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[Futureman]

WOOO! Got my 16 GB of RAM already. Amazon, you crazy! $35 for each 8 GB AND I have it a day later at my apartment for only $10 shipping (no I'm not one of the those Prime crazies).

Pretty easy install on the new iMacs, right? Just completely shut down, unscrew the speaker grill thing, pop out the old RAM, and pop in the new?

I will sell my 4 GB (2x 2 GB) for $10 shipped if anyone is interested.

 

[Pachimari]

I'm thinking is this NAS a good one to buy?

Synology DS411j 8TB:
Amazon.co.uk

I wanna stream my content to a Mac Mini, MacBook Air and Apple TV - have it all at one place wirelessly.

 

[bionic77]

You'll be fine for more than 3 years. It'll be a long time before any normal use apps need more than 16GB at once. RAM is temporary storage. He'll never really be running too many things that use nearly that much unless he's a Final Cut Pro user or something. In other words, it'll be very hard to force the computer to even page out. I had 8GB and rarely hit that limit and put pages onto the drive. 16GB will be even harder.

SSD will be fine if he installs it inside and keeps a nice fat HDD or three externally. I forget, do newer iMacs still have two hard drive slots? If not, he'll just need an external case for his current internal HDD. Does anyone make any Thunderbolt external cases? (Empty cases, not ones with drives)

You are probably right but it is hard to predict tech.

The 2 gigs in my MBP from 06 is actually sufficient to run everything I run except parallels (which runs but that isn't enough ram for it). I wonder how it would have handled Lion. Will never know because Core Duos are not supported.

 

[Jasoco]

Has anyone released an external 2.5" Thunderbolt powered hard drive case? Or one with SSD in it already? I want an external drive to hold the big bulky stuff I don't need with me at all times, but I want it on as fast a connection as possible. I'd be storing any Parallels Virtual Machines and my Steam Applications Support folder as those take up the most space.

A Thunderbolt case would be amazing. Even if I have to supply my own SSD.

Alternatively, what is the bottleneck on USB2 and a SSD in an external case? Is USB2 faster or slower than an average SSD read/write speed?

Since I'm on an Air, and I didn't have enough to get the 256 at the time, I can't just replace the drive I have. Though if I could, I would. (Actually, will Apple Stores upgrade my SSD to 256 for $300 if I were to take it in?)

 

[njean777]

Has anyone released an external 2.5" Thunderbolt powered hard drive case? Or one with SSD in it already? I want an external drive to hold the big bulky stuff I don't need with me at all times, but I want it on as fast a connection as possible. I'd be storing any Parallels Virtual Machines and my Steam Applications Support folder as those take up the most space.

A Thunderbolt case would be amazing. Even if I have to supply my own SSD.

Alternatively, what is the bottleneck on USB2 and a SSD in an external case? Is USB2 faster or slower than an average SSD read/write speed?

Since I'm on an Air, and I didn't have enough to get the 256 at the time, I can't just replace the drive I have. Though if I could, I would. (Actually, will Apple Stores upgrade my SSD to 256 for $300 if I were to take it in?)

You can do it yourself if you are brave enough, OWC offers the NAND ssd for the airs.

 

[Jasoco]

Thing is I just bought this and was hoping to get AppleCare. If I replace the drive myself, I void my warranty. Plus I'd need a screwdriver with a hex because they switched from normal screws for obvious reasons. I was hoping I could just pay the $300 at an Apple Store and have them replace it for me. I mean obviously the part is replaceable and not embedded to the board like the RAM is. And since 256GB is an upgrade option they must have them available. Anyone ever try? I'll gladly pay the $300 just for futureproofing peace of mind and not having to keep an external drive around.

 

[hobart]

Thing is I just bought this and was hoping to get AppleCare. If I replace the drive myself, I void my warranty. Plus I'd need a screwdriver with a hex because they switched from normal screws for obvious reasons. I was hoping I could just pay the $300 at an Apple Store and have them replace it for me. I mean obviously the part is replaceable and not embedded to the board like the RAM is. And since 256GB is an upgrade option they must have them available. Anyone ever try? I'll gladly pay the $300 just for futureproofing peace of mind and not having to keep an external drive around.

A little birdie told me that you only void the warranty if they catch you. Meaning... install your components and when you need to bring her into the shop for repair... just make sure all original components are back as you purchased them.

I've never done this. I cannot speak from experience. But I did hear this somewhere.

 

[teruterubozu]

There is a seal on the hard drive (and battery) that shows whether it was removed or not. They'll know.

 

[hobart]

So how does the Tech put the seal back on when he gets his hands on it the first time? Is it just a sticker?

 

[Jasoco]

Probably. It's a sticker that sticks immediately and is impossible to peel off without breaking. Which is why I'd rather fuck all and just pay them $300 to upgrade me to 256 like I would have if I had the money. I just want to know if they'll do it for me because the closest Apple Store is 45 minutes away and I don't want to waste my time if they won't bother.

I'd really love to do this because I just went crazy on Steam and bought the Half-Life collection and DN4 and now need about 22GB+ of space for all of it.

 

[Jasoco]

Merry Changmas everyone!

I just got an Apple wireless keyboard and trackpad to use with my Mac mini Media Server and I have some questions...

First off, do I have to turn them off constantly? Do they have sleep modes? Can I just leave them on and have them turn back on when I touch them?

I ask because I also want to get one of them devices to connect them together, but I need one that lets me put the trackpad on the LEFT side. I also want one that will provide support under the trackpad so I can use the click buttons since they're located in the feet.

Now the problem is if I have to turn them off all the time, I'd hate to have to keep disassembling them just to turn them off and on. So it'd be nice to have them automatically keep sleeping so I can wake them up.

Now, if they do get left on, how long does the battery last without being touched?

Thanks!

 

[Tedesco!]

Frustration!

So Time Warner Cable experiences an "internet outage" a couple of days ago. Ever since I've been having issues with my wireless devices connecting. Usually I can get one device, maybe two, connected. I've not been able to have all devices connected at the same time. Here is what I have:

Apple TV2 and PS3 - wired
MacBook, MacBook Pro, iPhone 3gs and 4s - wireless

My router is an AirPort Extreme.

Apple says that the router is working just fine, and because I am receiving different IP addresses on all my devices that the issue is with my cable modem. TMC says that because some wireless devices are connecting, but not all, that the issue lies with my router.

Has anyone experienced an issue like this? It's pretty frustrating because everyone is basically saying it is everyone else's fault, and in the meantime most of my stuff isn't working.

 

[blahblah...blah]

Since I reset my permissions (due to boot failure), my internet connection doesn't work immediately after log-on. It says I'm connected to WiFi, but nothing will load. All I have to do is turn WiFi on and off and it's all fine. It's not a huge problem, but is kind of irritating - anyone have any ideas?

 

[Futureman]

I have these splotches under the glass on my iMac 27" monitor on the middle to top right of the screen. Only really noticeable when the screen is white.

Even though I bought at Best Buy (in August), I can just take my iMac to an Apple Store and they'll ship it out and fix it, right?

 

[hobart]

You have a manufacturer's warranty that is good for one year with Apple. Take it to an Apple Store.

 

[Ryck]

Got a sort of random question; I will be picking up a base Mac Mini tomorrow, does anyone here know if comes with physical a copy of Lion? I know it normally would but since there isn't a disc drive I wonder if the disc would also be omitted.

 

[Jasoco]

No Macs come with discs at all anymore. The installer is on the HDD/SSD in the recovery partition. Apple also offers a downloadable DMG to make a bootable recovery partition that can be used to install Lion in the future if you have to replace the drive. All you'll need is a small USB Flash Drive. Basically Apple will know you are registered as owning Lion by your Apple account. So instead of typing in a string of 25 random letters and numbers, you just sign into your Apple account from the recovery partition/drive and it will download and install Lion for you if you ever have to. You also have the option of taking it to one of many Apple stores to have them help you out too if you didn't make a USB stick.

And of course, the Lion license is for any Macs you own personally or in your household. But I believe they all use the same Apple account to install. I'm not 100% clear on that.

Needless to say, there are many ways to reinstall Lion whether it's just a reformat or replacing the drive itself. If you bought the Mac, you own the license for that Mac. If you buy Lion itself, you own a license to put it on any personal Macs.

 

[Ryck]

No Macs come with discs at all anymore. The installer is on the HDD/SSD in the recovery partition. Apple also offers a downloadable DMG to make a bootable recovery partition that can be used to install Lion in the future if you have to replace the drive. All you'll need is a small USB Flash Drive. Basically Apple will know you are registered as owning Lion by your Apple account. So instead of typing in a string of 25 random letters and numbers, you just sign into your Apple account from the recovery partition/drive and it will download and install Lion for you if you ever have to. You also have the option of taking it to one of many Apple stores to have them help you out too if you didn't make a USB stick.

And of course, the Lion license is for any Macs you own personally or in your household. But I believe they all use the same Apple account to install. I'm not 100% clear on that.

Needless to say, there are many ways to reinstall Lion whether it's just a reformat or replacing the drive itself. If you bought the Mac, you own the license for that Mac. If you buy Lion itself, you own a license to put it on any personal Macs.

Thank you for this info, yeah I have a 2.0 c2d Mini that I wanted to put Lion on as well. I guess I will use my Apple account, I assume it's under the App store as a purchased item? If not it's no big deal to spend an extra $29 for the OS I guess I was just curious.

 

[Barrett2]

I finally got that long-fabled raise at work, so I want to buy a monitor for my 2011 MBP. Any recommendations for a good monitor in the $200 to $300-ish range? Thanks!

 

[Ryck]

I booted from the recovery partition but I couldn't figure out the option to make a bootable drive. I only saw the option to reformat the drive. Any ideas on how to actually make the drive?

 

[Pachimari]

Is there a great HD webcam for Mac? I am running OS X Lion on a 2010 Mac Mini connected to a 46" HDTV.

 

[mescalineeyes]

I finally got that long-fabled raise at work, so I want to buy a monitor for my 2011 MBP. Any recommendations for a good monitor in the $200 to $300-ish range? Thanks!

get an LG. they are very similar in color reproduction to apple's monitors. I am over the moon happy with mine, it's full HD at 23 inches and it cost well less than 300 dollars.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0045UEXCC/?tag=neogaf0e-20

 

[Barrett2]

Thanks for the recommendation. I'm gonna buy one this week.

To connect the monitor to my MBP, can I just use this Mini Display Port - HDMI converter and an extra HDMI cable?

 

[Crazymoogle]

To connect the monitor to my MBP, can I just use this Mini Display Port - HDMI converter and an extra HDMI cable?

It's a knock-off, but there's nothing to really say it shouldn't work. Plug the miniDP here into the MBP, and then use a male-male HDMI cable to go from this to the monitor. I'd be surprised if the monitor comes with an HDMI cable so you may want to order one (or do a monoprice order, either way)

 

[mescalineeyes]

Thanks for the recommendation. I'm gonna buy one this week.

To connect the monitor to my MBP, can I just use this Mini Display Port - HDMI converter and an extra HDMI cable?

yup I have the same one, but I use it for my TV. (I have the predecessor of that monitor I recommended to you, it does not have an HDMI input.)

 

[Barrett2]

It's a knock-off, but there's nothing to really say it shouldn't work. Plug the miniDP here into the MBP, and then use a male-male HDMI cable to go from this to the monitor. I'd be surprised if the monitor comes with an HDMI cable so you may want to order one (or do a monoprice order, either way)

Yeah, I use it to stream HBO Go to my 46" TV, and the pic and sound quality on there seems to be fine. I'll try it on the monitor, if it's junky I guess i'll have to spring for the name brand one MiniDP.

I placed the order this morning, and made sure to order two extra HDMI cables. Im' already having to constantly share one between the Roku & PS3, so i've been needing a few extras for a while.

Very excited to finally have a nice big screen to do work on!

 

[Sanjuro]

Soo...

I was looking for a computer that would play SW: ToR better than my laptop. Ended up going out and getting the Mac mini for $220 off original price. Felt like a boss.

Feels good to be back.

 

[Ryck]

Soo...

I was looking for a computer that would play SW: ToR better than my laptop. Ended up going out and getting the Mac mini for $220 off original price. Felt like a boss.

Feels good to be back.

Wow how??? Congrats and be sure to up the memory to 8gb as its pretty cheap (25 per stick x2) and it makes it a lot snappier.

 

[hobart]

I booted from the recovery partition but I couldn't figure out the option to make a bootable drive. I only saw the option to reformat the drive. Any ideas on how to actually make the drive?

Do you just want a bootable drive, period? or are you trying to create a OSX disc off the recovery drive?

I may have to get home to play with it... but the only way I think you'd be able to is through disk utility and by making a disk image off the recovery drive......... but I'm not even certain the recovery drive is visible through disk utility.

This may have been a pointless post!

 

[Sanjuro]

Wow how??? Congrats and be sure to up the memory to 8gb as its pretty cheap (25 per stick x2) and it makes it a lot snappier.

Best Buy. They have open box items from buyers holiday remorse. They also have a $100 dollar off opened iMac/MBP/etc, basically EVERYTHING but the Mac Mini. She failed to tell me that, so not only did I get the normal discount she manually put in that coupon for me.

The funny thing, I work at an Apple computer shop. Ran the serial today. Purchase date was 11/23.

Boss.

 

[Sanjuro]

This is the thread from slickdeals which has the info if anyone else is feeling lucky.

http://slickdeals.net/f/3730182-Bes...Desktops-Mac-Books-etc-Valid-through-1-28-12?

Play dumb. That is all I did. I didn't bring up any of the discounts until she did. Took her a while to find the computer, in the end she was more than willing to make me happy for the wait.

Only downside, they don't do work on the computers. In all likelihood you will get a Mac with someone's password up and unable to log in. Just boot to recover partition and lift password.

 

[Dreaver]

Mac-age, I've got a question...
I am currently thinking about buying a 13" Macbook Pro.
However, I've read on the internet that the upcoming versions will be a big upgrade (high resolution, Ivy Bridge processors etc.). But I've no idea really what the new Ivy Bridge processors are really, I don't really know a lot about the inside of computers.

According to Macrumors it will probably take another 150-200 days before the next update, would GAF recommend me to wait? I'm not in a hurry at all, but the earlier the better of course.

I'm just planning it for things like Photoshop, GAF and video editing (HD). What would GAF say, wait yes?

Thanks

 

[cloudwalking]

I have these splotches under the glass on my iMac 27" monitor on the middle to top right of the screen. Only really noticeable when the screen is white.

Even though I bought at Best Buy (in August), I can just take my iMac to an Apple Store and they'll ship it out and fix it, right?

ah! i have this exact same problem, but my imac isn't under warranty anymore. i really need to take it in to have it looked at, but the thought of lugging my imac all the way to the mall by train is not appealing to me, so i keep putting it off :/

i asked a friend who is a genius at the apple store, and he said that it's a well-known issue. he said it isn't dirt, but a bad lcd panel. the sheets start to cling together, creating these cloudy things. imo something like that should be fixed free of charge, but i don't have my hopes up...

 

[Ryck]

Just connected my Mini to my Hdtv through HDMI.. Doesn't look so hot :/. I had it connected to my monitor at home over the weekend and it looked fine. Looks bad on my Vizio Led tv at the office.


Update: Downloaded SwitchresX and added the right resolution for my HDTV. I don't understand why it wouldn't have the resolution there by default.

Anyone know if that resolution will disappear once the SwitchresX free trial ends? Kinda sucks I have to use a 3rd party app just to have a very basic function done right. Also is there a way to contact Apple about this?

 

[smokeandmirrors]

So how quick is apple to refresh their macbooks? With Ivy Bridge coming out relatively soon, I'm holding back on purchasing one, but I don't want to wait a year to get a laptop that I could otherwise buy now.

 

[mescalineeyes]

So how quick is apple to refresh their macbooks? With Ivy Bridge coming out relatively soon, I'm holding back on purchasing one, but I don't want to wait a year to get a laptop that I could otherwise buy now.

They're pretty on the ball, hell, sometimes they are the first to get them.

Also, obligatory buyersguide.macrumors.com.

 

[RBH]

Macbook Air 13" refurb (4MB RAM, 256GB SSD) for $1349:


http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/specialdeals/mac/macbook_air/13



Not bad at all.

 

[smokeandmirrors]

They're pretty on the ball, hell, sometimes they are the first to get them.

Also, obligatory buyersguide.macrumors.com.

Yeah I was looking at that. Saw the Ivy Bridge rumor of an April launch, so I was wondering/confirming that Apple is pretty on the ball in regards to refreshes. Definitly want me some of that ivy bridge goodness, especially when I'm going to drop $1500 on a laptop.

And dat 15inch MBA rumor. :B

 

[CrudeDiatribe]

imo something like that should be fixed free of charge, but i don't have my hopes up...

Some issues are covered longer than the standard warranty, though you'd think your Genius friend would have mentioned it.

 

[noah111]

Macbook Air 13" refurb (4MB RAM, 256GB SSD) for $1349:

http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/specialdeals/mac/macbook_air/13

Not bad at all.

That sucks if true.

Spoiler

lol, good deal actually

 

[cloudwalking]

Some issues are covered longer than the standard warranty, though you'd think your Genius friend would have mentioned it.

he seemed skeptical that it would be covered. said almost nothing is covered out of warranty. however i feel that if i had a bad panel from the get go that it should be repaired for free.

i worked an office job with apple in zurich and know some of the people at the store, but i haven't been to visit in a very long time so i'm not sure how much pull i have left with anyone, haha. guess i'll just have to give it a go.

 

[lunarworks]

I took advantage of Steam's recent sale and downloaded Portal 2 to my MacBook Pro. I did it on my OSX partition because I'm really too lazy to boot into Windows anymore.

I had no idea it would look and run that well under OSX. No more Windows versions for me, thanks! If it weren't for a few works apps, I could delete that partition now.

 

[Anticitizen One]

I have a 2011 iMac and I would like to upgrade the ram. Could someone point me in the direction for the type I need and the lowest price? Also how difficult is it to upgrade the ram myself?

 

[Jasoco]

I have a 2011 iMac and I would like to upgrade the ram. Could someone point me in the direction for the type I need and the lowest price? Also how difficult is it to upgrade the ram myself?

NewEgg
Amazon
Crucial

Pick the lowest of the three.

And it's easier than making a cake. Just turn it over and remove the cover.

 

[CrudeDiatribe]

he seemed skeptical that it would be covered. said almost nothing is covered out of warranty. however i feel that if i had a bad panel from the get go that it should be repaired for free.

It would be worth a discussion before hauling your iMac in on a train. Also, it's my understanding that many European countries have better consumer protection laws than the US, so you may have more pull than you think or Apple lets on.

 

[Jasoco]

Does anyone at all sell a Thunderbolt-powered external portable (2.5") SSD-based drive in sizes of at least 128GB? USB2 is so slow. It would be nice to have an external drive that can move at the full speed it's capable of.

 

[DeadRockstar]

Does anyone at all sell a Thunderbolt-powered external portable (2.5") SSD-based drive in sizes of at least 128GB? USB2 is so slow. It would be nice to have an external drive that can move at the full speed it's capable of.

The closest I've seen to that is the LaCie Little Big Disk 240gb. It's external but not super portable because it uses two intel 320 120gb drives in Raid 0 to get it's speed. Unfortunately the £/gb isn't great for thunderbolt stuff.

AnandTech reviewed the 240gb version and the 2TB mechanical version.

 

[Barrett2]

Just realized I should have asked this question in this thread.

I bought an external 24" monitor. When hooking it up to my MBP yesterday via the Mini Display - HDMI adaptor (cheap knockoff version) I can only get a 'stretched' full screen image on the monitor at 1024x768. Any higher resolution offers no 'stretched' option, so if I put it at anything higher than 1024, I get vertical black bars on the sides of the monitor.

Any ideas? When I tell it to not mirror the images, I have to manually drag everything from my MBP screen to the external monitor. Any way I can do this without manually moving everything over and get the full 1080P?

Thanks!

 

[Crazymoogle]

Any ideas? Would I get more display options using a VGA cable as opposed to HDMI? Could it be the knock-off cable's fault? When I connect my MBP to my TV it automatically fills the entire 46" screen with a mirror of my MBP screen, so im' not sure why im' having issues with the 24" monitor.

Assuming it's a PC monitor...are you outputting at the native resolution of the monitor? That's probably the most important question.

 

[Barrett2]

Assuming it's a PC monitor...are you outputting at the native resolution of the monitor? That's probably the most important question.

Sorry, I edited my above post a few minutes ago for clarification.

The native resolution of the monitor is 1080P. Highest display my MBP does is 1280. So, when I output the image to the external monitor, the most it can do with my MBP native resolution is 1024 stretched. Anything higher and I get vertical black bars. When I tell it to not mirror, I can get a full 1080P display on my monitor, full screen, but I then have to manually drag everything from my MBP display up to the 1080P external display.