Purchase Question: MBP Retina 2.3 GHz or MBP 15in 2.6 GHz? As much input as possible preferred.

I want to purchase a new MacBook Pro since mine is from early 2008 and needs replacing. I know some stuff about computers, but definitely not enough to make an informed decision, so I was wondering if anyone could help me decide between these two models: the new MacBook Pro with Retina display (the cheaper one with 2.3 GHz) or the updated MacBook Pro 15in with 2.6 GHz. I just wanted to know which one would overall be better, run faster, hold the most documents/files, etc. I mainly use my laptop for personal usage, such as social media, movies, music, and I use Photoshop & Lightroom in an editing capacity also, but really for personal use, not professional.
So if anyone could help me out, I'd really appreciate it. Also, if anyone has any recommendations for upgrades I should possibly purchase when ordering my laptop, that'd be helpful as well.

It's actually easy to install and purchase parts on your own.
Many on the forums recommend Crucial or OWC to get RAM from, I'll be picking up an 8GB kit from Crucial at some point for my MBP. Apple actually has an article instructing you on how to install your own RAM: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1270 (I should add, for 2011 models and up, 16GB can be used, but is not stated/supported by Apple on that support article)
You can also buy any 2.5 inch drive and fit it to your MBP. It's also relatively easy to install. Additionally, you can (for sure) void your warranty and remove the CD drive to have 2 HDD's in the MBP. Any problems you should run into your parts (memory or HDD) need to be dealt with by the manufacturer and not Apple. For example, if your new drive fails, don't take it to Apple without reinserting the original drive.

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I purchased a MBP 13.3/2.5/8GB/128GB FLASH from Apple store in Manhattan Beach,CA some months ago. It has only 128 GB storage. What us the best practical option for additional storage ?

I purchased a MBP 13.3/2.5/8GB/128GB FLASH from Apple store in Manhattan Beach,CA some months ago. It has only 128 GB storage.
I soon realized that I did a big mistake not upgrading the storage when purchasing. I thought I could upgrade later which is not possible I understand.
My Q:
What is the best and most practical/userer friendly option for additional storage say up to 1 TB ?

Hey leiv karsten,
As your macbook is retina,you can't upgrade it like previous generation macbook pro.You can purchase a portable 1TB external harddrive.
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=lp_595048_nr_p_n_feature_two_brow_5?rh=n%3A172282%2C n%3A%21493964%2Cn%3A541966%2Cn%3A1292110011%2Cn%3A595048%2Cp_n_feature_two_brows e-bin%3A5446812011&bbn=595048&ie=UTF8&qid=1368944651&rnid=562234011

Display Questions with Retina and VMware Fusion (Windows 7/8)

Looking to buy my first MacBook Pro and looking to make sure I get the specs I need and have a couple of questions.
I would like to be able to run (simultaenously)
During the day for work:
Windows 7 x64 - 30GB HD - 1 Core - 1GB Ram - Purpose: Has a VPN client that allows me to VPN and RDP only
Windows 8.1 x64 - 60GB HD - 2 Cores - 4GB+ Ram - Purpose: Office 2013 installed on this VM and all my other work applicatons (light weight)
OSX 10.10 - Whatever it can take - Light Web Browsing etc while at work.
After work:
Guess it doesn't matter really - i'd like to play games (bootcamp fine) if possible too. Nothing crazy so barely worth mentioning.
My main questions:
Display: Iris Pro or nVidia - Can the base 15 inch GPU/CPU handle the two VMs at the same time plus the host OS (OSX) without hiccups?
Display: How does VMware Fusion recognize the discrete GPU - will the system be smooth/quiet without activating it?
Battery life: Virtualization is pretty heavy battery wise. Does anyone know what happens to the battery when you're running a couple VMs?
Display: How is running Windows 7/8 on a MacBook with a specifically retina display? Do the Windows PCs look really ugly/blurry due to such a high resolution?
What is the minimum hardware required for these VMs to run fast and responsive? (CPU/GPU/RAM only)
Thanks!!

Sorry - we're users here, just like you, and some questions just get lost sometimes.
The fastest hardware you can buy, the easier you'll be able to run Windows. If you use Boot Camp to run Windows (7, 8 or 8.1) the machine will run at it's best. If you want to run Windows alongside the Mac OS, you'll need to use a VM application (I use Parallels - I've tried VMwareFusion but like Parallels better and it just works best for me).
So, to your questions:
The Retina machine with the NVIDIA GPU will be the fastest - it's a faster processor and has more VRAM.
Any VM is going to use resources - how much RAM, for example, is up to you. I have 16 GB of RAM and 8GB dedicated to Parallels/Windows 7 Pro.
I wouldn't (and you really can't) run a VM for very long on battery. If you're using VM's, that's the time to plug into mains. Running a 'couple' of VM would put further heavy use on your GPU, CPU and shorten your battery life.
I would make sure to get a good, fast quad-core i7 processor, the 2GB of VRAM NVIDIA GPU and the maximum amount of RAM (16GB).
Good luck,
Clinton

Is Audition CS6 available to buy rather than subscribe? [was: PURCHASE QUESTION]

I have a simple purchase question on Audition CS6, can I purchase a copy rather than pay monthly rentals

Try Google. You can buy Audition CS6 from Adobe via download.
See http://www.adobe.com/products/catalog/cs6._sl_id-contentfilter_sl_catalog_sl_software_sl_c reativesuite6.html?start=20

I have recently purchased a refubished imac 3.06 ghz intel core 2 duo and I'm trying to install logic 7.2 on this machine. I get half way through the content install and it crash's . I have it installed on an older Imac and it works fine. Is there any e

I have recently purchased a refubished imac 3.06 ghz intel core 2 duo and I'm trying to install logic 7.2 on this machine. I get half way through the content install and it crash's . I have it installed on an older Imac and it works fine. Is there anybody out there that can help me figuire outhow to make this work?

See:
Mac Maintenance Quick Assist,
Mac OS X speed FAQ,
Speeding up Macs,
Macintosh OS X Routine Maintenance,
Essential Mac Maintenance: Get set up,
Essential Mac Maintenance: Rev up your routines,
Maintaining OS X,
Five Mac maintenance myths, and
Myths of required versus not required maintenance for Mac OS X for information.

I have a MacBook Pro Retina (2,3 GHz Intel Core i7 - 8 GB 1600 MHz DDR3 - Intel HD Graphics 4000 1024 MB). I use KompoZer for my website, but after installing OS X Yosemite it doesn't work right (I cannot see images in the website).

I have a MacBook Pro Retina (2,3 GHz Intel Core i7 - 8 GB 1600 MHz DDR3 - Intel HD Graphics 4000 1024 MB). I use KompoZer for my website, but after installing OS X Yosemite it doesn't work right (I cannot see images in the website).

It's beta open source software so I'm not surprised. It does't look to be too active a project, so I don't know if it will help or not but you might be maybe better off posting a bug report on their Sourceforge page here: http://sourceforge.net/projects/kompozer/

NVidia on Macbook Pro Retina 2.0 GHz

Hey everyone,
I recently bought a Macbook Pro Retina 2.0 GHz which I thought would be sufficient for almost anything. After all the processor would tune up to 3.2 GHz if needed.
Now I wanted to try something heavy on the graphics and I wondered why the Macbook handled it so problemeticaly. It seems that the 2.0 GHz variant does not have the nvidia graphics chip. Can anyone confirm that?
If I had known this prior to buying it then I would have spent a few more bucks to get the 2.3 GHz variant!
Is there any way to get the additional nvidia chip? Is there any way to get my machine to Apple and have it upgraded? If this is true and I am not mistaken about not having the nvidia then I am so mad... Why didn't they made this more clear? Why was there no warning, saying: Yes, you can buy the 2.0 GHz variant but you will miss [number of things]".

Mmmh, I think I got it now... My Macbook is already upgraded on certain points (like ssd or ram). So the difference to the model with the nvidia card is 100$. But, and here is the problem, I didn't see the difference in the text between the two models on http://store.apple.com/us/buy-mac/macbook-pro. As far as I can see this is the only place where I am informed that I am missing the nvidia card when I'm choosing the left model. And as far as I can see I would have missed the nvidia card if I picked the left model and then upgraded to the specs of the right model, too.
Honestly, I can't figure out what Apple is doing there. Why can't they just tell me: Hey, you CAN choose that model but you will miss this and this and that.
So, if I am understanding you correctly: There is no way for me to get that nvidia card, apart from buying a completely new macbook?

I purchased a iPad retina last week and thought I would get the iWork suite at no charge. Did I get it wrong?

I purchased a iPad retina last week and thought I would get the iWork suite at no charge. Did I get it wrong?

Have you tried visiting the App Store and tapping on the Purchased icon? If the iWork components appear there with a "cloud-with-a-down-arrow" icon, means you have to download them (for free) onto your iGadget.

HDD pre-purchase question..

Hiya guys,
Im about to purchase the MBP, and was curious as to which HD i should choose. Im going to upgrade to the 1GB DDR2, (not two 512's) and was chooseing between 100GB vs 120GB, and noticed their priced the same, the difference is 5400 to 7200RPM's respectively. Anyone care to give me some input..? Any that doesnt involve.."search the forums, you lazy **" will be appreciated. Thanks.
Macbook Pro Mac OS X (10.4.5)

Well, it's all about your preference. The 7200 RPM drive is faster and should improve performance for apps that use the disk a lot (I really noticed when i went from 4200 -> 7200). However, if you have a LOT of data that you need with you on the machine at all time or if you do things that require tons of disk space (movie editing and such) then maybe you could benifit from the extra 20 gigs.
-----=====Hearsay below====-----
Another thing to consider is how fast each build is going out. In recent readings I have seen people saying that apple is understocked on the 7200 RPM drives right now including one person mentioning that an Apple CSR said that 7200 RPM drives are understocked. Now, take that with a grain of salt as it is purely rumor at this point. But it's another thing to consider if you're wanting the machine to go out as soon as possible.

Hello there ;-) Is there a big difference between a macBook Pro retina 2,7 GHz,earl 2013 and a 2,6GHz of end 2013, espqcially with the capacity processor? thanks

hello there ;-) Is there a big difference between a macBook Pro retina 2,7 GHz,earl 2013 and a 2,6GHz of end 2013, espacially with the capacity processor? thanks

read here http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/macbook_pro/macbook-pro-retina-display-faq /differences-between-macbook-pro-retina-display-early-2013-late-2013.html

Whats better for my mbp 2013 retina in the long run? Keep it plugged in as much as possible or letting the battery hit 10% and then recharge it?

Whats better for my mbp 2013 retina in the long run? Keep it plugged in as much as possible or letting the battery hit 10% and then recharge it?

Odd you ask that, since both are HORRIBLE,   ... especially often draining your battery low.
General consideration of your MacBook battery
Contrary to popular myths about notebook batteries, there is protection circuitry in your Macbook and therefore you cannot ‘overcharge’ your notebook when plugged in and already fully charged.
However if you do not plan on using your notebook for several hours, turn it off (plugged in or otherwise), since you do not want your Macbook ‘both always plugged in and in sleep mode’.
A lot of battery experts call the use of Lithium-Ion cells the "80% Rule", meaning use 80% of the full charge or so, then recharge them for longer overall life. The only quantified damage done in the use of Lithium Ion batteries are instances where the internal notebook battery is “often drained very low”, this is bad general use of your notebook battery.
A person who has, for example, 300 charge cycles on their battery and is recharging at say 40% remaining of a 100% charge has a better battery condition state than, say, another person who has 300 charge cycles on their battery and is recharging at say 10-15% remaining on a 100% charge. DoD (depth of discharge) is much more important on the wear and tear on your Macbook’s battery than the count of charge cycles. There is no set “mile” or wear from a charge cycle in specific. Frequent high depth of discharge rates (draining the battery very low) on a Lithium battery will hasten the lowering of maximum battery capacity.
All batteries in any device are a consumable meant to be replaced eventually after much time, even under perfect use conditions.
If the massive amount of data that exists on lithium batteries were to be condensed into a simplex, helpful, and memorable bit of information it would be:
1. While realistically a bit impractical during normal everyday use, a lithium battery's longevity and its chemistry's health is most happy swinging back and forth between 20% and 85% charge roughly.
2. Do not purposefully drain your battery very low (10% and less), and do not keep them charged often or always high (100%).
3. Lithium batteries do not like the following:
A: Deep discharges, as meaning roughly 10% or less on a frequent basis.
B: Rapid discharges as referring to energy intensive gaming on battery on a frequent basis (in which case while gaming, if possible, do same on power rather than battery). This is a minor consideration.
C: Constant inflation, as meaning always or most often on charge, and certainly not both in sleep mode and on charge always or often.
From Apple on batteries:
http://www.apple.com/batteries/notebooks.html
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1446
"Apple does not recommend leaving your portable plugged in all the time."
Keep it plugged in when near a socket so you keep the charging cycles down on your LiPo (lithium polymer) cells / battery, but not plugged in all the time. When not being used for several hours, turn it off.
DoD (depth of discharge) is far more important on the wear and tear on your Macbook battery than any mere charge cycle count. *There is no set “mile” or wear from a charge cycle in general OR in specific.    As such, contrary to popular conception, counting cycles is not conclusive whatsoever, rather the amount of deep DoD on an averaged scale of its use and charging conditions.
                          (as a very rough analogy would be 20,000 hard miles put on a car vs. 80,000 good miles being something similar)
*Contrary to some myths out there, there is protection circuitry in your Macbook and therefore you cannot overcharge it when plugged in and already fully charged
*However if you don’t plan on using it for a few hours, turn it OFF (plugged in or otherwise) ..*You don’t want your Macbook both always plugged in AND in sleep mode       (When portable devices are charging and in the on or sleep position, the current that is drawn through the device is called the parasitic load and will alter the dynamics of charge cycle. Battery manufacturers advise against parasitic loading because it induces mini-cycles.)
Keeping batteries connected to a charger ensures that periodic "top-ups" do very minor but continuous damage to individual cells, hence Apples recommendation above:   “Apple does not recommend leaving your portable plugged in all the time”, …this is because “Li-ion degrades fastest at high state-of-charge”.
                    This is also the same reason new Apple notebooks are packaged with 50% charges and not 100%.
Contrary to what some might say, Lithium batteries have an "ideal" break in period. First ten cycles or so, don't discharge down past 40% of the battery's capacity. Same way you don’t take a new car out and speed and rev the engine hard first 100 or so miles.
Proper treatment is still important. Just because LiPo batteries don’t need conditioning in general, does NOT mean they dont have an ideal use / recharge environment. Anything can be abused even if it doesn’t need conditioning.
Storing your MacBook
If you are going to store your MacBook away for an extended period of time, keep it in a cool location (room temperature roughly 22° C or about 72° F). Make certain you have at least a 50% charge on the internal battery of your Macbook if you plan on storing it away for a few months; recharge your battery to 50% or so every six months roughly if being stored away. If you live in a humid environment, keep your Macbook stored in its zippered case to prevent infiltration of humidity on the internals of your Macbook which could lead to corrosion.
Considerations:
Your battery is subject to chemical aging even if not in use. A Lithium battery is aging as soon as its made, regardless.
In a perfect (although impractical) situation, your lithium battery is best idealized swinging back and forth between 20 and 85% SOC (state of charge) roughly.
Further still how you discharge the battery is far more important than how it is either charged or stored short term, and more important long term that cycle counts.
Ultimately counting charge cycles is of little importance. Abuse in discharging (foremost), charging, and storing the battery and how it affects battery chemistry is important and not the ‘odometer’ reading, or cycle counts on the battery.
Everything boils down to battery chemistry long term, and not an arbitrary number, or cycle count.
Keep your macbook plugged in when near a socket since in the near end of long-term life, this is beneficial to the battery.
In a lithium battery, deep discharges alter the chemistry of the anode to take up lithium ions and slowly damages the batteries capacity for the cathode to transport lithium ions to the anode when charging, thereby reducing max charge levels in mAh. In short, radical swings of power to lithium cells disrupts the chemical ecosystem of the battery to hold charges correctly which likewise impedes the perfect transfer of lithium ions both in charging and discharging. In charging your lithium battery, lithium ions are “pushed uphill” (hard) to the anode, and discharged “downhill” (easy) to the cathode when on battery power. Deep discharges, damages this “upward” electrolyte chemistry for the battery to maintain a healthy charge and discharge balance relative to its age and cycles.
Optimally, in terms of a healthy lithium battery and its condition, it is most happy at 50% between extremes, which is why low-power-drain processors such as the Haswell are ideal on lithium battery health since a partially charged battery with a low-drain processor has, in general, much more usage in hours
Battery calibration, battery memory, battery overcharging, battery training, …all these concepts are mostly holdovers from much older battery technology, and on older Apple portable Macbooks ranging from early nicads, NiMh and otherwise; and these practices do not apply to your lithium battery and its smart controllers.
Calibrating the battery on older Apple portable Macbooks with removable batteries.
http://support.apple.com/kb/PH14087
There is no calibration of current Apple portable Macbooks with built-in batteries.
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1490
There is no battery calibration with current Apple portable Macbooks with built-in batteries. Lithium batteries have essentially a 0-‘memory’, and all such calibration involve the estimations fed to the system controller on the SOC (state of charge) of the battery over long periods of time as the battery degrades. The software based battery controller knows the battery's characteristics, or SOC and adjusts itself. This is why there is both no need and purpose to periodically deeply drain your macbook battery, since it doesn’t affect the characteristics of the battery, and further still deep discharges are something you should not do on purpose to any lithium battery.
From BASF: How Lithium Batteries work
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2PjyJhe7Q1g
Peace

What to buy? Macbook pro 13' retina 2,6 GHz (new 2013) i5 vs Macbook pro 13' 2,9 GHz i7?

What to buy?
Macbook pro 13' retina 2,6 GHz (new 2013) i5 vs Macbook pro 13' 2,9 GHz i7..?
I will use it for Photoshop, in design etc.
Is the old Macbook pro still better than the new retina, ore.

The MacBook pro 2.9 is also now a lot cheaper than the retina 2.6 and looks a lot faster and a better buy 2 me..?
I am absolutely not pro so i cant really know if i am right ore wrong..?
Which has the best performance and which has the slowest hard drive..?
I like to have a fast and small comp. which can be used for adobe photo, film edd. etc. without any problems. I will use an extern storage. And i have an extern screen.
I am so afraid that if i buy retina ore the other way around, that i have done a mistake..?
want to be absolutely sure..
13-inch: 2.9GHz (DKK11,699.00)
2.9GHz dual-core Intel Core i7
Turbo Boost up to 3.6GHz
8GB 1600MHz memory
750GB 5400-rpm hard drive1
Intel HD Graphics 4000
13-inch: 2.6GHz (DKK13,199.00)
with Retina display
2.6GHz dual-core Intel Core i5
Turbo Boost up to 3.2GHz
8GB 1600MHz memory
256GB flash storage1
Intel HD Graphics 4000

Just purchased a mbp and want to change permission on the hd, how?

Just purchased a mbp and want to change permission on the hd, how?

fgw1 wrote:
I can't copy anything to it. It is owned by "system" at least that has read write
Where are you trying to copy files to, What folder.
If you create a folder anywhere on the drive then You should have ownership of that folder. If you are trying to copy files to a System Folder then of course the system has ownership and will restrict access.
I Personally, in Lion, added my user account to the ROOT access of the Drive and given myself Read/Write access with no i'll harm, AFAIK.
Haven't done that in Mt Lion yet.

MBP 15in 2009 upgrading to an intel 320ssd from a windows laptop

So i have a toshiba r705 p35 that has an intel 320 series ssd, and i want to put that ssd in my mbp 15in 2009.
and put the hdd from the mbp in my toshiba.
can anyone help me with how i would go about this ? reformating and stuff
and with the intel 320 series i want to transfer my account from my work imac.
****heres the steps i was thinking of doing*****
remove hdd from MBP
use a sata to usb cable to make a second partition
back up my imac through time machine on to the removed MBP hdd
back up toshiba to another external hard drive
remove intel 320 ssd from toshiba
use sata usb cable to wipe the intel ssd and reformat to be a mac hard drive
install intel 320 ssd in MBP

You can download the SSD firmware at the Intel website. I'm not sure how you check on Windows 7. I try my best to avoid it.
On the Carbon Copy Cloner question, no. The iMac copy is going to be optimized for that machine. That's why I suggested it the way I did. Partition and format the SSD in an external enclosure attached to your MBP, then install the OS to it from there. You can use Carbon Copy to make an image of your iMac to a separate drive, since that's at work. Attach the 2nd drive via the USB enclosure and use Migration Assistant to bring everything over.

My MBP mid 2014 is using too much RAM

My MBP mid 2014 is using too much ram on kernel task, and some others what can I do to fix this?

To add to Tim's excellent advice, look at my numbers for my quad-core i7 iMac with 12GB RAM installed:
As you can see, the system has reserved almost all the available RAM but the swaps are zero and the memory pressure is on the bottom of the scale. My computer runs very fast.
RAM handling in OSX changed with OS10.9 and continues in 10.10. The measures you were using only apply to Mac OSX 10.8 and older.
If your swaps move up into the Gig range, you are probably using a bunch of RAM. You cannot upgrade RAM in a 2014 Retina model so it behooves you to avoid third-party utilities like "FreeMemory," keep an eye on Safari extensions, and be frugal with your user login items (System Preferences > Users and Groups > {your account} > Login Items tab).

Purchase Question: MBP Retina 2.3 GHz or MBP 15in 2.6 GHz? As much input as possible preferred.

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