{"id":5681,"date":"2010-06-02T07:55:26","date_gmt":"2010-06-02T12:55:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eshop.macsales.com\/blog\/?p=5681"},"modified":"2014-05-22T13:37:24","modified_gmt":"2014-05-22T18:37:24","slug":"what-a-mac-loving-son-gets-his-mac-loving-dad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eshop.macsales.com\/blog\/5681-what-a-mac-loving-son-gets-his-mac-loving-dad\/","title":{"rendered":"What a Mac-loving Son gets his Mac-loving Dad"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"A frequent topic of my articles<\/a> in the OWC Blog center around my adventures in keeping my dad\u2019s Mac mini up and running. As we\u2019re in the Father\u2019s Day season, I think it\u2019s only appropriate that I put together a list of items that would enhance his digital lifestyle. Perhaps your <\/em>father might appreciate one or more of these items, as well. Of course, I don\u2019t make nearly <\/em>enough to get him everything here (we have to keep our prices low somehow<\/em>), but at least it\u2019s a good launch point for ideas, for both my <\/em>Dad and maybe\u00a0 yours, too.<\/p>\n

First of all, I\u2019d have to get him a new Mac mini<\/strong>. While his current mini has served him well, its Core Solo processor is showing its age, especially when he\u2019s trying to make discs and slide shows out of photos he\u2019s taken with his digital camera. However, that\u2019s the only processor-intensive thing he does; otherwise he uses it mostly for email, word processing and the occasional game of Bejeweled Blitz. For those purposes, the latest mini would work just fine for him. Of course, like any good son, I\u2019d have to make sure that the computer is all tricked out, so that he can take full advantage of its capabilities. The best place to start is memory.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s well-known that getting memory from Apple is way <\/em>too expensive in most, if not all, cases. Furthermore, not all configurations are available; from Apple, the most you can get pre-installed in the latest mini is 4.0GB. Fortunately, you can double <\/a><\/em>that to 8.0GB through OWC<\/a>. Plus, it’s even more economical when you consider\u00a0our rebate for the original memory!<\/a><\/p>\n

A new hard drive would be nice, too. While a Mercury Extreme Pro SSD<\/a> <\/strong>would certainly speed up many of his disk-intensive tasks, I think he\u2019d be better served with some copious external storage. As his NewerTech miniStack v3<\/a> <\/strong>has worked quite well for his backups (once I set it up correctly), getting a nice, large 2.0TB model<\/a> will help store all his photos on an external drive. In fact, we could even partition it into two volumes and use one for Time Machine. That way, if one backup dies, the other is still there.<\/p>\n

Since he takes a lot of digital photos, getting him set up with the latest version of Photoshop CS5 <\/a>would be another great idea. I\u2019ve played with it a little here at the office, and many of the new retouching features (can we say \u201ccontent-aware fill?<\/a>\u201d) <\/em>would help him out immensely.<\/p>\n

Of course, editing photos also means eventually showing them off. Sure, many people have digital photo frames and still others print them out. However, knowing my Dad, he\u2019s just as likely to make a slideshow movie, complete with music. That, of course, means that he\u2019ll want to hook his mini up to the television. Depending on how he\u2019s going to want to hook it up, any of the NewerTech Video Adapters<\/a> <\/strong>will get him connected for less than $30<\/strong>. I doubt he\u2019s going to be needing surround sound, so I can forego the Mini DisplayPort w\/5.1 Channel Digital Audio to HDMI Adapter<\/a>. However, once I <\/em>get a mini for my home theater, that\u2019s the first <\/em>thing I\u2019m getting.<\/p>\n

Of course, since he likes to send out CDs and DVDs of his photos to family members, I could always splurge and get him a nice external burner. The OWC Mercury Pro Dual Layer DVD+\/-RW Samsung Super-WriteMaster\u2122 External DVD writer with LightScribe<\/a> <\/strong>will not only allow him to burn discs faster than the built-in drive, but it will also allow him to create his own labels, too – no more writing on the discs with a marker!<\/p>\n

If you have a Mac-using Dad (or for that matter, a Graduate looking for computer equipment to get them started in \u201cthe Real World\u201d),\u00a0 whether they have the smallest Mac mini or the biggest Mac Pro,\u00a0 OWC makes getting that perfect gift easy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A frequent topic of my articles in the OWC Blog center around my adventures in keeping my dad\u2019s Mac mini up and running. As we\u2019re in the Father\u2019s Day season, I think it\u2019s only appropriate that I put together a list of items that would enhance his digital lifestyle. Perhaps your father might appreciate one […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":5682,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"spay_email":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7,3770],"class_list":["post-5681","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-random-thoughts-and-topics","category-unplugged"],"yoast_head":"\nWhat a Mac-loving Son gets his Mac-loving Dad<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Many of my articles in the OWC Blog center around keeping my dad\u2019s Mac mini up and running. 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