My computer of choice for the last two and a half years has been a Mac Pro; eighteen kilos of aluminium and fancy bits, whisper quiet, reliable and fast enough to handle everything I throw at it. Even though it was already a year old when I bought it, it feels like it will go on for ever and I had no immediate need to change it.
But then a very nice chap from Bangkok had the misfortune to move into a smaller condo, have a baby, and decide he had no space for his top of the line, nine month old Mac Pro. He put it up for sale and eventually reduced the price so it was less than half he paid for it. Just too good to pass up….
So, as of yesterday, I am the proud owner of two Mac Pros. Assuming I can sell the old one for a reasonable price, I will have acquired a significant upgrade for a small amount of money, and I can enjoy another couple of years warranty. If I can’t sell the old one, then of course I am completely screwed.
The arrival of the new machine coincided with the release of OSX Lion, the latest operating system from Apple. Wise advice is to wait some time before installing any new version; so I waited a full half hour after it was released before buying it, for the not unreasonable price of $29; and left it overnight to finish downloading.
This morning I clicked the install button and went to make a cup of coffee. Fourteen minutes later, it was finished; something of an update record. But that was on my existing machine. So I did the same on the new computer, and then migrated my data from the old machine to the new. That took twenty eight minutes.
Since then I have spent much of the day fiddling around transfering additional hard drives (the Mac Pro has 5, with space for more) between machines and doing various updates. Surprisingly, my Windows 7 disk (which I use for gaming), was quite happy to move to the new Mac, and a quick check of running Shogun with every option turned to high confirms that the machine is much more of a beast than the old one. Not that I have upgraded my machine just to play games faster…
Finally, everything was installed and backed up, and all versions of the previous OS had been deleted; and then I found I couldn’t connect to my network drives upon which all my photos reside. Bugger. Much fiddling and no success. Bugger, mixed with mild panic. Some googling and I discover I am not the only one. I also discover a workaround which will suffice until Apple come up with a fix. Maybe I should have waited more than half an hour before downloading.
Comments 🔗
2011-07-21| TheSon saysI’ve just spec’d out my ideal Mac Pro setup on the Apple Store - a mere £8500, twice the cost of my car.
I’ll take your old one. FedEx it to the UK?
2011-07-21| Spike saysI just spec’d out the cost of Fedex to the UK, a mere £7,950. I’ll send it on Monday.
2011-07-22| TheSon sayshttp://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/07/21/adobe_lion_incompatibilities/
Think I’ll hold off for a bit
2011-07-23| Jerry saysForget Jobs, go with Gates. Much more flexible.
2011-07-23| TheSon saysForget Gates, go with Torvalds. Much more flexible.
2011-07-23| Spike saysI shall ignore the entreaties to consider other operating systems because they are more flexible. Mr. Jobs’ offering is flexible enough thank you. But for those of you who were saving your pocket money to buy my old Mac Pro; it was sold this morning.