All of sudden I lost 14 inches

If you follow me on twitter and why wouldn't you? You may know that I've sold my 27" iMac. It took a while. I decided to sell it a little bit too late (just days after they updated the whole range again). So I was stuck with it on eBay for 30 days trying to sell it. Eventually I found a buyer. Or they found me.

One morning I woke to a message from Message saying they're interesting in buying it from me. With a few quick tweets to them and various people asking for advice it wasn't long before the deal was struck.

A courier was to collect my iMac from me on Thursday and once delivered funds would be transferred into my account. That was a bit of a pain. I was worried that I'd be without a computer for the weekend. I panicked. After a couple more tweets to some fine fellows I decided to use my just cleared pay cheque to buy a MacBook Pro.

You may think I'm a bit mad. I've gone from a 27" massive iMac screen down to a 'tiny' 13" MacBook Pro. Why? There's a couple of reasons.

  1. The iMac was a desktop. As I only use the computer in the evening as my web design shenanigans (for the moment) is purely 'part time'. I just couldn't get used to having to sit in the office (dining room). Whilst my partner was in the sitting room. I found myself using my iMac less and less.
  2. 27" is massive. I found it was too big for me. I couldn't really concentrate as there were so many pixels to look at. The 13" is perfect. I've only got a small screen to look at. I can focus much better.

So I got my MacBook Pro. A 13" 2011 model, 2.3Ghz i5 with 4GB of RAM and a 320GB 5200rpm hard drive. On the afternoon I ordered it @lloydi was talking about a hard drive he's got in his 15" 2008 MacBook Pro. A Seagate Momentus XT Hybrid. It's got a 500GB 7200rpm hard drive AND a 4GB SSD in there too. The SSD basically helps your most used programmes open quicker. I was sold in seconds and ordered it after having the MacBook for only 4 days. It makes the laptop loads from cold quicker too. Whilst I was in a spending mood I also ordered 8GB of RAM too.

It all arrived, I installed it in moments (well, after a Time Machine backup).

It's one quick machine now.

I'm currently waiting 20 seconds when I boot up. Which is great. Photoshop, Coda, Chrome, Kiwi and Itunes load in a snap. No waiting. NONE. 

Total cost for the upgrade £150 (ish). The MacBook Pro, being a refurb model, was £849 instead of the usual £999 rrp. A grand well spent. 

I think this'll last me for some years to come. I can't see me every going back to a desktop. Well, Never say never.

But there must be some problems right?

Yes, of course. I've been 'used to' my iMac with a magic mouse and a wireless keyboard. All of a sudden I have to use a trackpad. My muscle memory needed 'retraining' but that's done now.  The other thing is the screen (under certain circumstances). It's a glossy screen. So depending where I'm sitting in the house. I sometimes don't get the best view of the screen because of all of the glare and reflections. But that's ok. I can sit in another chair.

And that's about it. I've got a new toy. I'm 'blogging' again. I'm trying to do some more work. I've got several projects 'on the go' so being able to use this bad boy wherever I am makes it easier than it ever used to be.