Newer Technology, Inc. today announced the miniStack Max, the latest version of its award-winning quad-interface powered hub storage solution. Offering Plug and Play ease of use with Macs or PCs thanks to five interfaces—USB 3.0, USB 2.0, FireWire 800, FireWire 400, and eSATA—the miniStack Max is the only four-in-one storage, data access, connectivity solution on the market. In addition to adding an optical drive and an integrated SD card reader to its time-proven design, the latest miniStack is now available with an expanded storage capacity of up to 4TB. The new miniStack storage line and other unique Newer Technology products will be shown in Other World Computing’s booth #5231, LVCC North Hall, at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), which begins today in Las Vegas, Nevada. Article Continues…
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Newer Technology Announces miniStack Max As Industry’s First Four-in-One Storage, Access, And Connectivity Solution
NVIDIA Quadro 4000 For Mac Benchmarked
Our friends over at Bare Feats are at it again, benchmarking away. In a post today, they’ve found the NVIDIA Quadro 4000 for Mac helps speed things up while running Adobe Premiere Pro and DaVinci Resolve.
Added to their performance findings from February while benchmarking with Kronos, Squeeze, Color, and Colorista II; the NVIDIA Quadro 4000 for Mac is a clear favorite for professional video and graphics design.
For the complete details, visit www.barefeats.com
OWC’s new eSATA Adapter shows why removing the ExpressCard slot from the 15” MacBook Pros was a bad idea.
For those of us fortunate enough to have a MacBook Pro with an ExpressCard/34 slot, there’s been one minor drawback – the cards almost always stuck out from the side of the MacBook Pro in an ugly protuberance, making it both odd-looking and difficult to fit in a bag without removing the card.
OWC’s Slim ExpressCard to eSATA Adapter changes things quite nicely. This card fits inside the ExpressCard/34 slot such that the eSATA port sits flush with the edge of the MacBook Pro, which means you can leave it installed, even when you’re not using it. It doesn’t require any special drivers, so you can just slide it in and go. It’s even bootable, so you can start your MacBook Pro up from an external drive, should you so desire.
Of course, we don’t need to go into the details of how much an advantage eSATA has in performance over FireWire 800 and USB 2.0. However, if you want some specifics, you may want to check out Lloyd Chambers’ latest review over at Mac Performance Guide.
If you want the short version, though, I think this quote from the article sums it up nicely.
The flush-fitting OWC Slim ExpressCard at about $28 is a total no-brainer buy to improve performance with any drive that supports eSATA. Driver-less and bootable too!
So if you have an external drive with an eSATA port, a MacBook Pro with an ExpressCard/34 slot, and a desire to increase your data throughput, then the OWC ExpressCard to eSATA Adapter is just what you’re looking for.
Plug and Play eSATA Card Makes Your Mac Pro Faster
The benefit of eSATA is high performance data transfer typically 2-3 times faster than FireWire 800 for connecting external devices. A drawback has been the need to install and maintain drivers for modern eSATA controller cards… Until now.
The NewerTech MAXPower eSATA 6G PCIe 2.0 Controller Card is among the very first in eSATA Controller cards for the Mac Pro and PCs that is fully Plug and Play. No drivers required for Apple OS 10.5 and later (also Plug and Play driverless with Windows Vista and later), this ACHI compliant PCI Express card is as easy as it gets for adding external SATA device support. Just “install it and forget it” by plugging it into an available PCIe slot and you can then enjoy the performance offered via the eSATA port standard on many OWC, NewerTech, and other third party single drive and hardware RAID solutions. This card isn’t for multi-drive Port Multiplier enclosures/solutions that require software or special RAID controller to enable RAID operation – but it’s an excellent choice for those solutions like the NewerTech GMAX, OWC Elite-AL Pro RAID, and OWC Qx2 solutions that provide a hardware controlled RAID solution and support higher data throughput via standard eSATA ports.
And for all you speed freaks out there, we’ve created the ultimate performance bundle. And we’ll have some benchmarks up soon showing just how fast you can go!
But I digress…back to this awesome card…it offers exceptional ease of use without the worry of a driver that may not work with a future OS release – it’s also an exceptional bargain priced at just $59.99. Because it doesn’t have those pesky drivers to maintain and possibly cause incompatibility down the road, one of its greatest benefits – that Plug and Play ease – also allows it to be exceptionally affordable too.
Bottom line…if you’ve ever wanted to enjoy the higher level of performance available from eSATA – but with the Plug and Play operation that you’ve grown accustomed to with FireWire – the NewerTech MaxPower eSATA 6G PCIe 2.0 Controller Card is your ticket to the fast lane.
New iMac machines include SD cardslot
Back in August ,when Apple updated their MacBook Pro line of laptops, the ExpressCard slot was replaced with an SD cardslot. Here in October, Apple again has added this feature to the entire iMac lineup. It’s located just beneath the optical drive on each machine.
This would be a good time to revisit my prior article: What good is the MacBook Pro SD card slot anyway? to learn how to make the most out of this added feature. It goes into detail on making a boot drive out of an SD card as well as an emergency startup disk.
Additionally, the widescreen form factor of the new iMac lends to using the machines for multimedia displays. An SD card makes a great medium for transferring your multimedia data between computers. A DVD quality movie takes up about 2GB per hour of playtime. With SD cards ranging from 2GB to 32GB currently, one could store up to 16 hours of footage on a single card. More exciting is the introduction of the SDXC format which as early as 2010 could have us storing from 64GB up to 2.0TB on a single card.
I for one wouldn’t be surprised to see movies, TV shows and other media being distributed on SD cards just the same as we see CDs, DVDs, and Blu-ray discs currently. Time will tell on that one.
What good is the MacBook Pro SD card slot anyway?
While there has been quite a debate over Apple’s decision to provide an SD card slot rather than an ExpressCard slot on the MacBook Pro 13″ and 15″ models, the fact of the matter remains that these machines are available and that many of us will be using these laptops. So how do we make the best use of our new port?
The first few suggestions are obvious – use the card reader to read the information from your SD compatible camera, PDA, or cell phone. Also use the SD card for removable storage just as you would use a USB flash drive.
In my overall review of the MacBook Pro at its release, I had gone into detail on the storage capabilities of the SD cards to come. And I touched on the bootability aspect of the SD card slot. But what makes this important? Well the answer is twofold. A trim, clean, uncluttered startup disk boots much faster than one with all your programs and files installed on it. As a laptop typically only comes with one hard drive, we used to be limited to using the internal drive with all our saved data and programs cluttering it up, or carrying around a separate external boot drive such as a Mercury On-The-Go or Express. The SD card is physically so much smaller and an 8GB card has more than enough room to hold a trim, clean version of OS X 10.5 (a 16GB SD card has enough room to hold a full version of the OS). Just make sure you don’t pull out the SD card while you’re still using it.
Additionally and more importantly, an SD card with the operating system installed can be used as an emergency startup disk. In the case of a corrupted drive directory structure, this can come in very handy if you find yourself unable to boot your MacBook Pro. For more detailed information on restoring a corrupted drive, read OWC Larry’s article “Resolving System Problems”
So, how do you go about making a bootable SD card? It’s actually quite simple.
To install OS X 10.5, you’ll need at least an 8GB card (There should be smaller space requirement for Snow Leopard, but we won’t know for sure until after its release).
Format the SD card using disk utility. Under the “Partition” tab, highlight the SD card you want to format. Set the card for one partition and Format: Mac OS Extended Journaled. Give the volume a name and click on “Options”. You need to choose GUID partition table in order to boot from the card. Click “Apply” and the drive will be erased and formatted correctly.
Once formatted, use your OS X 10.5 install DVD and run the installer. Select the SD card as the destination. Follow the prompts until you get to the “Install Summary” page.
Choose “customize” on the Install Summary page and uncheck Printer Drives, Additional Fonts, Languages, etc. so all you’re left with is the “Essential System Software” checked. Don’t worry, it should be grayed out as an option that you can’t accidentally uncheck. This will cut the installation space in about 6.2GB from 11.6GB. Click install and let it work. When its done installing it is ready to use. Along with the OS, it is also a good idea to keep a few disk utilities on your emergency startup disk. Just a few we suggest are:
TechTool Pro
DiskWarrior
ProSoft Drive Genius
ProSoft Data Rescue II
File Salvage
To boot exclusively from the SD card, set the SD card as the Startup disk in System Preferences>Startup Disk.
Otherwise, insert the card and hold the option key at startup to manually choose the SD card as your Emergency Startup Disk.
FireWire 400 in a FireWire 800 World
One of the celebrated features on the new MacBook Pros is the return of FireWire 800 to the 13” model. Since the transition to Intel processors, FireWire has taken a less prominent role, with most current Macs eschewing FireWire 400 completely, and having one or two FireWire 800 ports. On the original 13″ Unibody MacBook, it was eliminated completely, so its return to the MacBook Pro 13” is quite significant.
FireWire has long been an Apple mainstay for plug-and-play storage, so there are quite a few FireWire peripherals out there. Unfortunately, while almost all Macs have one or two FireWire 800 ports, many peripherals (especially older ones) are FireWire 400 devices which, though compatible with FireWire 800, have considerably different ports.
So, in order to connect your old FireWire 400 devices, you’re going to need an adapter of some sort.
The adapter cable
This is probably the simplest solution. On one end, you have a FireWire 400 connector. The other end has a FireWire 800 connector. Each end goes into its appropriate port, and your FireWire device shows on the desktop.
Pros: Fairly simple implementation, widely available.
Cons: can only hook up a FW400 port to a FW800 port. Straight 800-800 or 400-400 connections require another cable.
The plug adapter
This adapter plugs on the end of a FireWire 400 cable converting one end to a FW800 connector. When hooking up a straight FW400 connection, the plug is removable.
Pros: Easily portable. Allows you to use the same cable for both FW400 enabled computers and FW800-only machines.
Cons: Small adapter can be easily lost.
Drive with a built-in hub
Any drive with both FW400 and FW800 ports can be used as an adapter. Just plug the FW400 device into the other device’s FW400 port and it will be recognized, through FireWire’s backwards-compatibility and daisy-chaining capabilities. If you’re really going for connectivity, there are drives (such as the NewerTechnology miniStack) with built-in FireWire and USB hubs which are designed for exactly this purpose.
Pros: Storage plus a hub, always a good combination. Great for desktops.
Cons: not very portable…
Expansion Card
If your computer doesn’t have the ports you need, why not just add them? Expansion cards are available for all Mac towers, right up to the latest Mac Pro. Previous MacBook Pros (with the ExpressCard/34 slot) also have options to add FireWire 400 capability.
Pros: Your FW800 devices don’t have to slow down to FW400 speeds when FW400 devices are connected.
Cons: Not available for all computers.
Even though Apple has removed FW400 ports from all their machines except for the plastic MacBooks, FireWire is still a fast, easy, and stable method for connecting your high-volume data transfer devices. With OWC, you can be sure you can continue using the FW400 devices you’ve come to rely on.
Not sure what you need for your particular setup? Give our friendly, knowledgeable sales staff a call at 1-800-275-4576 and they’ll get you set up with just the solution you need.
OWC Lab findings installment two – MacBook Pro 15″
In our last installment we visited our findings on the MacBook Pro 17″ model. Logically, we’ll visit the next step down in size.
Installment Two – MacBook Pro 15″
First off, the reduction in starting price from $1999 to $1699 is very exciting, especially when for your $300 ‘discount’ you double the starting memory! The MacBook Pro 15″ now ships with a minimum of 4GB RAM which is easily upgradable to 8GB.
The other major change to the system – Apple has added an SD card reader. Arguably the most popular form of data storage on video cameras, digital cameras, mobile phones, PDAs and GPS receivers; the SD card format is here to stay. I for one couldn’t be happier with this switch from the ExpressCard 34, even if many of my colleagues find they will miss the expandability of the ExpressCard/34 slot. I won’t miss it, and look forward to the advancements in SD cards.
Let’s start with what we’re missing out on with ExpressCard/34. There are several options on the market today for expansion cards. For example, adding more ports to your system. Well, with USB or FireWire, if you need more ports, you can always go with a hub to add more ports, keeping in mind that the more you add to a laptop, the more you have to lug around with you or give up the portability. There are also the myriad of memory card readers, but really there are plenty of USB options on the market and if you happen to use the SD card standard in your devices (as I do), you’re all set. There is also the option of adding eSATA ports to the system, but the main reason for having the port is external storage. Laptops are meant to keep their portability and I for one don’t want to lug around a 4 bay or better RAID 5 storage solution and have to find an unused power outlet every time I want to use it.
Ok, I’ll concede that you can’t beat the benefit to ExpressCard/34 wireless cards for those of you who travel a lot and find yourself in places without WiFi access. I for one, don’t travel that often and my routine takes me from one WiFi hotspot to another.
If you really miss it, we do carry a USB ExpressCard/34 adapter for $9.99
So, what is there to gain with SD? Simple….. Storage. Nice, light, massively portable storage.
At the time of writing this article, SD and SDHC (high-capacity) are readily available on the market with capacities of up to 4GB and 32GB respectively. While not colossal in size, the SD card can hold several documents or presentations which can then be physically removed from the computer for safekeeping and security. The SD card slot is bootable and an SDHC card could certainly store an operating system and several utilities as an emergency boot disk or even relocate your home folder to the SD card to use as a physical key to your computer.
The 2009 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) however introduced the SDXC format introducing 32GB to 2TB of storage in the same form factor. Kevin Schader, director of communications for the SD Association, recently announced that SDXC cards should be hitting the market in 2010 starting with a 64GB capacity. I for one can’t wait to see the maximums realized on the SDXC form factor where I can carry around several 2TB SDXC cards with a 300MB/s transfer rate in my pocket.
Upgrades, Upgrades Upgrades…
Ok, now that you’ve decided that this is the machine for you, what can you do to make it better?
The most economical upgrade has always been memory – and OWC has always had you covered there. The 15″ MacBook Pro can support up to 8GB of memory. Ordering the 8GB stock from Apple will cost an additional $1,000 – or- you can get this same memory upgrade separately from OWC for considerably less. We’ll even show you how to install it in our Installation Video Series (the video is not complete at the time of this posting but should be available online within 1-2 weeks).
Our benchmarking on these models is nearly complete (we’re still awaiting the 15″ MacBook Pro 2.66GHz model) and you can see for yourself here just how much faster and more efficient these systems run when given enough memory. Once Snow Leopard is released, were predicting these numbers will really take off between the true 64-bit processing and Grand Central Dispatch.
Additional speed can be gained by upgrading the hard drive to either a 7200RPM model or going to speed and security of a Solid State Drive. Again, the installation instructions will be available within the next few weeks in our Installation Video Series.
As far as the optical drive goes, there isn’t an internal option available that is faster or includes Blu-ray (which we’re still waiting on Apple to support natively) than the 8x slot loading SuperDrive already installed. As technologies advance down the line, you can be sure we’ll be on the cutting edge and will be ready with the units themselves and the video instructions to match.
