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Apple Silicon Macs (Page 4)
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Clinically Insane
Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: Iowa, how long can this be? Does it really ruin the left column spacing?
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Installed Batman Arkham City and played a bit of that, it runs nicely.
Apple also included 3 months of Arcade, so I found a few fun-looking games there and downloaded them so the 8yo would have something to play that didn't specifically involve constant murder.
I offered 8yo the controller but he prefers keyboard and mouse for gaming.
While the wired XBox controller works with Steam, it doesn't work with Arcade games. Apple says a Dualshock 4 or a bluetooth XBox wireless controller will work. I ran out and grabbed an XBox controller as that's the form factor we're used to. They had two versions in store - one listed compatibility with XBox, the other listed compatibility with XBox, PC, Android, and iOS, so I picked the latter. Turns out that was the wrong one?? From what I can gather on the internet, the one I got was version 1914, which is too new and also NOT COMPATIBLE WITH iOS. Apparently updates are coming to Big Sur and iOS that will eventually add compatibility for the 1914 controller.
Okay cool, so I'll grab the Big Sur 11.3 beta and get it working. I installed the beta and upon reboot my screen was dead. No video at all through the USB-C ports and the HDMI was flickering and showing static if it worked at all. A couple of reboots later and I had absolutely no screen. Luckily I had turned on screen sharing so I was able to get into it from my MBA and mess with the display settings a bit, finally got it working on HDMI but no USB-C video anymore.
Fine, as long as the controller works I'll deal with it. So I pair the controller and this time it recognizes it but says that the controller needs a firmware upgrade to be compatible. Cool how do I do that - oh with an XBox or Windows 10 PC. Fine, I have a PC. So I take the controller downstairs and try to pair it with the PC but won't even show up when I try to pair. Awesome. Okay, well you can plug it in, too. As luck would have it, I bought a 6" USB-A to USB-C cable for the Raspberry Pi project, so I was actually able to plug it into the PC. Then I had to go to the Windows App store and download the XBox Accessories app, which is different from the Windows XBox Experience app or whatever it is. Once I downloaded that, I was able to update the firmware on the controller.
Took it back upstairs, repaired with the Mini and....nothing. No response at all in Skate City. I downloaded a controller test app and I can see controller inputs there, but no response in game.
I guess I could go exchange the controller, as long as they're not too mad about me opening it up and installing the batteries and everything.
But it's frustrating.
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Clinically Insane
Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: Iowa, how long can this be? Does it really ruin the left column spacing?
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The latest in Apple Silicon world. I'm running the trial of Crossover to see if I can get some Windows stuff working. Unfortunately I'm not able to create any 64-bit Windows bottles. They sit there at "scanning" indefinitely so I can't install anything that would require 64-bit.
Oh, and I was able to get the right controller, turns out there was a "Wal-Mart exclusive" 1708 controller that was $10 less than what I bought originally, so win-win there.
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Senior User
Join Date: Jul 2020
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My old mac pro boots windows 7 and works fine.
Sounds like a lot of ****ery for newer machines. I did miss a deal on a dual CPU 5.1 for $200 the other day tho. Oh well. More will come. No reason to upgrade for now.
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Clinically Insane
Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: Iowa, how long can this be? Does it really ruin the left column spacing?
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Originally Posted by MacNNFamous
Sounds like a lot of ****ery for newer machines.
lol
- Run firmware update and pray it doesn't brick
- Upgrade dual processors with takeoff units from eBay
- Cobble together 24GB of RAM from various sources
- Install SSD, hold in place with rubber bands and/or 3D-printed brackets
- Install Windows graphics card using suspect eBay mini-6pin to 8 pin adapter, lose boot screen
- Download mystery OpenCore bootloader to get Catalina running, hope it works
- Burn Windows 10 iso to DVD to get functional bootable install, still takes several tries
- Install scary eBay USB 3.0 PCI card
- Dims the lights in the room when it wakes from sleep
- Sounds like a wind tunnel while gaming
- Nearly unusable for first 10-15 minutes after boot due to photolibraryd or other related system tasks hogging the processor and disk
- Not snappy™
*or*
- Massive bump in single and multi-core performance
- Absolutely 100% silent in all cases
- Wild improvement in snappiness™
- Near instant boot, immediately responsive and usable
- Native support of latest OS
Yes, all sorts of ****ery there for nothing other than a "newer machine." Pointless upgrade for sure.
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Senior User
Join Date: Jul 2020
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Yeah I'm not having that issue.
5.1 hex, fast enough for me.
32 gigs ram came with it.
SSDs jammed in without rubber bands cuz yolo
Flashed 7970 from 2015 still works great, with boot screens, no wiring issues
Quiet
Idk, I need windows for solidworks and keyshot. Newer apple stuff taking away bootcamp really sucks... idk what I'm going to do, I've been dual booting since 2007
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Clinically Insane
Join Date: Jun 2001
Location: Chicago, Bang! Bang!
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I used to be a casual dual-booter, but the space crunch with SSDs killed that.
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Clinically Insane
Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: Iowa, how long can this be? Does it really ruin the left column spacing?
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Originally Posted by subego
I used to be a casual dual-booter, but the space crunch with SSDs killed that.
I have a separate SSD and separate data drive for each OS.
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Senior User
Join Date: Jul 2020
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Same, except I upgraded to cheap $15 NVME PCIE cards, and NVME SSDs for boot and scratch disks... windows is still on SSD since it's just cad and rendering, not really disk intensive.
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Moderator
Join Date: Aug 2001
Location: Nobletucky
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Clinically Insane
Join Date: Jun 2001
Location: Chicago, Bang! Bang!
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Originally Posted by Laminar
I have a separate SSD and separate data drive for each OS.
Originally Posted by MacNNFamous
Same
That’s what killed it. I don’t want an external drive unless it’s absolutely necessary.
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Senior User
Join Date: Jul 2020
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Hence Mac Pro
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Clinically Insane
Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: Iowa, how long can this be? Does it really ruin the left column spacing?
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I have all four drive slots filled, plus the 5.25 to 3.5 adapter in the lower optical slot, plus two external drives.
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Moderator
Join Date: May 2001
Location: Hilbert space
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Originally Posted by MacNNFamous
Same, except I upgraded to cheap $15 NVME PCIE cards, and NVME SSDs for boot and scratch disks... windows is still on SSD since it's just cad and rendering, not really disk intensive.
How'd you manage to boot macOS off of a NVME-based SSD? I tried that, but it wouldn't boot even though it'd access the SSD after booting from a SATA-based SSD just fine.
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I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it.
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Senior User
Join Date: Jul 2020
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Moderator
Join Date: May 2001
Location: Hilbert space
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Originally Posted by MacNNFamous
The one I used was the last cheese grater Mac Pro. It seemed the OS needed some drivers to access the NVMe SSD. But perhaps it was some weirdness specific to the machine. It also wouldn’t boot from the SATA SSD without the spinning platter harddrive that was in there before. I’m not using that machine anymore, so it’s fine, I have an 8-core 16” MacBook Pro instead.
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I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it.
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Clinically Insane
Join Date: Jun 2001
Location: Chicago, Bang! Bang!
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Originally Posted by MacNNFamous
Hence Mac Pro
I wanted a Pro, but the trashcan was silly, ancient hardware when it was time to buy. Got an iMac instead (about 6 months before the iMac Pro was released).
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Senior User
Join Date: Jul 2020
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Originally Posted by OreoCookie
The one I used was the last cheese grater Mac Pro. It seemed the OS needed some drivers to access the NVMe SSD. But perhaps it was some weirdness specific to the machine. It also wouldn’t boot from the SATA SSD without the spinning platter harddrive that was in there before. I’m not using that machine anymore, so it’s fine, I have an 8-core 16” MacBook Pro instead.
Was it a 5.1 cMP? 5.1s work out of the box. 3.1s and 4.1s need some messing around to get it to work.
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Clinically Insane
Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: Iowa, how long can this be? Does it really ruin the left column spacing?
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Originally Posted by MacNNFamous
Was it a 5.1 cMP? 5.1s work out of the box. 3.1s and 4.1s need some messing around to get it to work.
Even a 2017 iMac absolutely crushes a single processor cMP. A DP X5690 will edge out the iMac's multiprocessor score, but the use case of an application being able to utilize all twelve physical cores is pretty narrow, especially considering that everything less than full multi-core utilization will be much slower on the cMP.
https://browser.geekbench.com/v4/cpu...eline=11393678
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Senior User
Join Date: Jul 2020
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Yup. But then you don't get any internal expandability and have to use the iMac display. That's also a $1500-2000 machine.
I sold my mac pro 2.1 all modified for $300, and I bought a 5.1 hex core for $300. I swapped my 7970 from my old one, and spent $150 on NVME drives. So... $450 if you don't include me swapping my old videocard. If I find a deal on a dual cpu tray I might do it but honestly this works fine for me.
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Clinically Insane
Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: Iowa, how long can this be? Does it really ruin the left column spacing?
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Yes, less money for less performance, that's generally how computers work.
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Senior User
Join Date: Jul 2020
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So what was the point of your previous post? More expensive computer is faster? Is that news?
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Administrator
Join Date: Jun 2000
Location: California
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Originally Posted by OreoCookie
The one I used was the last cheese grater Mac Pro. It seemed the OS needed some drivers to access the NVMe SSD. But perhaps it was some weirdness specific to the machine.
What you need is the 144.0.0.0.0 firmware, which adds NVMe boot. And fixes a few other odd issues. As mentioned, install Mojave on an internal (or attached) drive. The Moj installer will do the firmware update.
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Moderator
Join Date: May 2001
Location: Hilbert space
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Originally Posted by reader50
What you need is the 144.0.0.0.0 firmware, which adds NVMe boot. And fixes a few other odd issues. As mentioned, install Mojave on an internal (or attached) drive. The Moj installer will do the firmware update.
Ooooooh, I see. Well, I might dust off that machine. It was really nicely decked out, it has 64 GB RAM (essentially an infinite amount) and was rock-solid.
I wish I had something CPU-intensive for it to do, something that requires many cores …
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I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it.
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Moderator
Join Date: Aug 2001
Location: Nobletucky
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Senior User
Join Date: Jul 2020
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In other news I found a crazy deal on a dual CPU 4,1 with 16tb of storage and some upgrade cards, sold the cards on ebay, and bought two hexcore chips for $115, and threw those in, so now I have a 12 core beastie like Laminar. Love it. Selling my old machine so I think overall... if I do my math right... I gained another processor and made $50 out of it.
IF the rumors turn out to be true about a MINI mac pro, I'm going to go for it tho.
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Moderator
Join Date: May 2001
Location: Hilbert space
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Originally Posted by Thorzdad
For Adobe that was quick IMHO.
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I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it.
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Clinically Insane
Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: Iowa, how long can this be? Does it really ruin the left column spacing?
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Finally did some video stuff last night. I almost spit out my sparking water when I watched the Mini rendering speed in RaceRender and iMovie. It's absolute light years ahead of the 12-core 3.46 Mac Pro.
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Clinically Insane
Join Date: Nov 1999
Location: 888500128, C3, 2nd soft.
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Originally Posted by OreoCookie
For Adobe that was quick IMHO.
I mean, they only *just* got their Carbon versions done...
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Moderator
Join Date: May 2001
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Originally Posted by Spheric Harlot
I mean, they only *just* got their Carbon versions done...
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I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it.
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Moderator
Join Date: Aug 2001
Location: Nobletucky
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Clinically Insane
Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: Iowa, how long can this be? Does it really ruin the left column spacing?
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How dumb is this idea - a minitower that contains a dock for the Mini. The dock breaks out the Thunderbolt ports into a PCIe slot for an eGPU, a couple NVME slots, a couple 3.5" HD slots, 6 or so USB ports, etc.
Is that stupid? Would that almost make it a pro machine? You still can't upgrade the RAM, but that gives you the replacement graphics and storage that pros seem to want.
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Senior User
Join Date: Jul 2020
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Originally Posted by Laminar
How dumb is this idea - a minitower that contains a dock for the Mini. The dock breaks out the Thunderbolt ports into a PCIe slot for an eGPU, a couple NVME slots, a couple 3.5" HD slots, 6 or so USB ports, etc.
Is that stupid? Would that almost make it a pro machine? You still can't upgrade the RAM, but that gives you the replacement graphics and storage that pros seem to want.
I love that idea.
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Posting Junkie
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: UK
Status:
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Thats something a 3rd party could build too.
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I have plenty of more important things to do, if only I could bring myself to do them....
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Clinically Insane
Join Date: Nov 1999
Location: 888500128, C3, 2nd soft.
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Originally Posted by Laminar
How dumb is this idea - a minitower that contains a dock for the Mini. The dock breaks out the Thunderbolt ports into a PCIe slot for an eGPU, a couple NVME slots, a couple 3.5" HD slots, 6 or so USB ports, etc.
Is that stupid? Would that almost make it a pro machine? You still can't upgrade the RAM, but that gives you the replacement graphics and storage that pros seem to want.
This stuff has been available for years. Apart from the useless (for that particular purpose) eGPU, backline technicians have been building Mac mini-based 19" touring racks exactly like this for musicians at least since the quad-core mini hit the market.
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Clinically Insane
Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: Iowa, how long can this be? Does it really ruin the left column spacing?
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Fascinating! I like the power button.
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Senior User
Join Date: Jul 2020
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(
Last edited by MacNNFamous; Apr 29, 2021 at 01:03 PM.
)
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Clinically Insane
Join Date: Nov 1999
Location: 888500128, C3, 2nd soft.
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Clinically Insane
Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: Iowa, how long can this be? Does it really ruin the left column spacing?
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I have a MDD G4 just sitting in my basement storage, begging for something interesting to be done with it...
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Moderator
Join Date: Aug 2001
Location: Nobletucky
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Originally Posted by Laminar
I have a MDD G4 just sitting in my basement storage, begging for something interesting to be done with it...
I have a dual 2gig G5 sitting around doing nothing, too. I probably should just recycle it, but that aluminum case is just so awesome.
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Posting Junkie
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: UK
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Originally Posted by Thorzdad
I have a dual 2gig G5 sitting around doing nothing, too. I probably should just recycle it, but that aluminum case is just so awesome.
I have two G5s. One of them is an old machine someone donated and the other is just the case, brand spanking new and never used.
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I have plenty of more important things to do, if only I could bring myself to do them....
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Senior User
Join Date: Jul 2020
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Originally Posted by Laminar
I have a MDD G4 just sitting in my basement storage, begging for something interesting to be done with it...
I had one of those. Quake 3, no question. And UT99.
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Moderator
Join Date: Aug 2001
Location: Nobletucky
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Originally Posted by Waragainstsleep
I have two G5s. One of them is an old machine someone donated and the other is just the case, brand spanking new and never used.
I always felt the G5 was a real high point for Apple. The interior was so well thought-out. You could easily get to just about any bit a user might need to access, for service, cleaning, replacement, or expansion, without much fuss. And that clear airflow panel was pretty trick. It’s a big heavy brute, though.
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Clinically Insane
Join Date: Jun 2001
Location: Chicago, Bang! Bang!
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In contrast, anyone ever have a Power Tower Pro?
Memory swap was like, 23 steps.
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Posting Junkie
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: UK
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Originally Posted by Thorzdad
I always felt the G5 was a real high point for Apple. The interior was so well thought-out. You could easily get to just about any bit a user might need to access, for service, cleaning, replacement, or expansion, without much fuss. And that clear airflow panel was pretty trick. It’s a big heavy brute, though.
True until they installed a water cooler above the PSU. Those PSUs were much harder to pull than they needed to be too.
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I have plenty of more important things to do, if only I could bring myself to do them....
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