Happy Holidays from the crew here at OWC Radio. We’ve made our list, we even checked it twice. This month we explore who’s made the naughty list and who’s been nice this Christmas season before OWC Chris settles in for his long winter’s nap. So, grab a glass of egg nog and have a listen.
OWC Radio is a monthly, forum-based podcast focused on the events and happenings in the Mac community. This week’s hosts are: OWC Grant, OWC Chris S., and OWC Mike H.
Good news, everyone! Gaming is about to make a surge back to the Mac! “How’s that?” I hear some of you asking, fearful only bad news can follow that line. Well, the answer lies in the helping hands of Valve and its online service, Steam.
The Press Release from Monday confirmed what had been rumored for the past week in gaming circles; Valve will be natively supporting Macs — not emulating! — alongside Windows with all of its own game releases from here on out. Most notable of which will be a simultaneous Mac and Windows release of Portal 2 this holiday season.
If you’re wondering why Steam should be considered a big deal, then you should know that it is the most successful digital distribution system in PC gaming — estimated to be about 70% of the digital distribution games market according to research completed by Stardock.
OK, so Macs will be getting a few more quality games, is that all? Not by a long shot. Here’s the better news, from Jason Holtman, Director of Business Development at Valve, “…we have added a new feature, called Steam Play, which allows customers who purchase the product for the Mac or Windows to play on the other platform free of charge. For example, Steam Play, in combination with the Steam Cloud, allows a gamer playing on their work PC to go home and pick up playing the same game at the same point on their home Mac. We expect most developers and publishers to take advantage of Steam Play.”
Furthermore: “…Mac and Windows players will be part of the same multiplayer universe, sharing servers, lobbies, and so forth. We fully support a heterogeneous mix of servers and clients.” Article Continues…
Hey installation video junkies! What with all the Holiday Specials, nifty new products, and stories of OWC and NewerTech products “in the wild,” one might think we’ve forgotten about you, the avid upgrader who wants to get the most out of their Macs and relies on us to show you how to do it.
Well, it’s not just fantasy, the long wait is over – we’ve got a new video for you. This time around, we’ll show you how to upgrade the hard drives in the Mac mini Server.
In case you didn’t know, the mini Server comes with two 500GB, 5400rpm hard drives installed. That’s it. No options for anything bigger from Apple. So, by design, if you need to add more storage, you’d normally have to do it by connecting external drives.
While the NewerTech miniStack (or for that matter, any OWC or NT external storage solution) is great for this sort of thing, it does nothing to speed up those internal drives. That’s the unfortunate limitation of USB and FireWire – they just can’t compare to the speeds of a SATA connection.
With this latest video, however, that all changes. We show you how to swap out the drives inside and replace them with larger, faster or even solid state drives. No matter what you’re putting in, the instructions are all the same.
So get your NewerTech 11-piece Tool Kit and your thin putty knife out, then head on over to our Tech Center or our YouTube Channel to check out how to perform the upgrade.
Of course, if the thought of disassembling your Mac mini Server into its component parts causes you to feel weak in the knees and see spots before your eyes, we also offer an installation service, so you can enjoy the benefit of an upgraded mini Server without the muss and fuss of having to disassemble your Mac mini on your kitchen table.
No matter what upgrade route you choose, though, OWC is there to help you get the most out of your Mac mini Server!
We hinted at this latest installment in our Instructional Video series a couple of weeks ago, but we had other things (such as Black Friday/Cyber Monday specials) on our plates which kind of delayed it. I am, of course, referring to the upgrade videos for the Mac mini Server. This installment covers the process for upgrading the memory inside.
I’m not going to go on and on about how adding more memory to your Mac improves performance; we’ve covered that topic quite extensively already. Though the Mac mini Server comes with 4GB installed by default, it is capable of handling twice that much. While you can’t get it from Apple, you can get up to 8.0GB from OWC. Once you get your OWC memory upgrade, our step-by-step video will walk you through the process of installing it. You can find the video (and all of our other install videos) both in our Tech Center and on our YouTube channel.
Of course, if after viewing the video, you decide that you’d rather not upgrade your mini yourself, you may want to check our our Installation Service. We offer quick turnaround (usually <24 hours from when it arrives here) and is a great option for those who want the benefits of the upgrade, but not the hassle of the upgrade process. Check out our Web site or contact one of our helpful sales staff for more information.
Either way you go, with more memory in your Mac mini Server, you’re going to enjoy increased performance – which is always good in a server.
Snow Leopard is coming and with it will be a major streamlining of the whole code base. This is a bit of a mixed blessing.
This streamlining (and the addition of a number of new technologies) will allow for a reduction in size of an OS installation, while still allowing for a decent jump in speed and/or efficiency.
The down side of this, though, is that Snow Leopard will only run on Intel-based Macs. This really isn’t something unexpected. Every iteration of Mac OS and OS X has had some sort of hardware cutoff, and this time around it’s “Intel processors only.”
This is understandable; by limiting to one type of processor, the redundant code can be eliminated, allowing for more efficient use of system resources and overall optimization. The OS is able to move forward by leaving behind that which holds it back.
However, this is also a bit of an annoyance to those who have PPC-based machines, many of which are still in operation. The new OS doesn’t support it, and as a result, many day-to-day applications may soon no longer work. That doesn’t mean they’re not useful, though. Heck, I still challenge any other Mac to beat my Mirror Drive Door in consistency and performance when benchmarking FireWire 800 hard drives.
While the newer versions of some software may eventually require Snow Leopard, anything currently shipping will work just fine under Leopard. There should be a number of Security Updates for 10.5, just as there were for 10.4, so you’re not being left high and dry in that regard. Finally, many third-party apps are coded so they’ll work just fine under any OS X version from 10.3 and up.
If, however, you require the latest and greatest in OS and applications, then you’ll be needing an Intel Mac soon. That, however, leaves you with the question of what to do with your PPC Mac.
Even though they may not be suited for your Snow-Leopard-Requiring day-to-day tasks, PPC machines are still capable of acting as single-task workhorses. Here’s just a couple of ideas:
File Server: OS X’s built-in file sharing allows for easy setup of a machine as a simple file server. For those with more advanced needs, OSX Server has a number of extras that should easily do the trick. All you need is an 867MHz G4 processor or faster. Those with G4 Towers that don’t quite make this speed requirement can still use Leopard by first installing a processor upgrade. You can then install up to 4 or 5 extra internal hard drives, either on the internal ATA bus, or add a SATA card and put in the largest, fastest drives you can. A couple of quick licks in the Sharing preferences, and your files are available anywhere on the network you want them to be. While you’re at it, you can also set up Printer Sharing on that machine, allowing all your networked computers to share the same printer, too.
Kids computer - Got kids that have homework to look up or games they want to play? While it may not play the latest and greatest games, your PPC Mac has enough life in it to cover many kids uses. A decent word processor for reports, basic email & Web apps and some older games all run well on these machines. Once you have what your kids need installed, simply set up their account(s) as needed, and then fire up the Parental Controls preference pane. There, you can limit time spent on the computer, bedtime, which sites can or can’t be visited, and the like. You can even limit which programs can be run. Once it is set up, your kids have a terminal of their own, leaving your machine open for your own marathon sessions of World of Warcraft.
Guest Terminal - Many years ago, I was renting a house with three other people, and we all were frequently online. The main problem was that only three out of the four of us owned computers. The fourth would always need to “borrow” one of ours. Unfortunately, they also had a habit of downloading whatever caught their fancy, opening up possibilities to viruses or, at the very least, filling up the hard drive. As a Mac user, I had more resistance to viruses than my Windows-using roommates, so I set up a “spare” machine (in fact, my trusty Wallstreet PowerBook) with a “Guest” account, where they could check their Web-based email, read news, etc, but they couldn’t change anything or save any files. It worked great. An older ‘Book can easily be left in the guest room with a similar setup, allowing overnight guests a way to check their email while visiting without exposing you to their careless computing.
Music Repository/Jukebox - If your music collection is approaching the proportions of some of the people around the office here (myself included), it may be time to move a good portion of it to a central location, especially if you have multiple machines you listen to it on. Several years ago, I wrote a piece on turning a G3 iMac into a simple jukebox. Once you’ve set your computer up with all your music, simply turn on the option to share the library in the preferences, and you’ll be able to listen to music from that library on any computer running iTunes on your local network.
Dedicated BitTorrent Client - Though most people immediatly think “illegal file sharing” when they hear “BitTorrent,” it is also a very effective way to distribute large files legally. Examples of this include independent bands with MP3s that don’t have the server bandwidth and various distributions of Ubuntu Linux. By dedicating a single machine to this task, it frees up other machines (and their bandwidth) for more immediate use. I know several people who use a G3 iMac for this purpose.
Curing diseases - Truth be told, this could be added to any of the above suggestions, but I’ll put it down as a separate item anyway. Even if you’re not using your PPC Mac all the time, there’s no reason it can’t be working. Set up Folding@Home, and put those spare processor cycles to good use, folding proteins and helping to find cures to diseases.
There are many more dedicated uses out there – the possibilities are really only limited by your creativity.
Of course, to get the most out of these machines, you’re going to want to make sure they’re running at peak performance. Maxing out the memory gives you the most bang for your buck, but adding a faster hard drive and even upgrading the processor can add some significant “oomph” to your PPC’s performance to its new tasks.
Even if you don’t know what upgrades are appropriate for your machine, OWC’s got you covered there. Simply check out the easy-to-use “My OWC” upgrade finder, enter in your computer’s information, and you’ll be given a list of compatible upgrades.
Don’t worry about Snow Leopard leaving your PPC Mac behind. With a little creativity and OWC, your PPC Mac can get a new lease on life.
