|
Finally done with computing like poo poo. I sold my desktop and laptop and ordered a refurb sandy bridge anti-glare macbook pro. It should arrive on Tuesday.
|
#
¿
Jun 16, 2012 11:46
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ Apr 29, 2024 10:39 |
|
|
Question - What's OS X like for day to day use on an SSD vs. without? My refurb comes on the 19th, and it has a 750GB 7.2k drive installed. I plan on going to 8GB of ram right away, but should I also do the SSD?
|
|
#
¿
Jun 17, 2012 14:51
|
|
|
Bob Morales posted:Yes, get the SSD. Okay. I'll likely go with another M4, because the price and reliability is there. I wonder if OS X on a HDD vs SSD will be the same night/day difference it is with Windows.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 17, 2012 21:42
|
|
|
mediaphage posted:I went in and played with the rMBP tonight. Yeah. Pretty great. Must just be me, but when I played with one at the Eaton's Centre yesterday, I came away with the feeling that OS X felt "off" when scaling kicked in. It felt like those retarded factory preloads from PC manufacturers where the font DPI is altered from the norm. When I set the display to it's maximum allowable rez, things were just too small. IMHO, an oddball machine, and I don't get it. Much rather they'd released a "regular" MBP sans optical drive, but with the standard 2.5" SATA form-factorb @7mm and upgradable RAM. Also, what's up with MagSafe 2? The connector seems to have reverted back to a non-reinforced style that made the original so famously bad.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 18, 2012 01:05
|
|
|
mediaphage posted:I didn't really get that feeling at all. I don't think people are generally terribly used to seeing OS X at such absurdly small dimensions, honestly. Also, if the issue is with the machine at the maximum allowable resolution, why not keep it at defaults? Then it's like a normal MBP but with an outstandingly sharp display. It's probably just me. I couldn't shake the feeling that fonts felt like they did in Windows when manufacturers started shipping LCDs with resolutions >=SXGA+. Those factory preloads would come with the font DPI set to 120 and large icons, the combination thereof made you feel like you were using a computer for "special" people. For me, I think the most I could handle is native 1920x1200 or regular 1080p on a 15.4" display.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 18, 2012 01:28
|
|
|
So I'm presently shitposting from the refurbished Sandy Bridge MacBook Pro 15", and all I can say is... toasty! I really wonder how improved the thermals of Ivy Bridge are by comparison.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 19, 2012 22:26
|
|
|
Mu Zeta posted:If anything it's probably going to be even hotter. Smaller chassis and larger battery. And I read something about Ivy Bridge running hotter. That's something to keep in mind. I went with this machine over an Ivy-based T430s, on account of Lenovo using the shittiest LCD panels possible for their 16:9 14" spec. Last mac I used was Snow Leopard-based, so I'm kinda peeved at how Lion feels like a half-hearted attempt at shoving tablet-style use cases down my throat.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 19, 2012 23:30
|
|
|
mediaphage posted:Really? How so? The biggest differences over Snow Leopard are pretty easily ignorable. True, although being a developer myself, I am still annoyed that they wasted time on those features rather than actually improving on more fundamental parts of the OS or introducing a more compelling product.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 20, 2012 02:27
|
|
|
Neurophonic posted:What, like all of these? I stand corrected, although to be fair I'm reading about things that other operating systems have had for some time.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 20, 2012 03:03
|
|
|
Further along in the Sandy Bridge experiment, and I've noticed that using gfxCardStatus to force Integrated Intel video gives a huge boost in battery life and a reduction in heat. The Anandtech review did indicate that the discrete video controller would kick in and stay on permanently once any number of key applications were triggered, including Flash. So once the Flash plugin is loaded through any instance of Chrome, the Radeon chip takes over until whatever process loaded the trigger exits. The remaining runtime in the batter monitor is literally doubled while enforcing Intel HD graphics: 3.5 vs 7hr. About the OS X bash: my main gripes seem to be with Finder, although I'll take a look at PathFinder to see if those issues can be resolved through 3rd party software. Basic stuff like cut/paste really should be there though. Also, it would be nice to have a real address textfield, such that I could punch in something like '~' (I know about CMD-SHIFT-G). Nautilus has this feature, and it's very handy.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 20, 2012 12:33
|
|
|
Hm - thinking about returning the refurbished Sandy Bridge 15" MBP and getting a 13" Ivy Air with 8GB/256GB. The screen on the 15" is anti-glare, and it's wonderful, but the machine isn't really portable, and I like to have something to throw in my backpack. The machine is really only used for browsing, listening to music, C/C++, and some Java work. I wonder if the Air's LCD is really that much worse than the AG 15"...
|
|
#
¿
Jun 24, 2012 22:41
|
|
|
Over lunch yesterday, I happened to visit our local Carbon Computing store ( a small Canadian Mac-specific reseller ), mainly to gauge the 13" Air's screen over the MPB 15" I have now. After a brief conversation with the salesperson over whether they stocked some CTO options that the Apple store normally wouldn't (they don't really), I couldn't think of a single reason why that store continues to exist. They do sell used Macs, but prices are better on Kijiji or Craigslist, and adding insult to injury, these guys are next to a bus stop that takes you directly to the local mall with an Apple store (Kitchener/Waterloo). It's funny to watch the lack of creative adaptation of some re-sellers versus others (OWC as a success story). The Apple store is pretty great for most platform needs, but maybe there are niches these 3rd parties can fill? Maybe they can do killer repair service or offer in-home support?
|
|
#
¿
Jun 27, 2012 13:08
|
|
|
Bob Morales posted:All the small Mac shops in my area (that don't exist anymore) used to make all thier money selling to businesses and schools. Makes sense. I guess for Canada and some parts of the US, there's a case for these 3rd parties in more remote cities/towns, where shipping the computer out for repair is a pain in the rear end.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 27, 2012 13:25
|
|
|
Question about the 11" i5 and it's suitability as a development platform: Right now I lug my 15" SB MBP with me to work, but with that laptop and a few other items in the pack, things can be uncomfortable. At work, the thing stays plugged in all day with an external monitor attached. My job requires me to run anywhere from one to two instances of Eclipse, with Maven, Apache, Tomcat, and Postgres - so a fairly typical J2EE dev stack. The kicker is that I also have to run a Windows 7 VM for compatibility testing here and there. I was thinking of getting a BTO 11" i5 with 8GB/256GB, and was wondering how it would handle the sorts of loads my current 15" i7 handles. Is this a feasible setup at all? FWIW, my 15" has a Crucial M4 and 8GB installed. Another note: the 15" is currently my one and only system, for both work and home. I need another computer, so it will either be an 11" MBA or a Mac Mini (if I continue to lug the 15" to work)...
|
|
#
¿
Aug 30, 2012 03:20
|
|
|
Bob Morales posted:It'd be perfect. It's possible you will miss the quad-core i7 that you currently have. Ordered with the i5 this morning. The only thing that has me wondering is the screen resolution/size, but I guess with an external monitor, I can safely ignore the built in panel.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 31, 2012 20:41
|
|
|
Bob Morales posted:It'd be perfect. It's possible you will miss the quad-core i7 that you currently have. Just popping back in to say that you were right. I was afraid this machine would be the perfect size, but have some other sort of shortcoming, like it would chugg while running STS + a VM + Araxis, etc... I was expecting a well defined breaking point, and yet, nothing has caused the machine to even break a sweat. It's astounding. At any given point, I'm running: -Several browsers -1 or 2 STS workspaces -2 Tomcat instances -Postgres -Apache2 -Versions -Sparrow -Araxis Merge -Skype ... And the machine doesn't even flinch. 1366x768 is kinda balls, but I think any higher on an 11" panel would cause eye strain. At this point my SB i7 MBP sits at home, connected to an external monitor. I can't imagine a reason for wanting to use that machine over the air unless I wanted much, much more storage or RAM.
|
|
#
¿
Sep 11, 2012 16:55
|
|
|
Question - My 2011 i7 15" MBP gets stupidly hot when doing anything remotely CPU intensive, like playing flash video or compiling. Is it worth going into the machine and checking whether Apple was too "liberal" in their application of thermal paste? Other than that, is there any benefit to upgrading the installed fans to the newer design? VVVVV - The CPU temps run into the high 80s (Celsius) and the fans ramp up to 6K RPM, and it's annoying as gently caress. krooj fucked around with this message at 16:50 on Sep 13, 2012 |
|
#
¿
Sep 13, 2012 16:30
|
|
|
↑↑↑↑↑ Flash and desktop Java are loving poo poo, and should die. My 11" MBA is some kinda miracle then, cause for the same workloads, its silent. I guess the diff is IVB+Integrated gfx and SB+Radeon gfx... krooj fucked around with this message at 17:29 on Sep 13, 2012 |
|
#
¿
Sep 13, 2012 17:24
|
|
|
Am I the only one that doesn't really like the idea of a "fusion" drive? SSDs are already cheap, and getting cheaper, so it seems to me that the only thing Apple is doing is adding perceived value to a resource (secondary storage) which they are already horrendously gouging for. Also, I am curious to see how the performance differs from that of a regular hybrid drive.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 25, 2012 17:50
|
|
|
jaspertron posted:So I just realized my 2012 13 inch Pro(non-retina) doesn't have audio in. Doesn't look like the retiana models have it either. What's the alternative here, my google fu is failing me and all I found was some people linking to a sketchy website from the 90's selling $300 pieces of hardware.... I think Creative might make an X-Fi which will work for what you want to do. It's cheap, too (~$70). X-FI HD
|
|
#
¿
Nov 2, 2012 04:50
|
|
|
Bob Morales posted:It would make it easy to rip your SSD out and stick it in a PC every month when a new firmware comes out. Maybe I'm just getting older but I don't gently caress around with my computers any more. Now it's just stick a bunch of RAM and a faster/bigger HD in it when you buy it and that's it. Echoing this. I just don't give a poo poo about hardware specs all that much any more, and if I do, then it's only on specs which make my life less poo poo when I do have to crunch some work in front of a computer. So things like high quality displays, nice keyboards, and trackballs are worth the investment, whereas I couldn't give fewer fucks whether my CPU HS is copper or ALU, nor whether I am using Arctic Silver thermal compound. I basically stopped caring a few years out of school, once I'd settled into working as a developer for a living. Good development software tools, on the other hand... 
|
|
#
¿
Nov 28, 2012 18:20
|
|
|
How is the fan noise on the current generation of rMBPs? I have an early 2011 15" with the Radeon 6750 and whenever I do anything remotely CPU intensive or have an external monitor connected, the fans kick into lift-off mode. I probably won't replace this machine until the Haswell refresh, but if the rMBP thermals are fine and the design doesn't change very much, then it should be a safe bet for replacement.yellowjournalism posted:Hahah I totally thought this was some kind of prank for a second. Thanks dudes. Remember to double the number of times you type it if your CPU has hyperthreading
|
|
#
¿
May 5, 2013 13:05
|
|
|
yellowjournalism posted:Yeah I had 4 terminals open running em, I dunno the activity monitor was maxed out so it seemed like it was doing the trick. terriyaki posted:I have a first gen 15" rMBP and unless I'm playing Diablo or Guild Wars I don't hear the fans at all. I rarely see the fans go above 2200 rpm and when they do the asymmetrical fan blades do seem to do a good job of mitigating noise. This is good to know. Haswell should lower the thermal envelope even more, and it seems as though the newer generation chassis' have a more intelligent airflow system.
|
|
#
¿
May 6, 2013 12:02
|
|
|
geera posted:I'm looking at buying a 27" iMac from the refurb store. It says that the computer will come with a magic mouse, but I'd prefer the trackpad -- can I take the mouse to the Apple store and swap it for a trackpad when it comes in? Or do they not do that for refurb orders? They offer that as a regular service for full retail purchases?
|
|
#
¿
May 7, 2013 13:37
|
|
|
Star War Sex Parrot posted:I really can't wait to swap my 2011 13" Air for a 13" Retina this summer. It's really a great machine: good performance, excellent screen, palatable size - I just hope they give a 16GB option for the Haswell bump. 32GB Ceiling for the 15" and 16GB for the 13".
|
|
#
¿
May 9, 2013 15:02
|
|
|
tarepanda posted:It's doubly a pain in the rear end because I'm using a Topre Realforce with the extra necessary Japanese keys... which aren't always in the same place and don't have the same functions as the corresponding keys on a Mac keyboard. Sigh. That sucks. I use an 87U on my mac with KeyRemap4MacBook, but the 87U is a US layout. Great keyboards, but I am waiting on my Matias TP mini (ordered so long ago, I actually forgot when).
|
|
#
¿
May 10, 2013 15:25
|
|
|
iostream.h posted:I feel exactly the same way about my old Powerbook G3, those things just looked stately. More than that - they were comfy to use. None of the hard edges that we see today. I really miss that Apple design era. Also, I have the weirdest boner for the 8600 case design. poo poo was proper.
|
|
#
¿
May 11, 2013 12:58
|
|
|
wilfredmerriweathr posted:So can I talk about the Mac Pro in here? Do we know if it's going to get refreshed this year? And if so, what the specs might be? Is Intel planning a Xeon refresh for Haswell? IIRC, it's been announced by Intel, so if Apple is committed to keeping the Mac Pro as a workstation-class machine, an update is imminent. I dunno, it feels like there's a desktop product missing from their lineup: the iMac is an appliance, mini is a dirty cheap throw-away, and the Mac Pro is a financially imposing beast. It feels like there might be room for something in there. The question is really about pricing and whether it fits within Apple's vision (unfortunately, I don't think so). Big-Mac Mini? 
|
|
#
¿
May 18, 2013 13:57
|
|
|
wilfredmerriweathr posted:Yeah; it seems like a decently expandable mac desktop/tower would sell extremely well, but on the other hand it is basically completely opposed to the direction apple has been taking. Then again, so is the normal mac pro. They never would - but a re-issue of the Cube with an ITX variant motherboard would be a nice concession to those of us that will upgrade the odd piece of hardware (RAM, video card, SSD). I agree with the B&W sentiment - those computers and their design language evoked a fun experience. I really prefer that to the current staleness. The electronics, on the other hand... 
|
|
#
¿
May 18, 2013 14:33
|
|
|
Electric Bugaloo posted:Saying "the Mac Pro doesn't make sense in Apple's current strategy because it's not glued shut" fails to account for the differences in the markets and uses that each product is designed to satisfy. It also fails to account for the history that Apple has with the Mac Pro. You could use the Final Cut Pro X debacle as an example of where Apple might go with the refresh/replacement/whatever, but if the last year's been any indication, then I think that Apple aren't trying to shut the door on that market. It took them 2 years, but they took care of the biggest beefs people had with that software, just like they said they would. Well, if they do something interesting with the Mac Pro to show otherwise, I'll agree with you, but outside of the FcP-X argument, all evidence points to the contrary: Apple went from being a niche system for hold-outs, academics, and creative professionals in the 90s to the early/mid 2000s, to an appliance manufacturer. For most people, I think that's okay, so long as a) the manufacturer continues to innovate with features that make people want to upgrade, or b/c) either the hardware is fast enough for long enough to justify the price / cheap enough that nobody will think twice about replacing it in a year. Personally, I haven't the need for a system as beefy as the Mac Pro (maybe I could swallow the price of a used one), but for a desktop, I am very uncomfortable with buying an appliance (iMac), or something woefully under-powered (mini). That leaves me with the option of building my own desktop, but then I have to either struggle OS X onto it, use Linux, or (sadly) Windows 
|
|
#
¿
May 18, 2013 18:31
|
|
|
ratbert90 posted:What exactly is underpowered about the mini? I use mine every day and have never had a problem with speed or performance. Its a incredibly quick machine. Depends on what you do with it, right? I'd be running a SW dev environment with it. That usually means a windows VM, eclipse, Postgres, Maven, Play Framework, Tomcat, a couple of browser instances + tabs, plus any added utils like Araxis, Xmplify, Sublime, etc... All of this at once will kill a bunch of systems, but it doesn't mandate a Mac Pro. For what do, the sweet spot seems to be a higher-end (quad core) i7 with a bunch of RAM and a very fast disk. Once you start adding multiple high res monitors, the system needs a good video card. OS X will push pretty hard on an HD4000 or cheaper video card when you run two 27" 2560xXXXX displays.
|
|
#
¿
May 18, 2013 19:25
|
|
|
CortezFantastic posted:I seem to have busted my MBP's LCD screen. My phone dropped a few inches out of my hand into my keyboard, and bounced into the corner of the screen. Now it has lines going each way. A bit of a bummer. Buy the entire assembly off of eBay? I wouldn't want to perform the actual panel replacement myself, though. That path seems to be littered with a spudger, stripped screws, tears, alcohol, and broken mylar.
|
|
#
¿
May 18, 2013 19:27
|
|
|
I said come in! posted:What is Apples upgrade history like? Is there a chance they will use Haswell in their new MBP's, or will we probably have to wait a year? Maybe a month of lag? Haswell is next month, so I guess they will announce some stuff at WWDC and then again in fall for the BTS circle-jerk.
|
|
#
¿
May 18, 2013 19:53
|
|
|
Bob Morales posted:OLD PEOPLE LIKE 1280x800 Retina everything and downscale by default 
|
|
#
¿
May 20, 2013 14:09
|
|
|
Star War Sex Parrot posted:I'm so tempted to get a refurbished Retina MBP, especially since it's looking like the performance will be a lateral move with them most likely going from a dedicated GPU to Iris Pro. Battery life will be improved, but I don't really care too much about that. The only thing that's holding my curiosity on the new rMBP is the possibility of Thunderbolt 2. Meh - I bought a new rMBP around late May. I knew what was coming, and, like you, I knew the performance (esp. at the high end) would be roughly equivalent. I use my retina for work at a desk all day, so battery life is important for the odd time I'm in a coffee shop or so (maybe once / month?). Besides, 10.9 is supposed to give better battery life. Thunderbolt 2 is compelling insofar as it's new, but outside of the mDP port I haven't bought any thunderbolt accessories, nor do I really see myself doing so in the near future. Most of what I want connected to my laptop, like mass storage, I want done via the network. Maybe if/when the thunderbolt display goes 4K there will be a legitimate reason to need thunderbolt 2, but I view the thunderbolt display as a poor value as it is, so I'm unlikely to buy one. Don't know about you. Realistically, I see myself holding onto this laptop for two years. In two years things would have changed enough to motivate a switch: either I will hit a hard wall on specs, or something else more compelling will have come along.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 15, 2013 16:17
|
|
|
Has anyone here investigated whether the 12" will be powerful enough for J2EE development or similar? I know that type of dev doesn't require a lot of horsepower, and I don't even need to run VMs, but it would be nice to have a more portable machine than my rMBP and still keep the higher resolution. The only other alternative is the 11", but that loving display...
|
|
#
¿
Mar 16, 2015 18:13
|
|
|
Seems like that little CPU in the new MacBook is quite impressive for 4.5W: http://anandtech.com/show/9061/lenovo-yoga-3-pro-review/4
|
|
#
¿
Mar 17, 2015 20:03
|
|
|
Pivo posted:You don't *need* three-ply toilet paper, but luxury once tasted becomes necessity. One my reasons for buying BPA-free piss jugs.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 17, 2015 22:17
|
|
|
Bob Morales posted:I would guess a 13-14" MacBook would come out in the same design as the 11 or 12 or whatever that thing is. That raises an interesting question about the '15 refresh coming this fall. I can't help but think the current Air just goes away, replaced by a refreshed 13" rMBP that's "slimmer." The 11" Air with it's current display is gutter trash at this point.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 18, 2015 19:19
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ Apr 29, 2024 10:39 |
|
|
Dicked around with the 2015MB for ~5 min in the Santa Barbara Apple Store. Seems fine for most of what I would use a computer for: Spotify, shitposting, coding, and light sysad junk. It's not as crazy thin as I was expecting it to be. The screen is really nice.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 10, 2015 22:06
|
|