I am looking for optibay recommendations for my MBP 17" mid-2010. I am not sure which one to get. MCE offers one, which I have looked at, but they are pretty pricy at almost 100 bucks. Then I saw another website, [URL] selling optical bay caddies for almost half that (~50 dollar range); and lastly even some on eBay for the 12$ range from US sellers.
View 7 Repliesthink this guide will be useful to anyone looking to install an SSD to accompany a larger capacity drive but is a little unsure how to tackle the cloning/file organization side of things with two drives.
View 1 Replies View RelatedI've been using a PC all my life. I currently have a 5 year old Dell 3100 desktop. I've decided to make the switch to a Mac. I have a lot of problems with my current computer, but it's 5 years old so it's expected I guess.
I'm pretty much decided on the Macbook Pro 13 inch model. I'm not a "hardcore professional" computer user, but more of a personal user. Here are some of my concerns:
1. I'm leaning towards the 2.4 Ghz model. The upgrade to a 2.66Ghz with an extra 50 Gb hard-drive is several hundred $$$ more expensive. Do you guys think the added $$ is worth the little extra processor speed and hard-drive size for a non-professional user?
2. Some people are telling me to wait for the 2011 Macbook Pro to be released. Obviously nobody knows exactly when that will be. I can wait a few months, but I'm not sure how much would change. Some people seem to think the processor on the 13' model is "outdated" and needs an i5 or i7. 2011 is just around the corner, so perhaps it might be worth "waiting" to see what upgrades come available.
Ive been reading a few different posts on the forum with regards to this, but thought I would ask the question anyway.
Just got my first MAC, Got the 13". Decided I didnt want to wait anymore, If the new ones are that good then I might sell the 13" in 12 months and get one of the new 15"s.
I've been trying to find a good, solid powered-USB hub to use with my Macbook Pro. I tried the Belkin 7-port, which had good reviews, but it just stopped working after 2 weeks, and it was never powering self-powered USB hard drives properly (even though it was supposed to).
So I'd like some recommendations for a good USB hub that has sufficient power to use with self-powered USB hard drives and that won't slow down or stop working when i connect too many devices.
On my Windows 2008 server desktop, I use a Core i7 i980 and SSD hard disk. I spend lots of time compiling in Visual C++/Windows.
Due to nature of my work (making apps), I need the highest possible CPU speed, highest possible HDD speed.
What kind of Mac do you recommend for such a user?
I need at least a Core i7/995 and SSD hard disk...
I'm looking to buy an eMac for a friend and trying to decide between two options. They're both combo-drive:
1. 1.25ghz with 1ghz ram with about 10 months left on the Applecare warranty;
or
2. 1.25ghz with 256 ram with basically zero mileage on it but no warranty (it's owned by a family friend who tried it for about a week and then went back to her old computer.)
Option 2 would be a little more expensive, plus more memory would be needed. I'm leaning toward 2 because hey, it's brand new, but I'm concerned about the lack of warranty.
I've run Hardware Test on it, got online, played around with the applications, and there are no issues. Is this about all I can do to test it out?
Also, how much of a factor is usage? Option 1 has been in use every day with some bigger applications- is it more likely to fail sooner? I realize there's no way to predict longevity, and from my own experience I know that Macs last forever, but I'm not familiar with eMacs and maybe there are some issues that I'm not aware of with them.
Note also that my friend plans to use this for a long time. She had an older eMac until now that she loved before it got stolen, and doesn't do anything more intensive than email-internet-digital photos.
A friend of mine wants to buy a "vintage" iMac. He's an interior designer so going for the iconic look rather than specs and looking at the original G3 style or the "pod" style G4s.
Now this will be used primarliy for web browsing, email, iPhoto and iTunes (streaming his music collection to Apple TV - about 50GB of music). He'd like it to run OSX and preferably Leopard.
I'm guessing (from memory) that the original iMacs are out of the question but can anyone suggest a spec he might look for? Maybe somebody that's still using one of these machines could give an opinion? Also, what's the max spec (cpu, hard drive, RAM) that he could expect to pick up?
I have a shiny new macbook and i need a good software phone that supports either SIP or IAX (prefer both) is reliable and can record calls. It would also be nice if it has support for G729.
So far I've found ZoIPer Business, which will set me back 36GBP($58 USD). I'm a bit wary of purchasing it, as I've used ZoIPer FREE and it seems to crash sometimes (i.e. it wont cleanly exit)
I've also tried X-Lite although this also seems very buggy and havent been able to make a successful call.
Is there something someone can recommend that they've used? or should i shutup and buy ZoIPer & not complain about the price?
since i switched to mac about two months ago ive been looking for a good p2p client. Back in the windows days i used ares and loved it. So now ive downloaded several other programs like: Acquisition, Hedera, Posioned, iSwipe and Limewire.
At least two of those are for different networks and none of them have worked except for limewire, but there is too much virus and spam in it. The best option would be a working client for ares network. Every other program just wont connect. Does anyone use iswipe by the way?
I need to setup a new version of gtk and glib2 on my Mac, but the only versions I can find are a bit stale (gtk 2.14) or don't seem to include a newer glib version.
View 2 Replies View RelatedI own an eMac (my first one) and overall, I'm extremely pleased with the machine. However, the fancy-appearing keyboard leaves much to be desired, and I'm looking for a new one. The Matias tactile pro keyboard looks promising, as does the Kensington, but I would be interested in everyone's opinion as to which keyboard has the best "feel." I'm not interested in bells and whistles, just basic utility and keyboard keys striking quality for long sessions on my word processor.
View 2 Replies View RelatedI'm looking for some feedback as to what speakers to get for an iMac 24" (when we finally get our hands on it)
It must: Be great for positional audio for gaming Perform brilliantly at producing my high bitrate iTunes library. Meet points 1 & 2 baring in mind my room is longer than it is wide - 8 feet wide by 13 feet long
It must not: Be a mess of wires - it's connecting to an iMac after all Exceed �200 (excl. P&P)
2.1 channel or 5.1 channel audio is fine, it's the quality I'm more concerned about.
I was wondering if there are any certain types of anti-theft locks for the iMac which I can securely lock onto furniture out there?
View 6 Replies View RelatedKeep track of hours of music listened to in say a continuous 2 week span. This can be synced through your ipod and within itunes itself. And give ratings related to how much hours of music you have listened to in the those 2 weeks. So if you've listened to I dunno 12 hours of music within that span, it'll keep track and give you a rating like: 'casual listener' or if you have totaled up 40 hours of music listening you're an 'avid music fan'. I dunno what to call them but I like knowing how much music I've really listened to recently and this would be cool.
Or to take it even further, see what genre (granted you have this organized in iTunes) that you're listening to most and this can go even deeper.
Like the title says; my dad's vision is getting progressively worse, so I'm looking to fix him up with a ridiculously bright, preferably very large monitor. He likes photography, so at least moderate color accuracy would be nice (video performance is completely irrelevant), but is secondary, since if he can't see it it doesn't much matter how good the color is. Not ridiculously expensive, also nice.
I can, of course, go sort monitors at Newegg by brightness and pick the highest one, but if some of the online tests are to be believed, the specced brightness isn't necessarily accurate, and that doesn't tell the story if it looks like complete crap otherwise.
On paper the Hanns�G HG-281DPB is ridiculous in brightness and size, but it's basically a TV (HDMI-only); I like ViewSonic and Samsung, but on paper most of their screens aren't notably bright.
I recently upgraded my stock HDD to a SSD and moved the HDD into the optibay. I was hoping that using the command pmset -a disksleep 1 would mean the 5400rpm drive would go to sleep after 1 minute of inactivity and I would get nice SSD silence It usually does but something is making it spin up again all the time. I am hardly running anything on my MBP.
View 5 Replies View RelatedI think this has been discussed but can't find it. In a SSD+HDD setup, should I put the SSD in the primary bay or in the optibay (replacing the superdrive). I believe there is a setup that has issues with sleep or motion sensor whatever, but I can't recall what the preferred setup is.
View 8 Replies View RelatedI'm using a Corsair 120 GB Force SSD, a MCE OptiBay Kit, and a Hitachi 500 GB 7200 rpm drive. Everything works great when the SSD is in the hard drive bay, and the Hitachi is in the OptiBay. I'd prefer to swap the arrangement so the Hitachi can be protected by the sudden motion sensor, but when the SSD is in the OptiBay OS X won't recognize it. I've tried booting from the install disc to use Disk Utility, but it only shows the Hitachi drive as if the SSD isn't in the machine. I've throughly checked the installation; it appears correct, and as I said everything works fine with the drives swapped. I've also tried resetting the PRAM and the SMC, per the instructions in Apple's KB.
View 6 Replies View RelatedIn need of a good video guide so i can get my optibay installed! I ordered the one from SMK something on ebay as per recommendations on searching this forum.
View 3 Replies View RelatedI have an SSD in place of the usual hard disk my MBP 13" came with to which i placed in the optibay. Since i did this (yesterday) ive noticed how noisy the drive is over just using the SSD alone.
Is there a way to either powerdown the optibay drive or 'eject' it when not in use for silence and prolonged battery life? Would you recommend it? Most of the time i will just use it as a netbook unless i download media to the optibay.
This is the future home of the optibay thorough guide.
First of, your here to add a second SSD/HDD to your notebook computer.
This article will cover your many issues / install problems / choices to me made:
1.1 - What laptop have
1.2 - What options do i have
1.3 - Installation and Setup
1.4 - RAID Arrays & Possible Issues
1.5 - Bootcamp !
Just got an optibay
[URL]
I had a problem with the computer not mounting the disc.
But solved this by swapping the locations. ie put the old hard drive in the optibay holder into the superdrive. Put the new one in the native bay.
I copied my entire system onto the new disc in the native bay, and am booting from that as its faster.
Its a 320gig 7200rpm disc.
The old drive in the optibay/superdrive bay is 120gig 3200rpm.
Still having troubles like:
occasional system freeze. Wake from sleep very slow. Sometimes 10 secs or more. Sometimes need to push power button.
The MacBook Pro is 2.26ghz 4gigs ram, only 1 or 2 gigs of my files on it. Up to date software (snow leopard 10.6.1).
MCE has virtually no tech support. Still waiting for a reply about why my disc didn't mount a week later (even though I already solved that).
Any ideas on why the bad performance?
Do you think the different speed drives is messing things up?
i've got an optibay installed in my uMBP for about 3 months now. In the optibay I have a 60 GB SSD, from which i boot. My other harddrive contains my OS X home folder & a bootcamp partition. I really love my setup, it's perfect for my, until I saw a buddy in my class boot his MBP: after he pressed the button, it took about 2 sec to show the apple logo. He doesn't have a SSD, and the exact same machine, and yet me manages to boot faster then me. (We also both have 10.6). I searched about this problem, and the only thing i could find was to make sure that your OS X partition is set as boot drive. Here is a screenshot of my boot drive menu: I found it strange that my bootcamp doesn't show up there. I always boot in bootcamp holding the alt key, not using this preference pane. Here is a video of my macbook booting: [URL] I found this ting called rEFIt?
View 13 Replies View RelatedDo we have any controls that will tell the drive to sleep when it can? it seems like the second HDD is always spinning.
I already set the options in "energy saver" to sleep when possible, but the drives still spin even when I am not using them.
Spent hours searching on MRoogle etc, couldn't find anything helpful, wondering if anyone else is having this problem.
I recently installed an Optibay in my new 2010 i5 2.4 MBP using Lifehacker's guide, which can be found here:
[URL]
I have an 80GB Intel X-25 SSD in the main hard drive slot, and a 500 GB Seagate Momentus XT in the Optibay. The OS and applications are installed on the SSD in the main slot, while my home folder and some Pro Tools session files are located on the Momentus XT connected via Optibay in the optical drive slot.
I installed a second HD in my Macbook Pro via Optibay.1st drive is SSD and second "normal" HD for data.When I boot I get a strange loop with the apple logo appearing and disappearing. It looks like my Mac does not know which of the two drives to choose for booting. Only when I press the options button before booting do I get the Bootcamp selector for Mac or Win which are both on the SSD.
As I use the second drive only for data, I want to make the SSD drive the "primary boot drive" without me having to press the option button on startup every time.
I am looking to do the optibay or DIY version, but what I want is a ssd for the boot drive, how big of one do I really need? Do all of the applications need to be on the boot drive as well or can some of them run off the secondary drive, which will be the 1TB WD Scorpio?
View 24 Replies View RelatedI've got an SSD in the HDD space, and a newmodeus HDD bay in the optical drive (same thing as the optibay). So what I was thinking was to install windows in a partition on the 500gb HDD. My SSD is only 80GB so I wanted to save space on that. Here is what I have tried:
Macbook set up with SDD and HDD, no optical drive.
Bootcamp will not let me install windows using an ISO image, needs a CD to install.
So I put my HDD in the HDD bay and put the optical drive back in. I then started up the macbook using a firewire drive (HDD has no OS on it, only the SDD does). Bootcamp then tells me it can't partition an external disk and I have to boot up using an internal disk (even though I WANT to partition the internal disk... bootcamp wouldnt let me get to that option running off a firewire drive). It seems like the only thing left is to just install windows on an SSD partition.
What are you guys using them for? I'm thinking strongly about going this route and using one for streaming my multi-sample library and audio files into Logic Pro and as an interim quick-bounce-while-composing drive before I dump the project file to an external drive.
Anybody using the Intel X-25M G2 (160GB, currently using for apps, OS,m and a most-used samples) with an OCZ Vertex 120GB? That would be more than enough internal storage for me as I make use of my external HDD via ExpressCard->eSATA all the time.
