Sorry for the mild derailment - i'm looking at one of the 21.5" models for the house, would only be used for email / web / photo type shenanigans, although the missus is a graphic designer so it might be called on for some photoshop / design type stuff (nothing too heavy) - at that screen size is it worth deviating much from the base spec? If we went up to the 4k one it's only another couple of hundred clams again for the 27" which has a better spec in addition to the screen... although of course it's still a £600 jump from the base spec...
I found it hard to convince myself that the 21.5" was worth it. I have the 21.5" from 2011, and have no issues with the physical screen size, so that's not the issue. But when looking at the 2016 models, by the time I configured it with a hybrid drive (and I wanted the 2TB fusion) it was in the 27" territory price-wise. And like I've mentioned a couple of times, you really do want some element of SSD in it, whether that be a straight SSD drive or a fusion/hybrid drive.
Having just put a boggo 1tb drive in mine I do with people would stop extolling the virtues of SSHD. There bike parts to buy as well you know!!
The SSD makes it a fantastically fast machine for the everyday stuff you will use it for.
As I said startup from cold (shutdown) is 30-40 seconds vs 2-3 minutes and if you sleep the machine there is no difference. App startup is 5 seconds vs maybe 20 or so, no difference if you leave common apps running in the background, eg mail, safari, photo. When I put an HDD into my machine in 2012 it was because 750 hdd was £60 and 500 ssd was £200+, hdd runs fine. Now today a 500 ssd is onky £110 so I would forgoe the internal storage and put films on an external.
@mjc I would stretch to the base 27, really is worth it vs base 21.5 and you can add ram cheaply in the future vs being locked in with soldered ram on cheaper smaller machine. Extra screen size is great and quality is fabulous.
Fusion Drive makes a big difference. Well worth the upcharge (question - does it also effectively improve the memory as your swap is into SSD?)
I disagree with the keyboard advice above - I've had both full size, trackpads and mice.
My favoured option is the wireless keyboard and trackpad - far more ergonomic if you don't have to reach so far to the right. I found my mouse a couple of weeks back and it's been sitting on the desk but it never gets used.
They're a horridly uncomfortable to use anyway - if you do need a mouse et a Logitech or Microsoft.
Having had 5400 rpm drive and SSD drive, I beg to differ in terms of performance. The SSD definitely makes a difference in app performance especially if you're paging to disk.
You're paying nearly £2k for a machine and
It'll be used for typical family stuff, homework, googling and photo storage
That could buy a lot of sunglasses to match whatever latest expensive consumer purchase you need to tell us about 🙂
You're definitely searching for something to fill a void.
I suppose I knew what was coming, "the base model will be perfectly fine" said no person ever in the history of stw 😆
Slightly off topic, but it's funny what justifications I give to myself for spending money on stuff I don't truly need. I can see it in my own posts above. I'm happy to spend £2k on a computer that spends most of its time looking at Facebook, but when it comes to spending money on a car it required a crowbar to prise £20k out of my hands for the wife's new Galaxy. Prior to that I was firmly in the <£6k category for cars. And the car gets a lot more use than the computer.
Go figure...
it's funny what justifications I give to myself for spending money on stuff I don't truly need. I can see it in my own posts above
I used to be like that, life is so much better when you buy stuff you want rather than buying stuff to impress friends when they come round for fna-fna cheese & fennel tart served on a bed of baby couscous and a side of Aegean sun ripened qua, drizzled with hoola berry juice. Oh look at that computer, oh look at the qua, it's all so yum. I guess the older you get the less impressed you are by peoples clutter
(I'd still get the 2TB fusion drive though 🙂 )
I googled fna-fna cheese.
Man, that`s like buying a Ferrari to do the school run.
Buy a windows laptop, and stick £1500 in the bank towards your next bike.
molgrips
I googled fna-fna cheese.
Post the first image that popped up 😉
Buy a windows laptop, and stick £1500 in the bank towards your next bike.
Read the OP you are dealing with Woman Logic. I'm just shopper in this process, the buyer's sitting at home struggling to fill an Ocado basket using a 2011 Macbook.
I struggle with long waffle but:
if you can expand the RAM - do it yourself.
Buying RAM from apple is like paying for a nuclear reactor to be decommissioned - very very very expensive.
Read the OP you are dealing with Woman Logic. I'm just shopper in this process, the buyer's sitting at home struggling to fill an Ocado basket using a 2011 Macbook.
Ok so buy it, then next time you want N+1 or just a really expensive N and she starts with "its just a bike" you have your argument right there.
the buyer's sitting at home struggling to fill an Ocado basket using a 2011 Macbook.
Oh god no, t'll be the fna-fna cheese.
And to be fair you seem to share a similar logic regarding possessions.
Post the first image that popped up
😯
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can't you just put an SSD in the 2011 macbook? $100... job done!
Yeah - what he^ said. Just put an SSD in your Macbook!
I hadn't realised you already had a Mac. That changes everything!
I've got an SSD in an "early 2011". MacBook that runs Sierra really well. Do that even if you do npbuy the iMac.
It doesnt have a big screen, its full to capacity, the battery doesn't hold charge and is damaged. It might be even older than 2011 TBH. Its the silver one that came out after the original white ones.
Fair enough.
To be fair our main machine will do more than I suggested, arty stuff, kids homework, I'll work on MS docs on it when WFH that kind of thing.
On that note, is it possible to stick a work based OneDrive on it? That'd be ideal to keep stuff in sync with my work Windows LT...
Sell the MBP to a hobbyist .... it must be older than 2011 as wife has 2012 MBP and they had been around a while in silver before then -> Apple Logo/About this Mac
Mac is generally good at reading windows format drives but it's not faultless, easier to use Google Drive / Dropbox if you can access that from work
@mjc the base / original model Apple TV was fine, sadly they discontinued it 😐
Apple Logo/About this Mac
Oh, 13 inch Macbook 2008 running El Capitan
FWIW, anyone who wants a particular refurb. spec. might find either of these two sites useful:
http://www.refurb-tracker.com
http://www.refurb.me
Will send an alert when matching stock is listed.
Oh, 13 inch Macbook 2008 running El Capitan
Still worth £100+ I bet
@drkex thanks for those links, am loosing the will to live waiting for a decent Mac Mini upgrade so may buy a 2012
We are keeping the Macbbook, its good as a downstairs lap top surfing / occasional machine. I might even replace the battery.
About the 2tb fusion drive - its a £150 increase option for me, why so expensive for +1tb and why is it a good option OEM over a 1tb fusion on board and anybodys external for everything else?
Fusion (we have tried to answer this before 😉 ) the ssd element will boot and start programmes faster. Why is it so expensive - "Apple Tax" ie charging much more for options than fhe extra component cost. Note I just read up onnthe 1tb vs 2tb and the reason the price difference is so large as the ssd portion innthe 1tb is tiny at 24gb vs 128gb on the 2tb. If you don't want to spend the money / unsure by the base 27 and after warranty runs out put an ssd in it, either yourself or pay someone (job £100? + £100 component cost)
For the MB I assume it has 4gb ram, you could try and buy a 4gb chip (need to check memory speed) and replace one of the 2's giving 2+4=6 and it will run better if you clear the disk out by 30-50%. If you want a project spend £60 on a 250gb ssd and put that in. All that will be educational to do.
I got the hdd versus ssd bit for fusion. It was just the price hike from 1tb - 2tb i didnt get. Now i do, thanks.
Hence why I was aiming for the 2TB fusion drive. 24GB of SSD seems hardly worth having. If you google it you'll find plenty agree with me. So you'll see how you can quickly convince yourself that a £2k computer is the way to go.
Well i think for future proofing - this is after all a long term purchase - ill pay the extra for the 2TB. As mentioned above the bike credits are amassing.
£2k for a computer? That does pretty much the same as my £200 laptop? Just for "general family stuff and homework"?
crazy fool
.
potty
.
absolutely nuts
.
total barmpot
.
moremoneythansense
.
that'd buy a new bike...
You've not read many kryton57 threads then. Aspiring middle class angst personified.
In fact I'm starting to think it's a parody.
Well i think for future proofing - this is after all a long term purchase
It's not the 90s any more. Windows is getting lighter, not heavier. Loads of people still using 5-6 year old machines. PC World is filling up with lower and lower power machines.
It's not the 90s any more. Windows is getting lighter, not heavier. Loads of people still using 5-6 year old machines. PC World is filling up with lower and lower power machines.
And a lot of them are abysmal. My Uncle bought a cheap (very cheap) new laptop this year and it's actually unusable even for light web browsing. I was convinced it had some kind of virus as it runs worse than the 6(?) year old laptop they bought it to replace (and that would have been a cheap machine).
Fast chips, large hard drives and a decent amount of memory are all cheap now and for most people the tasks they're doing haven't changed in 5 years - web pages are heavier but it's still text/images/video.
Personally I've always thought the bottom end iMac are the best value (I'm on my second, the first replaced after about 7 years (and it went to someone else who still uses it). Upgraded ram. This one the only upgrade was a fusion drive)
My Uncle bought a cheap (very cheap) new laptop this year
How cheap? What was it?
The ones I've played with are decent.
web pages are heavier but it's still text/images/video
Actually no - it's tons of Javascript. And there's far more video than there used to be, depending on where you surf.
Aspiring middle class angst personified.
Excellent thanks, I'm now using that on my Facebook and Instagram profiles.
Fast chips, large hard drives and a decent amount of memory are all cheap now and for most people the tasks they're doing haven't changed in 5 years - web pages are heavier but it's still text/images/video.
Well if I don't need the 2TB Fusion and only the 1TB for Home computing please let me know. Oh I will be watching TGT on Amazon on it 😀
You tell us if you need 2Tb or not. You can only chew up that much space if you are storing lots of large images. LOTS of photos, in large image files; shitloads of music; or loads of ripped or downloaded movies.
I think they were recommending the larger hybrid drive because the SSD part is bigger.
Although you could get a system with a much bigger SSD and a massive HD for half the price, if you specced your own. Oh, but it'd have to be windows 🙂
In fact I'm starting to think it's a parody.
I'm inclined to agree. His 'what cheese to use in my fna-fna cheese & fennel tart as waitrose no longer stock the fna-fna' was the last straw for me.
Although you could get a system with a much bigger SSD and a massive HD for half the price, if you specced your own. Oh, but it'd have to be windows
Isn't the 'clever' part of fusion drive that it works out what you need in SSD and optimises around that?
How cheap? What was it?
I can't find my note of it now but my vague memory is that it was a reputable brand (maybe Lenovo) and I think it was about £200. It made me think Microsoft should have defined some minimum spec as it really was shockingly bad.
web pages are heavier but it's still text/images/video - Actually no - it's tons of Javascript. And there's far more video than there used to be, depending on where you surf.
True that.
In fact I'm starting to think it's a parody.
I'm inclined to agree. His 'what cheese to use in my fna-fna cheese & fennel tart as waitrose no longer stock the fna-fna' was the last straw for me.
Cheese straws?
Isn't the 'clever' part of fusion drive that it works out what you need in SSD and optimises around that?
Well there are plenty of hybrid drives available - it's not an exclusive Apple thing. Their drive will be bought in from a drive manufacturer, they don't make this stuff.
Depends how much they cost - are they ripping people off?
And a lot of them are abysmal. My Uncle bought a cheap (very cheap) new laptop this year and it's actually unusable even for light web browsing. I was convinced it had some kind of virus as it runs worse than the 6(?) year old laptop they bought it to replace (and that would have been a cheap machine).
Windows 8 runs fine on my 2 year old £100 Linx tablet. It's got a whole 2Gb of ram and 32Gb internal storage (not a SSD) and an Atom processor.
I would suggest your uncles laptop had something wrong, or was pre-loaded with stuff not needed for Windows.
