MacBook :: From MBP To MBA To Aluminium MB Reviews ?
Mar 1, 2009
In the last month I decided that I wanted more portability for my laptop so I decided to get a new one.At first I was going to get an alum macbook but I was scared off by all the critcism of the screen quality.Then I was going to get a Rev B Air but I was tempted by the refurb A prices so I bought a 1.8/SSD rev A. Nice machine but I was not happy with the performance or the compromises (Hulu video stutter, Eyetv download of old camcorder movies stutter, ichat video stutter, lots of beach balls as I was scrolling in Safari, fans blaring at 6500 rpms with RSS screensaver, etc). I was depressed as I did not want to spend the big bucks for a MBA rev B, so I decided to look at the Alum macbook again. I read a thousand posts here and headed off to the Apple store with my thumb drive filled with all kinds of pictures in hand. After viewing many pictures at all kinds of angles, comparing with the Air, I decided the screen wasn't near as bad as the hype. So off to ebay to find a deal. It took 1.5 hours to do a 15GB time machine migration over wifi. Here is my review.
I remember a lot of complaints about the old MBPs having problems with the aluminum denting and I was wondering if people are having the same problems with the new aluminum MBs. How are they holding up overall? Are people mostly happy with them, particularly compared to the previous models?
How to identify if it's a refurb or new?i'm going to buy a mb alum 2.4ghz from someone I met and he claims it's new, i just want to be sure if it is.maybe the box? or the warranty says it's a refurb? I don't know please tell me.
Alright, im currently decoding a dvd in handbrake, running itunes, and safari.My computer is using 99% cpu and has 2.75gb ram available(out of 4gb)The CPU temperature is 85CThe fans are running at 6220 rpm.Does this all sound about right? Should my CPU usage be 99% when im decoding a dvd, using itunes, and browsing in safari?The available ram is of little concern to me. I just upgraded to 4gb.Should my CPU be so warm? Isn't 85C pretty hot for a 2.4 Core2duo? What are the limits of this chip?Seems to me like the fans are running at max
Knowing all of us followers of this machine, I was actively waiting for this announcement.Keeping this simple, I was excited to get 4g ram (finally) and bumped up to a 256gb SSD- so I ordered up yesterday asap.However, I am having second thoughts
New owner of a Alum Macbook 2.4/4gig coming from a Macbook Air Rev B/SSD. My question about the Macbook is the fans, I feel like even when just Safari is on, my fans are on at a constant hum at 1994rpm-2000rpm. Is that normal? Even when nothing is open? My Macbook Air was dead silent but then again that was with ssd. Would like to hear your opinions.
The tech sites and macrumor fanatics have really been slacking off, the day is almost over and noone picked up a new mbp from apple store and took it apart yet? We need answers!!!
1) What kind of ssd is it using 2) Does graphic auto switch work good? 3) Are there any performance difference between 256 vs 512mb graphic card 4) Can any 2.5" ssd still be installed
I'm planning to upgrade the macbook 2.4 with a SSD drive, I'm looking for a 256Gb Samsung, I know Intel is better but I need more space than 160Gb I'm doing fine or there are better options than the Samsung?
My MacBook has consistently been giving off a hissing sound, as if air was escaping somewhere, from the front right side of the machine. I find if I press lightly in the right place, the noise all but ceases. I was wondering if there was a (safe) way to apply the same pressure permanently.
Info: MacBook (13-inch Aluminum Late 2008), Mac OS X (10.7.3)
K this is my quick ass beta review of the new Macbook Air 2.0 . it will be updated with new information as time goes by. I want to see the gaming aspects of this incredible machine.
[URL]
Please post your thoughts and reviews on the new machine.
i'm looking into fixing up my white plastic macbook 13.3" and i was wondering if anyone knows if its possible to put the nicer screen from the aluminium macbook into my plastic one??
Found a small scratch on the lid of my fairly new unibody macbook. My first one But hey, it's probably bound to happen one of these days. Anyone have any bright ideas to remove it?
This is what I've tried so far in a logical step in a progressively abrasive fashion:
1. Simple glass cleaner (thought it was dirt when I first saw it) 2. iKlear Apple Cleaner 3. Klasse Scratch and Swirl Remover (German car polish) 4. Meguiar's Nxt Gen Metal Polish
i noticed this morning when i plugged in a (full size, ac powered) external harddrive that there were sparks generated between the aluminium casing of the macbook and the outer metal piece on the usb plug. If i rub the usb port along the aluminium then i can make sparks.
i have been putting this off as i got told apple will most likely not fix it but do you think they will ill have to go to an authorized service provider as there is not apple store here.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TA1ihGuGrTsand that sound is not made by it been on that stand as it does it while on the table i only used to stand to life it up for the camera.
unsure if this has already been done, but i wouldn't mind having MBAir owners post their xBench results here...i would like to have the results for all 8 configurations eventually..shouldn't be too difficult to get all of the info I'll start it off with the xBench results for the rev B 1.86 SSD config.
If you had to take an educated, when do you guess the Rev. B aluminum MacBooks will be released? (Yes, of course no one knows, and that's why the operative word here is guess.)
I've been pouring over the various threads on this forum and around the internet and I thought that I would share what I feel is the most useful info out there regarding the 5400 vs 7200, size, heat and noise issues.
Web designers or the like,I'll be buying a 15" MBP for Web Design (as well as obviously other casual use) and still undecided on whether to get a standard res or high-res.From your experience, when designing sites, do you find the standard-res too little (i.e. do you design for bigger screens, meaning you'll need to keep scrolling around) or do you design for a similar sized screen to the one you use and the browsers upscales/downscales the site accordingly?
Title pretty much says it all. Will this case fit the new macbook:http://goincase.com/products/detail/...sleeve-cl57148Or does anyone know anything similar for the macbook?
OK these are fairly basic questions i think. Firstly I was considering upgrading the 2GB RAM to 4GB on my macbook, but firstly wanted someone to explain what activity monitor is telling me about my memory. There is Free, wired, active, inactive and used. I can work out what free and used mean lol, but what do the other 3 mean. Right now it says I have 9.8MB free lol, so im guessing i am in desperate need of an upgrade, or is that normal?
Secondly if i am going to upgrade, can someone give me some advice on which are the best brands to get for RAM? is it simple enough to install yourself or should i take it to a apple store?
OK last think was about my hard disk space. If I put my macbook to sleep witout shutting down i notice my hard disk space decreases (though it appears to recover it when i do restart it). I havent shut it down since sunday, and its gone down about 4GB!? is that normal?
So it turns out that the unibody iSight camera in my i7 17" is only 640x480 which is a dealbreaker for me as I need to do HD videoconferencing on the go. An external camera is not an option, neither is a Windows laptop.
I had an initial thread in Mac Software as I initially thought it was just a Safari 4 Beta issue.(Original thread here)But since then, it's spread from Safari 4 to my trash can and now to Numbers and Pages (It has not done anything to Keynote), the bottom panel (but not the top one) in Yahoo messenger... Even the silver navigation bar on the Apple website shows up as this weird metallic brown.What's even weirder is that the trash can is the normal silver metallic when the OS first loads and then changes to the brownish one. No amount of messing with display settings helps. Resetting the NVRAM initially got everything back to normal, but then boom, it's all stuck.
