Survey for mac owners.

[mrchow19910319]

1 hour ago, tatte said:

I have never gotten a brand new Mac, I buy them used for better value. That might remove me from your target audience, but I'll share a couple of thoughts anyway. Hopefully you'll forgive me. Right now I have a 2006 Mac Pro, a 2009 Mac Mini and a 2010 Macbook Pro.

I actually love to hear all these info from you. I've always considered to purchase a second hand mac, but always did not have the gut to do so. The thing I wanna consult you is does older mac have a higher rate of failing??? I think most people are scared to purchase second hand electronics because they are afraid that as long as they got their hands on it, the machine is gonna die. That is my biggest concern. Then paying other people to fix it is gonna cost you a lot too. Did that happen to you???? Also I think that there are a lot of old mac (the big aluminum tower one) only use DDR2 memory and some of them do not even support SATA 3. Does it have a huge impact performance wise??? Like I wanna use a SSD in mac pro, but it only support SATA 2.... How was the overall experience?? Thanks! 

[tatte]

9 minutes ago, mrchow19910319 said:

I actually love to hear all these info from you. I've always considered to purchase a second hand mac, but always did not have the gut to do so. The thing I wanna consult you is does older mac have a higher rate of failing??? I think most people are scared to purchase second hand electronics because they are afraid that as long as they got their hands on it, the machine is gonna die. That is my biggest concern. Then paying other people to fix it is gonna cost you a lot too. Did that happen to you???? Also I think that there are a lot of old mac (the big aluminum tower one) only use DDR2 memory and some of them do not even support SATA 3. Does it have a huge impact performance wise??? Like I wanna use a SSD in mac pro, but it only support SATA 2.... How was the overall experience?? Thanks! 

I have not had a Mac fail so far, but that's always a possibility. With used and brand new hardware. 

 

If you have a benchmark in mind, I'd be happy to run it to give you an idea of the performance mine has. Here's the specs, in case you're considering something similar yourself:

 

2x Xeon X5355 Quad Core @ 2.66 GHz
18 Gb DDR2 EEC Fully buffered RAM
120 Gb Kingston SSD + 1 Tb WD HDD
Palit GeForce GTX 660 Ti

 

All in all the whole build cost me little over 310 euros. If you're thinking about getting a 1,1 Mac Pro, you need to keep in mind that while they can certainly run the newest versions of OS X, it does require a little bit of simple trickery, and careless updates may break the tweaked OS (but keeping a native OS X version as a backup for fixing only takes about 20 Gb of hard drive space). It also seems to require a minimum of 12 Gb or so of ram to have a modern OS X version run stable, but at 8.91 euros per 2x4 Gb, it's a cheap limitation to overcome.

 

I have run the following benchmarks already:

Cinebench CPU: 508

Cinebench OpenGL: 28.64

Geekbench Single-Core: 1644

Geekbench Multi-Core: 6626

Unigine Heaven Basic: 1040

 

SSD is still a major improvement over HDDs, even in SATA 2. If you still find that an issue and can spare a few more bucks, you could always get a PCIe card to get the most out of your SSD.

 

It's old, but solid.

[HKZeroFive]

I'm currently typing this out on a 2012 MacBook Pro. And by God, is it a rubbish laptop...

 

-it's big.

-it runs hot.

-the trackpad is terrible. In fact, it doesn't even click when I press down so I've resorted to using tap to click.

-it's abysmally slow. It constantly lags and freezes whenever I try to open Excel or Chrome.

 

The only reason I bought this thing was because it fits in nicely in a professional environment (and the fact that everyone at work uses a MacBook). It has a decent battery life but I have to bring a charger along otherwise it doesn't last the day.

 

Surprisingly, it can run CS:GO quite well to the point where it's actually playable.

 

I plan on keeping this until something goes terribly wrong to give myself an excuse to spend money. Either that or giving it to a family member or mate.

[RypeDub]

NULL

 

* I deleted this conversational input because LTT doesn't permit discussion of Hackintosh so I won't post any Apple content at all.

[tatte]

21 minutes ago, HKZeroFive said:

-the trackpad is terrible. In fact, it doesn't even click when I press down so I've resorted to using tap to click.

Sounds like there's something wrong with your trackpad. If the physical function still happens (i.e. the trackpad moves when you press it), you might want to try resetting NVRAM/PRAM.

 

It nearly sounded like you'd be having overheating issues, but since it runs CS:GO that's probably not the case. I guess it's just slow then. Bummer.

[HKZeroFive]

2 minutes ago, tatte said:

Sounds like there's something wrong with your trackpad. If the physical function still happens (i.e. the trackpad moves when you press it), you might want to try resetting NVRAM/PRAM.

 

It nearly sounded like you'd be having overheating issues, but since it runs CS:GO that's probably not the case. I guess it's just slow then. Bummer.

Thanks for the tips. At this point, I've learnt to live with it until it truly becomes a nuisance. I might pop down to the Apple Store and see what they can do for me.

[mrchow19910319]

1 hour ago, tatte said:

 

Thanks that really helped! 

If In the future I wanna buy a second hand mac I will ask you then!

 

Edit: could you specify which model did you buy?? MA970???  MB871???? or?? 

Edited October 23, 2016 by mrchow19910319

[mrchow19910319]

47 minutes ago, HKZeroFive said:

I'm currently typing this out on a 2012 MacBook Pro. And by God, is it a rubbish laptop...

 

-it's big.

-it runs hot.

-the trackpad is terrible. In fact, it doesn't even click when I press down so I've resorted to using tap to click.

-it's abysmally slow. It constantly lags and freezes whenever I try to open Excel or Chrome.

 

The only reason I bought this thing was because it fits in nicely in a professional environment (and the fact that everyone at work uses a MacBook). It has a decent battery life but I have to bring a charger along otherwise it doesn't last the day.

 

Surprisingly, it can run CS:GO quite well to the point where it's actually playable.

 

I plan on keeping this until something goes terribly wrong to give myself an excuse to spend money. Either that or giving it to a family member or mate.

Put a SSD in it. You don't want to let OS X running on a 5400 rpm hard drive.

[mrchow19910319]

20 minutes ago, RypeDub said:

 

That's the thing. I completely agree with you. 

OS X is the reason you purchase mac. Not the hardware itself.

Also I am in the same position too. I still enjoy gaming on my self build pc. However these days I found out that I do not enjoy gaming like I used to. 

When the day comes that I either don't feel like gaming or simply do not have the time to play games, I will switch to mac, full time. 

[HKZeroFive]

3 minutes ago, mrchow19910319 said:

Put a SSD in it. You don't want to let OS X running on a 5400 rpm hard drive.

I was planning to but I've sort of disuaded myself and learnt to tolerate it.

 

And it's not 5400RPM HDD slow. It's 'freeze for half a minute when opening a file' slow. It's terrible.

[mrchow19910319]

15 minutes ago, HKZeroFive said:

I was planning to but I've sort of disuaded myself and learnt to tolerate it.

 

And it's not 5400RPM HDD slow. It's 'freeze for half a minute when opening a file' slow. It's terrible.

Install a SSd, do a fresh install of the OS. might help.

If one day the machine fails, take out the SSD and throw that garbage away LOL

[tatte]

29 minutes ago, mrchow19910319 said:

Edit: could you specify which model did you buy?? MA970???  MB871???? or?? 

I bought a MA356LL/A as far as I can tell. I upgraded the standard dual-core Xeons with quad-core ones, which is why it doesn't match the standard specs.

[rattacko123]

I have a macbook, it's been more than 3 years so I plan to upgrade to a windows laptop in about a year.
I also have an 2011 iMac but it's actually my parents, they plan to upgrade to the 2016 model, or if apple doesn't announce the iMac on the Oct 27th event they will just buy the 2015 model

[mrchow19910319]

@tatte   @Harinder  @SCHISCHKA  @Squirrel724  

 

Wanna ask you guys a question.... I am now using my macbook pro to learn some web development. 

With 20+ chrome tabs opening and other back ground running apps (github terminal gitter etc) my ram usage is always 99%-100%.

I am a little bit worried. Is it gonna damage my mac????

[SCHISCHKA]

51 minutes ago, mrchow19910319 said:

@tatte   @Harinder  @SCHISCHKA  @Squirrel724  

 

Wanna ask you guys a question.... I am now using my macbook pro to learn some web development. 

With 20+ chrome tabs opening and other back ground running apps (github terminal gitter etc) my ram usage is always 99%-100%.

I am a little bit worried. Is it gonna damage my mac????

na theres other stuff going on, like caching programs, that inflate RAM use. how much ram you got in total? i would look at how much swap is being used to determine if you are over using ram

[mrchow19910319]

9 hours ago, SCHISCHKA said:

na theres other stuff going on, like caching programs, that inflate RAM use. how much ram you got in total? i would look at how much swap is being used to determine if you are over using ram

8G in total. I want to ask you guys whether I need to upgrade to 16G. I think my macbook pro can support up to 16 G of ram.

[Arri]

I have a 2013 MBA. Still runs incredibly fast and strong but of course, after daily use the battery only holds a 6-7 hr charge now where brand new 3 years ago it would be 13 hrs.

 

I voted 3-5 years because if the new MacBook Air has a Retina screen then I'll upgrade. If not, I'm just going to replace the battery in this laptop and expect another 3 years of use.

[Laggger164]

As a PC user, this post is really a good read! Actual opinions of people who use Macs. Hopefully not fanboys (I didnt read the entire post yet)

[Andrew Waples]

My MacBook Pro is from early 2011, and only needed to be repaired once? (can't remember) I'm getting a dedicated gaming pc to replace the laptop, It'll still have use to me because my MS word and what is on the mac (no point in getting the same thing twice). The drive is "busted" in that a disc is stuck and I took it to best buy tech support and they said they could get it out, but it might do more harm then good. I hardly ever use the drive except for installing new software. It might be my fault I don't know if this is a thing, but I got a camera (that I didn't know was a foreign manufacture via amazon was able to return it) and the software it came with was a small disc, thus it got stuck.   

[mrchow19910319]

25 minutes ago, Laggger164 said:

As a PC user, this post is really a good read! Actual opinions of people who use Macs. Hopefully not fanboys (I didnt read the entire post yet)

Exactly. No bragging, no showing off, no "I'm cooler than all of y'all cos I've been using macs since steve jobs got his wisdom teeth removed. "

Just down to the earth discussion. And all different opinions are welcomed. 

[mrchow19910319]

4 hours ago, Arri said:

I have a 2013 MBA. Still runs incredibly fast and strong but of course, after daily use the battery only holds a 6-7 hr charge now where brand new 3 years ago it would be 13 hrs.

 

I voted 3-5 years because if the new MacBook Air has a Retina screen then I'll upgrade. If not, I'm just going to replace the battery in this laptop and expect another 3 years of use.

The battery dies that fast??? I did not really notice that on my 2012 non retina mackbook.

Sorry to hear that though. 

[mrchow19910319]

14 minutes ago, Andrew Waples said:

My MacBook Pro is from early 2011, and only needed to be repaired once? (can't remember) I'm getting a dedicated gaming pc to replace the laptop, It'll still have use to me because my MS word and what is on the mac (no point in getting the same thing twice). The drive is "busted" in that a disc is stuck and I took it to best buy tech support and they said they could get it out, but it might do more harm then good. I hardly ever use the drive except for installing new software. It might be my fault I don't know if this is a thing, but I got a camera (that I didn't know was a foreign manufacture via amazon was able to return it) and the software it came with was a small disc, thus it got stuck.   

Removing the drive is super easy. I replaced my original 5400 rpm hdd with a SSD. You should do it. Just be gentle and careful then you are good I think. 

[Arri]

6 minutes ago, mrchow19910319 said:

The battery dies that fast??? I did not really notice that on my 2012 non retina mackbook.

Sorry to hear that though. 

I have over 1400 cycles on it. Whether is that is quick or not, idk. To put that into context, Apple recommends to replace the battery after 1000 cycles as its considered consumed.

[RypeDub]

NULL

 

* I deleted this conversational input because LTT doesn't permit discussion of Hackintosh so I won't post any Apple content at all.

[RypeDub]

NULL

 

* I deleted this conversational input because LTT doesn't permit discussion of Hackintosh so I won't post any Apple content at all.