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I am currently using a very old windows laptop and desperately need to change it,I have never used a Mac before, and though there is no presssing need for me to switch to a Mac , I still want to experience it.

Considering my budget and portability requirements I reckon that the MBP 13 Retina -8gb -256 GB SSD would be the best bet for me. I however have the following questions.

1. I read in this forum that upgrades will not be possible on the new MBP13. I still feel that 8GB RAM woudl be enough for me (my current laptop has 2 GB), but i have serious reservations on the 256 GB SSD. Need some first hand experiences on whether this storage is generally enough?

2. Are there any issues with Mac being compatible with all hard disk formats? Cant i just plug and use my WD 500 GB Hard disk?

Thanks.
 

chscag

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Welcome to the Mac Forums!

1. I read in this forum that upgrades will not be possible on the new MBP13. I still feel that 8GB RAM woudl be enough for me (my current laptop has 2 GB), but i have serious reservations on the 256 GB SSD. Need some first hand experiences on whether this storage is generally enough?

The retina model MacBook Pro machines are not upgradeable. You read correctly. We always advise someone who plans on buying one to make sure they buy as much as they can within budget. You also have to think about future use. Memory of 8 GB should suffice for considerable time. As for the SSD, 256 GB is the minimum I would consider realizing that 500 GB would be more expensive.

2. Are there any issues with Mac being compatible with all hard disk formats? Cant i just plug and use my WD 500 GB Hard disk?

Probably not if your WD 500 GB hard drive is formatted to NTFS. Mac OS X can read NTFS but not write to it. However, there is a driver available that will allow both read and write. (Paragon NTFS = $19.95)

Mac OS X can natively read and write to FAT, FAT-32, exFAT, and of course HFS+.
 
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One more thing you can do, at least it's what I did, was to plug the drive into your Mac. Create a desktop folder on your Mac. Since the Mac can read the drive in it's current format, just drag all material from your drive into your desktop shortcut folder. This will take a while depending on how much stuff you have.

Once the data is copied and confirmed to be on your Mac, then reformat the external drive to the Mac format (OS Extended Journaled I think) and then once it's Mac formatted, then just copy all the stuff back over to the external drive.

Takes a while, but it's pretty simple and won't cost you anything extra.
 
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chas_m

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The 256GB SSD is more than enough for typical users, but will run low if you store a lot of media (photos, videos in particular) on there. Learn how to manage (and back up) media files using external drives and you should be fine.
 
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Thank you all.It was very informative.
The link for switchers and newbies is really a very good read for ppl like me.
 
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new to the forum as well ! for example:

, I have a 2010 MBP 15" and from what i understand not only my macbook pro but the 2011+ years to 2013's GPU's inside are pretty bad. My GPU is bad and they did a 3 year recall but I missed it by a few months. Apple is currently issuing recalls for MBP's effected with the 'gpu panic'. not to scare you, but they seem to be having mucho problems with nvidia gpu's on the logic board. if i were in your position I would get a mac mini
 
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chas_m

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Can you point to a link for this alleged "recall"? Apple doesn't actually do recalls so I'm a little skeptical about your information.
 
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Can you point to a link for this alleged "recall"? Apple doesn't actually do recalls so I'm a little skeptical about your information.

Sure, that's because it's not widely known, and usually once you find out about it its normally already too late, like me

MacBook Pro (15-inch, Mid 2010): Intermittent black screen or loss of video

Apple is currently replacing the logic boards inside of 2011 to 2013 MBP's, they have a serious issue here. It isn't their fault but nvidia's, i think the balling on the chip becomes loose due to heat, so when the MBP switches from onboard to nvidia, and it starts pushing itself, it will crash osx with a gpu panic. I was specifically told by apple support 'we can't replace yours as its over the 3 year mark, we are currently replacing them in the 2011,2012,2013 models."

I also found out a bassist friend of mine has a good friend that is the head guy at an apple store, I talked to him yesterday and there wasn't anything he can do either.
 

chscag

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Sure, that's because it's not widely known, and usually once you find out about it its normally already too late, like me

MacBook Pro (15-inch, Mid 2010): Intermittent black screen or loss of video

Thanks for posting the Apple article. I had just several days ago referred someone else to this service alert from Apple. It's not really a recall as member chas_m points out. Apple calls it a "service alert" since it does not effect every Mid 2010 15" MBP machine.
 
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Thanks for posting the Apple article. I had just several days ago referred someone else to this service alert from Apple. It's not really a recall as member chas_m points out. Apple calls it a "service alert" since it does not effect every Mid 2010 15" MBP machine.

Regardless of the name, 'recall', 'service alert' call it what you want. It's still a non functional component that they are replacing, and from the reading I've done the past week, it's common in many 2010 MBP's as well as the latter models, and as I said before, thats why they won't replace mine without a fee.

Addressing Nvidia:
I've had 3 failed nvidia chips now with all the same problems, dating back to 2004.

#1 PC running a 8800gtx, the chip was getting to hot, expansion and contraction occurred and the solder broke away from the chip. A simple oven bake fixed it for a while but it eventually kicked the bucket.

#2 The same thing happened in my 1st Gen. Playstation 3, the nvidia chip pulled away from the PCB because of heat, then my PS3 would no longer boot.

#3 2010 MBP

#4 (As told to me on the phone 2012/2013 models have the same issue and Apple is currently fixing them out of their/nvidias pocket)

Do you think it's a coincidence that the Playstation 4 and Xbox one is now using an AMD chips?



I think i'll be building a PC with the ability to run OSX as my future audio production rig. If i already didn't own all mac software and Apogee audio components I would probably just stayed on windows.

I will still use Apple products such as my IPhone, iPad, Apple TV. In my opinion the 2012 Mac Pro will probably be the last user friendly hardware mac ever built if it needs repair, and at least the Mac Pro's are reliable
 

chscag

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I think i'll be building a PC with the ability to run OSX as my future audio production rig. If i already didn't own all mac software and Apogee audio components I would probably just stayed on windows.

You do know that putting OS X on anything but a genuine Mac is against the Apple EULA? And since we do not talk about building a Hackintosh in these forums, we would appreciate it if in the future you just keep that to yourself.
 
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chas_m

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Also, not to be picky, but "recall" and "service alert" are not synonyms. I appreciate you putting up the link; I had a feeling you were referring to that, but it wasn't a recall so I was a little confused.
 

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