Everything Apple (the Mac heads thread)

Always worth checking apple refurb

refurb store usually offers about the same discount, maybe +/- 1 to 2% difference to what you could get through the higher edu store. So I'd say get it through the edu store is your best bet, because you also get 3 years hardware only warranty for free. That is the Higher edu store, not the Further edu store. So if you are getting it through logging in to the apple website through your uni computers then that's the one.

Excellent, thanks. Didn't know there was a difference in educational discounts or about the warranty.

Higher edu you get up to 14% depends on models etc, I think with the iMac you get about 12%. Further edu you only get about 10%. The higher edu discount is as a result of Apple having won a supply contract from a bunch of universities, and a part of the agreement is that the winning company aka Apple has to provide the same level of discount to all their staff and students, which is why you must get it from a campus computer / network or over the phone and send over proof of ID. If you just walked into an Apple store or get onto their website looking for edu discount, you'd get further edu discount, which is still nice, but just not as. And the 3 years HE-uplift la la la... whatever it's called does come and go, so make sure you ask before commiting, as otherwise, you can still buy Applecare and get 76% off, so for an iMac, I think it's £48 for 3 years... but you MUST buy the Applecare the same time as your pruchase the computer, if you were to buy it after, you'd only get the standard higher edu discount which brings it to just under £200 I think.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEr6K1bwIVs

Thought this looks pretty interesting.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/branchusb/branch-form-fitted-usb-c-hub-for-new-macbook/description

An expensive solution for the lack of port on the MacBook?

Getting a 13 inch late 2009 macbook off a lady in work for £65, planning on throwing a SSD and RAM in there then selling it on or keeping it. Am I paying a good price?

Dont know much about mac values other then that they are expensive so couldnt say no!

If it's in full work order then it seems a good deal. However, if memory serves, 8GB is the max you could put on a machince of that age.

Yeah seems to be working fine, battery cycles in the 300's and "Normal" Status.

Have read that 8GB is the max, just need to confirm the pins and buy 2 4GB bits.

Is there a certain SSD you would reccommend or will any one do? Having trouble trying to figure out how to put OSX on a replacement SSD. Would like to put a fresh install on it as it looks like the Mac hasn't been fully wiped (still has the son of my colleagues name as their Mac)

Cheers, sorry for the noob questions, just hard sifting through all the stuff on the web and I know you lovely lot will help :)

if you go onto the crucial website and entre the year model etc, it will match the ram for you. A lot of people either go with them or Kinston, realiable and reasonably priced etc.

With regards to the SSD, it depends on how fast you want it, there are so many types and speeds, so no, not any would do, the more you pay, the faster they tend to be... so I would say go to amazon and type in some keywords and read some reviews. Also make sure the machine supports SATA, which you can see under About this Mac - More Info - System Report. As some really old macs supports something that is called something else. From there you can then work out how fast a SSD you'd need.

Have a look here

No point in buying the fastest and newest SSD only to have its speed capped at whatever the SATA can deal with.

As for installing a freah copy of everything, by installing an SSD, you are doing that whether you like it or not. You can copy data from the spinning HDD onto the SSD if you have been the owner of your machine, but since you are not... I honestly can't remember if the process is the same for pre 2011 macs as to the newer models, but a 2008 model should come with a DVD with instruction on how to reinstall the OSX, it's pretty straight forward...

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Mrs Roboto's iMac has given up life. I think the graphics card has gone, but it seems like a complete pain to replace it on a mid 2010 i3 model. Anyone know someone or somewhere selling pre-loved iMacs for a decent price. Preferably something made within the last couple of years, doesn't need to be high spec though. Just enough RAM for Skype and ebay (she doesn't use Facebook).

Bumping this for a new page. Best place for refurbs?

ebay?

I have heard good reviews about this place

http://www.hoxtonmacs.co.uk/collections/imac

Or the Apple refurbs site?

Not sure I trust ebay sellers when it comes to selling refurbed macs and there aren't any 21" iMacs on the apple site at the moment. I'll check out the Hoxton link. Thanks.

Amazing help Extra. Thanks very much!

your welcome... will send an invoice for my service to your home address within the next 7 days. ;-P On a serious note, if you end up getting it, and run into any problem with chopping and changing parts, happy to help again if I can.

Have got it, bringing it home from work tonight, going to look into parts. Seen some video's and looks relatively straight forward. Have built windows desktop computers so shouldn't be a problem!

Both refurb and edu combined. Higher edu gets a better rate.

@roboto try the Macsmith in Hackney Road for a repair?

I may give them a try. I was just trying to throw more money than I need to at the problem. Typical Mac user...

Done and ordered. 3.5ghz, 8gb, 256 ssd Retina. 12% off for higher edu discount, but couldn't get them to accept the existance of 6 year h/w warranty at all. Slightly nervous now as I wait...never used a Mac and it's a lot of cash to throw on the gamble of a success switch from Windows.

Feel like I'd been kicked in the nuts a bit though when it only dawned on me afterward to check out the keyboard and discovered that it's £50 extra for a damn numeric pad!

Sorry did I say 6 years? It's only 3. 6 years is the consumer right claims shall you need to make it. Why wouldn't they give you the 3 years hardware warranty then?

Ah, yeah I do have 3 years h/w. They tried to sell me discounted 3 year telephone support.

I got someone on webchat too that said they would swap the wireless keyboard for the wired one with numbers, but it doesn't seem to have updated the order details on the site. May need to get confirmation on that. Now just frustrated because I didn't read the delivery estimates correctly and thought I'd be getting it Monday. Am excited and impatient.

Applecare once was very good but now they are just as bunch of type monkeys.

For Sale: 13" Macbook Air (mid 2013)
1.3GHz i5 4GB 128GB flash drive
£500
Posting on behalf of a friend - send PM

Thunderbolt update #953:

ParcelFarce have paid up... Rather unhelpfully, they've sent me a cheque... They haven't even asked for an address... Where will it arrive? Will it be in Sterling, Euros or Aussie Dollars? Who knows? And how much will the cheque be for?

So many questions... At least it appears to be sorted, incompetence of the highest order tho'...