|
This is the megathread for discussion relating to Mac hardware, including announcements and questions about purchasing/recommendations. If your post is unique or interesting enough to warrant its own topic or begins to derail the thread too much, by all means please feel free to make a dedicated thread in SH/SC. This megathread is generally maintained as a resource to consolidate small and frequently-asked questions. Rules:
Star War Sex Parrot fucked around with this message at Jan 30, 2013 around 06:56 |
| # ¿ Jul 20, 2011 20:10 |
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 19, 2013 07:04 |
|
|
Frequently Asked Questions: Where should I buy my Mac?
When will the new Mini and Air be available in Apple Stores?
Does Lion support TRIM on third-party SSDs?
Know anyplace that has benchmarks of the new 2011 MacBook Pros versus last year's models? Here's one place. Try BareFeats as well. Hey, my Mac is messed up. How do I check my warranty status? Plug your Mac's serial number into this: https://selfsolve.apple.com/agreementWarrantyDynamic.do Hey, could YOU guys give me some help? If you would like some help, first drop the attitude that all of SHSC is indebted to you for the  you ponied up to sign on here. Any help other goons may deign to give you is voluntary, and while it is not the Goon's Gospel, you should consider that some of these goons have been at this for a pretty long time.With that in mind, it's suggested that you please do this first: Go to the Apple menu Select About This Mac Click on More Info Write down the stuff next to Model Name and Model Identifier Example: MacBookPro1,1 Please tell us those two things in your request for help or we'll spend about two pages Hey, what kind of RAM should I buy? MacBook Pro (all 2011 models, 13-inch, 15-inch, 17-inch): These all have two RAM slots, can be upgraded to 8 GB maximum, 2 X 4 GB DDR3 PC3-10600 (1333 MHz) SO-DIMMs. MacBook Pro (all late 2009/2010 models, 13-inch, 15-inch, 17-inch): These all have two RAM slots, can be upgraded to 8 GB maximum, 2 X 4 GB DDR3 PC3-8500 (1066 MHz) SO-DIMMs. MacBook, MacBook Pro (aluminum unibody 2008 models): Both have two RAM slots, can be upgraded to 4 GB maximum, 2 X 2 GB DDR3 PC3-8500 (1066 MHz) SO-DIMMs. MacBook, MacBook Pro, and iMac, bought before the new Aluminum MBs and MBPs introduced back on Oct. 14th, 2008: all have two RAM slots, can be upgraded to 4 GB maximum, 2 X 2 GB 200-pin PC2-5300 (667MHz) SO-DIMMs. All these machines have memory interleaving support, so using identical chips will result in slightly faster operation than mismatched chips (i.e. one 1 GB chip mixed with a 512 MB chip.) MacBooks bought before November 2007 can only take up to 3 GB of RAM. If you put in 4 GB, only 3.3 GB will be available to the OS due to limitations of the logic board's chipset. MacBook Pros bought before June 2007: same as above. MacBook and MacBook Pros bought before October 2006: The maximum RAM is 2 GB, period. MacPro current model: has 8 RAM slots, can be upgraded to 16 GB (quad-core) / 32 GB (octo-core) maximum, 240-pin PC3-8500 (1066 MHz) DDR3 ECC SDRAMs in matched pairs. Or, you could just go download Mactracker, then go here and enter your serial number, make note of your machine's model name (printed on the left side of the result window under the picture of your machine) and look it up in Mactracker if you don't believe us. The Mac SHSC community doesn't endorse any particular brand, but G.SKILL and Crucial have been touted as smartly priced and reliable.  The age-old always asked question: Should I get a Mac now or should I wait? Huh? Please? Tell me! You guys must know something?!pokeyman posted:
What should I get, a MacBook, a MacBook Pro, or a MacBook Air? For the 16,777,216th time: MacBooks are intended for general purpose users who want a decent machine capable of web surfing, word processing, and perhaps a simple game or two. MacBook Pros are intended for power users/professionals who need more CPU and graphics power for specific purposes, such as high-end desktop publishing, hi-resolution video editing, or number crunching for science/engineering/math purposes. MacBook Airs are intended for people who travel a lot and want a very lightweight laptop that: • gives them the Mac experience (see MacBook above) • doesn't have to carry vast amounts of data or files (although a 128 GB SSD can be roomy enough) • for a premium, lets them use bleeding-edge SSD technology OOTB. • don't creak. If you're still hopelessly confused, try looking here for a detailed comparison: http://guides.macrumors.com/Which_A...should_I_buy%3F Should I buy AppleCare? The consensus among most Mac goons here is most definitely yes. Especially if you have a laptop and tote it around a lot. You'll save a lot if you are eligible for educational pricing, a little less if you get it from Amazon. AppleCare can be purchased and registered for your Mac for up to one year past original purchase date. After that, you can't get AppleCare coverage no matter how hard you whine. If you travel a lot, and your Mac laptop acts up for no good reason, you can be comforted by the fact that AppleCare is honored globally, so long as you can find an Apple Authorized Service Provider in the country you're in. As far as is known there are no AASPs in Antarctica. Here's a link to find one if you're traveling. ABOUT APPLECARE PRICES THAT SEEM TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE Any price for AppleCare that seems too heavily discounted (like less than half price) is very likely to be a scam; and while an AppleCare code that someone sells you through email, with no paperwork at all from Apple might work initially, it will very likely get pulled out from under you like a cheap rug at some point. It's less likely to be a ripoff if the place you're buying from is an Apple Authorized Service Center. ABOUT EBAY APPLECARE PURCHASES ONLY - Read this guide from eBay BEFORE you decide to buy a really cheap AppleCare code from eBay; if you still want to piss your money away, go right ahead. Should I trust refurbished Macs direct from Apple? Many goons here in the Hardware thread have bought them and swear by them. Apple rigorously tests most refurbished Macs and 'refresh' them before they're placed back for sale; you get a cheaper machine that's already been serviced and comes with all the benefits (warranty period reset, AppleCare eligibility) of a new Mac. Here is what Apple says about their refurbishment process: Apple posted:Apple Certified Refurbished Products I want to sell my Mac laptop / desktop. What should I charge? Star Wars Sex Parrot posted:There's no rule. Check eBay. Check Craigslist. Check SA-Mart. Check how much refurbs go for. Some refreshes are more significant than others. Put some research into it if you want to get any value out of your used goods, otherwise you're gonna get fleeced. One good place to check selling prices would be the Apple Store, specifically the refurbished section. People would probably not buy your stuff if you're charging more than Apple does for the same / equivalent hardware. How do I take care of my battery? See here: http://www.apple.com/batteries/ Is it true that my MacBook / MacBook Pro will run slower on AC power with the battery removed / or with a dead battery? Yes. There's an Apple technote that confirms this, plus Tom's Hardware indepedently verified it a while back. They'll run at 50% speed without a good battery. How can I use my MacBook / MacBook Pro / PowerBook G4 while the lid is closed? http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3131 You need an external DVI/VGA display and a keyboard/mouse for this to work. Hey, I keep getting a 'not enough power' message when I plug in (x) USB device, help Current MacBooks/Pros will only provide 500 mA to one port at a time, usually to the port where a full power USB device is first plugged in. The exception is the MacBook Air SuperDrive which can use and receive up to 1000 mA through its own special firmware, but only when hooked into a MacBook Air's USB port. What is a good graph of the level of satisfaction a PC switcher can expect when they buy a Mac?  Your mileage may vary. USB 3.0 Binary Badger posted:Apple has been shipping laptops and desktops with USB 3.0 installed as an integral feature since June 2012. The models that ship with USB 3.0 include the following: How do I display?  Mini-DP / Thunderbolt to VGA Mini-DP / Thunderbolt to DVI Mini-DP / Thunderbolt to HDMI Mini-DP / Thunderbolt to DP How do I dock? HengeDock makes a line of stations for the entirety of the MBP lineup. I'll post my photos of this later. 3rd Party Power Apple has a deathgrip on the MagSafe patent. A brand-new, official Apple MagSafe of the appropriate wattage is your best bet if you need a second adapter for the office. These are a-ok to buy from Amazon or other reputable retailers. Virtualization Free - VirtualBox - cannot mount Boot Camp Partitions Paid - VMWare Fusion - very solid USB peripheral handling, 3D graphics support and it can boot Boot Camp partitions as a VM. Free 30-day trial. Paid - Parallels Desktop competitor to VMWare Fusion. Can also run Boot Camp partitions as a VM. Matte vs. Glossy This is entirely personal preference. Matte screens excel even in areas with very bright ambient lighting, but at the expense of looking rather "dull", especially when next to a glossy display. Glossy displays have vivid colors that pop, but are easily washed out by ambient light. Expect to see reflections of yourself in a glossy screen. If you work in an area where ambient lighting (fluoroscents, sunlight, etc) aren't a concern, feel free to go for the glossy. The only way to be sure is to go to the Fruit Stand and compare them side-by-side. As of 2011, matte MBPs sport a silver bezel whilst glossy MBPs sport a glossy black bezel as well as a glass screen. Only the 15" and 17" have anti-glare options. High-Res Upgrade I'm a bit biased when it comes to monitor upgrades, but I'll just say it: Apple's stock screens on the MBP series can be pretty poo poo. This upgrade is only offered on the 15" model, and can give you a 1680x1050 screen instead of a 1440x900 screen. On the 13" you are stuck with a 1280x800 glossy :puke:, and on the 17" you get a nice 1920x1200 glossy or matte display. Again, go to the Fruit Stand and ask an employee to see the models side-by-side (they're usually placed next to each other) to see if the higher-resolution pays off for you. If you're a programmer or enthusiast, it probably will. movax posted:What are Optibays / SSDs all about? Read This About SSDs and your (older) Mac Binary Badger posted:Reposting for new page since this is a pretty serious issue for older Macs and people who want to upgrade them to SSDs: --- Thanks to Bob Morales, movax, the bmw, Binary Badger, crackpipe, CDOR Gemini, and lord funk. Somebody fucked around with this message at Jan 7, 2013 around 16:23 |
| # ¿ Jul 20, 2011 20:10 |
|
|
Yeah just PM me if you have any additions that way it's not posted multiple times on the first page. Thanks!
|
| # ¿ Jul 20, 2011 20:35 |
|
|
Thanks for the PMs, folks. I'm still getting stuff organized but I'll get the additions in the OP as soon as possible. Thanks again!
|
| # ¿ Jul 20, 2011 21:14 |
|
|
Binary Badger posted:Edit: I see the expired in-joke about timb's creaky Macs is intact  There's still a lot of editing to be done.
|
| # ¿ Jul 20, 2011 21:23 |
|
|
SourKraut posted:Regarding SSDs, I admittedly haven't done too much research in this regard when it comes to OS X, but is it possible to buy the TRIM-capable SSDs that Apple uses/provides support for in Lion, commercially? pipebomb was selling one in SA-Mart a couple weeks ago though! 
|
| # ¿ Jul 20, 2011 21:31 |
|
|
Jeratain posted:Is this correct, or is there something more complicated that I'm missing? Am I to assume that the installer will automatically know how to partition my drives, whether to install directly to the SSD vs. HDD, etc.?
|
| # ¿ Jul 20, 2011 21:46 |
|
|
Kalix posted:I've got an ultimate 13" and I'm not sure exactly how much processor speed boost we're talking here.
|
| # ¿ Jul 21, 2011 00:33 |
|
|
Kalix posted:I wonder how much I would get if i sold my Air, anyone have any ideas?
|
| # ¿ Jul 21, 2011 00:40 |
|
|
Corbet posted:What's the general consensus on i5 vs. i7 in terms of performance? We'll find out more when reviews come out.
|
| # ¿ Jul 21, 2011 02:35 |
|
|
For someone who gets a new Air or Mini: what's the build number of Lion? Just curious if it's the GM or already a specialized build.
|
| # ¿ Jul 21, 2011 16:29 |
|
|
Rabid Snake posted:Anyone know any good external portable hard drives that can be used cross platform (PC and Mac)? I want to store Movies and the bulk of my Music on it for my Macbook Air. 500GB would be enough, portability is a must.
|
| # ¿ Jul 21, 2011 20:56 |
|
|
DEUCE SLUICE posted:
|
| # ¿ Jul 22, 2011 01:09 |
|
|
Rabid Snake posted:I'm driving down to get it now with an educational discount. Also yeah, you can wait 364 days to purchase it.
|
| # ¿ Jul 22, 2011 02:15 |
|
|
Is it sad that I knew it was a Fujitsu from the PCBA?
|
| # ¿ Jul 22, 2011 02:17 |
|
|
movax posted:This was with Safari w/ 6 tabs or so, Mail, Word and IM. I don't think that's too out-of-line for what a 11" MBA might be doing, but 2GB seems borderline. Speaking of the Air: I just noticed that it didn't get a FaceTime HD camera. I guess they can't fit it into that super thin display assembly.
|
| # ¿ Jul 22, 2011 03:23 |
|
|
MrEnigma posted:Speaking of the ram, I'm running 8gb on my iMac, but in the last day or so it's been on it's swapped out like 3gbs of stuff.
|
| # ¿ Jul 22, 2011 03:35 |
|
|
Now that I'm back from my 10 day vacation: someone give me a reason not to stop at an Apple Store on the way into work and buy a new 13" Air. 
|
| # ¿ Aug 1, 2011 16:47 |
|
|
Space Racist posted:Because you'd rather have the 11" as a secondary machine? 
|
| # ¿ Aug 1, 2011 19:41 |
|
|
I'm actually a bit disappointed with the Air's SSD, to be honest. It's fast, but boot time isn't as fast as the 160GB Intel X-25M G2 was in my 2010 i7 MBP. Maybe it's a Lion thing. Luckily I never restart the system so I shouldn't notice it, and the OS performance is still plenty fast.
|
| # ¿ Aug 1, 2011 21:43 |
|
|
Has anyone picked up Apple's USB to Ethernet adapter with a 2011 Air? I'm seeing some reports of the adapter not working with Lion, and I'm wondering if I should pick it up. I have a feeling that the third-party ThunderBolt to Ethernet adapter will be ridiculously expensive.ndrake posted:Is anyone using this fancy hybrid HD/SSD, the seagate momentus XT? It sounds nice, but I'm not sure how much I trust it to "learn" my commonly used files. Does this work in real life? If you dual boot with windows does it just confuse the hell out of the drive? And can you (or do you need to) use the trim enabler with lion for the SSD partition? Similarly, does the phantom lion recovery partition work well with this drive (i.e. it won't accidentally partition off part of the SSD that would be used for speeding up the computer, right?). I'm going to pick up either this or the WD scorpio black to upgrade my 09 MBP.
|
| # ¿ Aug 2, 2011 01:04 |
|
|
ndrake posted:So is the WD scorpio black the notebook drive of choice right now?
|
| # ¿ Aug 2, 2011 01:15 |
|
|
fleshweasel posted:I think there's a Scorpio Blue 1TB that narrowly beats the blacks on transfer rates.
|
| # ¿ Aug 2, 2011 01:22 |
|
|
Oneiros posted:On that note, what is the deal with third-party drives and unibody MBPs? I've been reading tons of horror stories about conflicts with Apple's SMS, excessive head parking, SATA I/II linkspeed negotiation problems, having to revert EFI versions, and constant beach-balling. I'm hoping that I won't encounter any of that, but anyone here want to chime in?
|
| # ¿ Aug 2, 2011 03:20 |
|
|
Scienter posted:It's been several days since I checked and I'm at work but I believe it's a Toshiba SSD. LG display as well. To be fair I was so dazzled I forgot to check for those two things at first. Was a little disappointed given the buzz at the time (was hoping Samsung/Samsung) but it's pretty easily forgotten.  Not that it really matters: the LCDs aren't all that different and the SSD performance delta won't really be apparent in real world use.
|
| # ¿ Aug 2, 2011 14:44 |
|
|
Daric posted:I should probably wait, right?
|
| # ¿ Aug 2, 2011 15:53 |
|
|
Scienter posted:Last Thursday it was delivered and unboxed; arrived in perfect condition. It's been good times since with zero regrets. First Mac and best first impression of any computer purchase I've ever made.
|
| # ¿ Aug 2, 2011 16:26 |
|
|
movax posted:Do you actually get to use your MBA at work, or is it your personal machine, out of curiosity? I don't imagine I'll use it at work since it's a Windows environment, though the Air works quite well with VPN and CoRD for remote work.
|
| # ¿ Aug 2, 2011 16:55 |
|
|
Star War Sex Parrot posted:Has anyone picked up Apple's USB to Ethernet adapter with a 2011 Air? I'm seeing some reports of the adapter not working with Lion, and I'm wondering if I should pick it up. I have a feeling that the third-party ThunderBolt to Ethernet adapter will be ridiculously expensive.
|
| # ¿ Aug 2, 2011 19:22 |
|
|
Mu Zeta posted:When I brought in my iMac last year it took the guy 15 minutes to clean the screen.
|
| # ¿ Aug 3, 2011 01:35 |
|
|
Daric posted:Why do people claim that the MBP is not very portable? It weight 5lbs. If you can't carry an extra 5lb weight with you all day, you have an issue.
|
| # ¿ Aug 4, 2011 17:08 |
|
|
NoDamage posted:It depends on what you're doing. If you're just carrying it between home and work/school, it's probably not that big of a deal. But if you travel a lot, the difference is pretty massive, especially since you're not just carrying the 5 lb laptop but all sorts of other things. I'd much rather carry my new 13" Air when I go shooting instead of my old 15" MBP. My bag's already loaded down with lenses, lighting, a tripod, and other miscellaneous crap. Every pound saved is precious to me if I'm going to be wearing it all day.
|
| # ¿ Aug 4, 2011 17:34 |
|
|
I had an Incase sleeve on my 13" MB a couple of years back and had no complaints. The Level8 sleeve looks nice, but I don't need the pockets on it. I might snag an Incase sleeve for my 13" Air.
|
| # ¿ Aug 5, 2011 02:53 |
|
|
Apparition posted:I wasn't sure where else to ask this question and I figured this would be the best place. I suppose it's worth a shot, but you could also just snag a used phone off of SA-Mart and avoid the trouble.
|
| # ¿ Aug 5, 2011 20:41 |
|
|
SmirkingJack posted:So within the next few weeks I am going to pick up a new 13" MBP. I was going to upgrade it with a 1TB 3Gb/s drive for $130, but after looking at the laptop's spec sheet on everymac.com and seeing that it supports 6Gb/s drives, I am wondering if it is really worth another $80 to get one that fast. Also what 1TB are you getting? And what 6Gb/s drive are you seeing for $80 more? Very little about this adds up.
|
| # ¿ Aug 5, 2011 21:29 |
|
|
Shin-chan posted:If you had any work done inside the computer, the aluminum bezel was removed.
|
| # ¿ Aug 5, 2011 21:34 |
|
|
Shin-chan posted:Well that's my bad. I can't find where he ever gave a specific model SourKraut posted:I think he's referring to a mechanical HDD for the $80 more at 6 GB/s comment. As others have mentioned, a traditional HDD can't even saturate 3 GB/s, much less 6 GB/s, so it's an unnecessary upgrade. But I'm still not sure what drives he's comparing.
|
| # ¿ Aug 5, 2011 21:45 |
|
|
SourKraut posted:That's true, though the only 2.5-inch 6 GB/s HDDs I could find are enterprise-level, which from what I can tell wouldn't even likely fit in his MBP.
|
| # ¿ Aug 5, 2011 21:55 |
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 19, 2013 07:04 |
|
|
Maddalo posted:Thanks. For $90, I'd say it's absolutely worth it.
|
| # ¿ Aug 6, 2011 04:07 |
|
