Advice on a 17" PB

[barkster]

And now for my first post...

I am getting ready to order a 17" powerbook, but I would like some advice on the optional hard drive. Do people recommend getting it, or is it not really worth it? Apple's on-line store has the ship time for the faster hard drive at 5-7 weeks! Thanks for your help!

[mymemory]

Ok, worth it for what?

To take to school: is too much.
To leave it at your desk and move it once in a while: is ok.
To edit video: get a tower.
To surf the net only: get and iMac.

¿?

[barkster]

I'll be using it mainly around the house, but I like to move around too. So I'm fairly certain I want the 17" PB. However, I am not certain whether or not to get the optional 5400 RPM hard drive versus the standard 4200 RPM one.

[edesignuk]

If your going to get into video editing etc, then I'd say the 5400 drive would be a good move, but for web, e-mail, music, bit of photo editing, iMovie here and there, I reckon your money would be better spent on extra RAM (though NOT RAM from Apple).

[barkster]

Sorry for my ignorance, but why not RAM from Apple? Expensive?

[Mantat]

RAM from apple basicaly cost twise the regular price, BUT I have neer heard of anyone having problem with it.

As for the HD, it depends of what you want to put on it. If its just a speed concern, you could buy a good FW external HD with 8meg of ram FW800. This are very fast drive, but you woulnd be able to walk around with it in your house wich may be a big problem for you.

Basicaly, the 5400rpm drive will give you a speed increment less than 15% when starting application and will greatly reduce your battery life. Its a big trade off.

You want a faster laptop or one that last longer?

Personnaly, I would go for battery life and eventualy get a FW800 external drive.

[jadren0]

I didn't go for the 5400 hd because I figure, if speed (and battery life...) are an issue at some point, I will be able to upgrade the drive (it would cost maybe double the price difference, but I get to keep the old hd as a backup drive - plus small big fast drives will get cheaper).
I also couldn't bear the thought of waiting weeks.
Good luck

[jadren0]

there are now several threads about this subject. A good suggestion seems to be an external firewire drive.

[GroundLoop]

Anyone wanting to get some info on whether or not to get a faster HD in a laptop should read this article. Yes, it is PC-specific, but the points are valid on Macs as well.

http://www6.tomshardware.com/mobile/20031031/index.html

Hickman

[barkster]

Thanks to everyone for their advice. I went ahead and got the 4200 RPM drive. But the big news is that this is my first mac--thanks again!