What have you done with an early Intel recently?

[eyoungren]

Bunch of maintenance issues…

I made the leap from Mojave to Monterey last Sunday, but as with anything I have experienced like this, I knew there'd be other issues to deal with. Fortunately, the first I had already taken care of in April, updating Little Snitch.

Today:

• Finish copying over all my graphics files to the Synology NAS (NAS2). I attempted that last night, but about 32k of small files for something I got but never used slowed the process to a crawl. Got rid of those last night.

• Compact the graphics disk image backup on NAS1 to reclaim all that space deleting those 32k files took up.

• Move Master Fonts backup from one NAS to the other. Used the NAS1 web interface to delete off NAS1. 6TB in small files.

• Converted the second internal SSD (2TB) to APFS. Everything survived, including my fonts.

• Got Carbon Copy Cloner updated and updated my backups.

• Wiped the 2TB RAID drive (where the graphics were stored originally).

• Optimized memory and some history/cache levels on Photoshop.

• Bunch of other little things to do with default Apple apps and my Apple ID.

I moved the graphics because there is a red light on the 2TB RAID enclosure. Actually, that's been there for a year or more now. I suspect a hardware fault (I've had the two drives inside since they were a month old), but it's never failed. Ejecting the disk, turning it off, and then back on fixes the red light for a while. I'm hoping the drive wipe keeps it from coming back. Regardless, I'm not keeping anything important on there now (like my graphics). Solely being used as a Photoshop scratch disk.

Anyway, I think I've made this leap successfully. I'm sure the desire to update to Sonoma will come at some point and I'll convince myself to put a USB 2.0 hub between my KVM switch and the MacPro.

 

[dannyseek]

Bought a 2012 unibody 15" after a long long search for a specimen in good condition. The 2012 unibody will forever be (for me at least) peak apple design because of how easy it is to access the internals, all the available ports including Thunderbolt and USB3, the DVD drive, and last but not least the keyboard. I immediately did the requisite upgrades: 16GB ram and 1TB SSD. I also embarked on a more involved upgrade, one that, according to every forum and website I visited looking for clarification, was not possible. I installed the screen (hi-res matte) from my 2010 unibody 15".

Everywhere I searched, I kept coming across the opinion that the 2012 MBP's LVDS connector is not compatible with the screens from any of the prior years of the unibody MBPs. In reality the connector is the same and it works. The only caveat is, the male connector (display) is wider (by less than a millimeter) than the female connector (motherboard). This can be easily fixed by "trimming" the sides of the connector which are plastic, and then the connector will fit perfectly fine. I am now looking forward to getting a few years of service out of this machine (currently running MacOS Monterey via OCLP). Cheers!

 

[DouglasCarroll]

Received my Dual Xeon X5675 3.06 GHz cpus and dropped them into the 2010 Mac Pro 5,1 that I recently received for free. I then tested the machine in Geekbench 5 and compared it with my older 2008 Mac Pro 3,1 which has dual 3.20 GHz processors. Here are the results...


Computer. Single-Core. Multi-Core

2008. 471 2687

2012 630 5986


Nice! I think it was worth the $29 I paid for the newer Xeons! I mainly use my MacPro for transcoding Blu-Ray to mp4 and handbrake saturates all the cores so going from 8 cores to 12 cores should help this quite a bit!

Now the arduous task of moving all the hard drives, Blu-Ray reader, video card, etc from the 2008 to the 2012 and then upgrading the 2012 to Mojave.

 

[MBAir2010]

So

2 weeks ago i posted my mid-MacBook Pro 2012 (16GB ram,Intel Core i7 2.9 GHz) that was sitting in the original box for several months on Craigslist for $200 and installed Catalina on the 265GB drive. No one was interested and they are only selling several MacBooks, 5 in total that are over-priced in a very populous area. Little did i know that i stared using the MBP more than expected, i installed 2 OS, Mojave which is still incredible and Catalina which is modern and does everything current  related like drop-off, airplay2….well you get the gist.

What was disappointing was the intel-heat, even with MacFans the bottom was hot and uncomfortable to use as a laptop. While cycling i had an epiphany to erase Catalina and boot mountain lion. BOY I'm glad i did! everything works as my M1 Macbook air not as fast but still great with no heat. Thanks to SeaLion and PaleMoon that still operates many websites i frequent and i did watch part of the Croatia-Italy match LIVE in full HD picture without a stutter at all!

I might use this MacBook Pro with MT Lion all of July instead of the M1 air and mini to see if that can be done, lately I'm annoyed at the approach  is foreseeing in AI which i feel awkward about since we need the human element in our daily life, which this is scary to think a computer will now finish one's sentence while typing,

As of today the MBP12 is being used for the fifth hour now while the MBA_M!_2020 will stream the NHL while the Mini M1 will play music to the 2 home pod minis. next week, i hope to only use this MBP and a nice Bluetooth speaker and 3 iPods designed and sold 2 decades ago.

I will try to update my daily experience (briefly here) and maybe start to enjoy  this year.

thanks for reading!

 

[rin67630]

2 weeks ago i posted my mid-MacBook Pro 2012 (16GB ram,Intel Core i7 2.9 GHz) that was sitting in the original box for several months on Craigslist for $200

I was currently buying a MBP 15" Retina for 120€. That ist the current tag...
The older MBAs still suffer from the bad reputation of the pre-2012 devices with dying graphics.
If you want to sell it for a good price, dump macOS, put Windows and Office on it and sell it, not mentioning Apple.

 

[chaosbunny]

Installed Windows 10 on a new 2tb SSD in my Mac Pro 5,1 to replace the dying original 1tb HDD I had Windows installed on since 2010. This HDD lasted for 14 years and went from a Windows 7 to a Windows 10 installation. The process was quite complicated since all kinds of little things didn't work as described in various tutorials. I had to replace the optical drive (the original was broken and I hadn't noticed since I hadn't used it in a long time) and burn a dual layer Windows-DVD. But now the Mac Pro is back in gaming action for the foreseeable future.

Unfortunately I have to play Horizon Forbidden West on my mbp since the old Xeon is lacking the AVX instruction set. Seems like 2024 is the end for newer games on the Mac Pro. Not a big deal though, there are a bunch of interesting titles from the last couple of years I have yet to play.

 

[MBAir2010]

I was currently buying a MBP 15" Retina for 120€. That ist the current tag...
The older MBAs still suffer from the bad reputation of the pre-2012 devices with dying graphics.
If you want to sell it for a good price, dump macOS, put Windows and Office on it and sell it, not mentioning Apple.

Thanks for the advice...but wouldn't the buyer decide what to do with the Macbook?
i even included that ssd drive bay, several thumb drives and enclosures.

I decided to keep the macbook pro 2012 and indicated that on the post.
seems to me i can add a 100$ local store gift card and extended warrentee for 100 years and would stil not receive any feedback due to the population here being so cheap looking for a deal in their favor.

my neighbors said they would buy the macbook for a relative who would use that as an IPad, so i told both of them to get them an iPad instead.

My MBAir 2010 had a very good graphic card and was a great computer for over 14 years i do miss that as that was a huge part of my life since Dec 2010.

 

[rin67630]

Thanks for the advice...but wouldn't the buyer decide what to do with the Macbook?...
My MBAir 2010 had a very good graphic card

That is not the point.
The older MBPs have a bad image in the Apple community (from the graphic card desasters and/or from so many Macbooks being tinkered to death.
Sell it with Windows and it becomes a regular laptop. A quite attractive one.

 

[ojfd]

The older MBPs have a bad image in the Apple community..

Huh? That's new to me. And, what is this "Apple community"?

 

[eyoungren]

Dialing things in. I think we're set now.

Found this piece of art on the internet…

And integrated it using Photoshop on my MacPro.

Really like the piece. I think we're done here with the drop back to six displays.

EDIT: ^^^Was looking the artist up tonight and she has a few rules…so, removing these here.

 

[MBAir2010]

i designed this new avatar in PS CS4 macbook pro 2012 m

take that, James Cameroon!

 

[eyoungren]

One of the apps that is no longer working since I updated is Nightingale. Unfortunately, it and Songbird (PowerPC) are the only music apps I've found over the years that support a watched folder and will add/remove music automatically when added or deleted from that watched folder.

I've tried a few options, and now I'm on to Swinsian, which is a lot like the other two with some additional benefits. But most importantly it has the same folder watching abilities. One folder on my NAS, drop music there - updates on all Macs (Songbird/Nightingale/Swinsian).



Unfortunately, Swinsian is not free. I've got the 30 day trial so we'll see what happens. But it costs $24.95. If I like it well enough I may pay. The upshot here is that the license you are buying is a user license. That means (and it says in their FAQs) that you can install the app on as many Macs as you own.

Oh. And if you look the app up, you'll see that the download is version 2.(something). The latest update is 3.0 and includes a dark mode. Version 2 does not. But you have to start with version 2. You hold down OPTN when checking for updates and that'll allow you to download and install the 3.0 update. It follows your system settings, so if you use light mode it won't change.

PS. Yay! Another use for my blue-tinted HDTV!



PPS, the flash is from my iPhone. Trying to show the album art/track info. Pictures of this display are hard to get properly it seems.

 

[TCOS2]

back on the 15" retina late 2013! got Paralells desktop 11 setup with windows 8.1 running Final Fantasy II Pixel RemasterView attachment 2365886

What are your temps if you don't mind me asking? I've just got my hands on 15" late 2013 2.3ghz, and my temps seem to be wayyy too high. I can get it up to 90c just flicking through Google Images. and that's after replacing the thermal paste.

 

[MBAir2010]

What are your temps if you don't mind me asking? I've just got my hands on 15" late 2013 2.3ghz, and my temps seem to be wayyy too high. I can get it up to 90c just flicking through Google Images. and that's after replacing the thermal paste.

have you tried using "macfans"? im using 1.5.16 for MtLion.

 

[TCOS2]

have you tried using "macfans"? im using 1.5.16 for MtLion.

Yep. Even putting the fans on max speed it can still get suspiciously hot just doing simple tasks.

 

[MBAir2010]

Yep. Even putting the fans on max speed it can still get suspiciously hot just doing simple tasks.

Yes, Intel's get hot every upgrade.
Are you using El Captain?
the OSx makes a diference i found out.
Catalina was impossible to run on my macbook pro '12 this year as a laptop doing simple tasks as well.
so i switched back to Mountain Lion which runs extremely cool and perfect, I forgot if Mojave was tolerable.

 

[DCBassman]

Recently spent a week away house/dog sitting. Took hi-res MBP 2011 running MX Linux as my only computer. Performed flawlessly. Only downsides were relatively minor, but occasionally irritating. No proper delete key, and no way to 'correctly ' right-click. Of the two, the delete problem was the more irritating. Got used to right-clicking with two fingers on pad and press. In any case, I use a mouse usually. A very nice machine.
Back at home, another attempt to replace the Windows machine with the iMac 12,1 also resulted in failure. The iMac will have to go; there's nothing usable about it for me. Annoying, because it's such a nice bit of kit.
So, macOS currently not in use at all here!
After juggling with all this, I think it likely that all Macs will go. Might keep the whiteBook running Lion.

 

[benmuetsch]

I'm using a 2009 17-inch Macbook Pro every day as my email machine running patched Mojave. It is my typewriter and I really like the screen and keyboard. Too bad the old Core2Duo really stuggles with internet browsing these days.

Machine is upgraded with 8GB RAM and 1TB SSD. Logic board was faulty some years ago but has been fixed by a friend and me so it should be ok for some years to come.

 

[TCOS2]

Yes, Intel's get hot every upgrade.
Are you using El Captain?
the OSx makes a diference i found out.
Catalina was impossible to run on my macbook pro '12 this year as a laptop doing simple tasks as well.
so i switched back to Mountain Lion which runs extremely cool and perfect, I forgot if Mojave was tolerable.

I've had similar results on Mavericks, Mojave, Big Sur, Windows 8, and Windows 10 LTSC 2021. Big Sur was definitely the worst, but it wasn't a massive difference. I've made a dedicated thread for it

 

[MBAir2010]

today, now i'm streaming the Tour d France on the M1 mac mini Monterey safari 17
and the same websote on the macbook pro '12 SeaLion.

What is surprising is that the only difference is the Mini websiuite wants to add new tabs, slows at times and needs a reload while the MBP is a constant stream since KM 123 without a hitch!

 

[DouglasCarroll]

I’m currently transcoding 4 ripped blu-ray movies into HD mp4 files on my 5,1 Mac Pro. Kinda fun to watch all 12 cores plus 12 additional virtual hyper threaded cores tear through this task MUCH faster than my old 3,1 Mac Pro!

😀

 

[MBAir2010]

last night the MBP'12 has a newer 525GB ssd from trial 265GB which is notably faster.
then i converted 1TB of TV shows i saved in MP4 from a nice, fast ssd drive from OWC
into 2 NVMe (mac journaled from A?FS) blades then prepped the 1TB drive for the Mac Mini arriving soon.
I also took out a RAM card (12 from 16) as both Macs will have 12GB of ram.
today the MBP speed and responce have not slowed in any way.

I also realized that today's Mac's (espaically safari) are too protected as sites don't launch
clean as SeaLion. i never have to fiddle with cookie settings or asked for goggle log in (which dont have)

Im really enjoying Mountain Lion and looking forward to a nice easy July, M1 and 2024 free!

enjoy your early intel, my mac friends!

 

[DCBassman]

Idly messing with the two MX Linux MBP 8,2s. The late hi-res I don't fiddle with much, because it's a) my backup daily driver, and b) it just works so well. The early, however...
Messing with things in the MX settings app and saw something about using Intel drivers instead of modesetting. Tried it. No display, and couldn't get back in via live USB either. Rats. Wonder if this has reset it and the GPUs are now working as normal? Let's see...
Find appropriate USB stick and start a fresh install of High Sierra. This would previously not make it to recovery, showing just a white screen. Not now, it's working, disk reset, and installing as it should. Watch this space! If it works normally, I'll OCLP it to Sonoma and then leave it alone!


Edit: no, froze at the account setting stage. Ah well, worth a shot...

 

[DCBassman]

So, back to MX Linux on the early MBP 8,2. However, for no reason I can grasp, it did not need me to edit in 'nomodeset'. Installing now. If it runs as it should, then I will get the MX splash screen, previously not visible. Let's see...

 

[DCBassman]

Works perfectly. I really have no idea why this won't run macOS...