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[newdayrocks]

Just about to jump on a new 27" iMac, to replace my old early-2006 iMac, and had a few questions.

From what I understand, the RAM in the 27" model is super easy to upgrade myself, yes? So am I better off getting the lowest level of RAM available, then go shopping at Crucial, and ad it myself?

Are there any other parts I can easily upgrade myself? Anything I should buy the lowest level of, and add onto later?

It comes with the Wireless Keyboard and Mighty Mouse, yes?

 

[Phobophile]

Just about to jump on a new 27" iMac, to replace my old early-2006 iMac, and had a few questions.

From what I understand, the RAM in the 27" model is super easy to upgrade myself, yes? So am I better off getting the lowest level of RAM available, then go shopping at Crucial, and ad it myself?

Are there any other parts I can easily upgrade myself? Anything I should buy the lowest level of, and add onto later?

It comes with the Wireless Keyboard and Mighty Mouse, yes?

RAM's the only thing that's meant to be user upgradeable in the 27" iMac. I would honestly suggest putting in a Fusion Drive or an SSD. A 5400 RPM HDD would easily bottleneck that computer's performance.

 

[Quick]

I'm just about ready to put together my MacBook Pro desktop. Already have a monitor and mouse (sticking with the Magic Mouse for now). The big question now is which keyboard?

The wireless keyboard looks great, and I like the feel of my MBP keyboard, so it seems like a no-brained to get it. One thing I'm concerned with is battery use. How long does it last?

I like the wired keyboard, as well, since it's a full keyboard, which doesn't feel claustrophobic.

 

[hiro4]

Just about to jump on a new 27" iMac, to replace my old early-2006 iMac, and had a few questions.

From what I understand, the RAM in the 27" model is super easy to upgrade myself, yes? So am I better off getting the lowest level of RAM available, then go shopping at Crucial, and ad it myself?

Are there any other parts I can easily upgrade myself? Anything I should buy the lowest level of, and add onto later?

It comes with the Wireless Keyboard and Mighty Mouse, yes?

Only thing easily upgraded is the memory.
All the other stuff require you taking off the screen.

I've just ordered mine and I chose the high end iMac with fusion drive, 680mx and track pad. I already have a magic mouse so. I didn't upgrade the processor which I still have doubts about.

 

[newdayrocks]

I've just ordered mine and I chose the high end iMac with fusion drive, 680mx and track pad. I already have a magic mouse so. I didn't upgrade the processor which I still have doubts about.

Are you upgrading to the 680MX over the 675MX solely for gaming, or do you think it'll improve the overall experience?

 

[Tabris]

I'm just about ready to put together my MacBook Pro desktop. Already have a monitor and mouse (sticking with the Magic Mouse for now). The big question now is which keyboard?

The wireless keyboard looks great, and I like the feel of my MBP keyboard, so it seems like a no-brained to get it. One thing I'm concerned with is battery use. How long does it last?

I like the wired keyboard, as well, since it's a full keyboard, which doesn't feel claustrophobic.

Here's what I use:

- MacBook Pro Retina
- Thunderbolt Display
- WD My Book 3TB
- Wireless Apple Trackpad (on the left)
- Wireless Apple Keyboard (in the middle)
- Wireless Logitech BT Mouse White (on the right)

It gives insanely comfortable usage (use trackpad on the left for gestures, and mouse on the right for normal use) and looks good without any wires.

 

[hiro4]

Are you upgrading to the 680MX over the 675MX solely for gaming, or do you think it'll improve the overall experience?

Mostly for gaming but also for game development. And also for future proofing.
Im still using my 2006 MBP as my main computer and I'm planning to use this one for at least 4 years.

 

[JackEtc]

I'm just about ready to put together my MacBook Pro desktop. Already have a monitor and mouse (sticking with the Magic Mouse for now). The big question now is which keyboard?

The wireless keyboard looks great, and I like the feel of my MBP keyboard, so it seems like a no-brained to get it. One thing I'm concerned with is battery use. How long does it last?

I like the wired keyboard, as well, since it's a full keyboard, which doesn't feel claustrophobic.

I use the Logitech K750 Solar keyboard for my MBP at school, and I love it. Spacing is exactly the same as my MBPr keyboard, and I don't have to worry about battery life. Only downside is that it takes up a USB port. I really like it.

 

[adamsappel]

Only thing easily upgraded is the memory.
All the other stuff require you taking off the screen.

I replaced the hard drive in my 21" iMac. It was actually pretty easy. I had to go in a second time to reposition the HDD temperature sensor. No problems. Not sure if the new iMacs are as accessibly laid out inside.

I'm really impressed with iMacs. I gave my 2007 iMac to my daughter, and it runs great on Mountain Lion and 6GB of RAM. Never had a Windows machine that aged that well (I've never gone high-end PC, though). I bought myself a refurb 2011 27" iMac, because the new 21" RAM can't be user-updated (can't afford a new 27").

 

[Quick]

Here's what I use:

- MacBook Pro Retina
- Thunderbolt Display
- WD My Book 3TB
- Wireless Apple Trackpad (on the left)
- Wireless Apple Keyboard (in the middle)
- Wireless Logitech BT Mouse White (on the right)

It gives insanely comfortable usage (use trackpad on the left for gestures, and mouse on the right for normal use) and looks good without any wires.

This sounds like a great setup. The Magic Mouse isn't terrible, but I like having the extra functionality of my Logitech mouse on my PC.

I think I might mimic your setup, Tabris.

I use the Logitech K750 Solar keyboard for my MBP at school, and I love it. Spacing is exactly the same as my MBPr keyboard, and I don't have to worry about battery life. Only downside is that it takes up a USB port. I really like it.

That keyboard looks great. I ended up going with the Apple wireless keyboard (which I'm currently typing on - feels good man), but I might consider that as a second option.

Does the solar power work well, as advertised? I'd love to just ditch batteries. My Logitech keyboard and mouse on my PC has a 3-year battery life (which are replaceable).

 

[fireside]

RAM's the only thing that's meant to be user upgradeable in the 27" iMac. I would honestly suggest putting in a Fusion Drive or an SSD. A 5400 RPM HDD would easily bottleneck that computer's performance.

The 27” ships with a 7200 RPM hard drive.

I replaced the hard drive in my 21" iMac. It was actually pretty easy. I had to go in a second time to reposition the HDD temperature sensor. No problems. Not sure if the new iMacs are as accessibly laid out inside.

The only problem with the new iMacs is that the screen is attached to the frame with adhesive tape instead of magnets like the previous generation(s). The layout inside is actually pretty nice once you get the screen off, much nicer than the mess that was the previous iMac.

 

[Tabris]

This sounds like a great setup. The Magic Mouse isn't terrible, but I like having the extra functionality of my Logitech mouse on my PC.

I think I might mimic your setup, Tabris.

I'll be posting the 2013 gaming setup thread soon, and I'll have a picture of my setup there.

 

[Quick]

So, in the hustle of assembling my Macbook Pro desktop setup, I realized that I lost my aux cable that hooks up to my monitor's built-in speakers.

However, to my surprise, there was still audio coming from the Macbook Pro speakers. Doesn't sound amazing considering the lid is closed, but it does the job. Woohoo.

 

[TUSR]

Thoughts on installing games on a Thunderbolt external harddrive?

SSD is getting crammed on my rMBP

 

[StopMakingSense]

Thoughts on installing games on a Thunderbolt external harddrive?

SSD is getting crammed on my rMBP

I would go with a USB HD. Thunderbolt stuff is still too expensive.

 

[TUSR]

I would go with a USB HD. Thunderbolt stuff is still too expensive.

Money aside, TB is faster than USB3 on both W7 and OSX.

Is a bus powered external slower than a wall socket?

 

[StopMakingSense]

Money aside, TB is faster than USB3 on both W7 and OSX.

Is a bus powered external slower than a wall socket?

Unless you have very specific needs for HIGH end video capture using SSDs, I doubt you would notice the speed difference b/w USB3 and TB. The premium for going thunderbolt is > 100 dollars, too. (hell, cables alone are still 50 dollars)

 

[TUSR]

Unless you have very specific needs for HIGH end video capture using SSDs, I doubt you would notice the speed difference b/w USB3 and TB. The premium for going thunderbolt is > 100 dollars, too. (hell, cables alone are still 50 dollars)

Just want to play games off the drive and utilize the TB ports.

 

[JackEtc]

That keyboard looks great. I ended up going with the Apple wireless keyboard (which I'm currently typing on - feels good man), but I might consider that as a second option.

Does the solar power work well, as advertised? I'd love to just ditch batteries. My Logitech keyboard and mouse on my PC has a 3-year battery life (which are replaceable).

Honestly, I think the solar power works better than advertised. I've never seen it not at 100% charge. It can supposedly operate for 3 months straight in total darkness, and I wouldn't doubt it. Also, ANY light powers in, not just sunlight. I am beyond satisfied with the keyboard.

 

[The Real Abed]

The problem with portable thunderbolt vs. USB3 drives is that none of the HDD based models so far seem to even take advantage of the speed of the bus. Because HDDs are relatively slow. An SSD based model will be much faster but a lot more expensive and much smaller in storage space. And even the ones available now are slower than the port advertises. I have looked for one for a long time that was either TB or USB3 that had good enough speed and at least 1TB space. (HDD) I've been burned by a WD Elements I bought that died really young and never gave me speed anywhere near usable. The day I find one that's proven to have a good read/write speed and doesn't have a horribly loose connection that keeps getting disconnected at the slightest justle I will be happy.

 

[Gary Whitta]

So as I set up my new iMac I'm going to be moving the old one over to my PC to use as a dedicated gaming monitor in target display mode. If I'm only ever using it as a display is there a more power-efficient mode to keep it in or will the full Mac always be running?

 

[Emitan]

It seems my kernel panics are being caused by the nVidia drivers when I use hardware acceleration in Flash. Goodbye 720p Youtube

 

[Chuckl3s]

So as I set up my new iMac I'm going to be moving the old one over to my PC to use as a dedicated gaming monitor in target display mode. If I'm only ever using it as a display is there a more power-efficient mode to keep it in or will the full Mac always be running?

Your iMac will continue to run OS X as well as any applications that were open when it entered Target Display Mode. I never used Target Display but I'm assuming any power settings you set will be used in that mode since its still operating OS X.

 

[Sgt.Pepper]

I'm very new to Macs. I use mine irregularly (mostly because the games I want to play aren't on Mac); in any case, since a few days back, when I power up my Mac there's always this progress bar loading under the Apple logo. It wasn't doing that until there was a sudden blackout, and has been doing that ever since.

 

[Number45]

I'm very new to Macs. I use mine irregularly (mostly because the games I want to play aren't on Mac); in any case, since a few days back, when I power up my Mac there's always this progress bar loading under the Apple logo. It wasn't doing that until there was a sudden blackout, and has been doing that ever since.

Disk check after non-graceful shutdown? I'm new to them too, but that seems the most likely culprit - do you allow it finish?

 

[Sgt.Pepper]

Yes. It just happens everytime I turn it on.

 

[CrudeDiatribe]

Yes. It just happens everytime I turn it on.

You shutting it down properly? It sounds like it is doing the 'restoring' process as if it was asleep and lost power.

If you are, an SMC reset might do it.

 

[VPhys]

That's it - I've decided - I'm definitely going to sell my 2007 Alu 24" iMac, and am going to upgrade to a 15" Retina MacBook Pro.

I've been back and forth on my setup - I currently have a gaming PC, 24" iMac, and a work Windows laptop that I'm forced to use. Two desktops side-by-side is kind of silly; but I wasn't sure I wanted to do a laptop if I have to use another laptop for work all the time anyway. After many Apple Store visits, I've come to the following conclusions.

- I want Retina. I have an iPhone 5 and a iPad 3. I'm ready for a retina computer.
- I use my iMac as a supplementary computer - hosts media, I edit photos, I watch movies, etc; all things that a laptop, that I can bring around with me, would be perfect for
- The 650m isn't great by any means; but it will be nice when my buddies and I LAN every few months - it'll run the games we play just fine - TF2, CS:Go, Sins of a Solar, etc.
-I used to have Apple laptops before I got my work windows laptop; and I've always argued that Apple makes the best laptops on the market
-My desk is only so big; when I work from home, I have to unplug my iMac and set it on the floor to use my work laptop. A setup where I can simply flip laptops seems much better

Anyhoo; I'm thinking I can get about $600 for my iMac. Brings the rMBP to $1600. Still a crap-ton of money. So, while I could just charge it today; I think I'm gonna hold out for a refresh. We're all still thinking June, correct? If that's the case, I should be able to have the cash saved up.

Totally worth it, go for it. I previously had a PC with a 24 inch monitor attached and I thought I will miss the size. The retina screen on the MacBook Pro more than makes up for it, I cannot go back to seeing pixels.

 

[Sgt.Pepper]

You shutting it down properly? It sounds like it is doing the 'restoring' process as if it was asleep and lost power.

If you are, an SMC reset might do it.

I was reading around and someone posted to run Disk Utility first. I did that, and it says it needs to be repaired.

Just restarted my Mac with Command+R and it is doing its thing. I hope that fixes it.

Edit: It says to format the HDD, I don't remember coming with the Mac OSX disc....Do I need one?

 

[The Real Abed]

I was reading around and someone posted to run Disk Utility first. I did that, and it says it needs to be repaired.

Just restarted my Mac with Command+R and it is doing its thing. I hope that fixes it.

Edit: It says to format the HDD, I don't remember coming with the Mac OSX disc....Do I need one?

If you don't have a backup of your drive, do not reformat because you will lose everything.

Do you have a modern Mac with Lion or Mountain Lion? If so you will not have discs. The disk will have a restoration partition on the drive itself.

 

[Emitan]

I've had that issue happen to me before but I cannot recall how I fixed it.

 

[Sgt.Pepper]

If you don't have a backup of your drive, do not reformat because you will lose everything.

Do you have a modern Mac with Lion or Mountain Lion? If so you will not have discs. The disk will have a restoration partition on the drive itself.

I'm on Lion 10.7.5 so I guess I'm saved on the regard. I don't anything worthwhile in here apart from some Steam games and some pictures (which I can easily use Dropbox).

I'm still afraid of screwing it up lol.

 

[The Real Abed]

I'm on Lion 10.7.5 so I guess I'm saved on the regard. I don't anything worthwhile in here apart from some Steam games and some pictures (which I can easily use Dropbox).

I'm still afraid of screwing it up lol.

Throw whatever you can't recover into a safe place off the computer. (If your DropBox is big enough use that) then reformat. To do that try holding OPTION when rebooting and see if a Recovery disk shows up. If so, choose it and use Disk Utility to reformat the disk in the computer then reinstall OS X on it. It'll be a fresh install but the drive will hopefully be working. If it doesn't, you probably have a different problem. If it works, reinstall Steam and download your important games and reinstall DropBox and link it to your account to download all the stuff.

Good luck.

 

[Sgt.Pepper]

So huh, I think the hard drive might be defective or something. Try formating it but it says there's an error everytime. It did make some wierd noises when the prograss bar was loading this time....

 

[CrudeDiatribe]

I was reading around and someone posted to run Disk Utility first. I did that, and it says it needs to be repaired.

I see that you're doing a reinstall now anyway.

Once it booted into Recovery mode, you should have run Disk Utility and then 'repair' from there. You run it until it runs clean (that part got automated at some point in the OS, but I don't remember when).

Depending on the problem with the disk, you can fix it by zero-ing the disk when formatting.

 

[TUSR]

Has anyone (Abed) heard about Thunderbolt displays getting a refresh to USB 3 and other minor adjustments?

Im thinking of getting one to sort of act as a 'command center' for my rMBP. Have all my peripherals plugged into the display and ready to go with one cable.

 

[StrikerObi]

Got to play with one of the new iMacs at an Apple Store a few days ago, the 21" model. I export podcasts regularly and right now I am using a 2006 MacBook (the very last white MacBook model). It takes about 20-30 minutes to fully encode and export an hour-long podcast. I put together a junk podcast (just the same song repeating for an hour) on the floor model and the whole thing was done encoding and exporting in about 3 minutes. I really need to buy one of these things. I asked the floor rep if it had a fusion drive in it and he said nope, since it is a BTO option. I wonder how much faster it'll be writing the finished file to the SSD instead of an HDD.

 

[LCfiner]

Probably way way faster. There are benchmarks at Macworld for file duplicate speeds and the fusion drive is about as fast as an SSD till you get to massive multiple gigabyte file sizes.

 

[StrikerObi]

Probably way way faster. There are benchmarks at Macworld for file duplicate speeds and the fusion drive is about as fast as an SSD till you get to massive multiple gigabyte file sizes.

This excites me. Though the finished exported podcast is usually only around 50MB max, but obviously the in-progress GarageBand file is way larger (up to 5-10GB). But I imagine overall import time for audio files into GarageBand (which can also take about 5 minutes per file) will be super fast thanks to the much higher clock-speed and the Fusion Drive.

 

[Übermatik]

So I need a case for a 15" Macbook pro (non retina). Any suggestions? Need something easy to slip on but with good protection.

 

[Number45]

So I need a case for a 15" Macbook pro (non retina). Any suggestions? Need something easy to slip on but with good protection.

Just a sleeve? I bought one of these for my 13" MBA and it's perfect - it even fits snugly in the laptop section of the messenger bag I bought.

EDIT: They do Pro 15" ones as well.

 

[Übermatik]

Just a sleeve? I bought one of these for my 13" MBA and it's perfect - it even fits snugly in the laptop section of the messenger bag I bought.

EDIT: They do Pro 15" ones as well.

Oh cool, thanks! Yeah I'm just looking for a sleeve, really, because then I can slip it into my own bag without having to worry about carrying around a second.

Any recommendations on screen protectors? Yay or nay?

 

[Übermatik]

http://www.macrumors.com/2012/12/28/apple-to-update-macbook-pro-and-macbook-air-in-june-2013/

Bollocks. Ah well, it's what you get for buying Apple products at any point in time.

 

[Emitan]

Bollocks. Ah well, it's what you get for buying Apple products at any point in time.

It's always and never the right time to buy a Mac.

 

[Ingueferroque]

I'm using a maxed out 15 inch Retinabook, currently using my third one as I kept having screen issues. The one I'm using now doesn't have any ghosting, but I get a lot of 'glitches', which look like horizontal static lines running through the screen.

I think it is related to the video card, I haven't been able to capture them on screenshots but maybe I was just too slow.. I either get them very rarely, but sometimes it happens every five seconds.

I'll be trying to get a refund from Apple, I guess it was stupid of me to jump in on first generation hardware.

Anyone else having issues?

 

[TUSR]

I'm using a maxed out 15 inch Retinabook, currently using my third one as I kept having screen issues. The one I'm using now doesn't have any ghosting, but I get a lot of 'glitches', which look like horizontal static lines running through the screen.

I think it is related to the video card, I haven't been able to capture them on screenshots but maybe I was just too slow.. I either get them very rarely, but sometimes it happens every five seconds.

I'll be trying to get a refund from Apple, I guess it was stupid of me to jump in on first generation hardware.

Anyone else having issues?

I remember when trouble shooting my rMBP problems that horizontal lines are a bad thing.

Take that sucker back if you can replicate the problem consistently.

 

[Mobius 1]

I'm using a maxed out 15 inch Retinabook, currently using my third one as I kept having screen issues. The one I'm using now doesn't have any ghosting, but I get a lot of 'glitches', which look like horizontal static lines running through the screen.

I think it is related to the video card, I haven't been able to capture them on screenshots but maybe I was just too slow.. I either get them very rarely, but sometimes it happens every five seconds.

I'll be trying to get a refund from Apple, I guess it was stupid of me to jump in on first generation hardware.

Anyone else having issues?

I've had graphical glitches only on Safari, so they were software related. My unit has a Samsung display, and has performed perfectly since late September when I bought it.

 

[Dreams-Visions]

It's always and never the right time to buy a Mac.

The right time to buy a computer is always the same and never changes: when you need it.

 

[killertofu]

Is there such thing as USB 3 to Firewire 800 cord or something?

 

[polyh3dron]

http://www.macrumors.com/2012/12/28/apple-to-update-macbook-pro-and-macbook-air-in-june-2013/

That settles it, I'll be selling my rMBP in late May to upgrade.