Buying a new Mac & the future of the Mini
New Mac
My main Mac is a 7-yr old iMac (10.6.8) on its last legs. Gotta wait till summer to buy a new one. I'm getting tired of throwing away a perfectly good monitor every time I throw away the old CPU.
The Mac Pro is too expensive and too much tool for my uses. The Mac Mini is perfect, but the new one is not as powerful/flexible as the one it replaced, causing people to wonder about the future of the Mini.
While I'm waiting for this summer's purchase, I got a question: Is it wise to purchase a Mac Mini & a 3rd party monitor, only to have an extra monitor 5 years from now when the Mini dies & Apple discontinues the Mini? Does anyone have informed tho'ts on this?
None of us work for Apple, we're just users like yourself. IAW the Terms of Use Agreement, members aren't suppose to speculate about Apple's future products.
Excerpt:
Submissions
Stay on topic. Apple Support Communities is here to help people use Apple products and technologies more effectively. Unless otherwise noted, do not add Submissions about nontechnical topics, including:
Speculations or rumors about unannounced products.
Discussions of Apple policies or procedures or speculation on Apple decisions.
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Buying a new Mac off eBay - Will the warranty be valid?
Good Afternoon,
I know this may not be the ideal place to ask - But maybe some people have wondered the same and know the answer?!
Im looking to buy a new Mac - I've been a great deal for a new sealed MacBook Pro with a Retina display.
Will purchasing a Mac in this fashion effect the warranty at all?
I'd like to also purchase Apple Care a little further down the line (once my bank balance has recovered some what). Again - Would this be possible?
Cheers,
DaveThe warranty will be valid within one year from the original date of purchase. this is the date that the device was purchased either from apple or an apple authorized reseller.
you are able to purchace the applecare protection plan within one year of the original date of purchase as well, provinding there is no accidental damage to the device.
This page pertains to your question:
http://www.apple.com/support/products/faqs.html
hope it helps. -
If I buy a new mac book can I re download the apps that I have already paid for and downloaded on my current mac book?
Yes. Log into MacAppStore with the AppleID that purchased them.
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I have new mac the speed download is very slow
i have new mac the speed download is very slow please let me know.
The warranty entitles you to complimentary phone support for the first 90 days of ownership.
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created a movie in IMOVIE and transferred it to dvd but cannot get it to play on my dvd player. i downloaded the free Burn program since i don't have idvd on my new mac the dvd comes up disk error or cannot read. I am using a dvd-r dvd and my dvd player says that it uses this type of dvd. Any suggestions. I spoke to an Apple Support person who helped me burn the dvd but it still didn't work...help???
There's a difference between a data DVD, and a DVD-Video. I believe you made a data DVD, which can't be played in a video player. The Burn feature of the Finder can't author a DVD-V, just data discs.
I assume you made a Project, and put clips from your Event Library into the Project. But then, how did you output your Project, using the SHARE menu?
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I'm trying to sync the calendar from my phone on the my new mac. the "sync calendars" blurb in iTunes says, "your calendars are being synced with your iPhone over the air from iCloud".. not nothing is happening. what to do? what to do?
or even better on mac sign into icloud with same apple id under system preferences and icloud
they will merge automatically
Peace, Clyde -
General questions on buying a new Mac...
hey guys, i am looking to buy a new mac in the next year or so. i currently have the powerbook g4 from when i went to school and its running very slow these days and i couldnt upgrade past leopard because of the processor. anyways, im wondering what you guys think as far as laptops go, im not very savy when it comes to this stuff but it seems the macbook pro is the best of the best when it comes to laptops, especially as far as apple goes.
one of my main questions is about how far this laptop will take me, i was very upset about my powerbook not being able to go further than the leopard upgrade. does apple offer anything as far as being able to upgrade for x amount of years? its an expensive piece of equipment and im just wondering what the life expectancy is for something thats $2,500 lol. is apple planning on unveiling a new macbook pro with an even newer processor that is gonna outdate the current intel based?
would i be better off buying the computer tower and monitor that way i can replace things if they get outdated? i have no experience in that but i have heard that when it comes to upgrading a laptop its near impossible compared to a tower that you can open up and change things out?
what do you guys think? any tips would be great, im kinda torn because of the money and i wanna make sure im making the best investment i can and one that will last me as long as it possibly can. like i said guys, im not up to date with tech news so if you guys can help me out i would appreciate it.
thanks againgconley wrote:
im wondering what you guys think as far as laptops go,
Well there has been some changes, Intel processors with integrated graphics that are lousy in performance (scores only 11) and no dedicated video cards.
So watch out the MBP your buying (usually the 13") doesn't have "only Intel HD 3000 graphics" or it will be hot and lousy at 3D games.
The higher end 15" or 17" antiglare screens are your best options for longer use and performance (can 3D game online for about 1.5 years before a upgrade hobbles you) Score 35-45 on Cinebench, as they also have a dedicated video card and you can turn off Graphics Switching in Energy Saver to run off the video card all the time. (nice)
seems the macbook pro is the best of the best when it comes to laptops, especially as far as apple goes.
It's all that Apple carries now, no more MacBooks, unless you want to count the 13" MBP as a MacBook which it's more like that than a "Pro" machine.
I'd advise the anti-glare screen option on the 15", so you can see the screen anywhere like your present machine. The new ones with nicer looking glossy screens are a pain to use, may hurt your eyes, headaches etc.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_X0wo6dIsMU
one of my main questions is about how far this laptop will take me
MacBook Pro's now are lasting about 4 years with about daily use with care, lesser of course with no care.
AppleCare is a must, so figure another 10% for that and tax. $100 case and a $100 external drive for backup (you really need two)
does apple offer anything as far as being able to upgrade for x amount of years?
No, you have to buy each new OS X version and upgrade all your third party software and go through lots of pains doing so.
I can give you this expereince, your good to upgrade the OS 2x, after that you should stop.
10.8 is being released this summer, I would wait a few months afterwards when it comes on new hardware, you will be glad you did. 10.7 is not working out right, 10.8 is going to fix things we hope.
its an expensive piece of equipment and im just wondering what the life expectancy is for something thats $2,500 lol.
4 years, $700 a year.
is apple planning on unveiling a new macbook pro with an even newer processor that is gonna outdate the current intel based?
We cant' speculate on future Apple hardware, but I gave my advice about 10.8 above.
would i be better off buying the computer tower and monitor that way i can replace things if they get outdated?
Yes that would be a much more cost effective method, however this is the problem.
You would have to buy the MacPro Tower and you could change the hard drives, RAM and monitor, but you can't get any video card upgrades for them.
Once your three year AppleCare ran out and your video card died, your bummed. So much for that plan.
Also Apple has increased their OS X release cycle (like because 10.7 was so bad) but you don't get security updates unless your on the last two operating systems in circulation.
So your 10.4 and 10.5 machines are currently insecure online, and 10.6 will also be when 10.8 is released this summer. So Apple gets you to force upgrade that way.
what do you guys think? any tips would be great, im kinda torn because of the money and i wanna make sure im making the best investment i can and one that will last me as long as it possibly can.
I'll give you my honest opinion being a lifelong Mac user.
Get a Windows 7 64 bit 3D gaming tower, 4GB of RAM expandable to 8GB or even 16GB and a decent power supply.
Why?
1: Because Microsoft supports their OS version for 10 years with security and stability updates.
2: Because you can get video card upgrades as well as hard drives, optical drives, RAM and external devices like monitors etc.
3: You'll have more software to choose from, and especially 3D games.
4: Microsoft provides free Security Essentials anti-malware,
5: When you get the machine, you make System Restore Images, DVD's and boot disks to restore your own system pre-malware and immedialty Windows Update and make new ones.
Case in point, my friends XP Tower has lasted him 10 years, he paid $1200 for it new, for $120 a year.
Sure he's had the OS replaced a few times, I've done it for dinner once or twice. Others did it for a case of beer. Cant't beat that!
In the last 10 years with Apple I have spent over $9,000 in their hardware for 3 computers that I've used myself, in fact I'm looking at my dead 4 year old 15" MBP right now which the video card failed a few months outside the 4 year recall notice.
https://support.apple.com/kb/TS2377
That's $900 a year and 2 of them are laptops, one was the PowerMac G5 that Apple decided they were not going to support the 10.5 OS anymore so it made a bad decision to keep it, despite it being almost as powerful as most Mac laptops today. I could have kept that one, but with no OS X support, what can I do?
So if you toss $1600 into a 3D gaming tower, that's $160 a year verses $700 a year with the MBP AND you can upgrade it. You can replace the video card or hard drive or anything else that fails! Not so with a Mac.
http://www.cbscores.com/index.php?sort=ogl&order=desc
Let's face it, you and quite possible me now, are in not Apple's target market anymore, you need to save money and Apple no longer offers any longterm value like they used to.
Microsoft has fixed Windows with Win 7, it's not that bad actually provided you get a good machine and a decent quality monitor. The security of Windows 7 is better than OS X now and on top of that, you can reinstall the entire boot drive yourself easily if you make advanced preparations.
Also Win 7 doesn't look as bad as before, the Aero glass is pretty neat. It's made a lof of Windows users happy. Still though OS X is a much nicer OS that Windows, but the thing with Windows, it stays the same. Apple changes OS X almost constantly, 10.7 last summer, 10.8 this summer!!!
So I know this is going against everything my avatar is, but I don't want you to throw your money away if you really need to hold on to it.
I know times are not good, Apple has billions upon billions they don't need your money. Save your money and get what you need that just does the job.
I don't drive around wreacking $200,000 sports cars and I don't expect you too neither.
http://www.cpubenchmark.net/high_end_cpus.html -
I want to buy a new mac. Would a 21.5 inch Imac run Aperture 3 with 4GB or ram until I can upgrade to 8GB? And would the stock 512mb video card be fine.
davidfromdartmouth wrote:Would a 21.5 inch Imac run Aperture 3 with 4GB or ram until I can upgrade to 8GB?
Specifically, after you buy a Mac test for RAM needs by calculating page outs as described below. The good news is that RAM is cheap enough that every Aperture user who can should upgrade to at least 8 GB RAM.
And would the stock 512mb video card be fine.
All 2011 Macs will "run" Aperture, but lesser CPUs and/or lesser GPUs will provide lesser performance. What "fine" is depends on your workflow and how demanding you are. There are some folks here happy with the power of the box you suggest.
GENERIC UPGRADE ADVICE
Apologies in advance to those for whom this info is redundant.
Some general guidelines for operation of heavy graphics applications (specifically Aperture):
• Only the strongest Macs will provide the strongest operation. Owners of weaker boxes (CPU, GPU, i/o, RAM) or older boxes will experience lesser performance.
• There is a huge difference in hardware needs among workflows. A heavy pro workflow will only work best on a top well-equipped modern box.
• As RAM prices continually fall RAM needs will continually grow. This has been true since the beginning of computing.
OS X has enabled Photoshop, for instance, to take advantage of at least 32 GB RAM for many years even though 32-bit operation limited direct RAM access to ~3 GB RAM.
• All computers/OSs/workflows are different. Each individual user needs to carefully evaluate (meaning see what the early adopters report) workflow and hardware operation BEFORE upgrading any application or OS.
• Hardware upgrades should be planned for always-increasing future OS/application demands, not just for today. After all, a computer purchased today is used for the next 3 years, not last year.
• SSDs rock. All users, all apps will benefit from using a solid state drive as the boot/apps drive. Strongly recommended. RAM-challenged setups will additionally benefit from 10x faster page outs.
• All users should regularly evaluate their workflows by checking the Page Outs number under System Memory on the Activity Monitor app before starting a work session; then rechecking after working. If the page outs number increased significantly during operation the workflow is RAM-starved and steps should be taken, such as increasing RAM or restarting and running only one app at a time - - or switching from 64-bit operation to 32-bit operation. [Note: this is a manual calculation of any change in page outs. Ignore the cute pie charts, page ins, etc.]
HTH
-Allen Wicks -
I'm buying a new MAC. How many machines can you associate with one CS Cloud account?
I'm buying a new MAC. How many machines can you associate with one CS Cloud account?
You can install the software on as many computers as you like.
However you can only activate the software and use it on a maximum of two computers at any one time. -
Questions about buying a new Mac Pro for 4k video editing.
Hi everyone,
I'm currently looking into buying a new mac pro and I have a few questions. I'm a filmmaker/freelance editor looking to get a system that can handle any/at least most 4k formats that I might throw at it, and will hopefully last me around 7 years or so, like my last mac pro has. I've saved up about $5,300 and am becoming more obsessed with getting it asap, but am willing to wait a bit and save up more if necessary. I also play the occasional elder scrolls or civilization game, and might run windows on the new system as well. So here are my questions:
1. I've read rumors that a newer build could be released this year, with newer processors and graphics cards. Is there anything to point to when? I tend to buy things a month before a newer version is released, and I'd like to prevent myself from doing it this time around..
Here's the Build I'm looking at:
6 core
2 D700s
base ram to be upgraded myself to 32Gb (2x16Gb cards leaving 2 slots empty to expand to 64Gb later)
512Gb-1Tb internal hd
2. Should I be considering the 8 core? I'm not too excited about the additional $1500, but I want a system that will last.
3. Is getting the two 16Gb chips of ram and leaving two slots empty a bad idea?
4. I currently work with FCP studio 2 and love it. Not sure whether to go with FCP X, or adobe. Any thoughts?
5. I'm not finding many deals for cheaper ram and hard drives. OWC's prices seem to be comparable to Mac's. I want to do the ram so I have room to upgrade to 64Gb later, but are there any hard drives out there that would make it worth upgrading it myself?
I appreciate any insights you might have. I plan on getting a decent raid and 4k monitor in the next year or so, but for now just want a base system that will keep me editing and will be ready for 4k when I take that next step.The late 2013 Mc Pro uses Intel Xeon ECC processors (error correction), and as far as I know Intel has not announced any newer Intel Xeon processors than those in the late 2013 Mac Pro. I would not expect to see an update to the 2013 Mac Pro until the end of 2015 at the earliest and probably later than that.
If time is not an issue, then you should be quite happy with the 6 core 2013 Mac Pro. It will do an excellent job with 4K video footage. And, yes, I would suggest getting the best raid system you can afford. That is actually more important than processor speed since I/O is frequently the bottleneck when doing multi camera video or 4K video.
I have the latest version of Adobe's Premiere Pro 2014 CC installed on my late 2013 Mac Pro and i have used it a bit without problems. However, I find it much much slower to edit with than FCP X. Also be advised that if you Google you will find several individuals on the Adobe Forums who purchased the late 2013 Mac Pro and have not been able to use it with Premiere Pro CC because of either a hardware incompatibility or software issues between Premiere Pro CC and BMD's Resolve. It is quite possible that I have not experienced these problems because I have not made very demanding projects with Premiere Pro CC on my 2013 Mac Pro.
I strongly recommend FCP X. Apple released FCP X before it was ready, and many early users were unwilling to take the time to learn how to use this very different NLE which is not track based. Apple has over the last 3 years since FCP X was released, issued more than 10 updates (all free), and the program is stable and blazingly fast. I urge you to check out the FCP X training offered by Ripple Training and/or Larry Jordan. Both are inexpensive, and worth every cent. Watch their training videos and you will be up to speed in FCP X in no time at all, and you will wish you had switched a long time ago.
If you can afford the 1 TB of PCie internal flash storage on your Mac Pro, then by all means get it. For me 1TB is well worth the cost.
As far as editing 4K video, the format of the video will be important to the ease of editing. For example, I am able to edit in its native format (XVAC S) several streams of 4K video form my Sony FDR-AX100 with no problems. If I were editing Sony's XVAC format used in their professional 4K cameras, that might pose a problem that would require transcoding. Similarly for other 4K formats. XVAC S is an easy format to edit natively because it is essentially a high bit rate h.264 format.
Best of luck on whatever you decide to do, and happy editing.
Tom -
Can anybody help?
I am considering buying a new MAC laptop to run LOGIC for composition and band live/recording, but which one is best as I do not want to spend too much money?
Does it have a line in and how do you monitor sound?
Will I need adaptors and an interface?
Also, I am guessing as Logic only runs on MAC surely then they would not the best spec to recommend to run it?
I see all the upgrades as additional memory or a faster process?
Is a retina screen necessary, and why flash based storage against a 1TB hard drive, and a i5 instead of an i7
The main reason for this purchase is to play live and use backing tracks and record found sounds and make creative songs.
I hope you can provide some valuable feedback, as I am a longtime MAC user and see upgrades and changes happen regularly but the most important thing is the songs not the equipment.
I have £500 already and willing to add another 500 to 700 pounds, then software extra.Can anybody help?
I am considering buying a new MAC laptop to run LOGIC for composition and band live/recording, but which one is best as I do not want to spend too much money?
Does it have a line in and how do you monitor sound?
Will I need adaptors and an interface?
Also, I am guessing as Logic only runs on MAC surely then they would not the best spec to recommend to run it?
I see all the upgrades as additional memory or a faster process?
Is a retina screen necessary, and why flash based storage against a 1TB hard drive, and a i5 instead of an i7
The main reason for this purchase is to play live and use backing tracks and record found sounds and make creative songs.
I hope you can provide some valuable feedback, as I am a longtime MAC user and see upgrades and changes happen regularly but the most important thing is the songs not the equipment.
I have £500 already and willing to add another 500 to 700 pounds, then software extra.
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