The Official Mac Thread (Docs, Themes, Apps, Etc.)

[thegoat121886]

Originally Posted by bjamez20

When it comes to external displays if I do so happen to get one, are the apple ones that much better? hell they cost more then a high end Flatscreen

i've got a 27" apple cinema display and it's great...but is it worth the $$? i doubt it, go for something else for like 1/3 the price
yeah there are plenty out there that are better than the apple ones. NEC and Dell make very good monitors.

 

[luckyluchiano]

Originally Posted by thegoat121886

Originally Posted by bjamez20

When it comes to external displays if I do so happen to get one, are the apple ones that much better? hell they cost more then a high end Flatscreen

i've got a 27" apple cinema display and it's great...but is it worth the $$? i doubt it, go for something else for like 1/3 the price

yeah there are plenty out there that are better than the apple ones. NEC and Dell make very good monitors.


do either of you have a SSD in your MBP? I remember hearing about apple installing the OS on SSDs but i dont think they ever started to do that though.

 

[bjamez20]

i dont have an SSD or a MPB (iMac) but yea you can have them install the OS and your apps on an SSD and its supposed to run a lot faster. apple charges a dumb amount for the SSD option though

 

[thegoat121886]

Originally Posted by LuckyLuchiano

Originally Posted by thegoat121886

Originally Posted by bjamez20



i've got a 27" apple cinema display and it's great...but is it worth the $$? i doubt it, go for something else for like 1/3 the price

yeah there are plenty out there that are better than the apple ones. NEC and Dell make very good monitors.

do either of you have a SSD in your MBP? I remember hearing about apple installing the OS on SSDs but i dont think they ever started to do that though.

i do not (the cost is my issue), but if you mean using an SSD as a master drive and installing a second slave drive for documents and media, that's always an option (one best left to leaving Apple out the mix). they offer SSDs as substitutes for HDDs, but they charge a heavy premium. If that's the route you wanna take, you're better off buying the SSD separately and installing it on your own. then you can take the HDD that came with the computer and use that as a slave drive in place of your optical bay (that thing probably never gets any use anyway) 

 

[luckyluchiano]

Originally Posted by thegoat121886

Originally Posted by LuckyLuchiano

Originally Posted by thegoat121886

yeah there are plenty out there that are better than the apple ones. NEC and Dell make very good monitors.

do either of you have a SSD in your MBP? I remember hearing about apple installing the OS on SSDs but i dont think they ever started to do that though.

i do not (the cost is my issue), but if you mean using an SSD as a master drive and installing a second slave drive for documents and media, that's always an option (one best left to leaving Apple out the mix). they offer SSDs as substitutes for HDDs, but they charge a heavy premium. If that's the route you wanna take, you're better off buying the SSD separately and installing it on your own. then you can take the HDD that came with the computer and use that as a slave drive in place of your optical bay (that thing probably never gets any use anyway) 

Has the cost of SSDs in general dropped? cause Youd think they would have dropped smh

 

[thegoat121886]

Originally Posted by LuckyLuchiano

Originally Posted by thegoat121886

Originally Posted by LuckyLuchiano

do either of you have a SSD in your MBP? I remember hearing about apple installing the OS on SSDs but i dont think they ever started to do that though.

i do not (the cost is my issue), but if you mean using an SSD as a master drive and installing a second slave drive for documents and media, that's always an option (one best left to leaving Apple out the mix). they offer SSDs as substitutes for HDDs, but they charge a heavy premium. If that's the route you wanna take, you're better off buying the SSD separately and installing it on your own. then you can take the HDD that came with the computer and use that as a slave drive in place of your optical bay (that thing probably never gets any use anyway) 

Has the cost of SSDs in general dropped? cause Youd think they would have dropped smh

they have dropped significantly, but they're still quite expensive compared to the space you get. You could pick up a small 40-80GB for sub-$200 (even cheaper on clearance) but as a one size fits all option, it's not very viable for people with massive amounts of data (unless they opt for the slave + master drive setup). For my next computer i plan to install a small 80 GB SSD and a 1TB HDD, whatever the cost may be. If apple pulls that propietary eSATA @$%+ they did with the iMac on the MBP i promise i'm buying my first PC

 

[november33rd]

Anybody use iWork instead of Office for Mac? How do they compare?


I was thinking of getting iwork because it's a lot cheaper but I've been using office my whole life.

 

[omgitswes]

Originally Posted by thegoat121886

Originally Posted by LuckyLuchiano

Originally Posted by thegoat121886

i do not (the cost is my issue), but if you mean using an SSD as a master drive and installing a second slave drive for documents and media, that's always an option (one best left to leaving Apple out the mix). they offer SSDs as substitutes for HDDs, but they charge a heavy premium. If that's the route you wanna take, you're better off buying the SSD separately and installing it on your own. then you can take the HDD that came with the computer and use that as a slave drive in place of your optical bay (that thing probably never gets any use anyway) 

Has the cost of SSDs in general dropped? cause Youd think they would have dropped smh

they have dropped significantly, but they're still quite expensive compared to the space you get. You could pick up a small 40-80GB for sub-$200 (even cheaper on clearance) but as a one size fits all option, it's not very viable for people with massive amounts of data (unless they opt for the slave + master drive setup). For my next computer i plan to install a small 80 GB SSD and a 1TB HDD, whatever the cost may be. If apple pulls that propietary eSATA @$%+ they did with the iMac on the MBP i promise i'm buying my first PC

You wont regret it if you do. I got my 60 gig SSD as a christmas gift. The speed makes it worth the price IMO.

Do MBP ever drop below 1k? I kinda want one now

 

[joe billionaire]

the 13inch pro is 999 @ microcenter

 

[omgitswes]

That's still kind of expensive for a dual core isn't it?

 

[alchemist iq]

Originally Posted by November33rd

Anybody use iWork instead of Office for Mac? How do they compare?


I was thinking of getting iwork because it's a lot cheaper but I've been using office my whole life.

I have both, but i like both cause they offer certain features that i need and want. However I feel iWorks feels more intergrated into OS X than office since its consider 3rd party software.

Try out the trial version 1st
http://www.apple.com/iwork/download-trial/
PM for any help

 

[luckyluchiano]

what are you guys thoughts of buying a MBP from Ebay

 

[based mod]

Originally Posted by omgitswes

That's still kind of expensive for a dual core isn't it?

if you're comparing the price of pc to mac, then yes it can be expensive for a dual core machine.
but for a mbp that retails for 1200, then that's cheap.  cheapest i could find at least.

 

[imsleepy1234]

Originally Posted by November33rd

Anybody use iWork instead of Office for Mac? How do they compare?


I was thinking of getting iwork because it's a lot cheaper but I've been using office my whole life.

If you have been using Office, you will not have a lot of adjustments when using iWork.  I have both and I use them differently.  When making spreadsheets and typing reports, I would use Office.  I use Office in this case because I am so used to.  When I make presentations or create flyers, I would use iWork.  Using Keynote for presentations has a "wow" factor compared to Powerpoint because of the smooth graphics.  I have always gotten props from my school presentations using Keynote, and it makes me look creative even though I'm not 

.
Both will serve it's purpose of word processing, spreadsheets, and presentations.  

 

[jus3]

There's a new Macbook Air & Macbook Pro coming out in the next few months right? 

My Macbook just died and I'm trying to hold off... I might cop an iPad just to hold me over.

 

[ooiron manoo]

Originally Posted by JUS3

There's a new Macbook Air & Macbook Pro coming out in the next few months right? 

My Macbook just died and I'm trying to hold off... I might cop an iPad just to hold me over.

MBA's maybe, haven't been following even though someone posted info on the black MBA's a page or two back.

New MBP's just dropped, so I doubt there will be a new one until at least next year.

I have a Sony Vaio holding me over, waiting for a good back to school bundle to pull the trigger on the 15' MBP.

 

[djuzi05]

MacBook Air and Mac Mini refresh is coming very soon. People are contemplating later this month to coincide with the release of Lion.

MacBook Pros just got an update so there probably won't be a significant change until early 2012.

 

[soundwav3]

Just joined the Macbook Pro club today! Got a 13 in MBP from Best Buy using the Back 2 School Promo! So excited to explore this machine (first Mac).

 

[regal black]

Originally Posted by omgitswes

That's still kind of expensive for a dual core isn't it?

its not for the dual core, its for the new 2011 model with the i5.  I bout my MacBook Pro from Microcenter for $999 as well

 

[DYNAMICS]

This started last week..

I'll be on my MBP and all of a sudden it cuts off and goes into sleep mode. I got scared because I thought it crashed, it happened a second time tonight. Has anyone had this happen to them? Any suggestions on what's wrong?

 

[g mat ic]

Ok, I just recently purchased a Mac pro G5 ( I know I'm not up to date with the latest one) and it's my first Mac so can you guys give a tutorial on the programs, apps, etc I should download for it and any tips I should know about? I made the switch from PC. Also, what other apple retailers are there besides best buy? Thanks guys.

 

[thegoat121886]

Originally Posted by DiPlOmAt TDOt

This started last week..

I'll be on my MBP and all of a sudden it cuts off and goes into sleep mode. I got scared because I thought it crashed, it happened a second time tonight. Has anyone had this happen to them? Any suggestions on what's wrong?

have you tweaked the Energy Saver settings at all? set it to Never sleep and see if it still does that. you could also reset your PMU

 

[thegoat121886]

Originally Posted by E z G z E

Ok, I just recently purchased a Mac pro G5 ( I know I'm not up to date with the latest one) and it's my first Mac so can you guys give a tutorial on the programs, apps, etc I should download for it and any tips I should know about? I made the switch from PC. Also, what other apple retailers are there besides best buy? Thanks guys.

man onestly, stuff like this just depends on how you use your computer and for what purposes. Read through some of the pages of this thread to find essential programs. Office,  VLC Player, Adium,  Google Chrome, Bowtie, UnRarX and Transmission should be at the top of your list IMO. 

Also, did you get a mac pro or a PowerMac G5? they're two different computers. PowerMacs run on PPC so you're not gonna be able to upgrade the OS past Leopard or run certain intel-only applications. More and more applications are making the switch to Intel-only, but for the right price i guess you can't go wrong with your purchase. 

As far as retailers go, peep APple's site for a list of authorized ones. Amazon, Microcenter, Newegg, Tigerdirect, and a host of local businesses all carry apple stuff. Your best bet is to do a location specific search

 

[g mat ic]

Thanks for the help goat. It is a powermac G5, I got mixed up lol. Ill check those programs out. Thanks!

 

[tj detweiler]

I know you guys were talking about SSD's and got me wanting to do the same to my macbook. I saw this on SD's today and it seems like a good deal. Which one (if any) would you guys prefer? I want to do what thegoat said and put OSX on the ssd and remove my optical drive and put my old hard drive there. Is that easy to do? I'm fairly tech savy but def no expert.

http://slickdeals.net/for...showthread.php?t=3081303