Probably just the dock workers opening it up and putting fingerprints all over dat screen.
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Mac Hardware and Software |OT| - All things Macintosh
- Thread starter 3N16MA
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Probably just the dock workers opening it up and putting fingerprints all over dat screen.
Autumn Wind
Member
Is it known what the 256 GB SSD is inside the 2014 Mac mini? Sandisk or Samsung or is it a lottery type of deal?
The one iFixit tore apart was an HGST.
https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Mac+Mini+Late+2014+Teardown/30410
Autumn Wind
Member
I should have explained myself better so my mistake. That's for the default HDD on the base model which is 500 GB. I am getting the $699 model (has a 1 TB HDD by default) and adding the PCIe SSD for an extra $200. I was wondering if there's info on that. I think on the 13" rMBP the 128 GB SSD is Sandisk and on the mid-model the 256 GB is Samsung but I could be wrong.
I'm close to buying a 5K iMac.
Uses: Hobby programming (XCode), web-surfing (lots of text reading), light Steam gaming (mostly Source & Blizzard games) but rare.
I am set on choosing the highest GPU solution (R9 M295X 4 GB GDDR5).
Questions:
1. Mistake to go with 3.5GHZ i5 (vs 4.0GHZ i7) ?
2. I'm considering 256GB Flash (free alternative). Or should I stick to default 1GB Fusion Drive? Noisy? Performance?
3. Any performance issues sticking with the default 8GB ram? (see uses above)
Uses: Hobby programming (XCode), web-surfing (lots of text reading), light Steam gaming (mostly Source & Blizzard games) but rare.
I am set on choosing the highest GPU solution (R9 M295X 4 GB GDDR5).
Questions:
1. Mistake to go with 3.5GHZ i5 (vs 4.0GHZ i7) ?
2. I'm considering 256GB Flash (free alternative). Or should I stick to default 1GB Fusion Drive? Noisy? Performance?
3. Any performance issues sticking with the default 8GB ram? (see uses above)
anonymous_abc
Member
I would agree with this, except, to say buy as much RAM as you can afford rather than max it out. I mean sure, bump up from the 2x4GB default, and go for 2x8GB for total 16GB. leaves you room to add 16GB more later (assuming 5K model has 4x regular so-dimm slots).
Do you really need 32GB straight away?
POWERSPHERE
Member
Any good benchmarks for the 4.0 retina out there? Looking for a new After Effects machine
You'd prolly be better served with a Pro if you're a heavy AE user.
Autumn Wind
Member
The Real Abed
Perma-Junior
Curious question about my iMac. Would it be possible to put a second disk in it later on? How does Apple do their Fusion drives in the iMac? Do they have some sort of double disk caddy that can hold both the normal 1TB/3TB HDD and the SSD, or is the SSD actually a chip that connects elsewhere and isn't a traditional SSD but just Flash chips?
When I ever do get around to replacing the HDD in this machine one day I'd love to just keep the HDD in it and add the SSD. Unless the caddy they use is an Apple only device you can't buy anywhere aftermarket. Would be neat if the Flash part was just a connector that could interface with those aftermarket Flash replacement kits they make for the Airs and Retina MBPs.
When I ever do get around to replacing the HDD in this machine one day I'd love to just keep the HDD in it and add the SSD. Unless the caddy they use is an Apple only device you can't buy anywhere aftermarket. Would be neat if the Flash part was just a connector that could interface with those aftermarket Flash replacement kits they make for the Airs and Retina MBPs.
There's a PCIe SSD socket and a traditional hard drive in the case; the PCIe flash storage are at least on the outside identical to MBP PCIe SSDs so I think they're swappable. You're going to have to remove the screen, which is not an easy task, and cut through some adhesives, though.
On the plus side:
If you're willing to do the cutting and suction-cup screen removal, yadda yadda, the CPU is actual unsoldered, meaning it's trivial to replace (once you've gotten access to it.) So maxing the GPU (the thing you can't change) is the priority. Beyond that, I've always felt it's better to go all-flash because I don't want the chance of one part of my fusion drive dying, and I'd rather have the speed bump all the time rather than hit slowdowns now and then.
The Real Abed
Perma-Junior
So it does have the components for just putting Flash in there and keeping the HDD as it is? I know OWC has kits for replacing the HDD that comes with the suction cups, all the tools and the adhesive to replace it with, but I wonder if they have a kit to install Flash, or at least a kit for getting inside sold separately.
Not that I'm planning on doing it anytime soon. It really does look like a lot of fun work. Maybe sometime down the road. I just want to know my options. I might not even bother keeping the 1TB HDD and just replace it with a normal SSD at that point. Who knows.
The SSD controller is mounted in a completely different area than the HDD. I dunno if there's any sort of compatibility issue/PCIe lane issue when you're running both, but presumably if you fusion drive, it's not an issue to just use them as discrete volumes. The PCIe seems trivial to swap once you're inside--check out the iFixIt teardowns.
Thanks for all the great replies!
I've received some new perspective lately in that the 5K iMac might be one of those seldom products that gets better with time simply because the software side needs to catch up to the hardware. I think I'm going to bite the $bullet, aim for the long run, and go with:
295X 4GBGPU, 4GHZ I7, 16GB ram, 512GB Flash (and a Trackpad as I already own a Magic Mouse + Super Drive).
The Real Abed
Perma-Junior
Why not print out a release form to make them deliver it no matter what? Do you have a place they could put it where it won't be stolen?Hnnnng, my Retina iMac was due to delivery at afternoon today, but the UPS guy came at 9.30 AM, when i wasn't at home
I'm from Berlin, when i would do that the Mac would be stolen in 2 minutes.
Autumn Wind
Member
The Real Abed
Perma-Junior
Damn. That sucks. No trustworthy neighbor or anything? Hopefully you'll be home when they try again. Though I do know here in the US they also give you an option to hold it at the delivery hub so you can pick it up yourself if there's no chance of being home when they try.
My boss allowed me to do homeoffice today, so i got it this morning.
And boy. 27" retina is crazy good.
The markup on the i7 is disgusting, but the total price of the system is so high that upping the processor actually has pretty decent value when you are already committed to the iMac. Relative to the base setup, it's 10% more total cost, and it has at least 10% more performance from pure clockspeed advantage alone. I'm pretty sure I've seen from benchmarks that the additional features of i7 (more cache, hyperthreading) are especially good with compiling - up to something like 25% more speed - so if you're coding then the i7 is a great value on the Retina iMac.
Of course, a part of why it looks like such a good value is that the iMac's AIO nature makes it a worse value in the first place and inflates the (relevant) cost. If you were buying a $1k computer and $1.5k display separately, it would be a hard sell when you'd have to spend $250 on top of the $1k computer for those 10-30% (max) performance gains.
Autumn Wind
Member
Definitely. Add 16 GB of RAM and you're good to go and maybe even a 512 GB SSD from Crucial if you wish to add it yourself.
Perfect Cha0s
Member
So I got my 13" 2014 rMBP a few days ago, and I'm really enjoying it so far. The display is absurdly crisp, the battery life is pretty nuts coming from a 4 year old Lenovo that died in a few hours off the charger, and while I knew I would get along with OS X from spending some time with my sister's Air, I'm pretty surprised by how smooth of an experience the various features and gestures, like swiping to another desktop, two-finger right-clicking, and swiping to go back and forward, have made using this machine.
I am still a noob to OS X, so I wanted to pop in and ask if anyone had any tips or any recommended programs I should install on here.
I am still a noob to OS X, so I wanted to pop in and ask if anyone had any tips or any recommended programs I should install on here.
A lot of people here recommend BetterTouchTool, but honestly I've never felt much of a difference except when a program freaks out when I'm using it and I have to disable it.
I really like iStat menus for troubleshooting and system monitoring. The Unarchiver is a good unzipping program that goes further than the built-in utility.
The Real Abed
Perma-Junior
What programs freak out with BTT? And what do you mean no difference? You have to add gestures yourself.
iStat Menus is awesome. I just bought it. So much information at a glance. I hope they add sidebar widgets. (If possible. I really hope widget support isn't limited only to App Store apps.)
CrudeDiatribe
Member
Programs that aren't built in that I use everyday outside my work:
- Soulver - it's a calculator, but I find it much more useful than the calculator apps that act like a pocket/desk calculator. Not free, but cheap.
- VLC
- Caffeine - Keeps your Mac awake when you want it to not sleep. More useful than a 'hot corner'.
- smcFanControl - set the minimum fan speed so you can favour coolness over quietness
- Itsycal - menu bar calendar.
Other useful things (to me, might be pretty esoteric):
- WavTap - Let's you record/redirect your Mac's audio output. Useful in conjunction with Quicktime's screen recording. There are more powerful takes on this, such as Audio Hijack Pro or WireTap Anywhere, but they aren't free.
- Hexfiend - Hex editor
- Platypus - Turn shell scripts into OS X applications.
Sorry, misspoke. Not BTT, whatever the mouse acceleration changing application is. Smoothmouse?
I try to use as many default things as possible.
I tend to adapt.
I don't find it that challenging or annoying most of the time and I get the benefit of increased it-just-works-ness.
That is, when updates roll around I usually get less broken bits because I simply don't use many things outside of what apple themselves are testing.
Doesn't mean it doesn't happen, it's just reduced, and any issues I expereince tend to be ones that others have as well.
I tend to adapt.
I don't find it that challenging or annoying most of the time and I get the benefit of increased it-just-works-ness.
That is, when updates roll around I usually get less broken bits because I simply don't use many things outside of what apple themselves are testing.
Doesn't mean it doesn't happen, it's just reduced, and any issues I expereince tend to be ones that others have as well.
The Real Abed
Perma-Junior
Yeah, I think thats the one. I don't use mouse accelerators myself. I hate hate hate Windows' acceleration. Mac's just feels correct to me. It only took me a short few minutes to adjust 14 years ago when I switched but now whenever I go to try Windows I can't stand it.
Junior Mint
Member
I use USB overdrive. Thank God for that app. For me, Mac acceleration (ONLY when using a mouse) feels completely wrong to me. Pretty much any type of mouse acceleration feels wrong and even worse is the mouse wheel acceleration. Moving ONE pixel down per wheel click is just completely insane.
The Real Abed
Perma-Junior
I need a UPS. In the fall it gets super windy and power gets knocked out periodically. I have way too many hard drives to risk killing some because of constant knockouts.
But I don't know which one to get. I need it to provide enough temporary power for my iMac and about 4-6 external hard drives. I also want it to be quiet. And if it has the ability to tell my computer to safely shut down if it looks like power won't be returning and possibly turn it back on when it does, even better.
I'm looking at NewEgg but I can't tell which ones are the ones I need.
But I don't know which one to get. I need it to provide enough temporary power for my iMac and about 4-6 external hard drives. I also want it to be quiet. And if it has the ability to tell my computer to safely shut down if it looks like power won't be returning and possibly turn it back on when it does, even better.
I'm looking at NewEgg but I can't tell which ones are the ones I need.
Haven't had any issues with the ones at work, I'll go check and see what they actually are.
The Real Abed
Perma-Junior
If you can, see if you hear any sort of sound. Some of the ones I saw on NewEgg had complaints of a low buzzing sound which, in my quiet room, would be annoying as hell. The fan of the iMac is as loud as I want to hear at night when I'm trying to sleep. A buzzing would bug the shit out of me. The brand was APC I think, but they make like a few dozen different models. I just need one for a computer and a handful of HDDs.
It doesn't have answers to all your questions but it mentions the fact that it needs to be a sine-wave UPS:
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1803871
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1803871
The Real Abed
Perma-Junior
I only need like 3 battery powered ports but they need to be able to support all the hard drives I have connected to surge protectors because they all have wall rats in 2014.
CrudeDiatribe
Member
UPSes are rated for how many VA they support as well as the battery capacity. To figure out the VA draw of your gear, plug the wattage or current draw of the various AC power supplies into this calculator. Apple will list the iMac's somewhere, and the wall warts will do so for the HDDs.
Once you have found how many VAs you need, find some UPSes that offer that much.
I haven't used a Belkin or APC UPS that didn't talk to my Macs via USB, no driver needed (I think; memory fuzzy). Set your shutdown preferences in the Energy System pref.
Once you have found how many VAs you need, find some UPSes that offer that much.
I haven't used a Belkin or APC UPS that didn't talk to my Macs via USB, no driver needed (I think; memory fuzzy). Set your shutdown preferences in the Energy System pref.
OK, I must be stupid or something. Apple charges $200 for 16 GB of RAM (2 x 8 GB). Why do they charge $600 for 32 GB (4 x 8 GB)? It's not like they're using higher density RAM (2 x 16 GB). So 32 GB should be $400. Right? Or am I an idiot?
I don't actually need 32 GB. 16 GB is more than plenty to future-proof the system for me. I'm just wondering what the hell is going on.
I don't actually need 32 GB. 16 GB is more than plenty to future-proof the system for me. I'm just wondering what the hell is going on.
The Real Abed
Perma-Junior
Thanks. I will calculate when I get home. They don't need drivers though? Is the feature built into OS X or something?
CrudeDiatribe
Member
Suspect there's some sort of standard. "UPS" is just an tab in Energy Saver on my Mac Pro that has a UPS plugged into it via USB.
No... It's totally just apple ripping people off. This has long been know. Always upgrade yourself if you can.
My delete key is borked. While it worked, it felt like there was something under the key so I removed the key and found a tiny piece of broken plastic that appears to have broken off the bottom of the delete key itself. I ordered a replacement delete key which supposedly comes with everything needed from replacementlaptopkeys.com... anyone had this happen before?
I hope teh key i ordered was the right one... there were two types for my model but neither picture was 100% identical, mostly because the pictures were not of the delete key but of other keys.
But man almost $15 (with shipping) for one key goddamn.
Could I have gotten this fixed cheaper?
I hope teh key i ordered was the right one... there were two types for my model but neither picture was 100% identical, mostly because the pictures were not of the delete key but of other keys.
But man almost $15 (with shipping) for one key goddamn.
Could I have gotten this fixed cheaper?
CrudeDiatribe
Member
Co-worker bought a key off eBay for $9. So... yes, but I hope you're not in a place in life that $6 is the end of the world.