All Things Mac/ Apple
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Cool Mega, it sounds good, but I've no experience with it. The best would be if Apple would release Fusion Drives you could use in the computer for the reasons I stated earlier–this Seagate appears to be a cache, file-based model, which is probably all you'd need, but not quite as good as what's possible.
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Basically spinning disks are the biggest bottlenecks as CPUs are incredibly fast nowadays and spinning disks just can't cope with the amount that can be processed/sent across the memory bus. Apps open withing a few ns, whereas with a spinning disk it may take seconds.
Depending on what you do with your computer, you will either never look back again or not notice at all or just a little imho. -
Honestly, I just never want to see the spinning beachball of doom again….it makes me irrationally angry
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+1 to the infinite power
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Hybrid SSD's still have a way to go. Seagate's long term reliability of it's hybrids is still up for debate when I last researched a few months ago.
What I would suggest doing in a MBP is converting the CD Drive to a SSD, and installing a nice beefy SATA drive with some decent space and RPM's in the normal HDD slot. This is the best of both worlds. You use the SSD for boot/applications so no auto-tiering, and HDD for slow.
Regardless of what you use, please ensure it's backed up somewhere as well as preferably off-site also (on OSX I really enjoy backblaze, it 'just works', and is cheap as chips).
Auto-tiering is a pain in the ass, great on paper, but generally does not live up to it's promise.
Keep it as simple as possible, less chance of it breaking.
Example of SSD in optical bay;http://www.mcetech.com/optibay/
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^ I initially planned on doing that, but got a 480 GB SSD instead.
If you can afford it just get a big SSD, otherwise Snowy's suggestion is definitely the best solution, who needs optical drives anyway these days.
edit: here is a helpful thread on macrumors -> http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1347247
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Timely discussion, my 2009 MBP 13" fell over a week ago - opened it and was presented with the white screen and spinning wheel. Long story short, I decided that a specialist would be better than Apple, and they diagnosed a faulty HD and overheating logic board, so I'm taking the opportunity to upgrade as part of the repair, namely 4GB RAM and a 750GB Solid State Hybrid Drive (7200rpm, 6Gb/s), and it'll be interesting to see the improvements this brings. In terms of cost it was pretty reasonable (£250 all in), especially if I get another 4yrs use out of it.
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I'm going the OptiBay route as soon as i've finished ripping all my DVDs/CDs. I'll be glad to see the back of 'em TBH and can then use the space for vinyl instead. This MBA is the first SSD based system i've owned and it's great, especially when combined with my new TB display. I often use an iMac with a Fusion drive for audio work and it does seem fairly snappy, but not as much as the Air.
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Is this a good deal? I need a new comp
http://www.styleforum.net/t/355711/macbook-pro-15-4-8gb-ram-500gb-hd-mountain-lion-mint/0_50
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Is this a good deal? I need a new comp
http://www.styleforum.net/t/355711/macbook-pro-15-4-8gb-ram-500gb-hd-mountain-lion-mint/0_50
No. You can find better deals than that if you want used. That processor is quite old. Don't buy a used Macbook Pro unless it has at least an i7 processor. PM me anything else you find and I'll tell you if it's a good deal, etc.
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I'm going the OptiBay route as soon as i've finished ripping all my DVDs/CDs. I'll be glad to see the back of 'em TBH and can then use the space for vinyl instead. This MBA is the first SSD based system i've owned and it's great, especially when combined with my new TB display. I often use an iMac with a Fusion drive for audio work and it does seem fairly snappy, but not as much as the Air.
The dual HDD setup on a macbook Pro is amazing. I have the Data Doubler from OWC in mine. I used the DVD drive maybe once. Now, I have the extra internal HDD setup as a backup for Time machine.
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I think the smartest place to buy Macs are through their refurb section. Or if you find exactly what you want, search for it on eBay. But eBay is filled with crap, so be careful.
Also, once you find something you like go to http://everymac.com/ultimate-mac-comparison-chart/?compare=all-macs and look up the mac's specs. Look at the GeekBench scores. The higher the better.
For example, the macbook pro you asked about scores like 3800 on geekbench. Even the newest cheapest macbook Air scores twice as high.
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New Mac Pro looks pretty amazing (spec-wise that is, physically it looks a bit like a waste paper basket) but will no doubt be super spendy. Thunderbolt 2 already….really?
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Not a fan of the aesthetic. I also don't like how it's taking the soldered down approach into the professional desktop range. I think it's a miss but we will see.
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Yeah, I've upgrade my MBP a few times, and likely will 1-2 more times before it heads out the to the /dev/rand in the sky.
That said the new Pro's are Flash and RAM upgradeable that's all you need for a desktop PC. The CPU's are fast enough for years on end and are usually bottlenecked by Disk/RAM. Thunderbolt any devices for space and Robert's your mother's brother.
