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

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

faintember

faintember

macrumors 65816
Jun 6, 2005
1,362
0
the ruins of the Cherokee nation
douziel said:
(Concerning number 1) Let's say I'm just upgrading entirely new from an iBook G4. When I get the Macbook, should I replace the hard drive immediately (before turning it on for the first time)? If so, do I just take the metal housing off (unscrew it, I guess) and slide the new one in?
Click to expand...
Yes. After that, power the laptop up, insert Tiger disk and begin to install the OS.

Though is better performance more of an issue or larger HD space. You can move to a 7200rpm HD and get much better performance if you write/read from your HD often along with expanding your space to a 100GB total. It is a bit more ($189.99), but may be worth it in the long run if you have no need for more than 100GB.
 
Multimedia

Multimedia

macrumors 603
Jul 27, 2001
5,212
0
Santa Cruz CA, Silicon Beach
Do NOT Take HD Out Of iBook G4

douziel said:
(Concerning number 1) Let's say I'm just upgrading entirely new from an iBook G4. When I get the Macbook, should I replace the hard drive immediately (before turning it on for the first time)? If so, do I just take the metal housing off (unscrew it, I guess) and slide the new one in?
Click to expand...
Startup MacBook and it will prompt you to start iBook with "T" key held down to put it in target mode then connect it to MacBook with 6 pin to 6 pin FireWire cable and it will transfer your setup and files to the MacBook. Then sell your iBook G4 for $800. :p

I guess I misunderstood what you were asking. You buying that 120 WD Drive right away? Then follow faintember's instructions. Still need to hook up iBook at first startup after reinstall on new HD.
 
M

mavherzog

macrumors 6502
Jun 11, 2005
304
0
Columbus, WI
bwanac said:
Replacing hard drive was never difficult... but this is a cakewalk!
Click to expand...
Difficult? No.
Pain in the neck? YES!

(I just upgraded the hdd in my 12" iBook and having to remove near 50 screws is a BIT ridiculous)
 
D

douziel

macrumors newbie
Feb 14, 2006
10
0
faintember said:
Though is better performance more of an issue or larger HD space. You can move to a 7200rpm HD and get much better performance if you write/read from your HD often along with expanding your space to a 100GB total. It is a bit more ($189.99), but may be worth it in the long run if you have no need for more than 100GB.
Click to expand...
The most intensive thing I'm planning on doing is installing XP and a few games; Sims 2, Battle for Middle Earth...will the extra rpm affect game performance enough to spend $20 extra and lose 20GB? Or will it affect things like iPhoto performance more?
 
Multimedia

Multimedia

macrumors 603
Jul 27, 2001
5,212
0
Santa Cruz CA, Silicon Beach
7200 RPM Drives Lower Battery Time - Seagate Momentus 5400.3 Perpendicular Technology

douziel said:
The most intensive thing I'm planning on doing is installing XP and a few games; Sims 2, Battle for Middle Earth...will the extra rpm affect game performance enough to spend $20 extra and lose 20GB? Or will it affect things like iPhoto performance more?
Click to expand...
If you go with a Seagate Momentus 5400.3 120GB (or 160GB in July) drive the performance may be better than other brands because of their new perpendicular technology.

7200 RPM drives will wear your battery down faster. I advise against the 7200 for this reason. If battery life is not important to you, then 7200 is fine. But you can only go to 100GB so far - from what I've read here. I am not convinced you'll see that much performance improvement with 7200 for most applications.

I would rather have a bigger hard drive inside. It's the 160GB Seagate Momentus 5400.3 SATA for me after it ships in July.
 
Multimedia

Multimedia

macrumors 603
Jul 27, 2001
5,212
0
Santa Cruz CA, Silicon Beach
Please Explain What Is "The Universal Binary Patch" Why, Where & How We Install It

nagromme said:
For whatever reason, those MacBooks got MUCH better 3D performance out of UT 2004 than the Core Duo Mac Mini I tested.
Click to expand...
mavherzog said:
Did you have the universal binary patch installed??
Click to expand...
Please explain what the Universal Binary Patch is and where we get it to install it and why Mavherzog. Thank you in advance for your help.
 
C

codo

macrumors 6502
May 17, 2006
475
3
England, United Kingdom
Multimedia said:
7200 RPM drives will wear your battery down faster. I advise against the 7200 for this reason. If battery life is not important to you, then 7200 is fine. But you can only go to 100GB so far - from what I've read here. I am not convinced you'll see that much performance improvement with 7200 for most applications.
Click to expand...

I have to disagree whole heartedly on that point, I'm afraid.

Certainly on Windows, the process of video editing with large files is certainly much quicker with a 7200 drive than a 5400 drive. Now unless OS X has some sort of magic way of pulling bits of a hard drive faster irrespective of drive speed - this isn’t going to change.

So, when playing large games like The Sims 2 and loading large texture maps etc from the large files on the hard drive - this will certainly affect loading times if it’s important to you. There is a noticeable difference.

However I do agree you have to weigh up what’s more important to you - Hard drive speed or battery life. For me, I'd rather compromise battery life for the speed.
 
MrCrowbar

MrCrowbar

macrumors 68020
Jan 12, 2006
2,232
519
codo said:
However I do agree you have to weigh up what’s more important to you - Hard drive speed or battery life. For me, I'd rather compromise battery life for the speed.
Click to expand...

Just don't buy 4200 rpm drives. They are sooo yesterday. :p
Seriously, today's 5400 rpm drove use just as much power as 4200 rpm so there's no real reason to pick the slow ones.
 
Buschmaster

Buschmaster

macrumors 65816
Feb 12, 2006
1,306
27
Minnesota
If I bumped my MacBook to 1.5 GB of ram do you guys think this thing could handle a few different games? Sim City 4? The Sims 2? Stuff like that?
 
N

nick2u

macrumors newbie
May 21, 2006
25
0
http://www.mobilityguru.com/2003/10/31/fast_and_furious/page4.html

Multimedia said:
If you go with a Seagate Momentus 5400.3 120GB (or 160GB in July) drive the performance may be better than other brands because of their new perpendicular technology.

7200 RPM drives will wear your battery down faster. I advise against the 7200 for this reason. If battery life is not important to you, then 7200 is fine. But you can only go to 100GB so far - from what I've read here. I am not convinced you'll see that much performance improvement with 7200 for most applications.

I would rather have a bigger hard drive inside. It's the 160GB Seagate Momentus 5400.3 SATA for me after it ships in July.
Click to expand...

Hi there! I fail to agree that a faster drive consumes more battery power. Even if it does it will only be to a negligible extent. In fact it might even give you additional battery life! (2 minutes according to this: http://www.mobilityguru.com/2003/10/31/fast_and_furious/page4.html) By saying that "7200 RPM drives will wear your battery down faster", you fail to consider several facts :) :

1) A faster drive spins faster (naturally!) hence it accesses data quicker and has to spin faster less frequently than a slower drive that spins slower and longer to access data. Hence the net total power consumed is approximately identical.

2) Hitachi 7200rpm hard drives uses a femtoslider, which is smaller and lighter than a 5400rpm/4200rpm picoslider. Hence the drive heads consume less power to move and this results in power savings.

3) Also, Hitachi uses an effective power-saving mechanism called A.B.L.E to put their 7200rpm drives in sleep states to save power (similar to Intel's Speedstep technology)

Do refer to this detailed article/benchmarkings for further insight: http://www.mobilityguru.com/2003/10/31/fast_and_furious/page4.html
 
C

codo

macrumors 6502
May 17, 2006
475
3
England, United Kingdom
Interesting points nick2u - Welcomed news for me anyway, hard drive speed to me is just as important as RAM - After all, that’s where my all my non-volatile data is, I want to be able to access it as fast as possible, right?
 
faintember

faintember

macrumors 65816
Jun 6, 2005
1,362
0
the ruins of the Cherokee nation
douziel said:
The most intensive thing I'm planning on doing is installing XP and a few games; Sims 2, Battle for Middle Earth...will the extra rpm affect game performance enough to spend $20 extra and lose 20GB? Or will it affect things like iPhoto performance more?
Click to expand...
You will notice a nice addition in speed with a 7200rpm drive.
Also a 7200rpm drive uses almost the same battery life. Various links to these tests are all over these forums, or just google it. Once again the difference in battery life is negligible.

The question for you is, is space or speed more important? To me speed is, and any needed space is easily done via an external HD. My 100GB HD on my TiPB still has 45GB free, and that is after 3 years of accumulated works, and quite a few audio files in .aiff format. Once every three months i delete duplicate files or move them to my external drive or to one of my other macs. The 7200rpm will help you load applications faster, more RAM will help you run more applications at the same time, and helps with application performance.

It al depends on your needs.
ksjcorpus said:
where's the best place to buy 2g of ram? thanks guys, first post.
Click to expand...
Check out this thread for RAM buying info
 
1

13rian

macrumors newbie
May 21, 2006
1
0
GIGANTIC track pad?

Has anyone else noticed that the new mac book has a trackpad that's GIGANTIC?
 
Willis

Willis

macrumors 68020
Apr 23, 2006
2,293
54
Beds, UK
tangerineyum said:
did anyone notice that the new Mac commercials featuring the PC and the hip kid not show the white macbook instead of the imac and the end of the commercial. just saw it now during CSI.
Click to expand...

That's because the Mac ads came out like 2 weeks before the Macboooks?

=P
 
nem3015

nem3015

macrumors member
May 18, 2006
59
0
Pleasanton, California
Multimedia said:
You're Killing Me NetDog & Spartacus. This report is mind boggling. :eek: All those naysayers on Tuesday and Wednesday have got to be pissing in their pants over this. And what about all those MacBook Pro buyers to date?

This MacBook is setting a new standard for mid priced mobiles that even Apple is going to have a hard time topping. You gotta believe Apple is just going to have to SIT ON THIS MODEL for a while while trying to separate the MacBook Pro from it with faster Merom and Graphics processors and user upgradable HD compartments - IE a new MacBook Pro redesign.

I think there is little doubt this MacBook is breaking records and is a HUGE HIT for Apple - a Home Run no doubt. :eek: I'm totally born again about it just because I will be able to get a Seagate 160GB Momentus 5400.3 inside this summer. Now with this report, I can sleep at night knowing it also has faster graphics OVERALL. When I pull the trigger for real is anybody's guess. I have no idea. Use my Quad 90% of the time. But I sure am recommending the hell out of it to those who need more power now on a budget. :p :D

Did a pixel comparison between 17" MBP + 17" Apple Monitor vs. MacBook + 24" Dell 1920x1200 WS. Turns out the MacBook + Dell 24" WS setup would give you over a quarter million more pixels of desktop space for less than the price of the 17" MacBook Pro alone. Go figure. Facts tell me the MacBook is way underpriced or the MacBook Pros are way over priced.
Click to expand...

MBP are way overpriced in my opinion
 
nem3015

nem3015

macrumors member
May 18, 2006
59
0
Pleasanton, California
TigerDirect, a traditional parts and component for PC online retailer is selling a 160Gb disk for $29.99 (after rebates)

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicat...?EdpNo=2145270&SRCCODE=WEBGOOHD&CMP=KNC-GOOGL

Before everybody jumps on me, I suggest that this can be a very cheap way to have and extra disk "at home" to unclutter your internal disk. I know is 3.5" but is a 7200rpm, put it in a cheap case (either Firewire and/or USB) and you have a very unexpensive "not meant to be carrying around" disk to backup your files from the MB, not to mention some huge mp3 library, pictures or whatever you like better. Just another cheap option for the mac accessories addicts :D

Note: also works as upgrade for older macs since is ATA/100
 
MrCrowbar

MrCrowbar

macrumors 68020
Jan 12, 2006
2,232
519
I'd like to have a big and power efficient hard drive. The 7200 rpm Seagates (Momentus) eat up quite some power. Hitachi however has some cool stuff that runs at 7200 rpm and has similar power requirements than the 5400 rom drives. I need help in my decision. 120 GB would be fine.
 
nem3015

nem3015

macrumors member
May 18, 2006
59
0
Pleasanton, California
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