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Category Archives: Hardware

Hard drive failure rates – Be Warned

Posted on by Posted in Apple Mac News, Hardware, iMac, Mac, MacBook, Service

The results on Seagate 3tb hard drives are the same as what we have already experienced but have had no issues with 2Tb Seagate Barracuda drive. We stopped supplying the 3TB Seagate’s with issues back in early 2014 although it seemed to be centred around one particular Firmware version. It was no mistake that all of our customer failures were in Raid systems (redundant safe duplicates) because loosing 3Tb of data is just unthinkable, in most cases we replaced the drive with a Server Grade drive that where more than $100aus more and have not looked back.drive failure chart

Hard Drive Failure Rates for 2014

The table above shows the annual failure rate through the year 2014. Only models where that have 45 or more drives are shown. It is also usually enough drives to start getting a meaningful failure rate if they’ve been running for a while.

Why is my Mac running slow

Posted on by Posted in Apple Mac News, Hardware, iMac, Mac Pro, MacBook, Service, Software

Has your Macintosh started to run slow!!

More and more now we find that off the street Apple Mac’s where the internal hard drive is running very slowly may be because a Fail-Safe guard called S.M.A.R.T has been triggered and your beloved Hard Drive is about to fail.

This problem can be very easily tested with this software FREE and will tell you if your drive is failing (only works with 10.5 onwards) and checks the onboard chip on your hard drive. We use this application to check the health of all the reconditioned and second hand older machines we sell.

Smart Utility

FREE https://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/24875/smart-utility

Why does it go slow?
When your drive has a number of errors, SMART kicks in then slows the hard drive. This gives you longer to backup and recover all your files before the drive stops dead.

Surprising but there is no support for “SMART” warnings or issue reporting in the current Mavericks Operating System 10.9. and if it did it would most likely only work with Apple original drives. A bit like not having a low-oil-light in your car, your not going to need it most of the time, but when you do, its is going to be critical.

What some users will do to fix the problem
There is a promise from a persistently advertised software product called “Mackeeper”. Many users BUY this software to fix a computer problem because of claims it will “Speed up their Mac”. There are 2 things that this application will also do that may just cause more problems:

1. high disk activity as is scans all files for viruses that don’t work on Macs. Not good if your drive is failing!!
2. Memory and processor intensive

The other things this application does like a “cache cleaning” can be searched and downloaded from here: http://www.macupdate.com. I use and recommend Onyx

Connecting your Mac to a faster Drive
One of the great advances in storage SSD or Flash drives is what makes the slickness of the Macbook Air work so much faster. You can add a SSD to any Macintosh but UDS is the only company that can make sure that you get the right software keep you drive optimised but also last longer. Larger cheaper drive are now on there way from companies like Samsung.

Backup, Restore and Recovery experts

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Mac Pro Release Today!!

Posted on by Posted in Apple Mac News, Hardware, Mac Pro

Merry Christmas and a happy new year from

Unique Design Systems.

 

On Site service and consulting will commence late January but orders can be processed during January.

 

Mac Pro Released 19th December 2013

CUPERTINO, California―19 December 2013―Apple® today announced the all-new Mac Pro® will be available to order starting later today. Redesigned from the inside out, the all-new Mac Pro features the latest Intel Xeon processors, dual workstation-class GPUs, PCIe-based flash storage and ultra-fast ECC memory.

 

See Press Release

 

New Mac Pro to be released December

Posted on by Posted in Apple Mac News, Hardware, Mac, Mac Pro

Apple on Tuesday reintroduced its 2013 Mac Pro, which will be the company’s fastest and smallest MacPro ever. Apple unveiled the 2013 Mac Pro at WWDC back in June, but at its latest media event, the Cupertino, Calif.-based company announced the release date for the new Mac Pro to be in December, though no specific date was given. The Mac Pro’s price will start at $2,999us.

mac-pro-1

The 2013 Mac Pro is something of a Dark Stealth tech, a dense black cylinder designed around a thermal core and brimming with advanced technology. Small enough to keep it on your desk away from floor dirt and dust. The new Mac Pro is twice as powerful as the previous Mac Pro, which was still the fastest and most expandable Macintosh Apple sold despite its three years on the market. But even with this incredible power, the 2013 Mac Pro is also one-eighth the size of its predecessor with a diameter of 6.6 inches and a height of 9.9 inches, which was all accomplished thanks to a very innovative design built around balancing power and efficiency. It is apparently also whisper quiet which will please the audio techs.

 

Now if they could only allow you to plug in 2 keyboards and let 2 users use it at the same time 😉

Apple speedbumps MacBooks

Posted on by Posted in Apple Mac News, Hardware, MacBook

MacBook Pro line updated

The MacBook Pro with Retina display line now features faster processors, double the memory on entry-level configurations and a new lower price for the top-of-the-line 15-inch model. MacBook Pro with Retina display delivers incredible performance in an incredibly portable design.

All MacBook Pro models come with iLife and iWork and are eligible for a free upgrade to OS X Yosemite this spring.

 

At just 0.71 inch thin and 3.46 pounds, the 13‑inch MacBook Pro with Retina display is 25 percent thinner and 20 percent lighter than the 13‑inch MacBook Pro without a Retina display.

At just 0.71 inch thin and 4.46 pounds, the 15‑inch MacBook Pro with Retina display is 25 percent thinner and 20 percent lighter than the 15‑inch MacBook Pro without a Retina display

MacBook Pro packs a lot of power into not a lot of space. Apple designers and engineers reconsidered each detail of every internal component to maximize performance and minimize size. As a result, these notebooks are the thinnest, lightest, and highest-performance MacBook Pro models we’ve ever made. Learn more

 

 

Old school Mac Mini make good Media Centre

Posted on by Posted in Hardware

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mnismall

Beauty, power and fun — everything that makes a Mac a Mac fits inside an elegant 5.08 cm-tall, 16.51-cm square. All the performance you need. All the Mac features you love. All on Mac OS X Leopard, the world’s most advanced operating system. Just connect your keyboard, display and mouse and say hello to your new Mac.

newmacmini

The faster graphics card is well received for those of us that use a Mac Mini as a Media Center can now use it as a gaming machine as well. More ram is also welcomed as 2Gb was limiting on the previous Mac Mini and so is the Firewire 800 port allowing access to 1-4.5TB larger external hard drives. What is disappointing is the slower 5400rpm rather than 72000rpm hard drive but we offer this as an update. What we are excited about is you may be able to run two screens but we will need to investigate this further as we await our dealer demo units.