I've heard about SMC reset problems and/or power management problems with the 13" MBPs but I can't remember whether they were the 2009 or 2010's. I'd like to get a 2010 because my 15" MBP is a 2010 and I will essentially be "mirroring" the computers, the smaller one will be my carry around one. Does it make any difference if they are the same i5 processor? I think the power problem was resolved in most cases with a replacement of the "magneto-wonder-wire" power cord. Any thoughts here? I'd actually rather have a Macbook but it doesn't have any FW. As my parrot says, "Dammit!"

I think I'm going to get a refurb from Apple.

There was an issue where some older intel macs could not use the new right-angle magsafes due to a firmware issue. But a firmware update has fixed that.

I haven't ran into any SMC issues recently.

Yes, lack of firewire is annoying. I'm a little surprised apple isn't adding esata ports on macs. But my money is still sitting firmly on apple developing a single connector that does power, video, and serial data optically. If that's in the pipes, it would explain their not bothering with esata ports.

I just installed a 4 port esata card in my mac pro and am quite pleased with its performance over the previous usb connections, which really stunk. Some drives were going as slow as 16mb/sec, and now nothing is below 70.

Thanks. esata? Is that a flavor of sata? Via FW?

1. ESATA (External SATA)
2. Yes, it is a SATA port for connecting an external drive. There are several high end external drive enclosures that support ESATA, generally in addition to FW 800/400 and USB. but each of those uses a different connector and bridge chip.
3. No it is via an ESATA connection

Note that V1 is referring to a Mac Pro, not a Macbook Pro. The Mac Pro tower has several slots for installing additional I/O cards.

Missed that.

I also have a one port ESATA card for my macbook pro, that plugs into the expresscard slot. OWC sells them.

Careful when buying ESATA ports... be certain you check to see if they support "port multiplier". If it doesn't say, then it doesn't support it. Without this perk, you cannot plug in an ESATA hub to hook several drives to one card. This isn't as important on a desktop where you are getting usually 2 or 4 ports on the card, but on the laptops you will get 1 or sometimes 2 ports. So if you want to be able to hook up to more than one (or two) drives at a time, you require port multiplication and the card won't allow it unless it has that feature. (it about doubles the cost too)

There are also speed differences, usually rated in gigabits/sec. 1.5, 3, and 6 gbps are common values. 1.5 will do about 170MB/sec on a drive so is good for most use. You'll need faster if you want simultaneous access to fast drives, or are hooking to a fast ESATA raid.

Like USB, ESATA is not chainable, as firewire is. It requires a hub because it's a client/host protocol, not a peer-peer protocol.