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Unfixable, Unhackable, Untenable. An iFixit Op-ed.
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[Jeremy Garchow] “When it was time to upgrade your Windows hardware, what did you do?”
Back then my NLE’s were turnkey operations with specific boards sold with specific computers. My last such system was a Discreet *edit and any upgrades and changes went through the local VAR / dealer.
This has changed to the point where today you can just shop around for the best deal, the way you do for an office computer, and upgrade the same way. You could go the HP / Dell / Lenovo route of business workstations or go to a smaller builder who specializes in video systems like ADK / Puget or build your own, if your so inclined.
Herb Sevush
Zebra Productions
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nothin’ attached to nothin’
“Deciding the spine is the process of editing” F. Bieberkopf -
[Jeremy Garchow] “[Chris Harlan] “About the same as the Mac Pro”
You mean you just bought a new computer?”
Joke? No. I do things like upgrade RAM, upgrade GPUs, add i/o cards like external eSATA and Decklink. Upgrade hard drives. I may still add USB 3 to my current 8 Core.
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Of course, if you are asking about upgradeability, then I HAVE upgraded (or replaced parts on) every working machine (as opposed to family, person or casual use) I’ve owned – Mac or PC. More storage, RAM, video card upgrades, PCI/X/e cards, etc. Both towers (all of the above) and laptops (RAM & battery).
– Oliver
Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com -
[Andrew Richards] “[Chris Harlan] “My point was in the rest of what I said.”
This, right?
[Chris Harlan] “Everybody should know what they’re getting in to. And, that’s all he’s really saying.”
Look at the last four paragraphs of the article. He is directly imploring the MacBook buying public to not reward Apple (and by association the Ultrabook PC makers) for making sealed devices. He’s playing soothsayer for the market. Most people don’t care to service their own laptop, so his appeal is sort of quixotic.
“I would suggest that you go back and read the last four paragraphs for yourself. I just did. I don’t see anything that you are claiming above. To quote:
Every time we buy a locked down product containing a non-replaceable battery with a finite cycle count, we’re voicing our opinion on how long our things should last. But is it an informed decision? When you buy something, how often do you really step back and ask how long it should last? If we want long-lasting products that retain their value, we have to support products that do so.
Today, we choose. If we choose the Retina display over the existing MacBook Pro, the next generation of Mac laptops will likely be less repairable still. When that happens, we won’t be able to blame Apple. We’ll have to blame ourselves
I stand by my earlier statement quoted above.
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[Andrew Richards] “Or do you pay a qualified tech a few hundred bucks to fix them if they break?”
This is kind of where I see this going.
There’s a bet here, and that bet is on solid state (and retina).
Sure, Apple is not the first to offer and implement solid state, but I bet they will be the first to possibly go all solid state. The MBAir was a test, and now that the capacities of solid state are cheap enough to include in a “pro” level machine, this is the next market test. Can photo/video Pros and not Business Sector Pros bang on these computers, and will they be able to survive?
If you look around, the entire computer industry loves solid state, it’s just so damn expensive when you start getting in to massive quantities at a speed that’s conducive to being “Pro” suitable. Apple could actually stand to change that, or perhaps they feel that right now is the time as the price is just about to be viable for designing computers around it.
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[Chris Harlan] “I stand by my earlier statement quoted above.”
Every time we buy a locked down product containing a non-replaceable battery with a finite cycle count, we’re voicing our opinion on how long our things should last. But is it an informed decision? When you buy something, how often do you really step back and ask how long it should last? If we want long-lasting products that retain their value, we have to support products that do so.
Today, we choose. If we choose the Retina display over the existing MacBook Pro, the next generation of Mac laptops will likely be less repairable still. When that happens, we won’t be able to blame Apple. We’ll have to blame ourselves.
The part in bold supports my point, the part not in bold supports yours. I guess we’re both right.
Best,
Andy -
[Oliver Peters] “if you are asking about upgradeability, then I HAVE upgraded (or replaced parts on) every working machine (as opposed to family, person or casual use) I’ve owned”
I’ve upgraded everything from CPUs to GFX cards to Power Supplys and Ram on my windows computers since I first got one. It was only my NLE computers that I left up to my VAR’s to deal with.
Herb Sevush
Zebra Productions
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nothin’ attached to nothin’
“Deciding the spine is the process of editing” F. Bieberkopf -
[Franz Bieberkopf] “I take it you’re satisfied with the direction of Apple’s offerings. Is there a certain basic expandability or serviceability you would require? What would that be? “
I have a 2010 MacBook Air, and I’m happy with it. I ordered it with max RAM, knowing that I would not be able to upgrade it later.
I’ve also had a number of other older MacBooks, as well as a 2005 G5 tower and a 2010 Mac Pro. I’ve disassembled non-unibody MBPs to exchange an HDD for an SSD, and did the same with a white plastic MacBook. I’ve swapped RAM on nearly every computer I’ve ever owned. I’ve paint-scrapered my way into Mac minis (the old design). I’ve got a very exotic setup inside that 2010 Mac Pro, which isn’t even running OS X anymore.
I do like to do-it-myself, but I also understand that serviceability leads to compromises in design. In the case of my “daily driver” MacBook Air, I accept the compromised servicablility for what I get in packaging efficiency. I personally do mourn the hard-soldered RAM compromise, and taking that decision up to the MacBook Pro may be too much of a compromise for that machine’s core market. The Air is Apple’s mainstream laptop, it is priced and marketed that way, and in that respect I can abide design choices that limit user-servicablility in exchange for design efficiency. Those users weren’t going to open up their Macs anyway. But the MBPs? Might be a bit too far. Apple is clearly hedging its bets a little by continuing to sell the old form factor with new Ivy Bridge guts. They are treading lightly by Apple standards.
I don’t share the pessimism that Apple is going to go on-board-RAM and custom form factor SSD with its desktops. What design problem does that solve? Desktops aren’t chasing weight savings.
My own attitude is that I appreciate user-servicability when I have it, but I don’t hold it up as an essential deal-breaker feature for most of my use cases. And there are a lot of use cases where Macs are a poor choice.
[Franz Bieberkopf] “There are those who will prefer to buy cameras with interchange-able lenses.”
This analogy can cut both ways- on one hand, interchangeable lens cameras are like a computer with a quick-release HDD/ODD bay. Or on the other hand, are they more like a computer with a Thunderbolt port?
[Franz Bieberkopf] “Likewise with batteries that can be replaced with spares or replaced.”
A necessity when the battery is only good for a matter of minutes. If the camera battery would last the whole shoot on a single charge, and be good for 5 years of recharge cycles, would you care? (Yes, of course you have spares for everything on a shoot, but we’re in academic analogy space here.)
Best,
Andy -
[Andrew Richards] “[Chris Harlan] “I stand by my earlier statement quoted above.”
Every time we buy a locked down product containing a non-replaceable battery with a finite cycle count, we’re voicing our opinion on how long our things should last. But is it an informed decision? When you buy something, how often do you really step back and ask how long it should last? If we want long-lasting products that retain their value, we have to support products that do so.
Today, we choose. If we choose the Retina display over the existing MacBook Pro, the next generation of Mac laptops will likely be less repairable still. When that happens, we won’t be able to blame Apple. We’ll have to blame ourselves.
The part in bold supports my point, the part not in bold supports yours. I guess we’re both right.
Best,
Andy”Andy, I get that his preference is in the direction of non-disposible. Mine is too. But I disagree with your bold assertion. I still read it as him laying out what the choice is.
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[Frank Gothmann] “Depends on the machine and what it is used for. Bought the z800s with stock 12 GB of ram and upgraded to 48 plus other stuff later via 3rd party.
On our linux san we replaced mainboard, ram, cpu and power supply earlier this year for more slots and more beef.
I usually don’t replace mainboards on a bought workstation for upgrades, I would if it’s broken. But I have and always will one the machines that are custom built. There is one that has gone through three revisions already. The only thing that is still left from the first built is the case and the power supply.”[Oliver Peters] “In the case of the Windows machines I have personally owned, I have both upgraded to another Windows machine as well as replaced with Macs. I haven’t (yet) replaced a Mac with a Windows machine, but I do have client who have. The general deciding factor was the applications I’ve needed to run, more than the OS or even hardware.”
[Herb Sevush] “Back then my NLE’s were turnkey operations with specific boards sold with specific computers. My last such system was a Discreet *edit and any upgrades and changes went through the local VAR / dealer.
This has changed to the point where today you can just shop around for the best deal, the way you do for an office computer, and upgrade the same way. You could go the HP / Dell / Lenovo route of business workstations or go to a smaller builder who specializes in video systems like ADK / Puget or build your own, if your so inclined.”[Chris Harlan] “Joke? No. I do things like upgrade RAM, upgrade GPUs, add i/o cards like external eSATA and Decklink. Upgrade hard drives. I may still add USB 3 to my current 8 Core.”
[Oliver Peters] “Of course, if you are asking about upgradeability, then I HAVE upgraded (or replaced parts on) every working machine (as opposed to family, person or casual use) I’ve owned – Mac or PC. More storage, RAM, video card upgrades, PCI/X/e cards, etc. Both towers (all of the above) and laptops (RAM & battery).”
Yes, this is where I am going with this, Oliver.
I have really really tried to envision a PC future for myself. It is such a jungle out there, VARs must be so completely psyched about the people who are deciding to ditch Macs all together.
What I don’t understand is that people say they “upgraded this CPU or that mobo” on a PC, and I am wondering did they actually do the work, or does that mean they send it in to where they bought, or back to the manufacturer for an upgrade?
At some point, PC run out of useful life. Sure, you might be able to stick a new GPU in there and perhaps upgrade the RAM, but nothing really makes a computer go faster than new and more efficient CPUs and an updated infrastructure in the form of a faster motherboard. GPUs might extend the life of a computer for another year or so, but eventually, that too won’t be enough.
I am trying to look at all of this practically.
It seems that while the PC side seems to praise the “tinker” aspect of it, I am trying to get a sense of just how much tinkering really happens and how often, and does that really equate to cost savings, or perhaps more importantly performance gains in relation to those costs.
Earlier this year, I upgraded my MBP from 4 to 8GBs of RAM (it’s all it can handle). It was very cheap and easy, but did it really extend the life of this computer? Not really. It helped Lion to run smoother, but it wasn’t a performance upgrade. I also tore out the superdirve and added a second internal drive. This allows me to take small projects with me on just the internal. That was a convenience upgrade, not a performance upgrade.
If I decided to go CS6, I could probably put a Quadro 4000 in both MacPros and get maybe another year, but it won’t make the job go any faster.
I am just trying to weight what’s truly better, or what has more options. More options does not always equal better, but it can lead to more possibilities good and bad.
Jeremy
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