I don't think the SSD swap (and even the dual boot HDD and SSD configuration) really takes an "advanced" user to do, it's very straight forward and there are some very easy to follow and exact to detail videos online to use.
Considering saving up for a Mac book air. Some questions though.
- Thread starter RavenSword
- Start date
Mr.Willie
Well-known member
The new Airs have the HD 5000, plus he's saving his money and hopefully the MBP and the iMacs are updated soon. But that's not the reason for this post... You state that you're an Apple employee, do you have any inkling of how much damage the new MacPro is going to do to someone's wallet ???
cardfan
Well-known member
I don't think he mentioned the Mac Pro.
Personally, I think the MBA would be a poor buy for his only computer that he has to save up for. It's hard to gauge one's needs. Needs change. Especially as you get more experience. How many users' needs changed after they got their first smartphone? All of a sudden it went from needing a phone, web, and ipod put together to something else.
I would consider the iMac, a mac mini with a monitor, a non-retina MBP, or wait til fall for the newer retina MBPs (and even then look at the 15" refurb or new). It really depends on how much bang for the buck he wants, how mobile he is, etc. To be honest, if I was going to spend that kind of money on an Apple laptop, I'm looking at the retina models, and of those, the 15" which have quad core and video card. Getting a large monitor would be decent as well. You could always get a Mini later or hook up the laptop.
sting7k
Well-known member
Get a PC that is half the cost and then you can still afford to buy all the nice software you will need as well.
It's worth double the price and stay in the Mac family (at least to me it is)...it's bad enough to be forced to use Microsoft for work, lol.
Fausty82
Well-known member
I hear that. Thankfully at work, we all migrated to Red Hat linux... so I am officially Windows free - and almost Microsoft free (still use MS Office for Mac)...
You could not run fast enough to give me another Windows machine. <-- just my not-so-humble opinion
pizzafootbal
Well-known member
An iMac is going to give you the best performance for the price. If you aren't going to use the computer outside your house, go for the iMac. But, if you need portability, go for a good MBA.
The iMac is really only going to offer better native internal storage...the same price iMac is an i5 processor model, and costs another $200 for the i7 variant. With the cheap prices of internal storage these days, and even upgrades to SSD, the iMac really isn't any more or less a value than the MacBooks, unless of course you just want the nifty screen, and even still, you're not going to get the big boy (27") unless you spend a good bit more.
iMac's are wonderful, i have one in me and my wife's office...but they arn't really some magic value.
Fausty82
Well-known member
And I would argue that the MBP is actually easier to open and upgrade than is an iMac... I love the one we have, (2011/i5/21") but I would not want to open it up to upgrade the components... (memory still has the access plate on the underside of the screen, but wouldn’t tackle anything else.)
You make a valid point with this...though I will admit that the hard drive is quite easy to replace (I've done it a couple of times). It's also important to point out that iMacs will eventually fall victim to obsolete screen sizes. Right now our 27" iMac is beautiful, it sits amazingly on our desk, it looks as awesome as it performs, but I know in 10 years (if we keep it that long), the screen size will be staring us in the face while the latest and greatest is offering some insane 4K displays with sizes in the range of 40" and many more options vs. what our monitor has.
When you look back at the early 2000's, when the first iMac's came out, those colorful and translucent displays were the state of the art "next big thing", people bought them up and displayed them in a way that I feel we do with our iMac now...you want people to see the design of it, you want to show it off. Now...those things are ancient looking, and I'm afraid these will be the same later this decade.
Fausty82
Well-known member
I have a question about the hard drives for the iMac... is there a specific (set of) drive(s) for that machine? I know that Apple has added thermal sensors to the drives in the iMac... what is actually involved in swapping out a drive?
Ours is a 2011, and I did an SSD swap into it (we use externals for further storage needs)...it's not a job for a novice, that's for sure, but I simply ordered the SSD from the same place as i did for my macbooks so I'm not sure if the drive itself is particular to the iMac or not. Here's the video if anyone wants to do the same, it's not really difficult if you have experience with this stuff, but might look like a nightmare to newbies...
OWC Internal SSD DIY Kit for all Apple 27" iMac 2011 Models - YouTube
Fausty82
Well-known member
I’ve built lots of PCs (in a former life), so I am capable, and not afraid to tackle such a task... the video makes it seem simple enough... several steps, but nothing too difficult.
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No thermal sensor that I saw on ours (it's been a while since i did it)...If i remember correctly, it has something to do with data snagged from the SATA cable...our fans have never gone crazy though since the upgrade, acoustically they have been quite tolerable (even in a quiet office). I'm also running smc's fan control software so that probably helps too (I run that on everything i have).
Fausty82
Well-known member
WhiteSpir1t
Well-known member
Ok. Here's my experience:
If you got the money and feel that 8GB RAM is all you'll ever need then go for it.
You're going to run games so modular graphics might be a something you wan for the long run.
I use my 2011 11" MBA for school and web and portability due from weight and thickness. No games. The RAM is soldered and not upgradeable so of youre going for one, and only going to buy once, then go for the highest spec.
I'd say for you go with MBP. You won't regret it. MBA is not geared for performance which you're looking for. Pay heed now or pay with money later. Out.
Ok, I think I'm actually going to go for a iMac.
There's a few reasons for this:
Honestly, I don't think I need a portable computer, at least in the foreseeable future. The classes I take don't require me to have a laptop at school or in class. And honestly, I wanted a solid computer to use at home. So, for price to performance ratio, I think the iMac is a better deal, no?
And if I did want to do occasional gaming, wouldn't iMac perform better?
Now it comes down to if I want to buy the 21 inch and that will suit my needs or if I need to spend almost 2000 dollars on the 27 inch model. What model and configuration would I need? (obviously, the Haswell update is gonna throw all this off.)
There's a few reasons for this:
Honestly, I don't think I need a portable computer, at least in the foreseeable future. The classes I take don't require me to have a laptop at school or in class. And honestly, I wanted a solid computer to use at home. So, for price to performance ratio, I think the iMac is a better deal, no?
And if I did want to do occasional gaming, wouldn't iMac perform better?
Now it comes down to if I want to buy the 21 inch and that will suit my needs or if I need to spend almost 2000 dollars on the 27 inch model. What model and configuration would I need? (obviously, the Haswell update is gonna throw all this off.)
To be honest with you, the only real consideration you should have between the two is whether you'll ever want to be portable with it or not...if you don't need it to be, the iMac is the better option. Which one you get, as has been covered a thousand times already, is up to what you need it to do and your budget.
I own a 2011 27" imac and find the larger screen somewhat of a mixed blessing.
First, font sizes don't scale properly in OSX. You will find that with the 2560x1440 resolution, fonts will appear comically small (and there isn't any way to increase them). I had eye strain in the beginning, that eventually took 2-3 weeks to get used to. These are things that become apparent only after days of extended usage, and isn't something you can get a feel of at the Apple Store.
2nd, the graphics card for the base model isn't really sufficient to power modern games at full res. When gaming in bootcamp for example, I typically run games like darksiders2 at 1920x1080 windowed mode, because it looks horrible in full-window mode, or lags at full-res. I think the high-end model might be out of your budget. It will support popular Blizzard titles like Diablo3 and Starcraft2 at decent resolution though.
3rd, I find that the screen is excellent for working on full-screen excel spreadsheets or viewing word documents 2-3 pages at a time. However, when surfing the web, I typically have to stretch Safari to about 2/3 of the screen's length to be able to view the contents comfortably, which doesn't really leave room for another app open (resulting in a lot of wasted space). Chrome scales better in this regard, but I like to keep to Safari across all my Apple devices.
I still don't regret my choice, but given the nature of my needs, I sometimes wonder if I might have been better off with a 21" imac + 21.5" display, a mac-mini with two 23" monitors (I just don't have the time to game these days), or even a thunderbolt display (but I share my imac with my dad, and sexy as the idea sounds, the total cost at the time was outside of my budget).
If you plan to game, I recommend the base 21" imac (I find it the safest choice). If you can live without gaming, a mac mini would work just as well.
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