PC problems. Are these issues with OSX, too?

Lastmboy said:

I can't argue, nor would I want to, that a Mac isn't a good value and a great machine, and it definitely beats all in style. It just seems like Apple uses the hype to price gouge a bit.

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In effect they do up the price - but there is a reason.

Apple want to ship hardware with a 20-30% margin, and refuse to join others in the industry in a race to the bottom, accepting razor slim margins just to get volume.

It's not just that that accounts for the price of Apple computers, but it does put them in an enviable position. They make their products desirable and unique enough that consumers are prepared to pay the premium, if the product was really not distinctive enough to justify that then they would go out of business. In fact they nearly did.

louishen said:

Apple want to ship hardware with a 20-30% margin, and refuse to join others in the industry in a race to the bottom, accepting razor slim margins just to get volume.

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Makes sense. This is just my own opinion, but I think there are a few advantages to their pricing strategies. In the PC world, it seems like any new tech (e.g. new processor) comes out at about 5 times what it's worth. Within about a year, it usually has dropped to about half. Within about 3 years it is completely obsolete and worth nothing.

With Apple:

1. You know the initial price (when new tech released) won't be 5 times what it's worth. It will often be about the same as the product it's replacing.
2. You don't have to scour the world looking for sales, or worry that you paid more than it will cost somewhere else.
3. I believe the pricing strategy also contributes a bit to the way they hold their value.

Demapples said:

I don't play with programs that require special sandboxing so cannot comment.

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Many people have been responding this way to comments I've made. I hear similar types of comments regarding things like "responsible internet browsing" or "I don't go to 'those' sites.

That's all fine and good, but I don't attempt to install "those types" of programs or browse to "those types" of sites, either. Can everyone honestly say they've never accidentally ended up on a "questionable" site when googling something completely unrelated or installed a utility app that turned out to be a piece of junk, but that won't properly uninstall? Most people don't attempt those things, but still end up being susceptible to bad things on occasion.

That said, it looks like there is far less need to worry about viruses and most Mac apps (particularly if downloaded from the app store) are less likely to cause any issues or screw up your system. I just got caught off guard by the frequency of responses that say "that never happens to me".

chas_m said:

(I don't personally think much of Blu-Ray BUT I recognise that many consumers do)

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May I ask why you don't think much of bluray? Just to clarify, I'm not talking about it to make "backups" of original movie disks or to put pirated movies on or stuff like that. I actually like it just for backups. The extra size makes it easy to store an entire work project on, and not have to fumble with a bunch of CDs or DVDs. I can pretty much dump all of my photo library on one and store it off site. Same applies to my music library or all of my documents, etc.

Lastmboy said:

May I ask why you don't think much of bluray? Just to clarify, I'm not talking about it to make "backups" of original movie disks or to put pirated movies on or stuff like that. I actually like it just for backups. The extra size makes it easy to store an entire work project on, and not have to fumble with a bunch of CDs or DVDs. I can pretty much dump all of my photo library on one and store it off site. Same applies to my music library or all of my documents, etc.

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Optical media is obsolete. Its cheaper and more efficient to use a hard drive.

Stretch said:

Optical media is obsolete. Its cheaper and more efficient to use a hard drive.

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I've been starting to think like that... a nice big RAID array with everything on it. I'm just not quite brave enough to trust RAID, yet. I've had some bad luck with RAID arrays, losing two drives at a time, or something like that. I think you have to look for the right drives, though. It seems many of them can't hack it. I lost 8 drives over a two year span. I always worry about something that is often spinning.

My neighbor has a different approach, which solves that one problem. He sticks a hard drive into his exteral dock, dumps everything onto it, then puts it in an anti-static bag and sticks it on a shelf. Probably last longer that way than a bluray disk.

Dual drive failures in a RAID 5 array does equal data loss. This is why you should have another backup strategy. RAID is fault *tolerant*, not fault proof. That said, you probably stand a higher chance of failure at spin up than during active use.

Groovetube said:

Always get the extra ram from a reputable dealer who can supply mac certified ram at really competitive prices. Here in Canada canadaram.com has been brilliant, and waaaay cheaper than apple often.

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Sorry to hop back into the middle of a thread here, but I've been scouting memory a bit. OWC's prices are good, but their shipping to Canada is a bit crazy. I checked out CanadaRAM.com. They're prices are all over the board. For 16gb kit they list Kingston ($490), Certified ($229), Corsair ($145), and Mushkin ($144). I'm assuming "Certified" is actually a brand name in this case. Sooo... which ones would be considered equivalent to "Apple Certified" RAM? Is the dirt cheap Mushkin going to work ok? In looking around, the only difference I've been able to find with the "Apple Certified" ram is that it has a bigger heat shield on it. I'm not sure if that's true or not. Is "Apple Certified" RAM necessary? I've never had a RAM issue on a plethora of PC's I've built. Is it more likely to crap out in a Mac? Thanks for any enlightment.

Macs are pickier with RAM than PCs (and, as a result, less crash-prone).

Call CanadaRAM, explain what you need. They will outline your options. Pick one. Done.

(CR has a stellar online reputation and I am a "local" customer of theirs)

Lastmboy said:

Sorry to hop back into the middle of a thread here, but I've been scouting memory a bit. OWC's prices are good, but their shipping to Canada is a bit crazy. I checked out CanadaRAM.com. They're prices are all over the board. For 16gb kit they list Kingston ($490), Certified ($229), Corsair ($145), and Mushkin ($144). I'm assuming "Certified" is actually a brand name in this case. Sooo... which ones would be considered equivalent to "Apple Certified" RAM? Is the dirt cheap Mushkin going to work ok? In looking around, the only difference I've been able to find with the "Apple Certified" ram is that it has a bigger heat shield on it. I'm not sure if that's true or not. Is "Apple Certified" RAM necessary? I've never had a RAM issue on a plethora of PC's I've built. Is it more likely to crap out in a Mac? Thanks for any enlightment.

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I've heard the statement that "Macs are picky about RAM" in the past, and in my opinion, that may have been true when Macs were using more obscure hardware (in other words, PPC motherboards and chipsets), however, I see no reason why a modern Intel-based Mac would be any more picky than a comparable Windows machine. As a matter of fact, Apple often uses the major OEMs like Foxconn, ASUS, Pegatron and others to assemble their boards, right along side boards for major vendors like Dell, HP, etc..

With that said, I am a big believer in buying name-branded memory from a reputable vendor that will be around long enough to honor the "lifetime" warranty. Memory issues can be tricky to sort out and can manifest themselves in a variety of different ways - everything from kernel panics to seemingly random instability.

For that reason, my recommendation is to stick to well-established vendors with a proven track record or decent customer support. Mushkin, Samsung, Micron (i.e. Crucial), Kingston, Corsair, etc should all be good bets. I see no reason why you have to seek "Apple certified" memory - particularly when Apple uses many of those brands as OEM installs.

You're right, cwa107. Things may have changed as time goes on. But at least a few years ago (like five) when I was doing tech work, Apple was still advising us that their systems prefer a premium grade RAM over no-name RAM (which is often *REJECTED* factory RAM that gets bought up by resellers, who know the law of averages is on their side and most of the "rejected" RAM will work acceptably).

Lastmboy said:

Sorry to hop back into the middle of a thread here, but I've been scouting memory a bit. OWC's prices are good, but their shipping to Canada is a bit crazy. I checked out CanadaRAM.com. They're prices are all over the board. For 16gb kit they list Kingston ($490), Certified ($229), Corsair ($145), and Mushkin ($144). I'm assuming "Certified" is actually a brand name in this case. Sooo... which ones would be considered equivalent to "Apple Certified" RAM? Is the dirt cheap Mushkin going to work ok? In looking around, the only difference I've been able to find with the "Apple Certified" ram is that it has a bigger heat shield on it. I'm not sure if that's true or not. Is "Apple Certified" RAM necessary? I've never had a RAM issue on a plethora of PC's I've built. Is it more likely to crap out in a Mac? Thanks for any enlightment.

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Sorry for the late reply Lastmboy, I don't get on this forum all that often (and Google Alerts somehow didn't flag it for me):

There are indeed several suppliers, and all four models are guaranteed compatible in Macs. The 8 GB SODIMMs are relatively new to the market, and the usuall course of events is that the first models to market come in at a premium price, then as other companies ramp up production, the price starts to fall with competition. Right now, Corsair and Mushkin are leading the price race, and Kingston is somewhat slower to adjust to market pricing.

We wouldn't list RAM that we didn't know works, we have tested all of these, so you could choose any of the brands,

CanadaRAM said:

Sorry for the late reply Lastmboy, I don't get on this forum all that often (and Google Alerts somehow didn't flag it for me):

There are indeed several suppliers, and all four models are guaranteed compatible in Macs. The 8 GB SODIMMs are relatively new to the market, and the usuall course of events is that the first models to market come in at a premium price, then as other companies ramp up production, the price starts to fall with competition. Right now, Corsair and Mushkin are leading the price race, and Kingston is somewhat slower to adjust to market pricing.

We wouldn't list RAM that we didn't know works, we have tested all of these, so you could choose any of the brands,

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Great! Thanks for your response. I've had good experience with both Mushkin and Corsair in the past, but found it odd that they were so much cheaper. That works fine for me though. Excellent prices. That's where I'll be shopping. Great to see that there are some Canadian options

About that file copy thing the OP asked about: reminds me of another relief I've enjoyed since switching from Windows. Never happens mysteriously, like it so often did in Windows. In fact I can't remember experiencing it since switching to Apple, but it was a regular annoyance in Windows that lead to regular reboots.