Ever tried OpenOffice? I don't use Office unless I absolutely have to. Then again, I don't do much stats stuff....

I like Numbers better anyway. Excel is pretty robust but I find Numbers more intuitive and easier on the eyes. Far easier to tweak the look of too.

amen brother. Been a Mac guys for 25 years. Finally bought a used 2008 macbook pro to go laptop only in the house. Love it. Not a big fan of Yosemite, but i liked the previous OS's.

I have to say the Air is the best laptop I've ever bought. I'm out of space so I think I'll buy another newer one. Unix, Mac OS and when I need it Parallels.

Got way too many devices but I can akways use more :)

Been through a lot of PC's and laptops but my Apple products always and still work. Still have a working SE/30 and Newton :D

I have open office on my Windows machine, I have a hard enough time with Excel, I'd rather stay with it for work purposes, consistency, etc. etc. etc.

rjp

Something I don't like about Macs is that they have two names for their OS. One app says it needs OS 10.9 and another says it needs Mavericks. I'm constantly looking up which number relates to which name because I can't ever remember. Is their any good reason for this?

Age, gets us all eventually.

That brings up another thing. I have two hard drives, a terabyte and a half tera. The big one is of course named Big Mac. So now that I'm older, when I fire up my computer I get hungry.

This talk of upgrading the mac book has me taking notice.

where do I look in the computer to check hard drive and ram?

Upper right click the Apple and select About this Mac.

Depending on which version of the OS it'll be either "More Info" or "System Report"

RAM and hard drive are in the Hardware category.

RAM is obvious, Memory

Hard drive depends on the machine, either under ATA or SATA. Look for Rotational Speed. It'll be either 5400 or 7200.

If a much older box could even be 4800.

Here is what I have.

Model Name: MacBook Pro
Model Identifier: MacBookPro6,2
Processor Name: Intel Core i5
Processor Speed: 2.53 GHz
Number of Processors: 1
Total Number of Cores: 2
L2 Cache (per Core): 256 KB
L3 Cache: 3 MB
Memory: 4 GB
Processor Interconnect Speed: 4.8 GT/s
Boot ROM Version: MBP61.0057.B0F
SMC Version (system): 1.58f17
Serial Number (system): W8015V2ZAGV
Hardware UUID: 94F7F446-9324-5DB0-8DCB-7FF70AD29684
Sudden Motion Sensor:
State: Enabled

5400 rotational under Serial ATA

Intel 5 Series Chipset:

Vendor: Intel
Product: 5 Series Chipset
Link Speed: 3 Gigabit
Negotiated Link Speed: 1.5 Gigabit
Description: AHCI Version 1.30 Supported

Hitachi HTS545050B9SA02:

Capacity: 500.11 GB (500,107,862,016 bytes)
Model: Hitachi HTS545050B9SA02
Revision: PB4AC60W
Serial Number: 101126PBL400M7GMKP0V
Native Command Queuing: Yes
Queue Depth: 32
Removable Media: No
Detachable Drive: No
BSD Name: disk0
Rotational Rate: 5400
Medium Type: Rotational
Partition Map Type: GPT (GUID Partition Table)
S.M.A.R.T. status: Failing
Volumes:
disk0s1:
Capacity: 209.7 MB (209,715,200 bytes)
BSD Name: disk0s1
Content: EFI
Macintosh HD:
Capacity: 499.25 GB (499,248,103,424 bytes)
Available: 110.68 GB (110,677,479,424 bytes)
Writable: Yes
File System: Journaled HFS+
BSD Name: disk0s2
Mount Point: /
Content: Apple_HFS
Recovery HD:
Capacity: 650 MB (650,002,432 bytes)
BSD Name: disk0s3
Content: Apple_Boot

nuthin outlandish. 2011 MBP13" Best computer I've ever owned and the first time in my life I'm not itching to upgrade after a few years. I'm attached to this thing like my right arm.

Model Name: MacBook Pro
Model Identifier: MacBookPro8,1
Processor Name: Intel Core i5
Processor Speed: 2.3 GHz
Number of Processors: 1
Total Number of Cores: 2
L2 Cache (per Core): 256 KB
L3 Cache: 3 MB
Memory: 4 GB
Boot ROM Version: MBP81.0047.B27
SMC Version (system): 1.68f99
Serial Number (system): C02FJ553DH2L
Hardware UUID: E5021AB5-C345-546E-8A71-50D5BBAB85DB
Sudden Motion Sensor:
State: Enabled

That my friend is not good. Your hard drive is going to die. Could be today, next week or next month but you want to address that.

I would do full back up ASAP.

That box will take 8 GB RAM max.

Man, I need to step up & go to the Dark Side...

I felt the same way when I got my first Macbook in 2011. Never have things been so easy. Still running strong with no issues, even after years of continuous use.

A 2011 MacBook Pro can take 16 GB of RAM, not just 8 GB like Apple's literature claims. Ask me how I know. ;)

Yeah Randys is 2011.

Chocolatelabs is mid 2010.

He needs to address that hard drive issue.

As long as he's in there may as well do the RAM.

Back it all up throw more ram in it and add an ssd, and you will feel like you just bought a new computer...

Crap

When I look at the drive section there are 2 chip sets. Below is the other. Maybe its the original.

I have replaced this hard drive once. Backing up now.

ntel 5 Series Chipset:

Vendor: Intel
Product: 5 Series Chipset
Link Speed: 3 Gigabit
Negotiated Link Speed: 1.5 Gigabit
Description: AHCI Version 1.30 Supported

MAT****ADVD-R UJ-898:

Model: MAT****ADVD-R UJ-898
Revision: HC09
Serial Number: UJ92 1258R2
Native Command Queuing: No
Detachable Drive: No
Power Off: Yes
Async Notification: No

where you guys getting the best deal on power bricks? I'm down to only one- the pins always fail- they go flat....

That's the DVD drive.

I just "upgraded" my tower to Yosemite. I needed it to run a new program (I guess it dates you when you still call "apps" programs) that required Yosemite. I'm not fond of the new look. Other than that it seems OK. I think I'm going to like how it interacts with my phone and iPad.

Handoff requires Bluetooth 4.

Mac Minis and Airs from 2011 and on
MacBook Pro and iMacs from 2012 and on
MacPro only the new one from 2013 and on

Handoff will not work on anything older

Have in my list to add a BT 4 USB dongle to see if it'll work just have not been that motivated yet.

There is a local Mac repair shop here in town.

If I bring the computer there for hard drive swap and ram upgrade what should I expect to pay in labor?

PS-thanks for the help on this

My MacBook is just a bit too early to support it but I'm not disappointed. In my experience Bluetooth generally sucks (not just on Apple devices). It works fine between my iPhone and hands-free in the car but for everything else supposedly "Bluetooth comparable" it seems to have all the reliability of a 1978 Oldsmobile.

Hard to say what they would charge.

You'll likely pay a premium for their RAM and hard drive plus labor.

Whereabouts is "here"

Just got mac book back
Rockin 8 ram and 1 TB

Without this thread I would have likely awaken one morning to find everything lost.

Thanks

Scott is God...

Scott, Can you give me an opinion here? Mines been a bit sluggish of late now that I am running outlook365. Thinking I could use a bump in ram. 8gb? or go all the way to 16gb?

Model Name: MacBook Pro
Model Identifier: MacBookPro6,2
Processor Name: Intel Core i7
Processor Speed: 2.66 GHz
Number of Processors: 1
Total Number of Cores: 2
L2 Cache (per Core): 256 KB
L3 Cache: 4 MB
Memory: 4 GB
Processor Interconnect Speed: 4.8 GT/s
Boot ROM Version: MBP61.0057.B0C
SMC Version (system): 1.58f17


ECC: Disabled
Upgradeable Memory: Yes

BANK 0/DIMM0:

Size: 2 GB
Type: DDR3
Speed: 1067 MHz
Status: OK
Manufacturer: 0x80AD
Part Number: 0x484D54313235533654465238432D47372020
Serial Number: 0x0C4212B7

BANK 1/DIMM0:

Size: 2 GB
Type: DDR3
Speed: 1067 MHz
Status: OK
Manufacturer: 0x80AD
Part Number: 0x484D54313235533654465238432D47372020
Serial Number: 0x0C8212E2


Capacity: 500.11 GB (500,107,862,016 bytes)
Model: Hitachi HTS725050A9A362
Revision: PC4ACB1E
Serial Number: 101116PCG420VLKVGX0C
Native Command Queuing: Yes
Queue Depth: 32
Removable Media: No
Detachable Drive: No
BSD Name: disk0
Rotational Rate: 7200
Medium Type: Rotational
Partition Map Type: GPT (GUID Partition Table)
S.M.A.R.T. status: Verified

Sid,

You've got the faster drive but it's only 500 MB, how full is it?

They get fussy as you approach 90%+ capacity.

You can put 8 GB in there which will help.

One thing you can also grab is this

https://fiplab.com/apps/memory-clean-for-mac

Let's you monitor RAM usage and purge memory cache that does not clean itself.

It's free and sits up in the menu bar so you can always see what's going on.

I run it on all my machines and it comes in handy.

Nice.

How's it run?

Its running much better.

Certainly starts faster when I power up.

I am running yosemite now which a little different than the version I was running.

Now I need to find a good 1TB back up drive.

No, you need a good 3TB backup drive ;-)

Anyone looking to do the 16 GB upgrade, Mac or Windows box, there is a smoking deal on Newegg right now.

$119.99 out the door. That is a great frikkin deal.

Mushkin Enhanced Blackline 16GB (2 x 8G) 204-Pin DDR3 SO-DIMM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Laptop Memory Model 997067 - Newegg.com

Just bought, should be here in 3-5 BD...Thanks Scott!

Downloaded memory clean, and its hovering at right about 25% of memory available.

My HD is very full. I purge stuff every few months, but I still think a bump to 1tb would prolong the life of this computer. What would you recommend?

This deal is still on BTW! Ordering now....

I've got this one in my laptop right now.

Whatever you get make sure it's 7,200 rpm or better. 10k RPM drives are available but they are spendy and capacity is lower.

HGST Travelstar 7K1000 HTS721010A9E630 (0J22423) 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 2.5" Internal Notebook Hard Drive - Newegg.com

Anyone have a Mac Book Pro they want to trade off??

Go SSD if you can afford it - I7 with 8G RAM and SSD =superfly

It's no Air though ;)

Thanks! I'll pick one of those up soon and put it in when I've got a chance! Will need the space for lots of pictures with the new job...

Not going to waste the cash on an SSD in this computer. I really think I will be buying an Air sometime this year for my travel rig, but this one will still be my desk rig even if I get an Air.