Now that we’ve got upgrade installation videos for the Late ‘09 MacBook and iMacs, we are turning our attention to the other upgraded model – the Mac mini. While we’re hard at work on the upgrade videos for the new Server model, those of you with the standard mini aren’t being left out in the cold. In fact, the videos for your mini are ready to go!

As it turns out, the internals of the Late ‘09 mini are identical to those of the Early ‘09 model. That means the take-apart is exactly the same, too. So whether you want to put in a larger hard drive or bump up the RAM, the free video instructions can be found both in our Tech Center and on our YouTube channel.

Of course, if you decide after watching the process, you’d rather have this upgrade professionally done, we can help you out there, too. Our Installation Service offers swift turnaround and professional results, all at a reasonable price.

Even though your Mac mini isn’t one of Apple’s “flagship” products, it doesn’t mean it can’t be a heck of a workhorse. Maximize your mini’s performance with upgrades and a little help from OWC.

In case you didn’t see it mentioned on other news sites, forums, etc, we announced free shipping on all orders over $150 today thru December 31st from our on-line catalog of over 2,500 products and a Top 10 Gift Giving Ideas list with “stocking stuffer” suggestions starting at $3.99 to help you make tech/gadget gift giving easier and more economical heading into the upcoming “Black Friday/Cyber Monday” holiday shopping kickoff dates.

We’ve been reading that value and frugality are the key objectives of shoppers this year and wanted to make sure we offered the right products and services to make us the easiest, one-stop choice for all your Mac, PC, iPod, and iPhone product purchases. And even bigger news perhaps is that we’ve extended our operation hours so qualifying orders can ship same day when placed as late as 10:30pm as well as permanently extending our Live Chat support to a full 24/7 service level.

OWC Top Gift & Stocking Stuffer ideas include:

• Kensington Pocket-Link 3-in-1 Cable $3.99

Provides retractable Ethernet/telephone and USB cords in a single, self-contained housing.

• Cellboost iRecharge $4.99

External battery pack for iPods/iPhones and other USB chargeable devices.

• OWC Memory Upgrade Kits from $15.99

More memory = faster Mac with easy to install OWC Memory upgrades.

• OWC Express USB 2.0 Enclosure $19.99

Pocket-sized, bus-powered 2.5″ SATA hard drive enclosure for the digital mobile lifestyle.

• NewerTech® NuPower® Charge & Sync+ $39.99

Portable charger, battery pack, and sync solution for iPods, iPhones, and other USB compatible devices.

• NewerTech Voyager Quad Interface Hard Drive Docking Solution $89.99

“Quad Interface” hard drive dock for 2.5″ and 3.5″ SATA hard drives up to 2.0TB.

• NewerTech Guardian MAXimus $319.99

Plug and Play RAID 1 with two 1.0TB hard drives for protecting precious holiday memories.

One of the biggest changes in Apple’s lineup last month was the addition of two more memory slots to the new iMacs, giving them a total of four. This gives the new iMacs the capability to handle up to 16GB of RAM. While adding more memory will always improve performance, 16GB really makes a difference.

Apple has generally made the iMac’s memory easy to upgrade, and this revision is no different. Some people, though, like to see it done first before diving in themselves. That’s why this week’s addition to our Instructional Series of videos is all about adding memory to your Late 2009 iMac! It doesn’t matter if you have a 21.5″ or 27″ model, or whether you have a Core 2 Duo, i5, or i7 processor, the process is the same for all of them and we show you how to do it.

As always, you can find this video (and all of our instructional videos) either in our Tech Center or on our YouTube channel.

Continuing on with our series of instructional videos, this week we take a look at another common upgrade for the 2009 MacBook—putting in a new hard drive. You can always use more storage space, so adding a new hard drive is something you may want to consider if you’re “feeling the pinch” of too little room.

Fortunately, unlike with the new iMacs, upgrading the hard drive on the new MacBooks is easy to do. All you need are the right materials and the knowledge of how to perform the upgrade.

First, you’ll need a compatible hard drive.

You’ll also want to have the appropriate tools – in this case, a #00 Phillips screwdriver and a Torx T6 screwdriver (both of which are available in the NewerTech 11-piece Toolkit).

If you plan on transferring the data from your old drive, you’ll need some way of accessing it, either via a docking device like the NewerTech Voyager Q or S2, an external drive enclosure, or a simple USB adapter, such as the NewerTech Universal Drive Adapter. Personally, I’d suggest the enclosure, as it lets you continue to use the old drive for other purposes.

The final thing you need is knowledge, and that brings us back to where we came in. Our latest instructional video will walk you step-by-step through the installation process, and you can find it both in our Tech Center and on our YouTube Channel.

We’ve received four configurations of the 21.5″ and four configurations of the 27″ machines so far.  The quad core i5 and i7 machines aren’t due out till later this month.  Between the advancements in Snow Leopard and adding additional memory to these computers, they sure can go fast!

In fact – we found up to a 46% performance boost by installing the OWC 16GB Memory Upgrade Kit versus the factory installed 4GB.

We’ve run the machines through a rigorous battery of benchmark tests to test not only the pure processing speed of these machines, but also show what adding OWC memory to the setup can do.  Additionally, the different video card options have also been pitted against each other, so if you haven’t purchased your iMac yet, we now offer a definitive tool for making an informed decision on which graphics card to order.  Both of the Radeon HD options prove to generate twice the gaming frame rates than the Nvidia equipped model.  Not too shabby!

Unlike the prior generation of iMacs, these models have a total of four DDR3 memory slots. You can add an additional 4GB kit and have 8GB total or an 8GB kit and have 12GB total without removing  the standard factory 4GB.

Should you want to max the memory up to 16GB, you will need to take out those original modules. While Apple officially supports up to 16GB in all the new iMac models, they only offer up to 8GB in the 21.5″ model. Not only does OWC offer you the options for up to 16GB total, but even if you just need an additional 4GB, we’ll save you 50% compared to the same installed by Apple.

The results make our company mantra ring true.  ”More Memory = Faster Mac!”

As additional machines are run through the same tests, they will appear on the same page as our overall goal is to have every Snow Leopard compatible machine tested using the same process.

Sometimes even the best educated guesses can be thrown for a loop when an unforeseen “X-Factor” comes into play. Such is the case with the Late 2009 iMacs.

As we were getting information together for the new iMac instructional videos, we came across a little tidbit that, apparently, hasn’t been covered anywhere else: Apple has switched the iMac’s method of hard drive temperature sensing. They’ve gone from an external sensor that attached to the outside surface of the drive to a connector that seems to use the drive’s internal sensors. more…

Just last week, Apple released a bunch of new Macs. You know what that means; it’s time for more upgrade videos!

To start out this new batch of upgrade instructions, we’re going to show you how to upgrade the memory in the new MacBook.

If you’re a regular reader of the OWC Blog, you should know by now that—dollar for dollar—adding more memory to your system gives you the best performance boost for the investment. Combine that with Snow Leopard’s ability to utilize memory better than its predecessors, and you have very little reason for not putting as much RAM into your Mac as you can reasonably afford.

Fortunately, Apple made upgrading the memory in the new MacBooks incredibly easy to do. Just remove the bottom cover, replace the memory and then close it all up. In no time at all, you’ll be able to upgrade the stock 2GB of memory to 4GB or even 8GB!

Sounds simple enough, doesn’t it? See for yourself by checking out the video in our Tech Center or on our YouTube Channel.

It’s a fact the files we work with on a day-to-day basis are getting larger. As digital cameras grow more advanced, so do the sizes of the pictures they take. Music is now available in near-pristine, lossless formats and movies are now are in high-definition video with multichannel soundtracks. Then, there are the various applications themselves, many of which can take up multiple gigabytes. All this data takes up space and before you know it, your hard drive is maxed out.

When you find yourself in this predicament , you have three options: clean out some accumulated files, get an external storage solution to move files to and provide more storage capacity, or use our free instructional videos to put a higher capacity drive into your machine.

Cleaning out older files isn’t really a viable option. Eventually, your drive will continue to fill and you’re back to square one.

Transferring older and/or duplicate files to an external drive is often the easiest route to take and we make that option simple with Plug and Play solutions for Macs and PCs. Unfortunately, if you’re highly mobile and using a MacBook or MacBook Pro, carrying around that extra drive and the connection cables (even with a bus-powered pocket-sized drive like the Mercury On-The-Go Pro) adds a few more things to pack and keep your eyes on.

Which brings us to upgrading your Mac’s internal drive. While the thought of “opening the hood” on your machine sounds daunting, it’s actually very straightforward with our instructional videos that walk you through the process.

After upgrading your internal drive, transferring your data over from your “old” drive to a new, faster, larger one is just as easy when using Migration Assistant in conjunction with a fresh install of OS X. To show you how to get it done, OWC Chris has created step-by-step instructions in our Tips & Reviews archives.

And when you’ve got everything up and running with all the data you had from the previous drive, we even make it easy to retask that “old” drive, by either putting it into an external enclosure or using it with one of our Voyager hard drive docks. If you choose the enclosure route, we may even have an installation video to show you how to do that too!

It doesn’t get any easier than OWC for the tips, tools, and products you need to get more from your technology investment.

With Apple’s new machine releases, we’re hard at work in the OWC Test Labs seeing just how fast we can make the machines go.

Our first machine that we’re looking at is the October 2009 2.26GHz MacBook.  This machine is pretty tight on the inside – meaning there isn’t much extra unnecessary space inside.  Like the iPod and iPhone, conservation of space seems to be a high-priority of Apple’s design teams.  So even though the machine is lighter and sleeker, it does pose some drawbacks in upgrading.  This Macbook has no problem running either a 5400rpm, 7200rpm or SSD drive for the fastest speeds, however; the physical height of the drive is limited to the 9.5mm form factor.  The 12.5mm drives are too tall to fit in the space provided.

I should reiterate that point.  The drive doesn’t officially fit.  Sure, we were able to cram it in, and screw the cover closed (with a little bowing of the bottom) but we don’t suggest or will support actually running the drive this way.  Too much physical pressure on a drive can certainly contribute to early drive failure – it’s just not worth risking your data or the expense of a warranty compromised drive.

We’re pleased to announce our findings that our OWC brand memory certainly takes the cake in these machines!  While Apple lists 4GB as the maximum amount of installable memory, our 8GB memory kit OWC8566DDR3S8GP is now tested and fully certified for the full 8GB utilization – a real performance benefit for memory intensive application loads. While we were at it, we also tested another brand 8GB memory kit and found it consistently caused kernel panics and non-boot issues. Even though both are the same spec of DDR3 1066MHZ SO-DIMM, sometimes quality does have its result.

Thus, when we talk about how OWC brand memory meets or exceeds all Apple requirements for memory, it’s not just idle chatter or marketing-speak. Our on-premise testing lab enables us to physically confirm this fact for every machine listed in our compatibility charts.  Then, we back our quality assurance with a lifetime warranty.  How can you go wrong?

Since we’ve started with the price dropping blog posts around here, we’ve never before seen a product win the “Triple Crown” of price reductions.  On June 25th, we watched as the 4.0TB OWC Mercury Elite-AL Pro RAID FireWire 800/400+USB2 storage solution triumphantly crossed the finish line with a $70 price drop.  On August 27th, we marveled as this same 4.0TB unit gave an impressive victory with an additional $100 knocked off the price.  Now, we’re pleased to report that one more $60 price drop today will have earned this product a $230 total reduction in price since Summer!

Quality, Performance, Reliability.

OWC Mercury Elite-AL Pro RAID FireWire 800/400+USB2 storage solutions utilize the latest high-performance, custom Oxford based bridge coupled with the latest Serial-ATA HDD technology to provide overall superior reliability and performance. These solutions are further backed with an industry leading 3 Year Full Solution Warranty.

Now available with up to 4.0TB (4000GB) of capacity, Elite-AL Pro RAID is a sleek and compact Aluminum design of only 9.3″ Long x 2.8″ Wide x 5.6″ High. These Elites are Fully A/V Certified as well as EMC Retrospect Backup Certified for all your Audio/Video, Backup(Time Machine Ready), Graphics, Music, General Data needs and more! With 2 x FW800 Ports, 1 x FW400 Port, 1 x USB 2.0/1.1 Port – solutions are also fully Bootable and provide excellent data accessibility via any of the available interface ports, whichever best/desired interface is available on the system(s) it’s being connected to with complete interoperability of read/write functionality and accessibility.

Current OWC Mercury Elite-AL Pro FW800/400+USB2 RAID prices:

• 640GB 7200RPM with 32MB Data Buffer – remains at $179.99
• 1.0TB 7200RPM with 32MB Data Buffer - remains at $199.99
• 1.0TB 7200RPM with 32MB Data Buffer – was $254.99, now $249.99 $5 Drop
• 2.0TB 7200RPM with 32MB Data Buffer – remains at $269.99
• 2.0TB 7200RPM with 64MB Data Buffer – $287.99, now $279.99 $8 Drop
• 2.0TB “Enterprise Class” 7200RPM w/64MB Buffer – remains at $379.99
• 3.0TB 7200RPM with 64MB of Data Buffer – was $379.99, now $349.99 (a $30 price drop!)
• 4.0TB GreenPower w/64MB of Data Buffer – was $579.99, now $519.99 (a $60 price drop!)
• OWC Elite-AL Pro RAID SATA HD x 2 enclosure kits are also available without drives as ‘Add Your Own Hard Drives Kits’ starting from $107.99, and have user configurable options for different RAID and non-RAID modes.

See the complete line up here.

Solutions all include the full retail version of Prosoft DataBackup III ($59 retail value) for OS X and NovaStor NovaBackup ($49 retail value) for Windows. Also included in the complete Intech HD Speedtools performance suite and Carbon Copy Cloner. None of these applications are required to use the Elite, but excellent applications to have in your utilities library & the DataBackup can hardly be beat. FireWire 800 connecting cable, FireWire 400 connecting cable, USB connecting cable, and 3 Year Warranty also included.

As with any major sporting event, there is always a prize over and above the satisfaction of winning.  In this case, we give the extra prize to you, our customer…

Special Offer:   OWC Mercury Elite-AL Pro Solutions qualify for Prosoft Drive Genius OWC Exclusive Offer!

Buy Drive Genius now for s low as $25 with purchase of a qualifying storage product – That’s up to 74% off retail price, up to 37% off OWC’s lowest normal selling price! Details online here: http://eshop.macsales.com/special_offer/prosoft_Drive_Genius

So often we are asked in reference to our OWC Instructional Series of Videos, “How exactly am I supposed to ‘Use proper anti-static precautions when performing this upgrade’?” The real answer is…it depends.  There are actually several different ways, depending on your situation, that you can help to control static electricity in order to avoid damaging the electronically delicate components found inside your computer.

According to Wikipedia: Static electricity refers to the buildup of electric charge on the surface of objects. The static charges remain on an object until they either bleed off to ground or are quickly neutralized by a discharge. And it’s that discharge that can ‘zap’ or ‘fry’ your computer components, rendering them inoperable.

To give you an idea of how little static electricity needs to be generated to cause harm to your computer components, it takes as little as 5 to 10 volts to cause damage inside your computer.  In order for you to even feel the presence of  static electricity, the level needs to be above 1,500 volts.   You can accumulate an average of 10,000 to 12,000 volts just walking across carpeting.  Rubbing a balloon on dry fur (or hair) generates about 20,000 volts. Did you know the average person can carry up to 25,000 volts of static energy at any given time? So discharging any built up energy before you begin is important.

So, how are we to be safe when working in our precious machines? more…

There are few constants in life. Death and taxes are the cliché ones. I’ll also add to the list the Chicago Cubs not making it to the World Series, movies based off of video games being terrible, and memory upgrades from Apple costing way too much.

That last one is a big one in the Mac community; it can cost up to $1100 to upgrade the latest model iMac, MacBook or MacBook Pro to a full 8GB if you get your memory from Apple.

That’s just plain silly.

As we have mentioned time and time again, adding more memory is—dollar for dollar—the most cost-effective upgrade you can perform on your Mac, a constant that is even more true now that Snow Leopard is on the scene. That is, of course, as long as you don’t fall into the trap of buying your memory from Apple.

OWC now has 8GB upgrade kits for $519.99. That’s less than half of what it would cost to upgrade your Mac to 8GB at the factory. Making this deal even better, an additional $45 Rebate is available with the trade-in of the factory standard 4GB memory set (two 2GB chips), giving this upgrade a net cost of well under $500! That’s a heck of a lot better than the $1100 Apple charges. The only difference is that you need to install it yourself. Fortunately, we have free instructions for performing these upgrades easily available.

There are also 6GB Kits for both the latest the latest DDR3 models as well as 6GB DDR2 Kits for previous generation iMac, MacBook, and MacBook Pro models that originally only had up to 4GB possible. Prices for these start at $174.99 for the DDR2 kits and $299.99 for the DDR3 kit, and these are immediately available.

Of course, if you want more RAM but don’t want to max out the machine, there are other options available for iMacs, Mac minis, MacBooks  and MacBook Pros, as well.

About a year ago, OWC CEO Larry O’Connor had this to say in his Tips and Deals Newsletter:

“It’s fun to talk about the ‘latest and greatest’ – but certainly not practical to buy that new top of the line each time it comes out. Fortunately, since you’ve got a Mac – it happens to have far more longevity than the average Windows PC out there and with some simple upgrades, it can be made better than new. Even if you’re buying a new Mac, for what can be a very nominal investment, it’s still well worth the while to maximize the Mac or Macs you’re still going to keep running.”

It was a very good point then, and it is still valid today.

He also went into five different ways to upgrade your Mac that can extend its useful life. Like the above paragraph, these five upgrade options remain incredibly valid today. The only difference is that we’re looking at new technology and a new Operating System. So, let’s revisit these concepts and see how they’re relevant today. more…

Looking to be among the first notified of these special deals and more?  Sign up for OWC Larry’s Tips and Deals Newsletter.

Upgrading your machine is a great way to bring out the best in it and allow it to do what you need it to accomplish. Over the years, there have been some common problems that keep popping up. Though most of you probably know them already, it sometimes slips by the wayside in eager anticipation of getting all those benefits the upgrades will bring.

To help avoid the most common problems, here is a compiled list of reminders that we like to call “The Golden Rules of Upgrading.” We’ve broken it into two parts: things to consider before buying your upgrades and things to consider after you have received the new goodies and are ready to put them to use.

more…

It’s the end of another week, and you know what that means: another OWC Instructional Video!

This time around we show you how to upgrade the Memory in the mid-2009 15” MacBook Pro.

These MacBook Pros can take up to 8GB of memory, doubling the maximum capacity of the previous model. This is a big boost for those using memory-hungry applications, like many graphics and audio suites, on your MacBook Pros.

They’re not the only ones that can benefit, though. Snow Leopard (with its 64-bit architecture and advanced resource management) looming on the horizon, larger amounts of memory will be more efficiently handled, increasing the overall performance of your system.

Get ahead of the game and upgrade your memory today. OWC has everything you need, from the correct memory for these models to our step-by-step installation videos, which can be found in our Tech Center and on our YouTube channel.

It’s a little later than expected, but the latest Instructional Video is ready to go! This time around, we’re showing you how to replace the hard drive in the new 13” MacBook Pro.

I can hear you saying, “Why on earth would I need to upgrade the hard drive? I just got it.” This may be true, but the benefit is twofold. First, as the old axiom goes, you can never have too large a hard drive; no matter how large it is, it will fill up eventually.

The second place you can see a benefit is if you put in a faster hard drive. The faster the hard drive is, the faster the system can access data it needs. The stock drives in the 13” MacBook Pro are 5400 RPM drives. According to our benchmark testing, upgrading to a 7200 RPM hard drive resulted in up to a 6% increase in performance in some tests, particularly the ones involving disk-intensive tasks.

Whatever the reason, our new video shows you how to perform this upgrade step-by-step. As always, you can find the videos both in our Tech Center and on our YouTube Channel.

We’ve got new hardware from Apple, and that can mean only one thing: new instructional videos!

This time around, we show you how to put more memory in your 13″ MacBook Pro. After all, these new releases can take up to 8GB. We’ve proven time and time again that more memory gives you better performance, so with OWC’s great memory prices, there’s no reason for you to stick with the 2GB that Apple sticks you with in the low-end model.

Upgrading the memory in MacBook Pro is incredibly simple to do. If you can use a screwdriver (preferably one from the Newer Technology 11-Piece Tool Kit), you have all the skills necessary to perform this upgrade.

Don’t believe me? Check out our how-to video, either in our Tech Center or on our YouTube Channel, and see how easy it is.

It’s almost as easy as pumping gas.