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Waiting for the 2018 MBP

The Blackmagic is a fair price, if it delivers on being quieter and proven to work with Mac. It competes with the Aorus Gaming Box, which is another all-in-one that is smaller and 200 bucks cheaper, but is reportedly very loud, even when the computer is SLEEPING. The Aorus is kind of upgradable, but it takes a small version of GPU cards, not the normal size, and its PSU can't drive a Vega, so its not truly upgradable. The Sonnet Breakaway with RX580 is $550, but much larger in footprint, and again, doesn't have the power to run a Vega, so maybe it's only upgradable in theory. They do sell a higher powered Sonnet WITH a Vega... but it's $1,300. Explains why Apple went with the RX580.

Here's the best site/rundown of the eGPU options, there's also tons of reviews there by users...
https://egpu.io/external-gpu-buyers-guide-2018/
 
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cool11 said:
Negatively: as I read in appleinsider site yesterday, they possibly not changed the keyboard the way they should do it. Minor changes, and not in the core of the problem.
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The core of the problem with the keyboard was reliability though, or at least that's the general consensus? And it definitely looks like they addressed that, even if it's too early to make any absolute judgements yet. Or what other problems are there with the keyboard that you perceive as still being there in the new models?
 
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Apparently, another nice thing about this Blackmagic eGPU is that it is Titan Ridge..

"@joevt3 Nice observation of HWiNFO64 screen capture. You are right on. The Thunderbolt 3 main board packs a lot of goodies. It's the first one with Titan Ridge JHL7540 Thunderbolt 3 controller. It also sports two TI83 USB-C controllers."

Unlike most other eGPUs, the ports will be usable, instead of laggy messes.

And it's currently the only eGPU that drives the very popular LG 5K monitors.

EDIT- This guy's video shows it does actually deliver on the sound front. Whisper quiet even at full bore for an hour.
 
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Ma2k5 said:
Similarly, there are people who practically do nothing on macOS, who think its great ;).
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My problem lies with these people ONLY if at the same time they bash the other OS. Because then they NEVER have ANY actual arguments other than "I don't like it!", without being able to say WHY exactly...
 
CodeJoy said:
It's a good update, certainly better than I was expecting. And they did change the keyboard. There's now a skin around the key mechanism. I quite doubt that it's there for sound proofing!! Whether it indeed fixes the issue remains to be seen, but they have changed it for sure.
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Agreed, even without the keyboard, it was a nice surprise to wake up and see the news break of the new laptops. The fact that they made changes to the keyboard brings hope regarding the durability of the keyboard as well.
 
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cool11 said:
Here you are:

Apple says the 2018 MacBook Pro keyboard doesn't improve reliability, and that's not great
https://appleinsider.com/articles/1...em-to-improve-reliability-and-thats-not-great

Congratulations to Appleinsider to try to be such objective, while devoted to apple products.
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Since then, iFixit reported that there has indeed been a hardware change to the keyboard. While we'll likely never know, adding this membrane seems to be the perfect solution to keep dust out. Luckily, for Apple PR, a side effect of that is that the keyboard is quieter so that's what they're going with. There's no way Apple will say the word fixed.
 
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CodeJoy said:
Sure, but Apple is making those statements mainly for the courts.
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CNET says someone at Apple told them there were no improvements to reliability, but that’s probably not true according to AppleInsider’s sources inside Apple.

According to the AppleInsider article, “Apple hasn't said anything directly about keyboard reliability improvements in the third generation butterfly keyboard.” So everyone speculates and guesses, and iFixit accuses Apple of covering up the fact they made improvements.

In fact, Apple’s new 3rd generation keyboard includes a design patented in 2016 that tries to decrease problems caused by foreign particles.

Apple already admitted there’s a problem with reliability, of course they’re going to improve a keyboard that has problems, why wouldn’t they? They’ve been working on improving it for years, and gen 2 was better than the first. Hopefully this 3rd gen will be as reliable as the scissor keyboards.
 
PickUrPoison said:
CNET says someone at Apple told them there were no improvements to reliability, but that’s probably not true according to AppleInsider’s sources inside Apple.

According to the AppleInsider article, “Apple hasn't said anything directly about keyboard reliability improvements in the third generation butterfly keyboard.” So everyone speculates and guesses, and iFixit accuses Apple of covering up the fact they made improvements.

In fact, Apple’s new 3rd generation keyboard includes a design patented in 2016 that tries to decrease problems caused by foreign particles.

Apple already admitted there’s a problem with reliability, of course they’re going to improve a keyboard that has problems, why wouldn’t they? They’ve been working on improving it for years, and gen 2 was better than the first. Hopefully this 3rd gen will be as reliable as the scissor keyboards.
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That patent points to a membrane layer - surely iFixit would have noticed that?

Of course they did just look at those which were part of the repair programme, not the new MacBook - but a good chance that the repaired MacBooks don’t have this membrane (maybe an improved alloy at best?).
 
Ma2k5 said:
That patent points to a membrane layer - surely iFixit would have noticed that?

Of course they did just look at those which were part of the repair programme, not the new MacBook - but a good chance that the repaired MacBooks don’t have this membrane (maybe an improved alloy at best?).
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They noticed it, they have started a teardown. They have a weird take on the issue, that Apple tried to secretly improve the keyboard, but got caught by iFixit.

https://ifixit.org/blog/10279/apple-macbook-keyboard-cover-up/


046C7C7E-3B9F-46D8-882B-D1B0C706D5A9.jpeg
 
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Ma2k5 said:
Thanks - so this confirms the new MacBooks have this. Is there confirmation of the repair programme using these too?
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A number of people on the ifixit forums said they’d had their 2016 or 2017 keyboards replaced with these. I saw one user here say it too. That’s still anecdote but it seems it may be the case.
 
Feenician said:
A number of people on the ifixit forums said they’d had their 2016 or 2017 keyboards replaced with these. I saw one user here say it too. That’s still anecdote but it seems it may be the case.
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That is good news - wasn’t there an article recently stating they are replacing them with the same keyboard recently? Thought that was an iFixit tear down?
 
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Ma2k5 said:
That is good news - wasn’t there an article recently stating they are replacing them with the same keyboard recently? Thought that was an iFixit tear down?
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I don’t know quite honestly. I read about the ifixit forum commenters here. If you do a search for “ifixit forum” here on MR forums you will likely find the comments in question.

Edit: Did a quick search. This might have been where I saw the comment that referenced the ifixit users

https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...ook-pro-keyboard.2127379/page-6#post-26247011

There was definitely someone here on MR who said they’d had a replacement on a 16 or 17 that seemed to be the new keyboard too, but I can’t find it right now.
 
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Feenician said:
I don’t know quite honestly. I read about the ifixit forum commenters here. If you do a search for “ifixit forum” here on MR forums you will likely find the comments in question.

Edit: Did a quick search. This might have been where I saw the comment that referenced the ifixit users

https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...ook-pro-keyboard.2127379/page-6#post-26247011

There was definitely someone here on MR who said they’d had a replacement on a 16 or 17 that seemed to be the new keyboard too, but I can’t find it right now.
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It's all in this thread guys https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/gen-3-butterfly-keyboard.2127111/page-5#post-26247631
 
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The Reasonable One said:
decided to pull the trigger on the i9 32gb 512 model so as to get the most performance out of the computer I could.

Anyway has anyone heard whether the original Razer core works with macOS using a gtx 1070. I’ve got both lying around from when I bought ( then returned) a 2016 model.
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I'm thinking about choosing these specs too but I'm really afraid of termal throttling.
 
Another interesting tidbit: According to Infinite Labs' review, you get up to 13.5 hours of battery life on the 2018 13" model watching 4K HVEC videos (offline). HVEC hardware decoding is pretty awesome.

Streaming via internet is obviously gonna be a bit shorter, but watching for example Netflix (which uses HVEC for streaming) should still give some good battery life. Someone correct me if I'm wrong but I don't think the 2016/2017 models lasted that long (2016 definitely not since they didn't have HVEC hardware decoding yet), so maybe the the increased battery size isn't completely outweighed by the more energy-hungry components in certain situations after all.
 
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The Reasonable One said:
decided to pull the trigger on the i9 32gb 512 model so as to get the most performance out of the computer I could.

Anyway has anyone heard whether the original Razer core works with macOS using a gtx 1070. I’ve got both lying around from when I bought ( then returned) a 2016 model.
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I don't think Apple will support nVidia cards anytime soon. You could however take a look at http://egpu.io/, I'm sure you can find something to make it work right now if you have some time on your hand.
 
I'm no longer in the waiting category, I ordered the 2018 MBP. I think the final piece of the puzzle the information about the 3rd gen keyboard and iFixit illustrating how well that piece of silicon works. I'm still taking a chance in that we have no track record in how that will hold up under years of typing. I still have a twinge of regret with regard to the Razer, I really did like that laptop. One of the little niggling things that bothered me (there was no major show stoppers) was the fact I constantly needed to alter the power settings, for performance or battery, mostly because of fan noise and not because of heat. I don't know if the 2018 MBP will be quieter but my 2012 is. I know with 6 cores, this bad boy will be hotter then that 6 year old computer but I'm not looking to game on it, so I think it will be ok. Still the Razer was a fine computer
 
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maflynn said:
I'm no longer in the waiting category, I ordered the 2018 MBP. I think the final piece of the puzzle the information about the 3rd gen keyboard and iFixit illustrating how well that piece of silicon works. I'm still taking a chance in that we have no track record in how that will hold up under years of typing. I still have a twinge of regret with regard to the Razer, I really did like that laptop. One of the little niggling things that bothered me (there was no major show stoppers) was the fact I constantly needed to alter the power settings, for performance or battery, mostly because of fan noise and not because of heat. I don't know if the 2018 MBP will be quieter but my 2012 is. I know with 6 cores, this bad boy will be hotter then that 6 year old computer but I'm not looking to game on it, so I think it will be ok. Still the Razer was a fine computer
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Good to hear you finally come to a conclusion on your laptop :).

I am tempted to follow the same footsteps - you will laugh and it is probably completely irrational, but what has really stopped me from having already purchased it is that they didn't upgrade the web cam (or include FaceID, but this I could have lived with). It annoys me to no end that it hasn't been upgraded, and I can't seem to point my finger as to why :D - might be my grievance that the window competitors have done so?
 
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