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Mac Hardware and Software |OT| - All things Macintosh

T

Talon

Member
MutantCyborg said:
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?
Click to expand...
Depends - how many times have they repaired your computer?

I had my MBP replaced on the third time (1. Logic board failure 2. Display failure 3. Another logic board failure)
 
M

MutantCyborg

Member
Talon said:
Depends - how many times have they repaired your computer?

I had my MBP replaced on the third time (1. Logic board failure 2. Display failure 3. Another logic board failure)
Click to expand...

This will be the first time. They told me the only thing they are keeping on this MBP is the screen. The body will be replaced with a new one. If the screen is messed up as well I don't see why they couldn't just hand me a new computer and be done with it.
 
K

killertofu

Member
The Real Abed said:
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.
Click to expand...

What external are you using?
 
T

The Real Abed

Perma-Junior
killertofu said:
What external are you using?
Click to expand...
I have a bunch of Western Digital Elements that are USB 2.0. These get 30Mbps read and write. I also have a brand new Seagate Expansion USB 3.0 drive that gets 150Mbps when connected to my USB3 port. But the drive I was looking at on NewEgg and Amazon is being reported to only get 40Mbps. So why even bother getting a USB3 drive if it's barely getting more than USB2 speed?

If anyone knows of a USB3.0 or Thunderbolt HDD in portable form with at least 1TB that gets anywhere near the speed my Expansion gets, or even anywhere near 100Mbps, as long as it's more than flipping 40Mbps. Let me know. It's all I want. 1TB that I can take with me that isn't slower than slow.
 
S

Samyy

Member
How often is it recommended to clean a macbook for dust? Noticed my fan is getting a little louder, thinking it might be time for a cleaning soon. Also, is there anything I gotta worry about when I gotta be clearing out the dust? Never done anything like this before :/
 
Vigilant Walrus

Vigilant Walrus

Member
I've gotten hold of a G5 Imac. It's slow. It crashes all the time. I think it needs a new hard drive, and to be opened up. The White plastic have gotten yellowish. Is there a way to seperate it and clean it and replace harddrive? It's 5 years old. Not sure if it's worth trying to bring it back to life as a download machine.

Thats the thing about Imacs. Once the machine is old there is still an entire screen in it as well.



The Real Abed said:
I have a bunch of Western Digital Elements that are USB 2.0. These get 30Mbps read and write. I also have a brand new Seagate Expansion USB 3.0 drive that gets 150Mbps when connected to my USB3 port. But the drive I was looking at on NewEgg and Amazon is being reported to only get 40Mbps. So why even bother getting a USB3 drive if it's barely getting more than USB2 speed?

If anyone knows of a USB3.0 or Thunderbolt HDD in portable form with at least 1TB that gets anywhere near the speed my Expansion gets, or even anywhere near 100Mbps, as long as it's more than flipping 40Mbps. Let me know. It's all I want. 1TB that I can take with me that isn't slower than slow.
Click to expand...

There is a new Western Digital My Book Studio edition with USB3 and 4 TB of storage. The price is okay too.



You could go for the crazy 4/6 TB Thunderbolt Western Digital Raid drive, but those are very expensive, and perhaps should not be used for normal things like movies, music and photos.
 
J

Jake.

Member
i posted about a month ago that i'd be looking to buy my first mac (an air) in feb 2013. however, i'm going to melbourne this week and my friend works at the apple store there - is now a good time to buy one, or should i wait for the new models to be released (not sure when that would be). for the last 9ish months i've solely been on a 8" netbook and desperately want something new haha.

edit: its $500 AUS to upgrade the 250gb drive to 500gb...jesus christ. is it worth it?

edit 2: just noticed it only has a headphone port, does that mean i can't use external speakers?
 
C

CrudeDiatribe

Member
Jake. said:
should i wait for the new models to be released (not sure when that would be).
Click to expand...

In the past it's been updated in Jun-July and October, so you're sort of midway through.

Jake. said:
its $500 AUS to upgrade the 250gb drive to 500gb...jesus christ. is it worth it?
Click to expand...

How much stuff do you have? Do you have a place to sock files you only need when at home (or the office or whatever)?

Jake. said:
just noticed it only has a headphone port, does that mean i can't use external speakers?
Click to expand...

It's a standard 3.5mm analog audio jack (except that it also takes iPhone headsets with mics). External speakers will work fine. There's also audio on the HDMI signal in the Thunderbolt port.
 
T

The Real Abed

Perma-Junior
Vigilant Walrus said:
There is a new Western Digital My Book Studio edition with USB3 and 4 TB of storage. The price is okay too.

You could go for the crazy 4/6 TB Thunderbolt Western Digital Raid drive, but those are very expensive, and perhaps should not be used for normal things like movies, music and photos.
Click to expand...
I need a portable drive. Not a desktop drive. And I don't buy MyBooks anymore. Not since they started loading them with unremovable firmware.

I already have 12TB of space for my media. I just need 1TB for my extra files to keep with me portably. And no one makes one that has good enough speed.
 
K

Kal

Member
The Real Abed said:
I need a portable drive. Not a desktop drive. And I don't buy MyBooks anymore. Not since they started loading them with unremovable firmware.

I already have 12TB of space for my media. I just need 1TB for my extra files to keep with me portably. And no one makes one that has good enough speed.
Click to expand...

Someone just gave me a Samsung M3 1TB. Not sure if this is what you're looking for but it's portable and fast?
 
Vigilant Walrus

Vigilant Walrus

Member
The Real Abed said:
I need a portable drive. Not a desktop drive. And I don't buy MyBooks anymore. Not since they started loading them with unremovable firmware.

I already have 12TB of space for my media. I just need 1TB for my extra files to keep with me portably. And no one makes one that has good enough speed.
Click to expand...

Ok. I have this problem too. The thing is, portable drives gets unplugged so easily. It's the most stupid thing with those lousy mini USB jacks.

I am laying in bed watching my portable porn collection on my laptop and every time I shake in the bed, I accidently unplug the portable drive. :x
 
D

Deku Tree

Member
The Real Abed said:
I need a portable drive. Not a desktop drive. And I don't buy MyBooks anymore. Not since they started loading them with unremovable firmware.

I already have 12TB of space for my media. I just need 1TB for my extra files to keep with me portably. And no one makes one that has good enough speed.
Click to expand...

I like the G-Tech 1TB G-DRIVE USB 3.0 Mobile Hard Drive. There are of course lots of other size options. I swore off WD HDD's as I have had too many of them fail on me. G-Tech came highly recommended by lots of sales people at Apple stores. I only had that one for a few months, but so far so good. And the USB 3.0 is a lot faster than my old 2.0.
 
T

The Real Abed

Perma-Junior
Kal said:
Someone just gave me a Samsung M3 1TB. Not sure if this is what you're looking for but it's portable and fast?
Click to expand...
Deku Tree said:
I like the G-Tech 1TB G-DRIVE USB 3.0 Mobile Hard Drive. There are of course lots of other size options. I swore off WD HDD's as I have had too many of them fail on me. G-Tech came highly recommended by lots of sales people at Apple stores. I only had that one for a few months, but so far so good. And the USB 3.0 is a lot faster than my old 2.0.
Click to expand...
Can you guys do me a flavor and run DiskSpeedTest or whatever It's called on them? I want to know the actual disk speeds you guys get. I was not happy at all with my WD Elements drive. Wanted to throw that POS away. It's dead now. Stupid shit.
 
D

Deku Tree

Member
The Real Abed said:
Can you guys do me a flavor and run DiskSpeedTest or whatever It's called on them? I want to know the actual disk speeds you guys get. I was not happy at all with my WD Elements drive. Wanted to throw that POS away. It's dead now. Stupid shit.
Click to expand...

Where do I get that DiskSpeedTest thing? I can do it later when I get home (I will try to remember)..
 
T

The Real Abed

Perma-Junior
Deku Tree said:
How long does the test take? I DL'd on my work computer, and started running it, but it seems to just keep running and running... (obviously not a 30 second test).
Click to expand...
That's what it does. It doesn't stop. Just stop it when it finishes both sides. What numbers does it say for each when they come to a stop?
 
D

Deku Tree

Member
My rMBP 15" internal flash drive has speeds of

Read 420 MB/s
Write 375 MB/s

My USB 3.0 G-Tech drive has speeds

Read 86 MB/s
Write 84 MB/s
 
R

RukusProvider

Banned
Had a weird overheating issue on my MBPr. Kept heating up and then screen went blank. Cooled down and came back on a min later.

What the hell...was just doing office tasks.
 
J

Jake.

Member
CrudeDiatribe said:
In the past it's been updated in Jun-July and October, so you're sort of midway through.



How much stuff do you have? Do you have a place to sock files you only need when at home (or the office or whatever)?



It's a standard 3.5mm analog audio jack (except that it also takes iPhone headsets with mics). External speakers will work fine. There's also audio on the HDMI signal in the Thunderbolt port.
Click to expand...

i have terabyte's of data, and i will be using the air as my primary computer. i am over having a desktop PC, particularly as i am often changing where i live (and will potentially be moving overseas next year). i guess i will have to just keep everything on external HDD's, $500 for an extra 250gb seems insane.

are you sure its a 3.5mm audio out jack? i thought it was only a audio in/headphone jack.
 
T

TUSR

Banned
RukusProvider said:
Had a weird overheating issue on my MBPr. Kept heating up and then screen went blank. Cooled down and came back on a min later.

What the hell...was just doing office tasks.
Click to expand...

Which Retina model? Download SMC or something to monitor temperatures and try and recreate the situation.
 
D

Deku Tree

Member
I had more fun with Blackmagic. Here is what I got for several drives below. All connected to my rMBP 15" 2.6 i7.

I was surprised that the external Serial USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 drives were faster than their Flash counterparts (especially for writing).... although the internal flash drive was incredibly speedy, by far the fastest.

What do you guys think of these speeds?



Internal SSD Drive rMBP 15"

Write: 407 MB/s
Read: 450 MB/s

USB 3.0 G-Tech drive

Write: 71 MB/s
Read: 76 MB/s

USB 3.0 Corsair Flash Drive

Write: 31 MB/s
Read: 63 MB/s

USB 2.0 Old Seagate drive

Write: 27 MB/s
Read: 34 MB/s

USB 2.0 SanDisk Flash Drive

Write: 6 MB/s
Read: 25 MB/s
 
T

The Real Abed

Perma-Junior
The G-Tech does look to be much better than what I've seen. Better than 40. Still not as good as the 150 that a desktop drive (Probably 7200rpm) has but faster.

Guess I'm so burned over the poor performance of the Elements I had that it's ruining future drives for me. I should just suck it up and buy one of the G-Tech's. I just wish it could be a 7200rpm drive to give it 150Mbps. Maybe one day those will exist. If they don't already. Seems all the portable drives I've seen are 5400rpm which doesn't help with speed.

What is that Corsair? It's so slow. Seems it should be higher. Flash drives are slow anyway. But an SSD should be much faster.
 
M

Mobius 1

Member
Received the new iMac today... and an Apple Extended Keyboard II I found new in the box for $20 dollars.

It's so large that it makes the 27" iMac look small.

But the keystroke noise and feel...THE KEYSTROKES!

I'm a lost cause.
 
D

Deku Tree

Member
The Real Abed said:
The G-Tech does look to be much better than what I've seen. Better than 40. Still not as good as the 150 that a desktop drive (Probably 7200rpm) has but faster.

Guess I'm so burned over the poor performance of the Elements I had that it's ruining future drives for me. I should just suck it up and buy one of the G-Tech's. I just wish it could be a 7200rpm drive to give it 150Mbps. Maybe one day those will exist. If they don't already. Seems all the portable drives I've seen are 4200rpm which doesn't help with speed.

What is that Corsair? It's so slow. Seems it should be higher. Flash drives are slow anyway. But an SSD should be much faster.
Click to expand...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233295

I guess it could be slow in part because its encrypted.
 
D

Deku Tree

Member
The Real Abed said:
You would think a Flash drive with USB3 connectivity would be better than 30Mbps. Do you have any USB2 ones to compare it to?

Edit: I guess that makes sense? Excryption?
Click to expand...

Yes the whole drive is formatted with apple 128 bit encryption.

I compared it to an un-encrypted USB 2.0 flash drive in a previous post above. Even with the encryption the 3.0 was much faster.
 
T

The Real Abed

Perma-Junior
I am a little confused about the G-Tech drives. The one you linked to an Apple store page has a different number than what Amazon has and NewEgg. And each has a different price. One has $150 on sale from $180, one has $136 down from $150. And Apple has it for straight $150 with no sale. I want the best deal I can get. I also noticed NewEgg has the USB2 version of the same drive for $50 less. But once again no one has posted speeds for it. I really wanted to know the differences between two of the same exact drive with different busses.

The ones on Amazon and NewEgg are 0G02428
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822205183
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B009733EZY/?tag=neogaf0e-20

But the Apple one is 0G02431

For reference, the USB2 one is here:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822205163

I'd probably buy it from Amazon since it's cheapest there right now. Usually the deals are much closer. If I went with this drive.
 
D

Deku Tree

Member
The Real Abed said:
I am a little confused about the G-Tech drives. The one you linked to an Apple store page has a different number than what Amazon has and NewEgg. And each has a different price. One has $150 on sale from $180, one has $136 down from $150. And Apple has it for straight $150 with no sale. I want the best deal I can get. I also noticed NewEgg has the USB2 version of the same drive for $50 less. But once again no one has posted speeds for it. I really wanted to know the differences between two of the same exact drive with different busses.

The ones on Amazon and NewEgg are 0G02428
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822205183
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B009733EZY/?tag=neogaf0e-20

But the Apple one is 0G02431

For reference, the USB2 one is here:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822205163

I'd probably buy it from Amazon since it's cheapest there right now. Usually the deals are much closer. If I went with this drive.
Click to expand...

Amazon drive has hidden shipping charges, and is actually sold by "17th st photo". Whoever that is... It still seems to be cheaper if only slightly. Apple store always sells things for full price. Personally I refuse to buy from random amazon resellers. But that's just me...
 
T

The Real Abed

Perma-Junior
Deku Tree said:
Amazon drive has hidden shipping charges, and is actually sold by "17th st photo". Whoever that is... It still seems to be cheaper if only slightly. Apple store always sells things for full price. Personally I refuse to buy from random amazon resellers. But that's just me...
Click to expand...
17th St Photo is probably a Philly or NYC (Or other big city) store. Judging by the name, I've been through a lot of NYC and Philly and those stores really are not that creative with their names. Usually just naming them after the street they're on. I don't have qualms about buying from places like that. I've never had a problem. They wouldn't be on Amazon if they were known to be bad sellers.

Also, the one on my Amazon page says sold by "antonline".
 
M

Mobius 1

Member
vicissitudes said:
Post pics!

Mine was scheduled to be Wednesday but they moved up the delivery to tomorrow!
Click to expand...


Forgive the quality, I don't have the willpower to reach for the light switch.

desk-000001.jpg
 
T

The Real Abed

Perma-Junior
MikeE21286 said:
kinda want one of the new iMacs even though I have absolutely no use for it lol
Click to expand...
Yeah, I know the feeling. I'm a laptop guy. A desktop would be overkill for me because I like being able to use my computer anywhere. But the power of the iMac is nice. Right now I use an Air, but my next machine will be a Pro with Retina so I can at least get the power and the portability.
 
Ü

Übermatik

Member
I need some advice.

I'm at uni and I'm studying Industrial Design. I do a lot of 3D work, and a lot of graphic design/video editing on the side, as well as play games via bootcamp.

I'm looking at getting a new Macbook Pro, as portability is a must for me right now.

I've narrowed it down to two models - the Non Retina 15 inch, and the 15 inch Retina.

Both the same price, both the same specs, more or less - the hard drive wouldn't be an issue, as I have a 500GB external USB 3.0 hard drive I could use - though it wouldn't be the best convenience, it would still let me transfer all my files without worrying about the SSD size.
However, the CPU on the Retina model is slightly less powerful...

Do I sacrifice the larger HD and faster CPU for the retina display? Is it really worth it?

There's no room for me to move price wise, so it's either or here.

What say you GAF?
 
A

adamsappel

Member
A few weeks ago the HDD in my 21" iMac started acting up; everything was beach-balling, incredibly slow to switch between apps, etc. I thought it might be RAM, so I threw a bigger stick inside. No change. I bought a little toolkit from iFixit and took the iMac apart and replaced the hard drive myself. It wasn't really difficult, but I had to go back in a second time to reposition the heat sensor. Partitioned the new drive for Snow Leopard, Lion, Mountain Lion and Windows. Going to give it to my daughter for Xmas. I ordered a refurb 27" for me. Damn this thing is huge. Trying to bring just select things over from Time Machine, but had a few hiccoughs with iPhoto. Going to have to cull a lot of duplicate photos. Still, love the new machine!
 
A

Auron_Kale

Member
Going to repost this:

Auron_Kale said:
Thanks to my Christmas bonus, I'm finally ready to jump on an MBA.

Was thinking of just getting the 13-inch base model but bumping up the ram, followed by using external HDDs for more storage. Was planning on keeping my itunes library on the external HDD so I can keep my system HDD free for other stuff.

Thoughts?
Click to expand...

Thanks all.
 
K

kennah

Member
Yes get the base with maximum RAM since ultimately that part isn't upgradable. The hard drive is 'upgradable' but a pain to do. Depending on how big your iTunes library is you could maybe get away with having it on an SD card and leaving that in the slot most of the time.
 
A

Auron_Kale

Member
kennah said:
Yes get the base with maximum RAM since ultimately that part isn't upgradable. The hard drive is 'upgradable' but a pain to do. Depending on how big your iTunes library is you could maybe get away with having it on an SD card and leaving that in the slot most of the time.
Click to expand...

Current library is at 40GB, not including Apps. So the best i could do with an SD card is probably 64GB or 128GB really. Not too concerned with external speeds, which is why I'm considering just buying a 2TB drive to double up as my Time Machine.
 
K

Ken Masters

Banned
vicissitudes said:
How do you like it? I got used to the trackpad after owning a Macbook Pro.

Here's my 27", just came in the mail today:



The glare is actually almost nonexistent; the camera makes it look much worse than it is in the 3rd picture.
Click to expand...

so sexy, can't wait till next week when mine HOPEFULLY arrives
 
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