep on my Mac mini server.
CrudeDiatribe
Member
It's not irrational to fear the GPU just can't handle it, which is why I'm reticent to recommend the rMBP. For the premium you pay now, you could be a nice little MBA to tide you over.
Wow, on most of the stuff I do there is very little difference. I think I'm going to keep the MBPr and just buy a large screen to plug it in to at some point. That way I get portability and screen size if I need it. In fairness I already have a nice 24" HP IPS business 1080p panel, though I'd prefer higher res.
Crazymoogle
Member
It seems ridiculous that something the size of my fingernail has 64GB of storage on it, to be honest. But yeah, it's just a garden-variety 64GB SDXC class 10 that is being marketed heavily right now to Galaxy S3 power users. Last time I looked Amazon sold it for around ~$60? Probably the best option for nifty minidrive users until mass-market 128GB chips hit.
Vigilant Walrus
Member
is this a joke?
you do now how short a lifetime charges laptop drives have?
If that is true its very good. you must have used it plugged in a lot to still have the battery so efficent.
Let's face it. Now that spinning stupid mechanical hard drives are finally on their way out along with Optical drives, batteries in laptops and smartphones remain the biggest challenge.
its not just about higher specs anymore. we seriously need a revolution in this.
Also because these lithium batteries were sponsored by miner kids in africa and the middle east. It's beyond fucked that places like Foxconn can get all sorts of heats, but nobody talks about small children working in mines for iphone batteries.
Subsequently this is also the most annoying thing about the non-upgradeable nature of RMBP. To replace your rMBP 15 Battery, it will cost you close to 2000 dollars. that in itself is bananas. After the thousands cycles you might as well buy a new machine.
little pro tip; on my sony vaio I have set the machine to only charge to 80%. so it's fully charged at 80% and wont get further. this seriously increases the life of the battery if you plan to have the machine for many years. I am sure there is a app program for OSX that gives you the same options.
It gives a piece of mind as well. You lose 20% battery, but I don't really notice it. My Vaio still gets over 7 hours without a charger (With a sheetbattery turning it into a fat laptop) and I dont feel like I am that far away from a plug for so many hours.
I want to see a Macbook Pro get past 10 hours... with wi-fi and 50% brightness. we need a revolution here.
I'd just get the base ram and the 1TB fusion drive.
You can put in 32GB of RAM for under 200 dollars, and external drives are a lot cheaper than the 3TB fusion.
2000.00? It cost 200.00 to replace the battery.
I hope this is the case. 99% of the time I use my retina MacBook Pro plugged in, the only problem with the design of the retina pro is that the battery isnt detachable so I'm afraid it's draining battery even though it's plugged in. If I could detach the battery when not in use, Id have practically a brand-new battery after two years of owning the retina pro.
Got the Shakes
Member
According to Apple, it is $199 to have them replace the battery in the rMBP. http://www.apple.com/support/macbookpro/service/battery/
Vigilant Walrus
Member
Am I the only one who is afraid of Fusion Drive?
The Momentus XT man.. I know it only had 4gigs of SSD, but I was not sold on it.
The thing is that the Imac 756 GB SSD is beyond expensive. In the Danish currency, it's, 10,000 DK. Thats two unlocked Iphone 5 right there. Just on solid state storage.
I think I might go with this instead of an Imac;
Retina Macbook Pro 15, with Haswell - Maxed with 756 GB SSD (so you got comfortable SSD to bootcamp or OSX Steam gaming if you want to)
27 Tunderbolt display (the next revision with USB3, slimmer design, better speakers, laminated screen, reduced glare)
+ thunderbolt Western Digital storage, wireless keyboard and mouse. Thanks to the display I get USB, gigabit ethernett, 27 screen and so on.
More expensive initially but you buy a extremely portable powerhouse of doom, which when connected via two single plugs, becomes a powerful stationary. After all, the internals of the Imac is all laptop based anyway.
The big difference? Imac is a lot more clean looking. and 680MX is serious business. I mean.. really. I am so impressed they fitted that one in there. This Imac would be a great, great 1080p PC gaming device. Really really impressed.
650m seems amazing too. particularly considering it's unbelievable thin and light profile. It's so impressive. No other manufacturer comes close. What could hashwell bring?
It seems the next GPU series from Nvidia will also be Kepler. Will it be 750m, or perhaps even 760m? And how good would they be and their temperatures under load?
_______
With all this being said I love how much love there is for Imac. I love that people still want desktop computers.
gonna get a 15'' mac book pro by january...its gonna be a first for me. also any suggestions for a newbie like me? I know that getting Apple Care is a must and I've heard that you can switch conventional 8gb the new quad core ones have installed for bigger/more ram? like say 2 8gb ram for a total of 16gb of ram? true or no? if yes then how, mac-GAF?
Got the Shakes
Member
$129 for the 13" and 15", $179 for the 17", $199 for the rMBP, and $129 for all MacBook Air models. Those are prices in the U.S. at least.
Why?
seventynine
Member
Do expand on that please.
why not? whats wrong with it? or whats a good reason to opt out? My reason in getting apple care is that some shit might happen uneventfully
Got the Shakes
Member
It does not cover accidental damage for Macs.
The Real Abed
Perma-Junior
Yes. Get AppleCare. There's no reason not to and you don't even need to buy it day one. You have a whole year to decide. Apple will let you know when time is running out.
Get it. I didn't get it on my old white MacBook and that thing fell apart completely after 2 years. Even after I had the top case replaced on the very last day of my 1-year warranty. I should have bought it then and there. I regretted it. The machine might still be alive now if I had.
Get it. I didn't get it on my old white MacBook and that thing fell apart completely after 2 years. Even after I had the top case replaced on the very last day of my 1-year warranty. I should have bought it then and there. I regretted it. The machine might still be alive now if I had.
RukusProvider
Banned
I thought you my had 30days for AppleCare?
Got the Shakes
Member
30 days to buy it for iPhone or iPad because it's AppleCare+ and covers accidents. 1 year for Macs because there is no accident protection with AppleCare.
MutantCyborg
Member
I went to the Apple store today to let them look at the trackpad on my MBP retina. They said they cant replace only the trackpad, but they can replace the whole bottom half of the computer. I am also having an issue with Image Retention on the retina display, where my tabs from chrome will faintly be on my desktop. When I was there today I didn't mention the image retention although I did mention a dead pixel in the middle of the screen.
Do you think they would just give me a new MBPr at this point?
Do you think they would just give me a new MBPr at this point?
The Real Abed
Perma-Junior
I'm having second thoughts about the external portable drive again. The read/write speeds are apparently terrible.
People reviewing it are reporting 40Mbps read and write speed which is really bad for a USB3 drive. In context, I just did speed tests of a desktop USB2 drive where I got around 30Mbps. And I tested my USB3 desktop drive (The Seagate) on my Air and got 150Mbps. 40Mbps is barely a step up from the 30 I was getting. So why bother? Does no one make a 1TB portable drive that uses high speed connections and actually gets anywhere near the speed of the bus? It seems not. At all. Guess I'll stick with networked drives as usual. At least until they either release moderately fast external portable drives with 1TB or more or I am able to use a large SD card of 128GB or more that isn't super slow.
People reviewing it are reporting 40Mbps read and write speed which is really bad for a USB3 drive. In context, I just did speed tests of a desktop USB2 drive where I got around 30Mbps. And I tested my USB3 desktop drive (The Seagate) on my Air and got 150Mbps. 40Mbps is barely a step up from the 30 I was getting. So why bother? Does no one make a 1TB portable drive that uses high speed connections and actually gets anywhere near the speed of the bus? It seems not. At all. Guess I'll stick with networked drives as usual. At least until they either release moderately fast external portable drives with 1TB or more or I am able to use a large SD card of 128GB or more that isn't super slow.