Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

PB Hard drive 5400 vs 4200 RPM??

K

kntgsp

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Hey I just canceled my iMac G5 20" model order because I'm going to want the portability, and I don't really need the speed. So I was wondering whether or not the hard drive upgrade is worth it? I use Photoschop CS, Go Live sometimes, have a huge iphoto and itunes library. Just wondering if I'd see any major boost there?

Also, I'm having a tought time deciding between the 15" and the 17". Both can come with the 128 mb video, which I definitely want, and have the same number of ports. So I'm just deciding whether or not the extra screen real estate is worth it?



Thanks.
 
Doing what you do, the 15" will work, the 17" will be nice. I would go with the 17" if I were you unless portablility is the ultimate factor between the two, then I'd go 15", which I did, but I have a PM too. I am not sorry that I got the upgraded hard drive, computer seems snappier than I thought it would, the hard drive is part of that at least. That is about all I can tell you with that. Enjoy your new purchase.
 
Noticable difference from 4200 to 5400 in my older PB. What is the price difference on the upgrade? I have a 15" which I love -- but depends on what you are doing with the 17" which I find too large to be a comfortable "portable" computer. The one thing I DON'T like about the 15" inch is that I notice on my friend's ancient 14" iBook, her screen is TALLER than mine! This means you can get the whole page of a word document without scrolling, and I use Word for a living. Lotsa scrolling here.
 
When they added these options in last April it was like $50 or so to upgrade the HD, and another $50 to upgrade the GPU to 128MB of VRAM. Too cheap NOT too do it!

Barefeats showed that in todays current crop of games the 128MB of VRAM made little difference (just a few more FPS), but that the faster HD added up to a 7% performance boost due to the faster RPMs.... definitely worth it!

For the iLife Apps and Photoshop the extra video ram won't make a bit of difference too you, but as we grow into better 3D apps it definitely will. It cannot be upgraded after the fact so do it now for sure.

I did both six months ago and love my machine! Keep in mind we are at the six month mark right now, and new iBooks just came out today. I would say there will be new Powerbooks sometime within the next 3 months (my guess only), so buy if you need to, but wait if you can!

Cheers,

James
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back