Tag Archives: Upgrade

Q. I have a small drive, can iPhoto & iTunes go on an external?

Posted on July 21, 2012 by quill

While the programs themselves should remain in the Applications folder of your internal startup drive, the Libraries for iTunes and iPhoto can be placed on an external hard drive to save space on the internal drive.  Keep in mind that … Continue reading →

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Q. Is a Quad Core processor better than a Dual Core?

Posted on July 20, 2012 by quill

While the answer might be obvious, it is not as straightforward as “more cores are better”. First of all, we need to be on the same page when comparing CPU (Central Processing Unit) technologies. There are big differences in computing … Continue reading →

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Add an SSD drive to a MacPro for fast booting and loading times

Posted on July 12, 2012 by quill

The MacPro Xeon tower machines are incredibly fast workstations. You can make yours even faster by adding a Solid State Drive (SSD) as a boot drive and/or as a scratch file drive.  An SSD equipped machine boots very quickly and … Continue reading →

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Q. What does it mean when a video card is bottlenecked by a CPU?

Posted on July 7, 2012 by quill

Short answer – it doesn’t mean anything.  Read on for the longer answer: What is bottlenecking? The concept of bottlenecking is that a program will only run as fast as the slowest component that it uses in the computer. When … Continue reading →

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Q. How do I upgrade the hard drive in a Windows laptop?

Posted on June 30, 2012 by quill

Most modern notebook machines have hard drives that can be replaced with a larger, faster 2.5″ SATA hard drive or upgraded to a 2.5″ SATA Solid State (SSD) flash drive. Older notebooks may have 2.5″ IDE (Parallel ATA) hard drives, they can still … Continue reading →

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Q. Can I replace the drive in my 2012 or earlier MacBook / MacBook Pro?

Posted on June 27, 2012 by quill

The MacBook and MacBook Pro Mid 2012 and earlier models (excluding all MacBook Airs and the Late 2012 and later Retina MacBook Pro) have hard drives that can be replaced with a larger, faster 2.5″ SATA hard drive or upgraded … Continue reading →

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Q. What Memory and Drives fit my MacBook Air?

Posted on June 12, 2012 by quill

Apple MacBook Air machines feature Intel processors and an exceedingly thin Aluminum body. None of the MacBook Airs have internal optical drives, Apple sells an external USB Superdrive (make sure to check compatibility with your MacBook Air when buying a … Continue reading →

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Q. Can I upgrade the processor or the graphics card in my laptop?

Posted on June 1, 2012 by quill

The short answer is No. The longer answer is that many laptops have the CPU soldered into the motherboard. Even where the CPU is socketed, the motherboard chipset and BIOS would have to specifically support the new CPU, and laptop … Continue reading →

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Q. How do I install a 3TB or larger hard drive?

Posted on May 18, 2012 by quill

The largest new desktop SATA hard drives on the market have capacities of 3 TB and 4 TB. This is great for storage, not so great for older machines because it goes beyond what SATA interfaces on older (mid 2011 … Continue reading →

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Q. How do I install RAM in a PC Notebook?

Posted on May 3, 2012 by quill

The RAM memory in most notebook computers is user-upgradeable. Almost all notebook machines use SODIMMs (Small Outline Dual Inline Memory Modules). Part of the trick is to discover where the memory modules are located in a notebook machine. The best … Continue reading →

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Q. What memory fits my Apple Xserve server?

Posted on April 30, 2012 by quill

Model/ Identifier CPU/ Speed/ Screen/ Date/ Designation RAM Type & Speed Maximum RAM Hard Drive/ SSD XServe G4RackMac1,1 G4 1.0 GHz (4 RAM sockets Mid 2002, M8627LL/A ) DDR-266 DIMM 2 GB (4x512MB) 3.5″ PATA hard drive XServe G4/DPRackMac1,1 G4 1.0 … Continue reading →

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Q. What memory and hard drives fit my iBook G3/G4?

Posted on March 31, 2012 by quill

There are several models of iBook, the G3 models use PC66 or PC100 memory and the G4 models use DDR memory. Below is a list of all models. iBooks take 2.5″ IDE hard drives up to 120 GB in capacity. … Continue reading →

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Q. What RAM memory and hard drive fits my Apple eMac G4?

Posted on February 21, 2012 by quill

Apple Macintosh eMac G4 machines took two different types of RAM – PC133 SDRAM and DDR-333 (PC2700 or PC3200 can be used.) In both models, the RAM is accessed through a trap door on the bottom of the machine. If … Continue reading →

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Q. What RAM memory and hard drives fit my Mac PowerBook G4?

Posted on February 20, 2012 by quill

The Powerbook G4 was a revolutionary notebook when it was released, having an all-metal casing manufactured with a Titanium alloy. In Early 2003 Apple switched to an aluminum allow for the case, and introduced 12″ and 17″ models. At the … Continue reading →

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Q. What memory and hard drives fit Macintosh computers?

Posted on February 17, 2012 by quill

Different models of Apple Macintosh machines take different types and capacities of RAM memory and hard drives.  We’ve put together charts of all of the models of Macs since 1998 that list the RAM requirements and the hard drive types … Continue reading →

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