Replacing the MacBook RAM, Hard Drive (Video) and Benchmarks

[nem3015]

Speaking of design

I dont think apple really cares about the easy that people can upgrade their hardware, look at the imac G5 and then the isight G5... totally different. The macbook is just a nice way to show off, if apple doesnt like it in the long run they will dump the design.

Can anyone of the lucky owners of a macbook (envious here) make a quick check, and open the hard drive dock and see if there is enough space for a 12.5 mm disk? Reason is because so far the biggest disk available is the 120 fujitsu and seagate. The other 160 available beside being PATA instead of SATA are 12.5 mm due apparently to the use of 3 platters instead of two to achieve that size.
Thanks

 

[ulyssespdx]

Do you even know that the new Macs have INTEL PROCESSORS inside them? The x86 architecture is entirely different from PowerPC so all of those apps except Garageband, being PowerPC apps, have to be translated on the fly by Rosetta (and they are all really heavyweight... PS? Whoa!). The simple fact they even run at all should seem as miracle in itself! So stop trolling and read before you post:

http://www.apple.com/rosetta/
http://guides.macrumors.com/Rosetta

Oh, and btw, FreeHand 11 absolutely FLIES on a 17'' iMac CoreDuo 1.8 GHz, when compared with my Rev. A 20'' iMac G5 1.8 GHz, and that's under Rosetta... go figure!

thanks for the "advice". the problem with it, however, is that Apple marketed the new laptop as 4-5 times faster NOW --hat's right, even with non-Intel CPU-native apps.

or weren't you paying attention, flamer?

and even if you want to argue that point, the fact is--i have to weigh my current Powerbook against what's available NOW. not "sometime soon" IF i want to pay $$ and upgrade all my apps.

in other words, it's not that simple, hater.

 

[generik]

I didn't think upgrading RAM could get much easier than it was in the Powerbook and iBook G4s. Little stuff like this is one of the many reasons I love Apple.

I hope these features will roll into the future MBPs

 

[generik]

My 12" PBook 867 MHz/640Mb only takes 6 seconds to open MS Word 2004 !!! Any explanation for that?

Broken clock?

 

[Revlefty]

you know, every time see see a new Apple product, i wonder about the benchmarks.

i have a 12" Aluminum Powerbook G4/1.33GHz, w/1Gb RAM. i opened MS Word 2004.

it took about 12 seconds.

i went to the Apple store yesterday, found a MacBook Pro Core Duo 2 GHz, and opened MS Word 2004.

it took about 9 seconds.

i repeated this for Excel, Photoshop, and GarageBand. all were within a few seconds of each other.

operating the programs on both machines, i noticed very little difference in operating speed and snappiness.

up to five times faster than my G4? bull.

that said, i want the new black MacBook.

Also, the new Macbooks are only running 512mb to your 1GB.

 

[MrCrowbar]

Wow, for a moment there you actually had me believing...

Spread the rumor. It's fun
If multiple users tell AppleInsider, ThinkSecret etc, people will damage their Macbooks and we'll have a lot in the refurb store

 

[toontra]

Replacing hard drive was never difficult... but this is a cakewalk!

You've obviously never replaced an iBook hard drive, so why say that. I have - several. It meant disassembling most of the machine and was laborious, fiddly & time-consuming.

 

[bigandy]

Are you kidding me? Those benchmarks convinced me once and for all just how unbelievably horrible the integrated graphics are. A 2.0 core duo edges out a 1.42 Ghz G4 (which itself only has a 32 MB card!) and loses to a 1.67 G4?? Absolutely disgusting. Look at what the core duo can do with a decent chip (imac and mbp)... the integrated graphics are totally hamstringing a fantastic processor.

umm, you're muddling in processor performance with graphics, when the two don't really have that much in common... why?

despite being intergrated graphics, they're not on the processor.... so why mention CPU?

the IIG is not a flawless, perfect system. it is a choice for a budget range of laptops. which is what the MacBook is, or isn't it?

and looking at these benchmarks, we can see it is not a bad step for the budget range of Mac notebooks, because it is a step forward, not a step backward. It's around the level of the powerbook, which wasn't really great but again not bad, so why, really, are you getting your nickers in such a twist?

 

[macenforcer]

I have been using this macbook for 2 days now and it blows my Powerbook G4 and G5 out of the water. It runs 2 operating systems, it has a camera, it gets great battery life, it looks cool and it was inexpensive. I LOVE IT. Apple finally made a computer I am truly wanting to take with me everywhere and I don't need to drag my PC laptop around anymore. The hard drive replacement and ram just add to the great features. Also, I can attest that the integrated graphics have not shown any sign of weekness thus far. Hooked up to my 23" Flat panel no problem, ran 2 1080 hi def videos without dropped frames. This all with 512mb ram. 2gb coming. WOW. I am really impressed with this sucker, and the keyboard is GREAT. ANother plus, airport range is umbelievable.

 

[Lollypop]

umm, you're muddling in processor performance with graphics, when the two don't really have that much in common... why?

despite being intergrated graphics, they're not on the processor.... so why mention CPU?

the IIG is not a flawless, perfect system. it is a choice for a budget range of laptops. which is what the MacBook is, or isn't it?

and looking at these benchmarks, we can see it is not a bad step for the budget range of Mac notebooks, because it is a step forward, not a step backward. It's around the level of the powerbook, which wasn't really great but again not bad, so why, really, are you getting your nickers in such a twist?

Actually in the case of the GMA graphics on the macbook and the mini the CPU does come into play. The gma doesnt have all the DX9 functionality on the hardware, it uses a software driver to emulate things like pixel shaders, the emulation software will obviously use the CPU, so not only is the CPU taxed by integrated graphics but the memory subsystem is doubly taxed.

The reason the macbook competes so well with a powerbook with a radeon 9700 is that the processor is so much more powerfull, I wont be surprised if when comparing the powerbook to the macbook when running software that is CPU and GPU intensive that the macbook will have some competition from the pwoerbook.

 

[nagromme]

For whatever reason, those MacBooks got MUCH better 3D performance out of UT 2004 than the Core Duo Mac Mini I tested.

They got basically playable (not hard-core smooth) framerates at MAXED detail settings! I wouldn't be surprised to see steady 30fps+ at lower settings. The Mac Mini I tried at min detail got worse fps than MacWorld saw at max detail.

Was something wrong with their test? With mine? I don't know--but I do know that if those reports are true, some casual UT 2004 would actually be fun on a MacBook. (There are some who say you can't have fun below 60fps, but I suspect they are not MacBook's target market. And some say it's detail, not gameplay that makes a game fun... but they haven't tried UT Framerate and detail bragging rights are fun, but not as fun as driving a Leviathan up to the enemy's gates! )

 

[bassman]

MacBook 2.0 White with 2Gb Ram and 120Gb disk

Apple Store $2049
Do it yourself $1620

and doing it doesn't void your warranty

just hurts Apple feelings maybe a little bit lol

Where did you get your hard drive?

 

[Hattig]

you know, every time see see a new Apple product, i wonder about the benchmarks.

i have a 12" Aluminum Powerbook G4/1.33GHz, w/1Gb RAM. i opened MS Word 2004.

it took about 12 seconds.

i went to the Apple store yesterday, found a MacBook Pro Core Duo 2 GHz, and opened MS Word 2004.

it took about 9 seconds.

i repeated this for Excel, Photoshop, and GarageBand. all were within a few seconds of each other.

operating the programs on both machines, i noticed very little difference in operating speed and snappiness.

up to five times faster than my G4? bull.

that said, i want the new black MacBook.

There's a reason that you're not in the benchmarking business.

How often do you open and close applications - something that's mostly limited by hard drive characteristics and not processor speed? In fact with Word 2004, the processor is also having to translate PowerPC code into x86 code, it's a minor miracle that it gets the performance it does.

How about benchmarks of actually using applications instead?

The linked review was bad in that it was a table of figures, instead of some nice clean understandable graphs.

And to the integrated graphics whingers - where the hell would Apple fit the graphics chip in the MacBook - there's no room on the PCB. Apple would have to release a 15.2" MacBook (non-Pro, X1400, 1280x800 still) to be able to fit dedicated graphics in.

 

[Dasmo]

thanks for the "advice". the problem with it, however, is that Apple marketed the new laptop as 4-5 times faster NOW --hat's right, even with non-Intel CPU-native apps.

or weren't you paying attention, flamer?

and even if you want to argue that point, the fact is--i have to weigh my current Powerbook against what's available NOW. not "sometime soon" IF i want to pay $$ and upgrade all my apps.

in other words, it's not that simple, hater.

The CPU is apparently 5x faster. That doesn't mean the CPU is going to emulate PowerPC apps 5x faster than they run natively. That also doesn't mean the computer is going to run 5x faster.

What I can tell you is, I switched from a 1.42ghz G4 to a 1.83 Core Duo. I sure did notice the difference in day to day applications and since my job relies on Finder, Firefox (I did have to use a Pre-Release binary), Apple Mail, SubEthaEdit, iCal, Safari, Terminal, Preview and Remote Desktop Connection (I'm sure there's more things I have to use, but they all seem to be universal now, oh yeah office, but I hate that program anyway).

I didn't notice anything but a speed blitz. If you use a large application, you're going to have a problem. If you're a graphics dude and use PS or Flash every minute of the day, I'd tell you to buy a G5. But if you're after doing things faster in general, Intel processors scream compared to the G4. You remember how all the windows guys were trying to convince you that their processor was faster than yours? Well, they were right ok? Macs running with Intel processors is the best thing since clichés.



Is it 5x faster? No. Is it really that much faster? Yes.

 

[Dark Horse]

Where did you get your hard drive?

Seconded. Please post your store links.

Is the 120Gig drive 7200 rpm?

This looks like a mightily attractive option....

 

[maverick808]

thanks for the "advice". the problem with it, however, is that Apple marketed the new laptop as 4-5 times faster NOW --hat's right, even with non-Intel CPU-native apps.

Apple never claimed Rosetta/PPC apps would run 4-5 times faster. If you think they did then please point out where. They only ever said the CPU runs 4-5 times faster (and it does). Clearly, you have read something that said the machine runs 4-5 times faster and your brain has turned that into "all applications ever made will run 4-5 times faster". I'm sorry but Apple is not responsible for conforming to specifications you randomly invent in your head.

 

[ncbill]

According to the datasheet on Seagate's website, the 160GB Momentus is 9.5mm as well.

Since there are plenty of 3rd party vendors offering a 160GB upgrade for the iBook/Powerbook G4s, the above should have been obvious (12.5mm drives haven't been able to fit in Apple portables for a long time now)

Can anyone of the lucky owners of a macbook (envious here) make a quick check, and open the hard drive dock and see if there is enough space for a 12.5 mm disk? Reason is because so far the biggest disk available is the 120 fujitsu and seagate. The other 160 available beside being PATA instead of SATA are 12.5 mm due apparently to the use of 3 platters instead of two to achieve that size.
Thanks

 

[Diddiyo]

i've also written this in the other macbook thread:

Sorry if this has already been posted before.

Here's a Doom3, UT2004, Quake3 Benchmark between a mac mini G4 (radeon 9200) and a mac mini intel (gma 950). though the text is in german, i guess you will understand the images and it will help you to compare the graphic cards.

http://games4mac.de/content_g4m/benchmarks/macmini_intel.php

hmpf!

 

[iGary]

Benchmarks arent as good as a I hoped but are alittle better then I expected

I sure hope Adobe get's it's crap together and starts optimizing Photoshop for Macs better in the CS3 release...It just seems to keep getting further and further behind, while video apps just keep getting better and better...

When a Quad PM G5 is only marginally faster than it's predecessor on PS CS2, something is wrong.

Looks like the MacBook is a smoker, though.

 

[QPlot]

I have been using this macbook for 2 days now and it blows my Powerbook G4 and G5 out of the water. It runs 2 operating systems, it has a camera, it gets great battery life, it looks cool and it was inexpensive. I LOVE IT. Apple finally made a computer I am truly wanting to take with me everywhere and I don't need to drag my PC laptop around anymore. The hard drive replacement and ram just add to the great features. Also, I can attest that the integrated graphics have not shown any sign of weekness thus far. Hooked up to my 23" Flat panel no problem, ran 2 1080 hi def videos without dropped frames. This all with 512mb ram. 2gb coming. WOW. I am really impressed with this sucker, and the keyboard is GREAT. ANother plus, airport range is umbelievable.

this is what I thought. But the benchmark didn't actually quite saying this (which is weird), they should do all the tests on boot camp too, especially ps and game, or at this stage I don't think their data means anything more than the official apple site offers.

 

[jcoffman78]

Hard Drive

What is the largest HArd Drive One could put in a Macbook, and where could i get it? I bought the Black MAcbook with an 80 gb HD but plan to get a Larger HD but would like to know about what i asked before.

 

[xli_ne]

Does the MacBook Pro allow you to easily upgrade it's hard drive too? (Does it have a similar setup?)

This is a major plus for the MacBooks, I've always hated that I cannot get at my HD (iBook G4 14") -- in fact, when it went out on me I had to send the whole iBook into AppleCare. Now they should be able to send a replacement drive out and allow those of us who are comfortable with such stuff to do the swap.

I'm really wanting to upgrade my current iBook HD to a faster & larger drive but I'd void what's left of my AppleCare warranty and it requires a near complete disasemly of the thing. Meanwhile my work laptops from Toshiba and Dell have always had single screw access to theirs. EDIT: See above IBM video - that's exactly how the Toshiba and Dell laptops worked.

I'm quotin' this 'cause I would also like to know as well and didn't see anyone answer this question yet.

 

[morespce54]

That makes me a happy owner of a iMac 2GHz Core Duo...

 

[Multimedia]

Holy Aluminum Undergarment Batman!

I was trying out the keyboard of a black Macbook in a retai store today when I found a sticky thing on my finger. Kinda like these screen protection foils but black with a white A on it. I looked at the A-key and it was (yes) silver! Showed it to the employee and he couldn't believe it. He totally freaked out when he scratched and rubbed the next key and the black sticker went off. Turns out the whole black Macbook has this vinyl style stuff on it. Peel it off and you get Aluminum goodness! It seemed like hours to me when we removed this black stuff and there were lots of people around freaking out.

So the 150$ more ARE making a difference: an aluminum enclosure beneath a protective black layer. Totally worth 150 bucks if you ask me. It just looks like a redesigned powerbook actually. OMG, I'm so getting a black/aluminum one! How strange no one noted this yet. I mean, them peeling off the black stuff from the NY Store cube was definetely a sign.
Just kidding. After all, it's MacRmumors

OK now the end of this post is confusing me. Is the whole post a joke? Or if not could you see the key legends on the aluminum keys underneith the sticky black stuff? This is very serious if you aren't kidding.

 

[Dark Horse]

Where did you get your hard drive?

Ok the answers were in the other thread...

I may have missed something out here, but:

Get a 120Gb seagate (5400 rpm) drive - $177: details here

Get RAM for $72 a 1 gb stick: details here

Finally apparently you can use your existing hard drive in a SATA external enclosure as an external drive. details to come.

With thanks to MrCrowbar, nem3015 and Multimedia (I think that's all). I didn't find any of this just copying it from the other thread for ease.

[EDIT: Quoted the right person]