-
Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.
Mac Hardware and Software |OT| - All things Macintosh
- Thread starter 3N16MA
- Start date
Just wondering if anyone could offer their 2 cents on my current situation. I recently purchased a refurbished 15 inch MacBook Pro from Apple's website. I'm overall satisfied with the product but I did notice upon booting it up that there's a dead pixel in the middle of the screen about 1/3 of the way up from the bottom of the screen (and the keyboard's spacebar seems a bit nosier than the rest of the keyboard but maybe that's the way they always are). The dead pixel is kind of a minor thing that one might have to encounter, especially with a refurbished computer, but if you were in this situation would you try to get a replacement to fix that dead pixel? I'm not even 100% sure these sort of things are covered under the 1 year warranty that comes with the product (but Apple is often pretty good about helping their customers) so I figured I'd see what other people think to see if it's even worth giving this situation a second thought. Thanks!
I would ask for a replacement, absolutely.
weekend_warrior
Banned
Dead pixel or stuck pixel? I'd search online for ways to fix it before going through the process of getting a replacement.
I believe it would be classified as a dead pixel as it's a dark/black pixel that's clearly visible on a white background. Thinking about this, I wonder if a better option than asking Apple to send it back would be to take it to a local Apple store and see what they have to say in regards to this situation. Thanks for feedback, Deku Tree and weekend_warrior
Sorry to be asking so many questions, but I have another issue I'm wondering about. I recently purchased a new refurbished Mac Book Pro to act as my personal computer. Previously I was given a Mac Book Pro as part of an agreement for my current job (but it still belongs to work) so I have been using the work computer as my own for the time being. However I'd now like to see if I could ghost the drive on the work computer to the new computer I now own, which admittedly I should have done a while ago. What is the best way to go about this? Originally I was going to simply back up and reinstall everything but ghosting seems a far less stressful way of achieving the same end goal. Any advice would be greatly appreciated
CrudeDiatribe
Member
Originally I was going to simply back up and reinstall everything but ghosting seems a far less stressful way of achieving the same end goal. Any advice would be greatly appreciated
FWIW, "cloning" would be the term I'd use for googling. Anyway, if both Macs have either Firewire or Thunderbolt and you have such a cable, you can put the new Mac in target-disk mode and clone old to new that way using Disk Utility, the Terminal, Carbon Copy Cloner, or SuperDuper!.
If you don't have a cable, or they lack matching ports, you can yank the drive from one and use a USB adaptor to attach it to the other and use the same software.
Make sure that the source computer has an OS that works on the target; upgrade it first if it doesn't.
Other options:
- put them on the same LAN and use Migration Assistant on the new Mac.
- attach new Mac to old Mac's Time Machine backup and restore.
Thanks CrudeDiatribe and kennah. CCC seems to be a popular choice for cloning from what I've read since I posted (though it costs $40 nowadays when once it was free). However looking at Migration Assistant, this seems like a better choice for what I'm trying to achieve rather than cloning/ghosting the drive. I did come across the good idea of upgrading the OS on the source computer which is Lion whereas the destination is Mountain Lion. What is/ is there a consensus on Mavericks OS? I could upgrade the Lion to Mountain Lion but that costs $20 whereas Mavericks is free. Any opinion on this? Again, thanks!
CrudeDiatribe
Member
Mavericks is fine, it is more that you don't want to end up with an in bootable system. Migrating from old to new means no need for an upgrade.
Re: CCC, the built-in Disk Utilty will do basic whole-volume cloning, so spending $0 is quite easy.
Re: CCC, the built-in Disk Utilty will do basic whole-volume cloning, so spending $0 is quite easy.
Oh, maybe I misunderstood what I was reading about Migration Assistant. So what you are saying is if I'm migrating from a Mac Book Pro with Lion to a Mac Book Pro with Mountain Lion, then there's no need for both OS's to be the same (whereas with cloning you don't want to clone a computer with an older OS onto a computer with a newer OS -- I guess migrating doesn't replace the OS on the computer you are migrating to?). That would definitely save me some time vs trying to update to Mountain Lion on the older laptop.
I did read about the Disk Utility function within the Mac OS software but it seemed like it might be a little less user friendly vs CCC or SuperDuper! Then again I guess if I gave it enough time I could work out any kinks with cloning with the Disk Utility. I'm just kind of in a crunch to get this done ASAP so I'm not thinking about this as clearly as I should be.
BTW, I don't have a ThunderBolt cable so I was going to link them via their ethernet ports, so I guess I may be in for a long wait for the completion of the Migration Assistant process.
Anyway, thanks for the feedback, CrudeDiatribe!
CrudeDiatribe
Member
Yes, Migration Assistant grabs user data, applications, whatever you tell it. It does not copy the OS.
Macs won't boot from a version of the OS released before the hardware. If the OS on the old Mac is newer than the new Mac (even if it's a version behind), then it's fine. Again, this is for cloning only.
The work you have to do is along the lines of: You select the destination volume, click the restore tab, drag the source volume to the source field, click restore.
SuperDuper! and CCC provide rules to exclude specific files/folders and in paid mode, copying only changed files.
Thunderbolt wasn't for speed, it was to enable block-level writing from the old Mac to the new Mac's HDD without removing the disk. Gigabit ethernet is faster than the HDDs in the Macs, so the time is essentially the same.
Thanks again for all the clarifications. It turned out that I was having trouble using the Gigabit ethernet as a means of transfer, so what I ended up doing was making a Time Machine backup onto an external hard drive and then used the Migration Assistant with it to do the transfer. It's not a powered external drive so things are slower but at least the transfer seems to be working and when it's done hopefully everything will look okay *fingers crossed*
It is really a waste to buy that computer with only 4GB RAM. I would get 16GB myself.
Mr. Wonderful
Member
I mean, you'd pretty much just be looking at improved battery life and integrated GPU.
And yeah, if you're planning on keeping the device for three years, I would go 16GB. I went 8GB, and sort of regret it. Though I'm planning on upgrading with Skylake anyways for DDR4 RAM for the integrated GPU to use (with hopefully the L4 cache in the low end CPUs by then), and hopefully quad-cores in the 13" models.
The one last thing that would make that 13" rMBP the perfect mobile workstation (which is a pretty cool concept), is a bump in screen resolution to the equivalent of 1440x900 (2880x1800). They'll do it eventually, as 4K becomes more common, but 2015 seems a bit too soon for the Apple upgrade cycle.
That would depend on the intended use, no? If you aren't running out of memory, adding more of it doesn't make any difference. I think 4GB is enough for basic use, 8GB for general power use, but only specific use cases need more than that.
I'd also want a decent GPU as an option, because it's not a "workstation" for me otherwise, but seeing how Apple has consistently shunned GPUs for the last decade, I don't expect them to change course now.
I'd hardly say they're shunning GPUs, they're more focused on GPUs as of late than most. Difference is for their portables they're more interested in boosting battery life or portability.
Mr. Wonderful
Member
Mavericks will use all the RAM that you have, and will do so quite aggressively. Yes, you'll never page, but having more things cached should at least theoretically increase system responsiveness.
Intel GPUs, especially the 5100 and 5200 GPUs, are good GPUs. The only thing holding them back is dedicated RAM, which the L4 cache and DDR4 will help alleviate.
You have to remember, too, that we're getting Maxwell/AMD's offering in 2014, but we're most likely going to have at least two years of Maxwell, with no major performance improvements, while meanwhile, Intel may continue to increase GPU power by 30-40% every year, at 14nm and 10nm to boot.
To add to all that, personally I like to keep a lot of programs open for easy access. This utilizes more RAM. But it makes my computing life much easier. If you want to open and close lots of programs all the time, and have a less future proof machine, then get less RAM. Otherwise get more.
They just removed the Nvidia GPU from the base model 15" rMBP, so that the only decent GPU remaining in their entire laptop range is on the top model 15" rMBP, at a ~2600e entry price.
On the desktop the only thing they've offered is weak laptop GPUs at ridiculous prices. Paying ~2500e for a maximum spec iMac gives you an equivalent to a midrange desktop GPU that costs about 200e, and has less than half the performance of the current high end.
The OpenGL support of Apple's drivers is almost four years behind the market. Until Mavericks they were on 3.3, now they are on 4.1, which was introduced mid-2010.
I don't see evidence of them giving a crap about GPU performance or features in their consumer machines.
Mr. Wonderful
Member
Apple always makes changes like removing a dedicated GPU a generation before they should. For the professional users who need a high-end GPU for something like video rendering in a portable workstation (which is a pretty small market), by the Broadwell and Skylake refresh, it will be much less of a big deal.
Personally, I'm still of the opinion that portable workstations still don't make sense. They're making more sense, and will be much more attractive with 20nm GPUs, I won't argue that.
Battersea Power Station
Member
Quick question: what should I look for in an external drive for video editing (scratch disk?)? Is USB 3.0 good for this, or do I need a FireWire interface?
This deal popped up so it's what got me interested: http://m.ebay.com/itm?itemId=360836409874
I'm using a rMBP with discrete GPU. Thanks.
This deal popped up so it's what got me interested: http://m.ebay.com/itm?itemId=360836409874
I'm using a rMBP with discrete GPU. Thanks.
CrudeDiatribe
Member
That's probably going to be a 5400 RPM drive. USB 3 is more than fast enough for it (other option is Thunderbolt).
Whether that drive is fast enough for video scratch, I have no idea.
Whether that drive is fast enough for video scratch, I have no idea.
polyh3dron
Banned
For performance and simplicity's sake, you'll probably want to go with a thunderbolt drive. USB 3.0 drives apparently bump down to 2.0 speed if there's any 2.0 stuff connected on the same bus. Firewire 800 drives require an adapter which is cumbersome as hell.
May I suggest this.
If you need something more portable, then this would be good.
Mr. Wonderful
Member
What resolution are you editing with? A nice 1TB (or more, if you want to go crazy) 7200rpm would be passable, FireWire, USB 3, or Thunderbolt, as mentioned. Obviously, a large 512GB or ideally 1TB SSD would provide a performance benefit.
Personally, I still have a bit of a dislike for USB 3 because of the overhead and bus issue, as mentioned. If you fall back to USB 2 speeds randomly, you'll want to murder something. The beauty of Thunderbolt is that it's just external PCI-e.
AMD is also trying to make DockPort happen (USB 3.0 over DisplayPort, rather than PCI-e), but hopefully their CPUs still being crap will prevent DockPort from being adopted, even if it has more advantages for the everyday consumer and manufacturers compared to Thunderbolt.
polyh3dron
Banned
I'd like to take a moment to plug a product that I just recently purchased for my rMBP which has made my home computer setup completely fucking awesome.
The CalDigit Thunderbolt Station.
I have put together a home computer setup for working on music that consists of the following hardware:
-Dell 27" monitor
-Akai MPK49 MIDI Keyboard controller
-Ableton Push controller
-Native Instruments Maschine controller
-KRK VXT8 Studio Monitor speakers
-LaCie LittleBigDisk external drive for sample libraries
Hooking all of this up to my rMBP when I come home every day and unhooking it all when I leave for work would be a complete pain and I didn't want to do it. So I get this thing delivered to me and with an additional USB 3.0 hub from Anker, I'm able to hook up all my gear to it, and then all I need to do in order to dock my rMBP when I get home is plug in one Thunderbolt cable and my power cable. I know it's taken a bit too long for Thunderbolt devices to not only become available but be financially feasible, but this hub is a godsend. No other bus technology would be able to carry all this bandwidth in order to hook up all these devices with one small plug. It costs $200 but is well worth the money if you want to use your MacBook Pro or Air at home in a desktop setup and you end up having to plug a shitload of different cables into it in order to connect everything.
The CalDigit Thunderbolt Station.
I have put together a home computer setup for working on music that consists of the following hardware:
-Dell 27" monitor
-Akai MPK49 MIDI Keyboard controller
-Ableton Push controller
-Native Instruments Maschine controller
-KRK VXT8 Studio Monitor speakers
-LaCie LittleBigDisk external drive for sample libraries
Hooking all of this up to my rMBP when I come home every day and unhooking it all when I leave for work would be a complete pain and I didn't want to do it. So I get this thing delivered to me and with an additional USB 3.0 hub from Anker, I'm able to hook up all my gear to it, and then all I need to do in order to dock my rMBP when I get home is plug in one Thunderbolt cable and my power cable. I know it's taken a bit too long for Thunderbolt devices to not only become available but be financially feasible, but this hub is a godsend. No other bus technology would be able to carry all this bandwidth in order to hook up all these devices with one small plug. It costs $200 but is well worth the money if you want to use your MacBook Pro or Air at home in a desktop setup and you end up having to plug a shitload of different cables into it in order to connect everything.
You pay for the speed and power. I guess I'm biased because I come from a "pro" background but if you don't need the speed you can be perfectly satisfied with USB3. If you're in high-end video there's really no other option.
killertofu
Member
Have there been any rumors about the next gen MacBook airs yet?
I'm trying to refrain from buying one until the summer
I'm trying to refrain from buying one until the summer
We don't even know when the next intel cpu is going to be released yet.
killertofu
Member
Really? I just expected a refresh around the summer
Well, we have good ideas of rough timelines due to the roadmaps. http://www.legitreviews.com/intel-2014-desktop-processor-roadmap-leaked-broadwell-k-socketed_126888
polyh3dron
Banned
http://buyersguide.macrumors.com/
According to MacRumors it is approaching the end of its cycle so it should see a refresh soon, most likely with 802.11ac and possibly Thunderbolt 2.
Maybe a better integrated GPU too.
Not all refreshes have to have a new CPU, sometimes it's just a speed bump.
The Macbook Air already has 802.11ac. The HD 5000 GPU is already better than what Apple's chassis thermals can handle - that's why there was only a tiny performance bump between HD 4000 and HD 5000 despite the latter being a lot faster on paper. There's very little that people do on a MBA that would benefit from TB2.
I don't think they'll update the MBA until they have new processors, new chassis design (at least internal), retina displays or decide to switch to IPS displays. If you ask me, the most sensible update from user POV would be moving to non-retina IPS and bumping the SSD sizes up a notch. If they add retina to the MBA, there's no difference between 13" MBP and MBA anymore since they didn't bother to put any real performance in the 13" MBP.
The flipside is a TB2 port means that you can offload intensive tasks for a dedicated Thunderbolt device, making up for the Air's otherwise pedestrian capabilities.
I agree that moving to nicer screens and better storage seems like a likely option though. I'm not sold on Apple moving to retinas on their entry-level laptops any time soon when they've been pushing them as the "last all day" computers.
Battersea Power Station
Member
A friend is asking for recommendations on a low priced PC mainly for browsing, office work, etc.
I'm thinking of recommending this:
http://store.apple.com/us/product/FD387LL/A/refurbished-mac-mini-25ghz-dual-core-intel-core-i5
Are the Mac Minis considered pretty good?
I'm thinking of recommending this:
http://store.apple.com/us/product/FD387LL/A/refurbished-mac-mini-25ghz-dual-core-intel-core-i5
Are the Mac Minis considered pretty good?
I have a quad-core 2012 Mac mini and I like it a lot: it's quiet, powerful and quite good looking sitting on my desk
). Since your needs aren't that demanding, I think you would be quite happy with one.I've just picked up a Mac Mini for a media box, in spite of the rumours of a refresh shortly, I couldn't fault it.
I think it's the cheapest TB dock by $50-100 actually. Part of the value for me is about providing ports that the host machine doesn't have, like USB 3 for an older Mac (...granted only the 2011s have TB but no USB 3 I think) or ethernet for MBAs. Combine it with the single cable docking and it's a pretty nice solution if you want a desktop setup for a laptop.
The HD5000 was a modest bump everywhere iirc, and the thermals on the parts used were lower than previous generations (might be a general thing about the HD5000 on the ULV parts though).
My hope is that the MBA and MBP get killed off for a single MB line but that probably won't happen, at least not soon. Retina screens will be a standard feature eventually like on iOS, and the MBPs are getting closer and closer to MBA territory physically. Basically I want an 11" retina screen MacBook, which possibly fits with the "12 inch MBP" rumor, cause the 11 is technically 11.6". Of course the MBAs could get ridiculously thin and light as Intel continues to shave power usage off, so who knows.
Only if Apple or Intel supports TB for such, and so far neither has shown interest in that unfortunately, outside of specific stuff like RED Rocket cards. Other than that the main thing it currently gives is 4K support, not a huge deal realistically right now...but I guess if you're in the market for high end TB/TB2 stuff you might also be in the market for a 4K screen.
Yeah it's mostly fine, just old at this point. I wouldn't buy at regular price cause of that, should be able to find Apple refurbs or other random deals to shave a chunk off the cost.
I have a 2011 and my main issue is that it can get loud as hell under load. There's also some framerate bug with the video decoder (that apparently Haswell fixes finally) but it's not something I've noticed myself. I'm using it as my regular desktop rather than HTPC though, so maybe I don't watch video regularly enough to see it. Can't say I've seen others complaining about it either at least.
And as far as a refresh I have no goddamn clue now. I would've expected a silent bump by the end of last year but at this point I semi expect them skipping Haswell and going with a redesigned box for Broadwell later this year. I'm really hoping for desktop CPUs and a quieter design, like Brix Pro but with Mac Pro's thermal design (giant heatsink w/quiet fan). Mobile CPUs kinda screw them in cost for a low end machine. Course I'd expect a price bump anyway even if they used cheaper desktop CPUs, new design, fatter margins! (or just to compensate for initial design costs)
Customer-hostile design that goes overboard on miniaturization with zero real-world benefit and worse usability as a result. In short, the same idiocy as with iMacs. No SSD. If you don't put in a SSD you are in for a second-rate experience, but the chassis design makes it quite hard to swap the HDD yourself as you'd need to do with this refurb, and I believe you lose the warranty if you swap the HDD. The prices of factory SSD upgrades for a new machine are awful too.
If you are content with the HDD, or comfortable doing the swap yourself and saying goodbye to the warranty, the refurb is not a bad machine for the price. Not a great deal either. I'd maybe rather try to find a used machine at the same price or thereabouts which already has a SSD in it.
Why are you posting here?
Dunno. Should I not post here for some reason?
If you take my recommendation and go used with a mini, note that all mini models from 2011 onwards have Core i? processors, and for a light user any of them is enough. Incidentally, I bought a used 2011 model mini for a friend a while ago. She's a very light user, so we skipped SSD and got a pretty cost efficient solution. On the other hand, used low-end iMacs can be very good deals for casual use as they are a convenient package with a good quality display/speakers/webcam/etc.; they've had Core i? minimum since 2010. I have found a used 2012 iMac for my relatives, and only paid slightly more than the cost of a new base model Mac mini.
Battersea Power Station
Member
Do you have any examples of what will offer a comparable or better experience for $509 or cheaper? OS X or Windows is fine.
EDIT: Oh, I just saw your post above. I'm not too keen on buying used stuff and missing out on warranty, but I'll try to check it out. Still, my friend is looking to spend $300 - $500, so more than that might be a difficult sell.
Ah, I assumed OS X was a requirement, but this really explodes the options available. I'm guessing all your friend is going to do is use a web browser or something? Maybe even a Linux machine or a Chromebook would do. Low-end Windows laptops have grown rather cheap too. Building a Windows desktop is possible; Windows OEM licence costs about $90, but if anyone around you has access to student/educator discounts, you may be able to get Windows at basically no cost.
I think you should explain a bit more about your friend's requirements. Do they need desktop use/ergonomics specifically - large display and such? What do they have already, display etc. wise?
For a casual-use desktop, a cheap used 2010+ 21.5" iMac is pretty much perfect. Come to think of it, even a pre-2010, Core 2 Duo model would do for light use. I'm sure those would be available in your friend's price range.
I think that is a great option personally. I love the simplicity and the usability of the modern OSX computing experience.
IIRC Water has quite a hostile posting history in regards to Apples Mac direction in recent years. On the other hand Macs are one of the few computer brands that are maintaining or increasing or even not rapidly losing market share in recent years so...
opticalmace
Member
Checked out a MBA last night. Really nice machine.
I'm interested but to spec it how I want it becomes pretty expensive (256, 8GB, Applecare). Think there's any chance they might bump the minimum spec model (128GB, 4GB) at the next refresh?
Or is anyone getting by just fine with 128GB/4GB?
I'm interested but to spec it how I want it becomes pretty expensive (256, 8GB, Applecare). Think there's any chance they might bump the minimum spec model (128GB, 4GB) at the next refresh?
Or is anyone getting by just fine with 128GB/4GB?
Mr. Wonderful
Member
^I think there definitely will be. Or definitely should be, to 8GB of RAM, at least.
I love the idea of a Mac Mini for my parents, but my only problem is it's a desktop with a lifespan of a notebook (three years with an extended warranty). Meanwhile, their 6-year old small-form factor HP desktop has had literally every part on it die at one point or the other, and since it's been out of warranty, outside of Mobo and CPU, I have slowly been replacing each dying part with a part that would be right at home on a high-end workstation/gaming rig.
I would love to get them on OS X, or Windows 8.1, but I'm worried that 8.1 is going to be too much of a change for them, and it would be nice to get them completely into the Apple ecosystem, especially for things like iPhoto, Contacts, etc.
I love the idea of a Mac Mini for my parents, but my only problem is it's a desktop with a lifespan of a notebook (three years with an extended warranty). Meanwhile, their 6-year old small-form factor HP desktop has had literally every part on it die at one point or the other, and since it's been out of warranty, outside of Mobo and CPU, I have slowly been replacing each dying part with a part that would be right at home on a high-end workstation/gaming rig.
I would love to get them on OS X, or Windows 8.1, but I'm worried that 8.1 is going to be too much of a change for them, and it would be nice to get them completely into the Apple ecosystem, especially for things like iPhoto, Contacts, etc.