At the moment, we have a iPad with Retina display 32gb wifi, a IPad v1 64gb 3G and a 2011 Mac Mini.

The Mini tends not to be used much, apart from the odd DL and photos, but lately I've been considering selling the Mini and the new iPad and getting a Mac laptop, but I'm stuck in what to look for tbh.

Is the main difference between the two laptops, the screens and possible upgradability?

 

http://store.apple.com/uk/compare/mac?page=mac
stick the models you're interested into the compare engine.....

Lots of options depending what you need (sorry can't be more helpful)

 

I went for the MacBook Air, the lack of CD drive has never been an issue, the solid state HDD is super fast, just wish it had more capacity but I'm going to buy a HDD that I can plug into my router and access over the WiFi.

Mine is a 1.7 i5 with 4GB ram 13" and pretty much after buying it the iPad went on eBay as I had no use for it.

 

That's the thing about the SSD, the size. Looks an expensive option to upgrade them further too.

I have a WD external 500GB HD for backups, but I suppose I COULD consider a lower capacity HDD. Just how much faster is it going to be in reality though? With the size of photo files these days, they can eat up space like no ones business.

I have a SuperDrive sitting there that I never use tbh, but I could copy my DVDs to it if I got the enthusiasm. That makes me wonder if there's one for Blu-Rays.....

Should probably figure out if 13" is enough for me. I think that could help my decision.

 

If you get the pro you can take out the SuperDrive and put a second Hdd instead so ssd for boot and normal Hdd for storage

 

Ooo that sounds like an idea! Time for more considering.

 

FWIW, I've upgraded my MBP to an 128 SSD & 750gig HDD in the SuperDrive bay.
Boot up from cold to operational desktop is 12 seconds.

OS & apps on SSD. With a little tweaking and messing with Terminal, everything else is on the 750.

Time machine did the backup, but it was a total PITA to split everything out to different drives on a restore. So much so, I just reinstalled most apps and the OS.
All because time machine didn't really like restoring to a smaller (SSD) drive.

All good now, but didn't enjoy the restore. Very quick now

Edited to add the kit was made by Flancrest and bought from Amazon.

 

I don't have enough in my head stuff to that kind of stuff.

I'll ask more detailed questions about swapping out the SuperDrive for an SSD later on, if/when I get an MBP.

Can't see me going for an Air now.

 

Is this the kit you bought mate?


I've ordered a base spec MBP refurb(June '12) and will stick 8GB Crucial RAM in there and an SSD, but unsure what make to go for? As I'll not have any App's or documents/files on the MBP when I get it, does simplify making the SSD for booting and App's?

 

That's the kit

I ended up with a Samsung drive

 

You can then adapters for about £20-£30 on eBay

 

http://bit.ly/QYKI9I

But doesn't include the stuff to use the SuperDrive

 

Thanks again guys.

Scoobydoo, what made you decide on the Samsung? If I could find a 256GB SSD for decent money, I'd probably try to make more cash available for the difference, but when I'm so new to this, I don't want to buy a poor quality unit just for the size...

 

This has £15 cash back right now...


Not sure I'd need any higher write speed at the moment and as I expect I'll have the MBP at the beginning of the week, I'd like all the bits required before I start playing with it.

 

Sorry, only saw this now.
Went for Samsung, as they're quite well rated.

Tbh work paid for my SSD, so only went for 128 as an experiment. Very quick, and only needs to be used for minimal access. The 750gig does all the hard work

 

No probs.

In the end, I decided that would be sufficient enough for me just now. I can always upgrade again later if I want to.

 

If you're not sure of the difference, then go with the cheapest option in the size that you want.

 

Ok so a refurb MPB 13" 2012 model turned up, fitted a Samsung 250gb SSD in the main bay and moved the original 500gb into where the SuperDrive was. I've stuck OSX onto an sdhc and reinstalled after rebooting, but I'm a bit lost what to do next.

I'd like the OS and apps on the SSD and everything else on the HDD. Most ways I've read makes it sound very complicated, so anyone know where explains it in simpleton terms?

 

Last year I picked up a Mac Book Pro from the Apple store and haven't looked back since!
It's awesome, although i'm probably not using half of what it can do...

 

Here you are >> https://discussions.apple.com/thread...art=0&tstart=0

 

Yep, got OSX now on the SSD, so its booting SUPER fast now , so just to decide what all I want on the HDD and how to go about it.

I'm thinking films, music and iTunes.

 

Music -
https://discussions.apple.com/thread...art=0&tstart=0

I also "info"d my music folder and ensured that the read/write permissions were set for the new user (bearing in mind that I reinstalled a FRESH version of the OS)

downloads -
http://www.dummies.com/how-to/conten...ad-locati.html

iphoto - IF you've put your old iphoto library onto the external drive, hold down "alt" whilst double-clicking the icon, and you'll be asked which library you want to use.

Films - not an issue iirc.

Dan

 

Thanks Dan. Been struggling with an unhappy iTunes, so have to deal with that first unfortunately.

I have managed to set up Plex to see my movies in a folder i've built on the original HDD, so that appears straight forward enough, just to import them from my external HDD. Then i'll do similar for i-Tunes and MAYBE i-Photo, but i usually have my pics split a bit to help me when it comes to synching in i-Tunes. I'll see how it goes, then decide.