What Apple hardware do we have?

[fu]

@uunix, a phone call is usually no good for restore discs. the kids that answer the phone calls come from the iPhone era.

see if you can pop-in at your local apple store and talk to the older guy you can find @the tech support. they’ll most likely give you a set of discs for free. every time i need support and am near an apple store, they go over their heads to help me.

you could also find ‘em floating around the internets

I did buy an OWC SSD for my MBP2011, and it didn't work. OWC replaced it, still didn't work.

i like these guys, been a customer ever since they opened up shop. they’re always there for me. quick and humane service :)

[robespierre]

Nope, intel only.

[ClassicHasClass]

I contacted Apple support the other day for the install media for my Dual 2.3 PPC Power Mac, and was told they cannot give support in anyway for a product over 10 years..

That means, no downloads, no ability to purchase my media disks.. nothing!

10 years...

The good news is that any retail boxed 10.4 or 10.5 CD will boot just fine and install the OS on it (I'd look for a 10.4.6 retail disc, but I think the 2.3 is early enough that a 10.4.0 retail disc should work).

[ClassicHasClass]

No, VPC predates VirtualBox. There's nothing on PowerPC OS X that reads VirtualBox images that I'm aware of.

However, there are various QEMU-based solutions (iEmulator comes to mind), and I think there were a few Bochs versions available. VPC had much better performance, though.

[guardian452]

it's different types o drives per model year AFAIK. they have been upgrading number of PCI lanes over the years. similar or same tech to what they have now is in reach of the consumer market however so i have hope this bit becomes officially user-serviceable again.

pretty sure you are voiding your warranty by replacing the drive in the current models, too. not gonna happen for me on what is essentially now a 3000 euro (all inclusive) notebook.

Yikes, around here a MBP is $1200. Euro really that bad nowadays? Besides, the warranty on this one expired quite some time ago, it's vintage!


Seems like a worthwhile upgrade You double the number of PCI-E lanes just by plugging in a bigger disk. (This one is from the tube-mac-pro, but it doesn't seem to have a bad effect on battery life).

And I have enough room for all of... everything!

[armanox]

I got off the Apple treadmill shortly after the Intel transition. I only have two Macintels, but this house is full of Old and New World Power Macs that live and do useful work.

I buy Apple hardware when the time feels right, but always am behind the curve. In 2005 I replaced a PowerMacintosh 6500 with a G4 Quicksilver, then my next Mac was a MBP 1,1 in 2010, that I replaced this year with a refurbished 2012 model (the last non-retina one). Other Macs, like my G5, have been received into my care over the years (I try not to turn away free hardware), but I generally do not put money into them (except for HDDs - I usually will buy HDDs. And sometimes RAM).

[fu]

Yikes, around here a MBP is $1200. Euro really that bad nowadays?

it ain't the euro, it is europe being in a state of denial; and the mess that made it become a copy of its own photocopy, all in the name of culture and civilisation. masturbation has many applications.

Seems like a worthwhile upgrade

abtholootly
all the usual baloney about specs and half-assed promises aside, the ssd is the best practical upgrade i’ve witnessed lately.

[jan-jaap]

Yikes, around here a MBP is $1200. Euro really that bad nowadays?

it ain't the euro, it is europe being in a state of denial; and the mess that made it become a copy of its own photocopy, all in the name of culture and civilisation. masturbation has many applications.

Cheapest MBP I can find is not $1200, but $1299 (US). I believe this doesn't include (state dependent) sales tax, but may be wrong. Same cheapest MBP costs € 1.449 in NL and that includes € 255 of tax. At the current exchange rate, € 1194 equals $1340.

So yes, Apple hardware is somewhat more expensive in Europe. And I'm sure you can configure € 3K worth of MBP, but that will buy you a different MBP, not 2 grand worth of masturbation. Although ...

FWIW: I bought my MBP while on business in the US.

[GIJoe]

well i am not looking for the cheapest MBP but for an upgrade for my current mid-level configuration.it's actually over 3000 euros if you factor in apple care and VAT which i was doing all along.

it seems i can't link to a specific custom configuration directly but if you use the german store and choose the 15 inch in the smaller config with only iGPU*, go for the mid-tier 2.5 ghz CPU upgrade, choose a 512 GB SSD and add applecare then the total comes to... 3078.
even if i leave out apple care or try and save a few bucks there by going via some 3rd party insurance this is still quite the shocking price IMO.


*after radeongate and the half-assed gfx card switching tech apple uses, i am so not touching laptops with multiple gfx chips again. better to keep it simple - and reliable.

[fu]

yep, of course different custom BTO options would fetch a different price, but still

*after radeongate and the half-assed gfx card switching tech apple uses...

since you brought this up, can someone explain to me what the hell is going on with gfx cards?

i’m part of a team (outside of apple) that provides real-use feedback on the “pro” apps, (those of you who know me understand that we don’t care about specs per se as long as the damn thing works for 18 hours straight without burping)

somewhere at the G5-era (which was a fest of transitions and experiments on standards that were supposed to come and stay in the industry) i remember testing Aperture on the then-latest G5 with 2 superpimped gfx cards and aperture was crawling to the point of wrist-cutting. the same era included final-cut revisions, the death of shake, etc.

after the transition to intel, i remember some plain MacBooks that were able to run Aperture smoothly with the anaemic intel integrated gfx card (by the previous trend no one would even spit on a integrated intel card). so what’s cooking? did the software get better (allowing us/them to use bog standard integrated gfx) or did the ex-anaemic gfx chip hit a “good enough” level?

[GIJoe]

from my POV the iGPU has long been sufficient as a regular gfx card. recent iterations even run pro apps at acceptable speeds, especially at laptop resolutions (retina might be an issue here though...). all while not making your laptop cook itself. it also helps that even old software like maya has moved away from relying on pro card features.

i work with gfx applications myself and it is rare that an app does not run at all - or crawl -on the iGPU's. occasionally you run into specific limitations that are not show stoppers. you can probably run autodesk smoke on these nowadays, even though it won't exactly be a supported setup...

[fu]

from my POV the iGPU has long been sufficient as a regular gfx card.

that reminds me of the film days. for a long time certain batches of Kodak film were so good that we could shoot for real with plastic lens instead of glass and no one could tell the difference.

i work with gfx applications myself and it is rare that an app does not run at all - or crawl -on the iGPU's.

oh wait man, it’s you. how are you doing? if you still see joerg, teleport my regards to him as well :)

[guardian452]

Yikes, around here a MBP is $1200. Euro really that bad nowadays?

it ain't the euro, it is europe being in a state of denial; and the mess that made it become a copy of its own photocopy, all in the name of culture and civilisation. masturbation has many applications.

Cheapest MBP I can find is not $1200, but $1299 (US). I believe this doesn't include (state dependent) sales tax, but may be wrong. Same cheapest MBP costs € 1.449 in NL and that includes € 255 of tax. At the current exchange rate, € 1194 equals $1340.

So yes, Apple hardware is somewhat more expensive in Europe. And I'm sure you can configure € 3K worth of MBP, but that will buy you a different MBP, not 2 grand worth of masturbation. Although ...

FWIW: I bought my MBP while on business in the US.

They have business (varies based on account, but ours and I think the vast majority was $100 for mbp) and student ($100 for MBP) discounts, I bought mine through work and delivered out of state, it was tax free.

I dont't know about their current deals, and I know the FTC and states are clamping down on interstate online orders not charging sales tax, but when I got my mbp, it was $1199.

More on topic, I got a 9.7 ipad pro (gold). Got fed up with typing a long email on my phone one day and said f- this... So I can't really say I don't have a "real" computer in the house anymore Did not buy a pencil, case, keyboard, or any other shenanigans, tho might get a pencil eventually but I suspect it would only be used for coloring book apps

[skywriter]

Recently bought a 2nd 30inch Cinema Display for the studio, and a 27 inch Cinema Display to pair with my 27 inch iMac. Also, bought a core 2 duo 2.66ghz dual core Mac Pro to try the latest OSX Server ($19.99 Woohoo!).

[josehill]

Also, bought a core 2 duo 2.66ghz dual core Mac Pro to try the latest OSX Server ($19.99 Woohoo!).

I presume that's a typo. I thought all Mac Pros had Xeons.