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I have a late 2008 iMac that's gotten quite sluggish feeling. I already have it maxed out to 4mb RAM, but it clunks along. Would replacing the internal 5400 rpm drive with a 10,000 rpm drive like this one pep it up enough to last me another 6 months to a year? It seems like that's the only bottleneck in the system that I can do anything about at this point, and I can't justify the cost of a SSD drive for it. http://www.amazon.com/Western-Digital-Velociraptor-10000-Desktop/dp/B003FW9T0M/ref=sr_1_sc_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1335396262&sr=8-1-spell
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Apr 26, 2012 00:28
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strangemusic posted:Derailed as heck, but: UAD Apollo? Because hell yeah. By far the sexiest reason for TB to exist. That is, if you pay the "as yet to be determined" price to add the "optional thunderbolt upgrade" "later this summer." This bums me out, because they've made TB like, THE focal point of these interfaces at NAMM and in all the advertising literature.
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May 16, 2012 22:21
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In the middle of all of this new stuff...how is this time for buying a new iMac? Does this mean that iMacs won't be refreshed until this time next year? I'm not worried about holding out for a retina display on one or anything, and my early-2008 model is getting pretty long in the tooth considering I use it around the clock for audio recording and video editing as well. I'm looking at the current refurbs, which don't seem to offer great savings over just going new, but would this be a bad time to invest in a new machine?
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Jun 12, 2012 19:46
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Bob Morales posted:The big benefit would be USB 3.0 - otherwise, all you're going to gain is a few % faster CPU and maybe a faster video card. I'm going to be order a pair of new iMacs for some developers here next week. I don't think they will wait until next year to upgrade them, but we can't wait. One guy is using his home computer and the other is using one of the first aluminum iMac models. Good point - I think either way, even an early '11 refurb, I'm going to see a huge upgrade over my C2D '08 model. I had been holding out for a Thunderbolt to FW800 solution, as I rely on several FW devices still. I suppose I'll be back in a bit to ask about whether i7 is a worthy upgrade over i5.
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Jun 12, 2012 20:22
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Is this SSD a good one to stick in an aging 2008 iMac in hopes of buying it another 6-12 months of life? http://www.amazon.com/Crucial-2-5-I...=I3NQ1998FHEKHU It was $250 when I started watching it about a month ago and the price has dropped amazingly. Any reason to spend way more for an Intel or something? I know it's going to be a bit of a bastard to install, but I can't afford a new computer at the moment and I think it would be a rad upgrade.
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Jun 18, 2012 21:59
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1997 posted:That looks exactly like it, thanks! Now to wait for a good SSD sale. The Crucial 256 dropped down to $180 on Amazon for a day earlier this week. No shipping stinger, either. I wish I had pounced, it's back up to over $200.
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Jun 21, 2012 18:46
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Star War Sex Parrot posted:My 2010 iMac recently stopped automatically acquiring my Wi-Fi network; I think with 10.7.4. It's pretty frustrating because I never had the Wi-Fi issues with Apple machines that people frequently complain about, and I always attributed it to the fact that I use Apple routers as well so everything played nicely. But now whenever I turn on my iMac it doesn't automatically join the network and I have to select it from the drop-down menu. A clean install of Lion and then combo update to 10.7.4 didn't change a thing. Hopefully Mountain Lion corrects the issue. My friend's 2010 iMac did this exact same thing and nothing - NOTHING - would fix it.
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Jun 26, 2012 22:38
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Mug posted:Okay. I'm not sure if you read what I was asking, I just want to use the mouse like a normal mouse where you can click left and click right at the same time in games. Is that possible with the magic touch mouse thing or do I have to buy a 3rd party mouse? Why are you pretending that you don't understand what device you have, making up silly names for it, and pretending you don't know what it's actually called in order to intentionally confuse which device you have and prevent others from helping you? Why do people do this? You can do what you're asking with either the Magic Mouse or the Magic Trackpad.
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Jul 5, 2012 16:12
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If new iMacs aren't announced with Mountain Lion, I'm going to go ahead and need to pull the trigger on a new 27 inch model. I'm a firm believer in buying as much processor as you can, so I'm trying to decide between settling for the 3.1 i5 model that's abailable refurbed for $1660 here - http://store.apple.com/us/product/FC814LL/A Or buying new in order to get the 3.4 i7 model for $2200. I'd actually probably also add another $100 for the 2g version of the graphics card, bringing me up to $2300. The machine will be for heavy video editing and audio recording and mixing. I like the idea of getting the i7 for future proofing - I'm one of those people that never upgrades until I absolutely have to (currently rocking an '08 C2D iMac), but then I look at those numbers and see myself spending $650 more for an i7 over an i5 and one more gig of RAM on the same graphics card. Is there any way that's remotely a reasonable choice?
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Jul 22, 2012 23:08
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So what are the implications of Apple not releasing a refreshed iMac today to coincide with ML? Everyone was waiting for that, as they've now gone longer than ever between hardware refreshes. Do such refreshes always coincide with some other release or milestone, or is it likely that they'll just "randomly" refresh the line at some point soon?
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Jul 25, 2012 17:55
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I'm actually surprised, but it seems like Mountain Lion has given my 2008 C2D iMac a bit of a renewed lease on life - it's WAY snappier than it was with Lion and just feels smoother throughout in almost all operation. I can more comfortably wait until the next hardware refresh. Surprised that FinalCutX and Logic both seemed to be operating even better too.
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Jul 26, 2012 16:01
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Is there any sane way to rent a Macbook Air for a week and a half trip? I'm going on a trip, could really use an MBA to work on a few projects, but have no need or desire to purchase one long-term. I googled around and just kept finding rent-to-own type deals for people with lovely credit. I'd need to rent one, be able to install software on it (not have it be locked down with a bunch of admin stuff), and then return it.
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Aug 3, 2012 17:25
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Yeah, I already thought about return policy abuse, but I decided not to because it would be unethical at best (I know I'm not going to keep it long-term), and too tempting to keep it at worst (I really, REALLY don't need a MBA, especially right now).
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Aug 3, 2012 17:33
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My friend just got a Macbook Air, 2011 11-inch refurb, and I borrowed it for a day because I'm considering getting an MBA. I was surprised at how poor the battery life was - it got about two and a half, maybe three hours of use before it was croaked. IStat pro said the battery health was 100%. I thought the big marketing hoopla behind the Air was that the battery life was amazing? Is this abnormal? I had the screen brightness on less than half, the keyboard keys were lit up some, it was using WiFi, but other than that, no heavy usage.
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Sep 4, 2012 17:18
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If there's no new iMac, Apple has actually truly abandoned desktops. It's been FOREVER. I've been looking to upgrade my '08 C2D iMac, but the current iMacs are year and a half old hardware. Longest period ever between HW refreshes. I actually just really want a guts-updated version of the current model. No "retina" (isn't the iMac already at that resolution?), no "even slimmer" design, no soldered-in RAM, no teardrop shape...if there's some goony new thing, I'll just grab one of the current refurbs when they get even cheaper. Anything's an upgrade from my 4-year-old C2D!
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Oct 16, 2012 19:02
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Given their continued trend toward completely un-upgradable an unopenable hardware, has Apple made any attempt to address the environmental implications of pushing most users toward obsolescence and shortened lifespans of their hardware? It just strikes me as hilariously at odds with their Eco angle to make systems that the average "non-hacker" end user is going to replace more often than if they could stick in a better hard drive and upgrade the ram halfway through the system's life.
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Oct 17, 2012 00:16
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The new iMac is just too thin. I imagine it's going to be a cooling nightmare, especially with the "kooky hybrid drive" setup. This is not a machine I'm going to be comfortable running FinalCut on for hours with heavy rendering. Any idea on how/when this will make the current models cheaper, to say nothing of the current refurbs? Hoping to grab an i7 27" of the current gen for $1500 or under now.
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Oct 23, 2012 20:17
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durp
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Oct 23, 2012 20:17
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krooj posted: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. The whole idea feels kludgey and "not quite there yet" to me, kind of like when everyone was using zip and jaz drives in the late nineties for a year or two until suddenly CDR's were ubiquitous.
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Oct 26, 2012 16:32
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So where does one buy a new or refurbished 27" i7 mid-20111 iMac right now, at a "blow out" price, before the new models come out?
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Oct 29, 2012 22:30
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I went by an Apple store yesterday to check out the new iMacs. I was surprised at how "not snappy" the i5 machine felt, even compared to the '11 models. It felt like it chugged along about as "competently" as my C2D. What was I experiencing? I'd like to avoid it when I buy my 27". Is there an underperforming graphics card, or is the sub 3ghz i5 just not a "peppy" processor?
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Dec 3, 2012 18:03
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Mu Zeta posted:I checked out the new 21" yesterday as well and they all chugged. It's because of the crappy 5400rpm 2.5" laptop hard drives in them. I asked the store people and they didn't have any Fusion drive models on the floor yet. The processor and graphics are plenty powerful, it's the balls slow budget hard drive they stuck in there. Wow, that explains a bunch. I opened Final Cut X to whatever the default project was, hit play, and got an instant 10-second beachball with no other programs running before it sort of sputtered into action. Then just swiping around the project was laggy and clips seemed to be struggling to even load up the preview in the timeline. My 2008 C2D works better than this!
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Dec 3, 2012 23:01
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After me encouraging her for years, my Mom suddenly wants me to tell her exactly which current MBA to get. Are the mid-2012 refurbs a good deal or did the recent refresh add amazing improvements? She's mostly going to be doing photo stuff with it, on the go, so battery life will matter a bunch as well as the larger 13' screen.
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Jul 26, 2013 03:00
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I'm finally ready to upgrade from my 2008 C2D 24" iMac, hallelujah. But I've been out of the spec game for a long time, so I was hoping that you all could help me out. I'm doing a 27" iMac and I'm trying to decide whether to get a refurb (various September 2013 models) or just go new. Based on the fact that I'm still using a 2008 model, I tend to want to buy something that'll last as long as humanly possible before upgrading, which just feels like a nuisance to me. But when I start customizing a new one, I end up $500 to $700 more than the refurbs, which just feels like diminishing returns for the sorts of upgrades like "go from an i5 to an i7 ($200)" or "go from a 2gb video card to a 4gb one" ($200)." The machine is mostly for multitrack audio work (Logic X), video editing (Final Cut X), with a final 5% of normal home internet use (iPhoto, internet, iTunes, etc.) and indie games (never much more sophisticated than Kentucky Route Zero, Hotline Miami, Papers Please, Gone Home, etc.) 1. Is the upgrade from an i5 to i7 worth prioritizing buying a new machine if there are no i7 refurbs that fit my other specs? Or waiting for an i7 to show up as a refurb? I figure coming from a Core 2 Duo either of them is going to run like a goddamned rocketship, but I also want to buy the most processor I can while I'm already spending $1500+ 2. Same question re: the graphics - the refurb I'm looking at has a NVIDIA GeForce GTX 775M graphics processor with 2GB, while the new has a NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780M with 4GB GDDR5, but that's part of a system whose other various upgrades (i5 to i7, regular HD to Fusion, etc.) make it $1,000 more than the refurb, which seems like diminishing returns to me since I'm coming from an ancient 2008 machine. 3. Is the fusion drive (1TB on all models I'm looking at) worth prioritizing in either new or refurb? Or if I find a refurb that fits all of the other stuff I'm after but only has the 1TB regular HD, is that basically fine until real/full SSD's take over in a few years? Thanks for any help, it's been a while for me w/ this stuff.
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Mar 1, 2014 18:32
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