benlehman: (Default)
benlehman ([personal profile] benlehman) wrote2009-02-08 06:19 pm
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New Computer thoughts

So my computer is old and beginning to die. Since a small Apple laptop did well last time, I'm thinking about getting a similar machine. There's no more 12" lappies (sadly), so I'm thinking about getting the 13" MacBook w/ 2.4 GHz processor and extra RAM. But I'm flexible. Does anyone else have any suggestions / concerns / things I should know about? I'd be very obliged if you'd share.
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[identity profile] rob-donoghue.livejournal.com 2009-02-09 01:13 pm (UTC)(link)
Thumbs up on the MacBook. That said, while you want as much RAM as you can manage, Apple overcharges pretty hard for pre-installing it (though they're better than they used to be) and if you're comfortable just slapping it in yourself (http://homeoffice.consumerelectronicsnet.com/articles/viewarticle.jsp?id=44404), I'd grab it from crucial.com (http://www.crucial.com/) or some other place you trust. I used crucial for my mac, and more recently for my netbook, so they're definitely a company I'd recommend.

Also, glad you're gettign the warranty. So worth it.

[identity profile] benlehman.livejournal.com 2009-02-09 01:59 pm (UTC)(link)
Good to know! Saved me serious money.

Does installing RAM yourself violate the warranty in any way?

yrs--
--Ben

[identity profile] boxninja.livejournal.com 2009-02-09 06:38 pm (UTC)(link)
When I got my PowerBook from Apple I opened up the back to take out the Apple RAM and replace it with my Crucial.com RAM. Turns out the two RAM chips that Apple had put in that I then took out were Crucial chips too.

RAM direct from Crucial.com has been a solid and pleasant experience for me over my iBook, Cube, PowerBook and MacBook, as well as various PCs.

Oh, to install RAM follow these instructions:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1651

For best performance make sure the chips are of equal size.
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[personal profile] evilmagnus 2009-02-09 07:23 pm (UTC)(link)
No (Specifically, it's illegal in many places to even try that shit), and another thumbs-up for Crucial RAM.
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[personal profile] evilmagnus 2009-02-09 07:26 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh, funny story related to the RAM-violates-warranty thing.

We had a big IBM box. I think it was an H90 or something. Anyway, we wanted more RAM, and Big Blue quoted some tremendous amount of money for it. We quoted Crucial and they gave us the big hoo-ha about how that RAM had not been tested, how it'd cause the machine to catch fire and kill all our children, even the unborn ones, and how it would also void the warranty.

We told them to go suck a fruit and bought Crucial RAM. Cracked the server to install it, and what did we find?

Crucial RAM.

( specifically, both the sticks we ordered, and the sticks in the server, were Micron ECC RAM. Crucial is the direct-mail / consumer branch of Micron).

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