About to buy a new Macbook Pro, decisions...
I have been reading all the discussions I could find pertinent, over the last couple weeks... Many different points of view, different ways to go... I've had Macs since the Mac Plus first came out... Presently a 17" MacBook Pro I've had since 2006... It seems it's time to go forward... :-)
First question is to get an Apple installed SSD or a third party SSD.. I think I sort of grok the pros and cons both ways, and would definitely like to save the money if it results in a machine as least as solid as Apple's with their SSD... I'm quite comfortable switching out the HD for an SSD and putting the HD into an enclosure, first putting the SSD into the same enclosure to format and install Mountain Lion onto it... I want the optical drive, so putting the HD there is not an option... Also creating a boot disk with a flash drive, so can boot and set the SSD as the startup, as well as have a boot disk around... Also running TRIM install software, seemingly understanding the real need to do that for the benefit of the SSD long term... I realize no one can tell me what I want, there in the final moment of ordering, so to speak... But any direct thoughts on this decision in the meantime would be more than welcome...
Second question, which third party SSD to buy, not size necessarily, but manufacturer... aprox 256GB, possibly up... And specifically for the new 15" MB Pro, NOT Retina, with a link to a particular SSD, if it is possible... I ask that because I've looked at the Crucial site, and what they recommend for the new 15", and their # on it doesn't seem to match Crucial's manufacturer numbers on sites like OWC, J&R, etc... Got me confused... Any help on this greatly appreciated... Criteria for me in order of importance are quality (durability) and reliability, costs, speed... With quality and reliability including its interface with the new MB Pro as a third party SSD... Any other thoughts more than welcome...
Third question, which ram upgrade (16 GB possibly 8 GB), re manufacturer again, and specifically of course for the new 15"... Same criteria as above... I understand that 1.35 volts could be important, enough at least for me now that that is what I think I want to get... Interestingly MacConnection"s ram specs don't show the voltage,... Other places do... So again, which particular ones, and again links would be hugely appreciated...
Thanks ,
John.
The 15" will be fine ... the lack of ExpressCard slot means you have limited expansion options eg no way to add fast eSATA storage, but for your web production needs then the limited options should not cause any great impact. If you need I/O then there are firewire based options out there. If you need broadcast quality monitoring then you could use the Matrox MXO solution. For high speed dedicated storage you can use a FireWire 800 based drive or RAID.
Best
Andy
Similar Messages
-
hi.. i'm about to buy a new macbook pro and i need some pros and cons of SSD.... i'm not sure which is really better, the regular hard drive or the SSD... because if i buy the mac with SSD it would be the 128GB, so i want to know how would that affect the overall performance of the computer...
Thanks!I would suggest that you purchase the SSD through a third party source. You will save money that way.
Regarding the performance, go to the OWC web site. They have bench tested their SSD vs conventional HDD and have published the results for anyone to see,
The difference between the 128GB and the 256GB drives is capacity, no practical change to performance.
Ciao. -
Questions about buying a new MacBook pro with SSD
Hello, I am about to buy a new MacBook pro. I'm going to get the 13 inch 2.8 dual core i7. I want a solid state drive also. I was going back and forth between the 128 gig or the 256 but I will probably get the 256. My computer will ship with lion but i am so confused about the TRIM support. Does lion take care of this? Dop I have to do anything like run a command or program to take care of TRIM? Also, are solid states reliable? Should I get apple care? ( i really don't want to. Lol)
I suggest you buy the notebook with the standard drive and the standard RAM, if you were thinking about upgrading the RAM.
You can replace the original drive with a SSD at a lower cost then what Apple charges You can also buy RAM for a MUCH lower price.
TRIM:
Lion only supports TRIM natively when used with a Apple SSD. BUT, REALLY BUT, You can enable TRIM support yourself on the SSD you install. I have a SSD in my MBP that I installed and I have enabled TRIM support on it.
Are SSDs reliable? As far as I can tell Yes they are. I have one in my Win 7 desktop PC for the last 9 months, No Problems. I have a SSD installed in my Dell Win 7 Notebook for the last 1.5 months, No Problems. I have a SSD installed in my MBP for the last month+, No problems. There are reports of SSDs failing but there are also report of standard hard drive failing all the time.
I used Intel 320 series SSDs in my 2 Windows PCs and a Kingston V200 SSD in my MBP. I switched to the Kingston because of the price and it runs on the higher SATA III bus speed, 6GB, where as the Intel 320 series only run at the 3GB speed, SATA II. -
Buying a new macbook pro, i5 vs i7?
I am about to buy a new macbook pro and was wondering which processor would be better. I am planning on working with Final Cut Studio often and want something that operates quickly. Anything else I should look for, I am planning on picking one up off of ebay.
You want an i7 quad-core with 8GB of RAM.
17" 2.2GHz i7 Quad-Core MacBook Pro 8G RAM 750G HD + OCZ Vertex 3 SSD Boot HD
Got problems with your Apple iDevice-like iPhone, iPad or iPod touch? Try Troubleshooting 101 -
i need to buy a new macbook pro/i am from OR, but i am in PA now/when i asked about that i found the tax will be around 100$/there is some one said to me that if i have the ID state of OR i would be able to buy it by the samr price/is it true ?
Goods delivered to you for personal or business use (not for resale) in Pennsylvania are subject to Pennsylvania state sales tax.
If you are exempt from Pennsylvania state sales tax, or are a Not-for-profit corporation and have a DBA certificate in Pennsylvania, you may be able to buy tax-free. I doubt this.
If you have the goods delivered to your address in Oregon, and there is no state sales tax in Oregon, you would not have to pay state sales tax.
Since Apple does business in all 50 states, they are also obligated to charge you sales tax (for the state where the goods are delivered) when you buy from the Apple Online store. -
I'm looking to buy a new Macbook Pro, and have questions about the Applecare extended warranty?
I'm looking to buy a new Macbook Pro, and have questions about the Applecare extended warranty? I want to know if the 3 year extended warranty covers what damage. Like water damage, accidental damage, lost or stolen macbook, manufactory defects, or any other kind of damage, maybe be even cosmetic damage. Can anyone help me?
If you are talking about features of the MBP itself, as long as you are not looking at the Retina models, then the memory you can upgrade yourself for a lot less than Apple charges, and that does not affect the warranty as Apple considers memory a user permitted upgrade. Great sources are Crucial and OWC, both are Mac specialists and have on-line videos on how to do the install.
If the 15" is what you are looking at, a good upgrade is the 7200 rpm hard drive, gives a little better performance over the standard 5400 rpm drive.
The Hi Res screen is good if you do a lot of graphics work.
Comparing the 13" amd 15" you will notice the 15" has a second, discrete graphic processor...helps when you get into heavy duty videos, games, graphics...but keep in mind that kicking in the second processor uses a lot of power and will run the battery down faster.
If you are looking at the Retina models, then keep in mind there are no post-purchase upgrade options...you have to buy with everything you want at the start.
Just some thoughts. -
Buying a new MacBook Pro 17". Question about waranty?
Hi everyone:
I'm buying a new MacBook Pro 17", and I was wondering what waranty does it come with? Or, do I need to buy any special coverage from them? I'm new to Macs, so please bear with me... How reliable are they?From the Tech Specs page for the MacBook Pro:
Your MacBook Pro comes with 90 days of free telephone support and a one-year limited warranty. Purchase the AppleCare Protection Plan to extend your service and support to three years from your computer’s purchase date. Only the AppleCare Protection Plan provides you with direct telephone support from Apple technical experts and the assurance that repairs will be handled by Apple-authorized technicians using genuine Apple parts. For more information, visit Apple support or call 800-823-2775.
Macs can be pretty reliable. If yours will be used for critical purposes you may want to get the AppleCare extended warranty. I do, but I can tax deduct it for business purposes. The warranty does not cover accidents so if you want to cover those, get an insurance policy or extend your current homeowner's or renter's insurance to do so or try Safeware. -
Should I buy a new Macbook Pro 13 inch or Macbook Air 13 inch?
Hi,
I was wondering if I should buy the new Macbook pro 13 inch, or keep my old 2010 1.4 C2D Macbook Air. I am not satisfied with the tiny 64GB SSD that my current Macbook Air has, because just a few weeks after I had done a clean reinstall of OSX Lion, the whole disk almost filled up. The one thing I do like about the Macbook Air, however is the speed of the SSD. Its really quick, and it boots in under 20 seconds. The Air didn't have many performance issues (other than overheating like crazy after playing a few graphics-intensive games).
If I were to buy a new Mac, my price range would be from $1200-$1500. I plan to use Garageband/iMovie frequently for making Youtube videos/school projects, and store a large music library. I also plan to do some moderate gaming and run Windows 7 in Bootcamp/Parallels. I don't plan to take it around much, but I don't want to have to weigh down my backpack in case I have to. My two options now would be the new Macbook Pro 13 inch or the new Macbook Air 13 inch. Could anyone give me a suggestion of which computer to buy?
Thanks!I went through this same thing when I purchased my first Mac 3 days ago, also between the 13 inch MBA and MBP. I ended up deicding with the 13inch MBP, here's why:
1. More hard drive space, yes it may not be an SSD but more space is more space. I have also heard about people taking out the disc drive and adding an SSD in its place, so there would be an option.
2. The disc drive, I rarely do use it but just in case it's there and easier than carrying around an external.
3. Upgradability, I plan on keeping this Mac for a while because I spent so much on it. On a MBP I can upgrade the internal parts such as the hard drive and RAM. On a MBA everything is soldered together so what you buy is what you stick with.
4. Ethernet port, this is one that could be gotten around by an adapter but I still took it into consideration. Not everywhere has wifi yet including my work where every computer is hard wired.
5. Bootcamp, as well I plan to run Windows 7 on mine and Windows 7 takes a good amount of space so this is another spot where the larger hard drive of the MBP comes in handy. You could always have an external hard drive and run Windows 7 off of that on an Air but then you would have to have it always plugged in when you wanted to run Windows 7.
About me, I am a student so I had a lot to think about and read a lot of reviews online before I decided on my MBP but I am glad I decided on this over an Air. It may be a few pounds heavier also but in the long run for me I think the Pro will be better, I do plan on adding more RAM in the future as software becomes more memory intensive. With you're pricerange being 1200-1500 the 13inch MBP with the i7 processor may be one to look at. From Apple with their student discount, if you are one, you get $100 of plus a $100 giftcard. At BestBuy (where I got mine) the price of the i7 13inch MBP is 1,424.99 and if you're a student you get $100 off but no giftcard. I got the i5 13inch MBP because I don't need an i7.
In the end it all comes down to what works for you, but I hope I was able to help you some. -
I'm about to buy my first MacBook Pro and I need a little help
Hi everybody!
I'm about to buy my first MacBook pro and I have no experience on mac so I would be really thankfull if someone guides me to get an appropriate Notebook
Here are some imformations about what I want from a MacBook Pro:
1) I have a limited budget so the price can not go anywhere upper than 2,000 dollars
2) I'm a graphic designer working with photoshop, 3ds max and maya so I need strong CPU and VGA card
3) 15 inches and high resolution
4) Absolutly Lion OS
5) weight doesn't matter!
6) Ram doesn't matter cause I can upgrade it myself later when I got enogh money
7) Hard capacity doesn't matter (I can upgrade it later too)
8) It would be much better if it got HDMI port
That's all
Thanks for reading and answeringExcept for #8, you're talking about the new entry-level MacBook Pro for $1,799.00 (see at http://store.apple.com/us/configure/MD103LL/A). It's a little less expensive at Amazon and you won't have to pay tax on it until you file next year instead of up-front.
It will do everything you need and, yes, you can upgrade it yourself when you get more cash. In fact, if you're willing to spend another $160 (still under your $2K limit) you can go ahead and upgrade the RAM to 16 GB. Later, spend $400 and put in a 512GB SSD.
Now to item #8. From monoprice, you can get a Thunderbolt-to-HDMI adapter for under $7 - click here.
You'll have exactly what you need for under $2K. Go for it...
Clinton -
I'm buying a new Macbook Pro this week and am wondering what is the best way to copy over the software I have from my existing Macbook Pro to the new one? eg. Photoshop and Office etc. I no longer have the CDs.
Ya know what I'm on a brand new MBP just about 24 hours old and you know whats been working amazingly for me. I have a 27inch iMac as well and i've just connected it to my network and been dragging files and apps across the network onto my new MBP. Its really working fast and its flawless. You could always do that option, Just go into sharing options and turn them on for both Macs. Then just click and drag. Of course they have to both be on the same network for this to be possible.
Look at my network.
Shared is what your looking at. I click on there see all my computers files and then drag the ones i want form its folder to my MBP folders. Hope that helps if your looking for a very simple way on a wireless network. -
I want to buy a new Macbook pro 15", but I don't like Lion, I want Leopard installed, is there any issues with drivers or any other I should be aware of?
Hello, I've tried Lion from the day they released to last week I got my computer formated and with leopard again, on my iMac 24" from early 2009 2.9 Ghz core 2 duo, and I have installed 8 Gb of memory, and i have some complains about it, there are some cosmetic issues but mostly I'm concerned about issues bellow the hood, as I'm a stock trader and I depend completly from my computer's performance, let me explain:
Superficial issues:
1. They took off "spaces" and I liked it.
2. I dont use the magic mouse, I need a more accurate mouse for my charts, and it seems they built the entire OS assuming you would use the magic mouse for gestures, scroll, etc to try to mimic in some way the Ipad and Iphone functions, but what if you arent using it like me?
3. I never used that little rocket icon that makes all your apps appear and that could be one of the "improvements on Lion", at first sight it looks nice and slick, but if you try to use it and make it part of your daily use, you would find it is useless, it is a pain to try to arrange it the way you like it, so I rather use the spotlight to search for my apps, its faster.
Now the MOST important, 'performance':
1. It completly suffocate my computers hardware Leopard much more lighter, beggining from the start up that taked almost 1/3 or twice the time, and I think Lion has some bugs bellow the hood, i was doing my normal stuff, some apps running and everything, and suddenly I started to feel the computer a little slow, safari taking forever to open the pages for example, and I opened the activity monitor to see what was going on, and it was there, I was using 4 or 5 gb from my memory, and CPU making insane peaks, and Im using 2.46 gb as im writing it doing exactly the same stuff, (but Im happily using Leopard now), and it wasnt once, as i told before, I used lion since the day they released it and happened several times until it drove me nutts. But leopard not problem in that regard at all, Never.
hope this helps, and hope some apple guys read that because lion resulted in a big disappointment for me. -
I am about to buy my first Macbook Pro, should I wait for the possibility for a 2015 macbook, or just get the most recent model currently? (9-22-14)
No one knows if there will be a new model and if so, when that would be. However, there always will be something bigger, better, and newer around the corner, so you'd be waiting forever.
Buy it when you want or need it.
FWIW, here are the specs of the latest models (which happen to be mid 2014):
Apple - Support - Technical Specifications -
hello to everyone... I'll start saying that I'll buy my first mac finally after all these years looking for one (kind of difficult living in Perú.. a MBP that costs $2000 in USA, costs $2800 in Perú, so looking for someone to travel and buy it is kind of hard).
As I was saying.. I'm planning to buy a new Macbook Pro (the one launched on February 2008) and I want to know if I will have these problems that I've read in this forum:
- keyboard unable to use or failing a lot (lots of people had it after some upgrade).
- sleep mode failing.. some people had this too, the computer can't wake from sleep mode.
has anyone had any problem with the new macbook pro's??
thanks for answering!- keyboard unable to use or failing a lot (lots of people had it after some upgrade).
The much maligned upgrade is a misnomer, it was really an software/firmware update and it only applied to previous releases of the MBP. The Feb'08 MBP does not need such an update.
- sleep mode failing.. some people had this too, the computer can't wake from sleep mode.
Same thing, this is mostly present in older MBP's.
has anyone had any problem with the new macbook pro's??
Like any new and complex piece of equipment, there are bound to be lemons in the mix. And some "problems" are more like undocumented or ill conceived design decisions. For example, the infamous keyboard problem, where certain keys don't respond at first try. In my case, the Caps Lock key takes a wee bit longer to respond than the rest of the keys. This seems to be a design "feature" and not a bad key switch: since many people complained that they were having typing errors cause the Caps Lock caught inadvertently, apparently they added a little delay so you wouldn't accidentally brush against the key. However, for a trained touch typist, this is a major PITA cause it breaks your typing rythmn, something the designer (probably not being a typist) completely overlooked.
So you moan and complain loudly in the appropiate places (Feedback or Applecare) and hopefully the company will eventually listen and issue an update. These forums are not the appropiate venue except for blowing off steam, since few if any decision-making Apple employees come here. -
I am about to buy a 13" MacBook Pro with 256 GB SSD. I want a Windows partition set up. What size should it be, and can I load Win XP Pro or does it need to be Win 7 or 8?
You can use XP but it has to be in a Virtual Machine and OS X as the host instead of as a dual boot system with XP in its own partition. That is how I run Windows on my Mac, in a Virtual Machine.
Take a look at VritualBox from Oracle. It's free and works very well. -
After buying a new Macbook pro and opening an iTunes Match account most of my music is grayed out on my Mac and iPhone. I have not turned on iTunes match on my iPad and all my music is fine. How do I get my music back????
The most efficacious way to get your music and other personal data onto your new Mac is to restore it from the backup you made of your old computer. Once that is done you can re-enable iTM on the new Mac and your iPhone.
Maybe you are looking for
-
Issue in mapping.. Source message expect with prefix ns0 in input message!
Issue in mapping.. Source message expect with prefix ns0 in input message Hi All, I used the XSD structure which I got from partner which starts like below. <xsd:schema xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" targetNamespace="http://xxxx.com/Dir
-
How can I make a DVD of a slideshow I have in iPhoto?c
I have created a slideshow in iPhoto using the Vintage theme. I want to burn this slideshow to a DVD for viewing at my Grandma's funeral. After creating the slideshow, I clicked on the "Export" tab at the bottom in the toolbar, then I clicked on "Sha
-
How can I save a video clip?
-
Prevent dashboard prompt from filtering a particular report on page?
I have a dashboard page with 1 prompt and 5 reports. The first object on the dashboard page is a dashboard prompt with a date range for created date. The request is to filter the first 4 reports based on the dashboard prompt, and then the last report
-
Hi, How do i convert a HTML page to an iView. Thanks, Amit