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New MacBooks announced
21 posts
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You beat me to the punch. 512 Gig SSD drives. Cool. But expensive. Wish they added back a card slot
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Very cool, mine will need an upgrade soon, but I won't be going for SSD, so expensive! You can upgrade the standard 500gb 5400 RPM to a 7200 RPM SATA for only $50 though...
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It's a shame they chose to keep using the Core 2 Duo in the 13" Macbook Pro instead of the i3 with an i5 upgrade. Apple had reduced the "Apple Tax" significantly in the past few years where they were only a few hundred dollars more than a comparable Windows laptop, but now there are quite a few Win7 laptops with i5's under a grand and they will smoke a 13" pro in just about any speed test.
Hate to see it, I was really hoping for a new i5 13" Macbook.
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Glad they are here, now to decide which one......!
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Very cool, mine will need an upgrade soon, but I won't be going for SSD, so expensive! You can upgrade the standard 500gb 5400 RPM to a 7200 RPM SATA for only $50 though...
Not on the 13" one, you can't, at least not through Apple. I'm torn between getting the base model and installing a 500GB 7200rpm hard drive, or getting the more expensive one with the faster processor and sticking with the 320GB 5400rpm drive it ships with. I'm thinking the faster, bigger hard drive is the way to go. If the machine is brand new, installing the operating system on it from scratch can't be all that difficult -- right?
Mike
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If the machine is brand new, installing the operating system on it from scratch can't be all that difficult -- right?
Fairly easy, it will come with system install discs. Put them in, then walk away for a bit while it does the install. There are options to customize as needed, but many things can be removed to save room and time. (i.e., printer fonts, extra language support, etc.) depending on your needs....
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I swap drives in and out all the time. Carbon Copy Cloner is your friend!
I used to use Super Duper, but this hangs up a lot less.
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I swap drives in and out all the time. Carbon Copy Cloner is your friend!
I used to use Super Duper, but this hangs up a lot less.
I love how I can clone drives using Super Duper or Carbon Copy Cloner on a Mac. Makes upgrading drives a snap. Has also saved my butt when I had a disk start failing, because I had a complete clone backup ready to boot from.
I wish there was as nice a backup solution for my Linux machines..
Linda
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I swap drives in and out all the time. Carbon Copy Cloner is your friend!
I used to use Super Duper, but this hangs up a lot less.
Very cool. So all I'd need to do is get a USB or firewire hard drive enclosure, put the new drive in it, clone the existing drive, then install the new drive and restart the MacBook? Sorry, I've built PCs before so am not used to things being easy.
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Very cool. So all I'd need to do is get a USB or firewire hard drive enclosure, put the new drive in it, clone the existing drive, then install the new drive and restart the MacBook? Sorry, I've built PCs before so am not used to things being easy.
If you are not transferring an existing computer (meaning a Mac that has been set up) it is usually better just to do an erase and install on the new hard drive as oppossed to cloning the drive. On the Mac you will usually be better off with FW due to transfer speeds (not sure if you are getting the MacBook or the MacBook Pro 13", one has FW connection, the other doesn't.) Also putting a HD into a MacBook may not be easy or not depending on how good you are with those things. I usually send my laptops out for HD upgrades myself
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Mike -- yes, but you need to remember to set your startup disk to the new drive. If you don't, the Mac may hang for 15-20 seconds before booting. (Startup Disk Preference Pane).
I use SuperDuper because I *know* that it works with encrypted user volumes, but if you aren't doing anything fancy, Carbon Copy Cloner is probably fine. I've never had SuperDuper "hang up" like Ryan has.
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I use SuperDuper because I *know* that it works with encrypted user volumes, but if you aren't doing anything fancy, Carbon Copy Cloner is probably fine. I've never had SuperDuper "hang up" like Ryan has.
Quick aside, on cloning encrypted volume it is better to boot off another volume to ensure a proper backup of the encrypted volume.
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Drew -- Looking at new unibody 13" macbook Pro.
Eric -- thanks for the tip. I'd assumed that it would default to whatever drive was in the MacBook as the startup if it was starting up from the internal drive before . . .
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Eric -- thanks for the tip. I'd assumed that it would default to whatever drive was in the MacBook as the startup if it was starting up from the internal drive before . . .
It will eventually find a boot drive, but it's better to tell it which one to look for first!
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with the diff in the new i5/7 processors in the 15/17 and the 13 still in the old school. Are we talking a major difference?
Mikey is in need of a new laptop and most likely going Mac...(ya ya, shut up Drew)
Will I gain anything major going with the 15 over the 13? other than a larger screen?
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with the diff in the new i5/7 processors in the 15/17 and the 13 still in the old school. Are we talking a major difference?
Mikey is in need of a new laptop and most likely going Mac...(ya ya, shut up Drew)
Will I gain anything major going with the 15 over the 13? other than a larger screen?
Glad to see you got back ok, we had fun on the Damai. The 15 inch pro is noticeably faster on final cut manipulations but for lightroom you can't really tell the difference (at least I couldn't) when opening a big (15K pictures) lightroom library. I didn't try the 17 since it is too big to schlep around but we might get the new 15.
Bill
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The difference between i5/7 vs Core 2 duo isn't huge when it comes to programs that use only up to 2 cores without hyperthreading. Only programs that can use hyperthreading like Compressor (only with Qmaster) will see a big benefit in i5/7. Still, dual GPU on the bigger machines and the QPI bus is faster than Core 2 duo for memory bandwidth. Those 2 things alone makes the 13" only viable if you must have small and light. You get improved performance (esp with GPU programs), higher res screen and bigger screen vs 1lbs less , less foot print and a few hundred $ for more bintang.
I'd go 15" but I like the real estate for writing. Personally, I'm waiting for real quad core mbp. There isn't a real reason for me to upgrade yet.
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Just purchased the new 15inch base model. I am really not that great on computers but going from my old pc to this new mac is really good. I love it
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Still, dual GPU on the bigger machines and the QPI bus is faster than Core 2 duo for memory bandwidth. Those 2 things alone makes the 13" only viable if you must have small and light. You get improved performance (esp with GPU programs), higher res screen and bigger screen vs 1lbs less , less foot print and a few hundred $ for more bintang.
I like small and light. I don't shoot video. I don't play games. I like to have money for Bintang. Yep, you just about summed up why I think I'm getting the 13"!
Mike
