13 inches! (mac)
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- Juanmonk
My 17'' MacBook Pro (2008) finally died, logic board failure and the screen is mashed. I was using it primarily as a desktop and sometime runaround. I used it occasionally with a shitty 22" external monitor but was never that happy with the rez. So ...
I went on to the Mac store and was about to order a new 17" only to discover I can get a 27" iMac (refurbished) and a 13" lower end for the same price as a new 17". I have a working SSD from the old MacBook that I would install in the 13" and 8gb of ram too. Either that or maybe get an Air instead of the 13" MacBook. I hear the Air's are pretty good these days, good info here ...
http://blog.frankchimero.com/pos…
I'm wondering if any of you have any experience working on a 13"? I would be using the 27" for majority of work and the 13" a few days a week with CS5. How do the Air and 13" MacBook run? Are they pure shite? Wondering if I should just go with the 17". Please share your knowledge!
And the first one to write a thread title dick joke gets a slap!;)
- section_0140
I love the 13" personally. Perfect size for a laptop. Most of the time, it's hooked into an external monitor, but I have no trouble using it's screen out and about.
I'm coding php and objective c more than using photoshop these days though.
- good to know man, cheers! What specs you got if you don't mind?Juanmonk
- CyBrainX0
You should go to an Apple Store and check out the 13". It's far smaller than what you're used to.
P.S. I'm sure there have been many dick joke thread titles before. There are a LOT of dickheads around here.
- genfourth0
I would get a 15" and a 24" lcd (not apple, too much $, preferably an ips panel) to plug it into at home
- mg330
Juanmonk,
Did they say that they would replace the logic board? Is it the logic board that is fried, or the video card? Did you have them do any testing?
My 2007 MBP had a bad video card last year, and they replace the whole thing for free. They run a diagnostic program to see if it's the logic board or video card - video card is attached to the logic board, so if it's shot and under warranty (the NVidia card in mine was) it means the whole logic board gets replaced.
- ernexbcn0
Keep in mind MBA tops at 4GB of RAM, people say that since they have SSD you don't notice much when it swaps but it's good info to keep in mind.
- Juanmonk0
^ CyBrainX, I checked them out today and really liked the look of them, but that's exactly what I was worried about - not being used to working so small. It just seems crazy to spend all that money on one when I can spread it out over two.
@genfourth I've been mulling that over as - I'm as indecisive as they come.
@mg33 Yeah, made them test it twice and he's telling me it's not the logic board, but I'm pretty sure it is. It was having crazy flash seizures and stalling, would have to do a hard shut down. Now it doesn't start at all, It's showing all the signs of the NVidia fail as I looked extensively online about it, but he's telling me if it passes the test it can't be that. The genius bloke was useless, he said it needs a new shell for the screen? I know it's not a hard drive issue as I just put a new one in.
- I have a 15" i7mbp and travel a lot and that is my preferred setup. why have two machines?genfourth
- Go to a different store or an Apple certified service (not Apple themselves) if you have those in your country.raf
- would like a desktop for office, lappy for out and about etc. Maybe a bit indulgent ...Juanmonk
- thunderbolt could be the answer. I'll try another shop first and all, cheers.Juanmonk
- monospaced0
One of the 27" iMacs is the fastest Macs Apple has ever made, beating out even the Pros. Enough said. Oh wait, they also come with 27" displays.
- dMullins0
If you decide to go with the 13" MBP and use a Cinema Display or Thunderbolt, you should really max out the RAM. My 13" runs shite when it has to power that, even at 4GB pre-installed. I'll be upping as soon as I can.
- formed0
Huh, only lasted 3 years? Maybe I'll stick to Dell's afterall...:-)
- HijoDMaite0
I just got a 13" MBP last month. yours only lasted 3 years??? wtf? can you explain?
- raf0
http://support.apple.com/kb/ts23… Apple should replace your old Mac's logic board for free, they replaced mine twice.
- raf0
I have the new 13" MB Air as my main computer running a 30" ACD. I can't recommend it enough. Current Airs are very fast, faster than last year's 17" Pros.
Mine is a 1.7GHz i5 but there is a 1.8GHz i7 version if you have doubts about performance—it supposedly offers an up to 10% speed increase.
The Air replaced a 17" MBP which turned out to be too bulky to carry around. I wouldn't even consider MBP 13", it has lower screen resolution than the Air and it is much heavier, almost as heavy as the 15".
A lot of people prefer to have an iMac and a laptop combo but I never liked syncing two computers.
I chose to have best of both worlds: a computer that is very portable and also very capable as a desktop machine.
If you can combine yours with a Thunderbolt display, that's a perfect solution.I will be upgrading SSD on my Air at some point with a larger and twice as fast 6G SSD from OWC, can't imagine how fast it'll get after that.
- cool, thanks man! I much prefer the look of the Air. What progs you running on it - the usual?Juanmonk
- CS5, Windows via Parallels. It's probably not the best choice for 3D stuff and gaming but does all I throw at it.raf
- It has no firewire, no ethernet so having thunderbolt display as a hub could be very handy.raf
- Juanmonk0
I wish I could explain. Gotta love the way it goes tits up just as the AppleCare expires, perfect timing!
It was stalling at the apple logo on boot about a month ago, just the spinning wheel. I tried a repair/verify with single user mode (as I had no working optical drive for repair with start up disc) with the '/sbin/fsck -fy' command with no luck. I tried live verification with 'diskutil' with no luck. From what I could see I had a failed hard drive, took it into the Mac shop and a "genius" agreed.
So I took out the HD and stuck in an SSD and added some extra RAM for good measure. New battery and did a software update. It ran very speedy for a few weeks. Then it started having mad crazy violent screen flash seizures, then crash. I would do a hard shut down and it would start again fine, then after a few hours the same again, this went on for a few days. Now its completely dead.
After looking on google it seems a lot of folk were having the same issues with late 2007/2008 models, appears it's down to the Nvidia GeForce 8600 GPU ...
http://support.apple.com/kb/ts23…
I took it into the mac shop and the kid tells me its "probably something to do with the shell casing or screen"? He's looking shifty, and I know he ain't that sure, so I ask him to do some tests - he says its fine.
It's not.
- akrok0
don't worry, there's a case for it....
