Kickaha
2014-09-20, 18:15
Big news in my life recently, I acquired a family. :)
Two teenagers in high school, one professional photographer/artist girlfriend, all with aging (or just plain aged) Macs. I have a 2008 Mini, similarly sliding into obsolescence. The most up to date machine in the house is my 2012 MacBook Pro.
We need:
Homework machine(s). Their MacBooks are *old*, like 2004-6 era. They can't keep up with their current needs, including 2011 Office, and a Windows virtual machine running software for robotics class. Options seem to be: A couple of MacBook Airs, and an external display to share; an iMac and let them keep their current machines for LoL and such. The former works better for them post-HS, and lets them work simultaneously. The latter is a bit cheaper.
Photography workstation. She currently has a 17" MacBook Pro, she got the large screen for her photography and the CPU for Photoshop, but the retina screens now are MUCH better for it, even if they are smaller. Options: get her a new MacBook Pro / Retina, or get me a new machine, and let her have mine. It's only two years old. Problem? Only 256GB storage. Her 1TB HDD is currently overflowing, and she's constantly out of room, due to photos. She just moved to Aperture 18 months ago specifically to help get things cleaned up and onto external storage, and now *that's* kind of up in the air. Obviously she needs external storage moving forward in any case. Second option is a 27" iMac, let her continue to use her current monster until it dies.
Home file storage. This leads me to this item. I'm slowly getting our DVDs/VHS tapes moved onto the media server, which is currently the 2008 Mini hooked into a single HDTV. Obviously, we need a lot more storage, available over the network. This makes me think either a central machine w/ a disk array, or a NAS. The Mini can be the file server, as far as I'm concerned, and an AppleTV can be the media bridge to the TVs, since she moved in with her own and now we have two.
So, given all of *THAT*...
What are suggestions? As I see it, short of pulling an Oprah and giving everyone a new machine, there are a couple of options:
1) Purchase 27" iMac, slap a mess o' drives on it. It becomes the photo work machine, and the homework machine. Cost, about $2500 for a RAM-heavy beast. Downsides: the boys' laptops are still too damned old and poky to be useful, new laptops would need to be purchased in the next year or two, and in the meantime they'll argue over who gets to use it for homework first.
2) Purchase two MacBook Airs for the boys, move the Mini to my office and connect to the 24" 1080HD monitor that I use for development on my MBPro. Cost, about $2200. Downsides: photo work is going to be poky on the Mini and a substandard screen, fitting a Windows virtual machine on one for the robotics work is going to be tight. Toss in a new machine for my travel (13" MBP/Ret) and give the gf my current one, and the photo work is easier, but it's another $2000. :P
As a side issue, there's the drive array vs. NAS debate. My AirPort unit is from... wow... 2004? Still works, but not exactly up to the task of a sudden household of machines hammering on it. Looking at a new AirPort Extreme unit, *considering* a Time Capsule instead of putting the Time Machine drives on a central machine. Also been looking at the newer Drobos for the photography archive. Redundancy is not a shabby thing, but offsite is better. This is where I have like zero experience, and could use some insights from folks. She's going to need 2TB for current and next-two-years needs, I figure, plus backup of same.
This is helping me get my thoughts gathered a bit, and I can see a better path now, but what would you all recommend that I haven't thought of?
Two teenagers in high school, one professional photographer/artist girlfriend, all with aging (or just plain aged) Macs. I have a 2008 Mini, similarly sliding into obsolescence. The most up to date machine in the house is my 2012 MacBook Pro.
We need:
Homework machine(s). Their MacBooks are *old*, like 2004-6 era. They can't keep up with their current needs, including 2011 Office, and a Windows virtual machine running software for robotics class. Options seem to be: A couple of MacBook Airs, and an external display to share; an iMac and let them keep their current machines for LoL and such. The former works better for them post-HS, and lets them work simultaneously. The latter is a bit cheaper.
Photography workstation. She currently has a 17" MacBook Pro, she got the large screen for her photography and the CPU for Photoshop, but the retina screens now are MUCH better for it, even if they are smaller. Options: get her a new MacBook Pro / Retina, or get me a new machine, and let her have mine. It's only two years old. Problem? Only 256GB storage. Her 1TB HDD is currently overflowing, and she's constantly out of room, due to photos. She just moved to Aperture 18 months ago specifically to help get things cleaned up and onto external storage, and now *that's* kind of up in the air. Obviously she needs external storage moving forward in any case. Second option is a 27" iMac, let her continue to use her current monster until it dies.
Home file storage. This leads me to this item. I'm slowly getting our DVDs/VHS tapes moved onto the media server, which is currently the 2008 Mini hooked into a single HDTV. Obviously, we need a lot more storage, available over the network. This makes me think either a central machine w/ a disk array, or a NAS. The Mini can be the file server, as far as I'm concerned, and an AppleTV can be the media bridge to the TVs, since she moved in with her own and now we have two.
So, given all of *THAT*...
What are suggestions? As I see it, short of pulling an Oprah and giving everyone a new machine, there are a couple of options:
1) Purchase 27" iMac, slap a mess o' drives on it. It becomes the photo work machine, and the homework machine. Cost, about $2500 for a RAM-heavy beast. Downsides: the boys' laptops are still too damned old and poky to be useful, new laptops would need to be purchased in the next year or two, and in the meantime they'll argue over who gets to use it for homework first.
2) Purchase two MacBook Airs for the boys, move the Mini to my office and connect to the 24" 1080HD monitor that I use for development on my MBPro. Cost, about $2200. Downsides: photo work is going to be poky on the Mini and a substandard screen, fitting a Windows virtual machine on one for the robotics work is going to be tight. Toss in a new machine for my travel (13" MBP/Ret) and give the gf my current one, and the photo work is easier, but it's another $2000. :P
As a side issue, there's the drive array vs. NAS debate. My AirPort unit is from... wow... 2004? Still works, but not exactly up to the task of a sudden household of machines hammering on it. Looking at a new AirPort Extreme unit, *considering* a Time Capsule instead of putting the Time Machine drives on a central machine. Also been looking at the newer Drobos for the photography archive. Redundancy is not a shabby thing, but offsite is better. This is where I have like zero experience, and could use some insights from folks. She's going to need 2TB for current and next-two-years needs, I figure, plus backup of same.
This is helping me get my thoughts gathered a bit, and I can see a better path now, but what would you all recommend that I haven't thought of?