Mac Does Stuff

Month: August 2018

  • Desktop Virtualzation – It’s Brilliant

    The ability to run multiple different operating systems on your laptop has proven to be invaluable for me – it’s just so, so useful. I’m often on many different sites all with slightly different environments, or I’ll be needing to build & test server based stuff. Being able to do that on my laptop has saved me so much time & effort.

    As an Apple Mac user, I’m always coming across scenarios where I need to run Windows – whether server or desktop – so being able to fire up multiple different versions all at the same time saves a ton of time. No rebooting into a single copy of Windows in BootCamp for example. My normal productivity environment for example is an Apple Mac running Windows 10 in Parallels Desktop. 

    One thing I get asked about a lot is what’s the impact of virtualising Windows like this, just how usable is it? Well, it’s brilliantly usable, just as much as most physical devices (I.e. Natively running Windows) I’ve used. There has to be a performance impact though, right? Yes, yes there is, but it’s relatively minor in reality.

    I’ve done some benchmarking below showing:

    • Cinebench scores natively in MacOS, and in Windows 10 running in both Parallels Desktop 13 and VMWare Fusion 10.
    • Geekbench 4 scores natively in MacOS, and in Windows 10 running in both Parallels Desktop 13 and VMWare Fusion 10.

    Anyway, these figures are shown below.

    General Machine Benchmarks
    General Machine Benchmarks

    Now, I know it’s a bit unfair to compare the Surface Book 2 to an iMac Pro like I have above, but even on my MacBook Pro I get better performance in Windows 10 virtualised than I do natively on the Surface Book 2, and the SB2 Is hardly a slouch.

    It’s interesting to see the differences in the performance for VMWare Fusion and Parallels by the way. I tend to use Parallels for my Windows 10 setups, and VMWare Fusion for my server stuff, however looking at the above I may now reconsider this. More testing required. I will say though that in all of the graphics tests Parallels 13 seems significantly faster than Fusion.

    Anyway, my general point being that running an OS virtualised for general day to day use is amazing. Being able to take snapshots, to roll-back etc. when testing is invaluable. As is having standard builds of Windows available for a simple copy, rather than having to build fresh very single time I need a machine saves me tons of time.

    You can do this on Windows too of course using HyperV – this is included in Windows 10 Enterprise or Professional. Anyway, you can read about that here.

  • Upgrading the ram in an Apple iMac Pro

    One of the physical differences between the 2017 5k iMac and the 2017 iMac Pro is the RAM upgrade process. In the normal 5k unit there’s a small door at the back that grants you easy access to the RAM slots – you can upgrade the RAM yourself, and very easily.

    With the 2017 iMac Pro, the RAM is upgradable, but you cannot do it yourself. Well, unless you’re quite brave with an expensive machine – you have to dismantle it. For anyone who’s ever dismantled and iMac, it can be quite challenging.

    Anyway, if you look at the Tech Specs for the iMac Pro, you’ll see the base RAM is 32Gb, and it’s configurable to 64Gb or 128Gb. The units have four memory slots in them:

    iMac Pro RAM Slot Layout

    Notice the ‘memory upgrade instructions’? That just takes you to the Apple support pages. In addition, you can see the memory specifications here: 

    iMac Pro memory specifications

    Note this bit:

    iMac Pro RAM Details

    In effect, an Apple Store can deal with Warranty issues. If you want the RAM upgrading however then you have to visit an Apple Authorized Service Provider (AASP). Anyway, I could not find this information originally, and it’s seriously making me question whether this was the way it was worded in the first place. But hey, what can you do.

    When I bought this iMac Pro, there were quite significant delays on getting the units, especially with any customisation. After speaking to Apple, they suggested buying the 32Gb unit and bringing it back to have the RAM upgraded. Simple you may think.

    Twice I took the iMac Pro to my local Apple Store. Twice I regretted not remembering that the box handle isn’t strong enough to carry the weight of the machine, but that’s a different story.

    The first time I attended they struggled to find any information on the upgrade process, and suggested that as the units were so new, and so different, they wait a while and try again.

    So I did wait a while. Approximately 6 months. 32Gb of RAM wasn’t terrible in the unit for the uses I had, however now I was struggling, so it needed upgrading.

    This time, rather than placing my trust in the Genius Bar, I contacted Apple via their support telephone no, and was referred to their online chat (!) as it could take a while to work out. Fair enough. I think spent some time with the online chat people who were very helpful, and arranged a visit for me to my local Apple Store to have the RAM upgraded…..and this got complicated.

    When I turned up at the Apple Store there was much ummmm and ‘well, we don’t know the process for this…’. I was fairly insistent this time, given it was second trip and the fact I’d verified the process with Apple Support first.

    They did the right thing by suggesting I leave the machine with them if I could – fortunately I have other kit and just needed it done, so happily left it in their capable hands.

    They called me back when they said they would – am I the only person that thinks such small points make a huge difference to your perception of service? Whomever put those reminders in their service system needs a commendation – this has always been my experience with Apple.

    Anyway, the result of the call with them was a bit….Interesting. They had no process to upgrade the RAM, and now they were pushing all the upgrades to the AASP. You an feel my groaning at this point…Have to go pick it up, take it somewhere else etc. Etc. It was a bit frustrating to be honest – you’d expect them to know their processes.

    This is not however what happened. Apple twice recently have surprised me with their level of service. What did they do? They ordered me a replacement unit with the specification I actually wanted, and replaced my original unit, with the idea being I simply pay for the upgrade.

    That was a great outcome for me. Admittedly had to wait for a couple of weeks for it to turn up, but no real drama with that, I have other equipment to use.

    Weird experience isn’t it? I get the iMac Pro units may be a bit unusual, but I kinda thought the Apple Stores would be a bit more on top of how they deal with such things? The final outcome for me though was an effective one, and one that surprised me. Why, I’m not sure, as I’ve only ever had excellent service from Apple.

    Anyways, I’ve now got enough memory. For now.