Just unbuttoned the 2010 MBP 2.66Ghz 13" and inserted 8BG RAM and a
500GB, 7200rpm Seagate Momentus HD -- a hybrid with 4GB of solid
state (which. needless to say, I bought on eBay from HongKong).
There as some pretty dire stuff about the Momentus HD on some of the
Mac forums but apparently early bugs have been worked out and it all
works fine -- runs silently asnd vibration-free and it all seems
faster, but I didn't accurately measure the speed of the system
before I upgraded from the standard 4GB RAM and 320 5400rpm HD.
I did a rough test for battery life before I took out the old disk so
I'll test the new configuration in the next day or two.
By the way, when the new MacBook Pros were announced (renderibng my
2010 model obsolete!), I was intrigued to see that rather than saying
you could work on them for up to 10 hours on battery, the claim for
my model, it said it had a "long lasting battery" and despite more
powerful everything, it used energy efficient stuff so "you can
expect to surf the web wirelessly for up to 7 hours on a single
charge". Then it goes on about the battery being good for 1000
cycles, and adds: "Apple is using a new, more rigorous battery test
that measures the results you can expect in the real world - like
surfing your favourite sites in a coffee shop or catching up on the
latest web videos. Even using this new test, MacBook Pro delivers
amazing battery life. For your real life."
I took this to mean that, in fact, the new stuff meant that the
battery couldn't deliver the 10 hours any longer.
But it can -- I suspect. If you are typing away in NisusWriter Pro!
But if you get into graphics -- it falls off significantly. I noticed
when I was timing my machine before the change that surfing the web
results in much more rapid battery discharge that what is working in
my terms -- mostly WPing.
So why would Apple change to a "more rigorous battery test"? The clue
is in its front page stuff about the new graphics. They are "game
changing". Ho ho -- the new Pros are primarily for gamers and web
socializing, not working.
Note also that iLife 11 is a bit of a con. iWeb and iDVD haven't been
upgraded. Of course not. They have no significant place in the
consumer world. Setting up an individual website and using DVDs are
s-o-o-o-o noughties!!!
The trend has been clear, but it is intriguing to see more obvious
pointers surfacing from Apple.
PS: unbuttoning the aluminium MBP is not so hard, but buttoning it up
again was touchy. Those little, little screws ... ugh! One of them
has a crossed thread, but I don't anticipate every unscrewing it
again so I could care less.
Cheers, geoff
Geoffrey Heard
Business & Environment Writer, Editor, Publisher
The Worsley Press
Buy "Type & Layout: Are you communicating or just making pretty
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