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You are here: MacNN Forums > Hardware - Troubleshooting and Discussion > Mac Notebooks > New MacBook Pros!

New MacBook Pros! (Page 3)
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Waragainstsleep
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Mar 11, 2011, 09:18 AM
 
I have plenty of more important things to do, if only I could bring myself to do them....
     
Salty
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Mar 11, 2011, 08:49 PM
 
I love how people who don't know how to work computers write reviews

Btw this Machine is smoking fast! Yesterday I finally figured out a way to ramp up all my cores in Activity Monitor, I did a transcode using vuze. A 20 minute episode of Archer, took about four minutes.
     
Jolt21
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Mar 24, 2011, 08:09 AM
 
just ordered my 2.2ghz 15"er.

only thing I didn't do was upgrade the memory. do people think it is worth it? last time I just bought separate memory and it was cheaper. was gonna do it again this time, but 4GB seems like a lot to me. is the jump from 4GB to 8GB that big?
blah
     
Spheric Harlot
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Mar 24, 2011, 09:40 AM
 
Originally Posted by Jolt21 View Post
just ordered my 2.2ghz 15"er.

only thing I didn't do was upgrade the memory. do people think it is worth it? last time I just bought separate memory and it was cheaper. was gonna do it again this time, but 4GB seems like a lot to me. is the jump from 4GB to 8GB that big?
Depends.

For what?
     
Jolt21
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Mar 24, 2011, 10:15 AM
 
Originally Posted by Spheric Harlot View Post
Depends.

For what?
thats the thing. i do use Maya, Final Cut, and Adobe programs every once in a while, but never all at once and very sparingly. i honestly dont think i NEED 8GB....unless the difference is just THAT noticeable.
blah
     
Waragainstsleep
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Mar 24, 2011, 11:34 AM
 
I put 8GB in my late 2008. Cost me £60. Bargain. But I run VMs.
I have plenty of more important things to do, if only I could bring myself to do them....
     
SierraDragon
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Mar 24, 2011, 12:26 PM
 
Originally Posted by Jolt21 View Post
thats the thing. i do use Maya, Final Cut, and Adobe programs every once in a while, but never all at once and very sparingly. i honestly dont think i NEED 8GB....unless the difference is just THAT noticeable.
The difference will be significant during operation of those apps. It just depends on what very sparingly usage is. Just look at Page Outs on the Activity Monitor app before you start working and again after working. If the number of Page Outs increased significantly you would benefit from more RAM. Do not decide based on what the other app readings (such as "Free RAM") may be.

IMO adding 8 GB RAM in these boxes is a no brainer. I like OWC
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/apple/memory/
for RAM and hard drives.

Personally I want 16 GB but the 8-GB DIMMs are still too rich for me.

-Allen
( Last edited by SierraDragon; Mar 24, 2011 at 12:47 PM. )
     
Eug
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Mar 25, 2011, 07:54 AM
 
Originally Posted by SierraDragon View Post
Personally I want 16 GB but the 8-GB DIMMs are still too rich for me.
I'm curious, what would you need the 16 GB for?

I currently have 8 GB in my iMac and that seems like the sweet spot for me. I'm not getting significant pageouts and currently I've got 3 GB RAM free. (I'm not running any VMs anymore.)

It would be easy for me to go to 16 GB though, since I still have two free slots in the iMac. Actually, the better bang for the buck would be to go to 12 GB, for another ~$50.
     
SierraDragon
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Mar 25, 2011, 11:44 AM
 
Originally Posted by Eug View Post
I'm curious, what would you need the 16 GB for?
Aperture run concurrently with Photoshop, Firefox, TextEdit and sometimes another one of the Creative Suite apps. Among those Aperture is the overall hardware hog but Photoshop too will gobble RAM. I easily saturated 8 GB on my 2.66 GHz MP, enough so that I tried to generally run Aperture all by itself when editing in Aperture.

I cannot RAM-test the new MBP yet because it is not fully installed with RAM or apps because most of my software is in Tahoe and I am currently overseeing an Oakland project. Until someone convinces me otherwise I decline to "migrate" apps. I do not change boxes very often and when I do it has always seemed that clean new installs of applications make sense. And because of the small SSD I will want to minimize some of the app installs, omitting things like Adobe's Version Cue.

-Allen
     
Jolt21
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Mar 28, 2011, 11:59 PM
 
just got my 15" in. wow this thing blazes.
blah
     
I'mDaMac
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Apr 2, 2011, 09:57 PM
 
I received my 17" antiglare, 2.3GHz, 256GB SSD (8GB Crucial RAM) MacBook Pro mid-week and this thing is quick. I was using my 2007 MacBook Pro and while I knew it was slower than the newer models I didn't realize just how slow it was until I got this new one. Aperture is instantly responsive with my RAW files from my 5D mkII. I was originally planning on waiting for a Thunderbolt equipped iMac but a significant discount opportunity popped up and I'm glad I took it.
Who'sDaMac?
     
mbp2011
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Apr 23, 2011, 08:14 PM
 
Originally Posted by msuper69 View Post
I do not think that an upgrade from 2.2ghz to 2.3ghz is worth $250.
I preferred the 2.0 GHz version, and spent additional $ upgraded to 8GB RAM, add SSD instead of a 2.2 or 2.3 GHz CPU.
     
Veltliner
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Apr 25, 2011, 01:26 AM
 
Originally Posted by SierraDragon View Post
The difference will be significant during operation of those apps. It just depends on what very sparingly usage is. Just look at Page Outs on the Activity Monitor app before you start working and again after working. If the number of Page Outs increased significantly you would benefit from more RAM. Do not decide based on what the other app readings (such as "Free RAM") may be.

IMO adding 8 GB RAM in these boxes is a no brainer. I like OWC
Apple Mac Memory Upgrade Options: Easy Buying Guide, Free Install Videos. Memory backed by Lifetime Advance Replacement Warranty.
for RAM and hard drives.

Personally I want 16 GB but the 8-GB DIMMs are still too rich for me.

-Allen
Ordering the 8GB right with the MBP costs $200 more in total.
     
SierraDragon
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Apr 25, 2011, 03:11 PM
 
Originally Posted by Veltliner View Post
Ordering the 8GB right with the MBP costs $200 more in total.
Which means you save ~$90 (~45%) by buying from OWC instead of Apple, and you have 2 x 2GB DIMMs left over.

Unfortunately 2 x 8GB DIMMs are ~$1600. Bummer. It will be a while before I see 16 GB!

-Allen
( Last edited by SierraDragon; Apr 25, 2011 at 03:28 PM. )
     
CharlesS
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Apr 25, 2011, 06:28 PM
 
If you want to save money on RAM, why are you bothering with OWC? 2 4 GB sticks of the generic stuff is $108 over there (link), but you could get actual name-brand RAM from Newegg for far cheaper. $90 for Crucial, $84 for Kingston, $83 for Corsair. Why spend $18-$25 more just to get generic RAM? OWC is great for some things (they make great external drive enclosures, for instance), but they just don't make sense for RAM.

Ticking sound coming from a .pkg package? Don't let the .bom go off! Inspect it first with Pacifist. Macworld - five mice!
     
SierraDragon
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Apr 25, 2011, 06:49 PM
 
Originally Posted by CharlesS View Post
If you want to save money on RAM, why are you bothering with OWC?
• Because they rebate $26 for the two redundant 2GB Apple DIMMs, net price = ~$84 delivered.

• Because I have received consistently solid service from them for more than a decade.

• Because they give great, personal presale and after sale live USA-person phone support.

• Because they even took back (unopened) RAM that I ordered in error, weeks later.

• Because they provide how-to videos that I always review prior to opening a Mac. After all I do not open Macs every day and there can be differences among models.

But the main reason is that based on long personal experience I unequivocally trust their products.

-Allen
( Last edited by SierraDragon; Apr 25, 2011 at 07:06 PM. )
     
exca1ibur
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Apr 25, 2011, 07:02 PM
 
Originally Posted by CharlesS View Post
If you want to save money on RAM, why are you bothering with OWC? 2 4 GB sticks of the generic stuff is $108 over there (link), but you could get actual name-brand RAM from Newegg for far cheaper. $90 for Crucial, $84 for Kingston, $83 for Corsair. Why spend $18-$25 more just to get generic RAM? OWC is great for some things (they make great external drive enclosures, for instance), but they just don't make sense for RAM.
I have to agree, I paid $82 for Crucial RAM at Amazon.
     
 
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