[ Mac] New Users

[SegaMark]

I see you have stuck to your old mouse though

My MX700 may be 6 years old but it's still one hell of an awesome mouse, and the Mac drivers for it are awesome.

[ChrisF]

Just stuck my order in for Snow Leopard on the UK apple store!

[JP]

I really want Microsoft's Exchange but do you know if the OS is likely to be more efficient on my set up?

• Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
• Processor Speed: 2 GHz
• Number Of Processors: 1
• Total Number Of Cores: 2
• L2 Cache: 4 MB
• Memory: 2 GB
• Bus Speed: 667 MHz

I have been very tempted to at £25! Is the upgrade a disc version is it a download?

EDIT:
Just went on the Apple Live Chat and spoke to Ivy who confirmed that you do get a disc version. That was nice and quick, took me about 30 seconds from start to finish.

[ChrisF]

Should be fine with that spec I guess John... I imagine Ivy confirmed that

http://www.apple.com/macosx/specs.html

1GB RAM, Intel processor... 5GB space, and a DVD drive... should be all you need! I guess MacBook Air's might be the only ones that'll struggle what with the lack of built in DVD drive hehe

[JP]

Thanks Chris,

The recommended specs are fine but I was wondering just how much the performance would improve with specs like that. I'm obviously not going to get the benefits of the new 64 bit stuff but according to Apple things should run faster overall on 32 bit machines anyway.

[ChrisF]

I'm obviously not going to get the benefits of the new 64 bit stuff but according to Apple things should run faster overall on 32 bit machines anyway.

You have a 64 bit machine, so I should hope you get the benefits

[JP]

BLOODY HELL!!! I had no idea, I just though that all Minis were 32 bit for some reason. You've made my day now, it's almost like I've just had a hardware upgrade for free!

32 bit or 64 bit, I was going to get it anyway for Exchange but I didn't think I'd get as many improvements with it being 32 bit. I'm going to have to look at all those speed improvement comparison charts again but looking at the 64 bit bars.

I know I'm not going to get anywhere near the improvement that Mac Pro users are going to get any improvement on top of the real reason I'm buying it can only be a good thing.

[ChrisF]

I'm sure FSW will correct me, but you may even get the same benefits that Mac Pro users are getting. What kind of Mac do you have btw John?

I think the only thing you may not get (well, I'm certainly not going to benefit from it on my MacBook) is the OpenCL stuff, which uses your graphics card to give you more power.

[JP]

It's listed as Macmini2,1 in the About tab.

[Brad]

1. Every Intel mac is 64 bit
2. Every mac that is capable of running Snow leopard will see an improvement over Leopard
3. The built in apps are the first things you'll notice to get a speed increase. They have all been compiled using the new Grand Central Dispatch; a system for running multiple application threads on separate cores. The more cores/CPUs you have the greater the increase
4. OpenCL is a bit different. It's designed to leverage the awesome processing power of today's GPUs. The GPUs in Mac Minis and regular Macbooks are not awesome however! Also, making use of OpenCL requires significant effort on the part of developers whereas Grand Central Dispatch just requires rebuilding the app with new tools.

[Strolls]

1. Every Intel mac currently on the market is 64 bit

FTFY

See:

http://www.apple-history.com/?page=gallery&model=mb&section=h1&sort=date&performa=off&order=ASC

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_Core_Duo

"The Core brand was launched on 5 January 2006 by the release of the 32-bit Yonah CPU- Intel's first dual-core mobile (low-power) processor. Its dual-core layout closely resembled two interconnected Pentium M branded CPUs packaged as a single die (piece) silicon chip (IC). Hence, the 32-bit microarchitecture of Core branded CPUs - contrary to its name - had more in common with Pentium M branded CPUs than with the subsequent 64-bit Core microarchitecture of Core 2 branded CPUs.

The Core series is also known for being the first Intel processor to be used as the main CPU for an Apple Macintosh computer. The Core Solo appeared in Apple's Mac Mini line."

[Brad]

Ah yes, I forgot about the initial Mac minis. Ironic seeing as I have one

[JP]

When I'm updating to the new version I'm going to understandably make sure everything is backed up before I start.

Will my TimeMachine backups be all I need or will it need a full back up? I know that Disk Utility has the option to create a disc image, is that what I should be using?

I'm thinking that the update shouldn't harm any of my files but if it does and I've created an image, will I be able to select individual files from the image rather than just restoring the whole thing?

Not connected to this but does anybody know of a way to get it so when I open Safari, it opens with 2 tabs and each one having a different home page? It's something I used to do in Firefox but can't find anyway to do it in Safari.

[Strolls]

I personally copy my whole /Users/stroller directory to an external drive (or make an empty disk image on an external drive and copy my whole /Users/stroller directory to that). That way it's easy to recover only the files I need. I haven't yet used Time machine myself, so I don't know about restoring from that.

[JP]

Thanks. Do you mean you just drag and drop everything from one drive to another?