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Filed under: Software Update, Apple, Macbook Pro

MacBook Pro EFI Firmware Update addresses SATA interface speeds

While most of the focus of WWDC fell on the iPhone 3GS, the MacBook Pro line got some love from Apple last week as well, with several upgraded features on the 15" model and a re-branding of the 13" model from MacBook to MacBook Pro.

The Achilles' heel of the new upgrades, as reported last week, was that the MacBook Pro's SATA interface was limited to 1.5 Gbps in the latest models, down from 3.0 Gbps in previous models. Although this wasn't likely to be an issue unless you replaced the hard drive with a high-speed SSD, it still seemed like somewhat of a boneheaded move to downgrade the SATA interface without sufficient cause.

Today Apple has released MacBook Pro EFI Firmware Update 1.7, which makes the issue moot. The update allows the SATA interface to work at full speed once again.

If you have one of the affected models of MacBook Pro, grab this update either via Software Update, or else go here (requires OS X 10.5.7). More info on the firmware update can be found on its support page.

Thanks to reader Joachim Bean for sending this in.

Filed under: Features, Troubleshooting, Ask TUAW

Ask TUAW: Switcher questions, WiFi stumbling, dual-band WiFi, hard drive upgrading, and more

We're back with another shot of Ask TUAW! This time we've got a couple of common switcher issues, as well as questions about upgrading a hard drive, using WiFi stumbler software, setting up a dual-band WiFi network, and more.

As always, your suggestions are welcome. Questions for next week should be left in the comments. When asking a question please include which machine you're running and which version of Mac OS X (we'll assume you're running Leopard on an Intel Mac if you don't specify). And now, on to the questions!

Continue readingAsk TUAW: Switcher questions, WiFi stumbling, dual-band WiFi, hard drive upgrading, and more

Filed under: Mods, Mac mini

Mac mini with 300 gig SATA drive



Wanna get more gigs into your Mac min, like say 300 of 'em? Why not do what this dude did and replace the Mac mini's internal hard drive with a 300 gig external SATA drive?

[via Paul Stamatiou]

Filed under: Hardware, PowerMac G5

Big Fat Hard Drives for your PowerMac G5

If you bought a PowerMac G5, or if you're still going to buy one because you hate all that is Intel and you suspect Apple will switch over their desktops next, be sure to check out some of the SATA hard disk options currently on the market. If you choose, for example, to upgrade your drives from the Apple Store, note that you will pay:
  • 250gig SATA hard drive: $275*
  • 500gig SATA hard drive: $575*
Now if you buy 500gig SATA hard drives from, for example, Western Digital, you will pay:
Or by looking a bit at pricewatch.com, you will find:
If you instead fish around at newegg.com you may see:
Remember, if you RAID it up, Mix it up! Try to use different models and makes of hard drives for your RAIDs. If a drive fails in a machine, chances are a similar make and model could** fail soon thereafter.

From what I know there is only room for two SATA drives in a PowerMac G5 (without adding any controller cards), so why not put in two 500gig drives yourself? Sell that Wow Original Apple Hard drive !!! 250gig !!! Must L@@K! on eBay to offset your costs.

* (Algebraically derived from today's Apple Store prices, if you need to see the math, call me.)
** (This of course is up to chaos theory and many other electrical factors. Your second drive may outlive even your favorite parrot. You just can't know.)

Filed under: Hardware, PowerBook

Clearing up specifics on the MacBook Pro

Laurie A. Duncan is feeding us a few more details from the Macworld floor on the new MacBook Pros that I thought were quite interesting:
  • Macbook has one FW 400 port, no FW 800. I guess that ZDNet post was at least on to something
  • no pcmcia slot - new ExpressCard/34 slot, whatever that is
  • Hard drive is SATA now, not IDE
  • Magnetic power adapter and port is very very cool! Snaps nice and tight
  • Display now also uses magnetics to close, clasp is gone
We'll publish more details as soon as soon as they roll in.

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