2.5 or 2.6GHz / 7200rpm or 5400rpm / 2gb or 4gb - Please help

[fwdr]

I am replacing my 3.5 year old Powerbook G4 1.33GHz with a new MBP 15" and need some help badly:

I can't afford the 2.6 with 4gb but can afford one or the other. As a graphic designer and photographer who does a bit of video editing should I spend the money on the processor or the RAM and how much difference (and to what kind of task) will the 7200rpm hard drive make? Is it worth sacrificing 50GB of HDD for the extra rpm? How much difference will the extra power of the 2.6GHz make.

I would expect to be using it for quite a few years to come.

Any help would be very gratefully received.

 

[jjahshik32]

I actually like the 2.5ghz better 2.5 x4= even 10 as to 2.6x4= 10.4. I'm no Adrian Monk but I read or heard somewhere that even is better per processors to utilize. Also the extra .1 is not worth $250!

I would just go with the 15" 2.5ghz, nvidia 512mb and 2gb ram because you can use that $180 for 4gb of ram or even cheaper these days. As for the HD I'd take the 250gb hd and just buy a hitachi 7200rpm drive and just put that in there.

 

[fwdr]

That's very interesting, thank you.

Is it easy to re-sell the 1gb RAM modules? Out of interest, if most image editing tasks can sit in the RAM when at work, what use would the extra rpm be with the hdd? I understand that with film the hdd use will be intense when using Final Cut Pro/ After effects, but will the benefits of the speed of the internal drive make much difference, bearing in mind the footage resides on a number of external HDDs?

 

[WHM]

I am replacing my 3.5 year old Powerbook G4 1.33GHz with a new MBP 15" and need some help badly:

I can't afford the 2.6 with 4gb but can afford one or the other. As a graphic designer and photographer who does a bit of video editing should I spend the money on the processor or the RAM and how much difference (and to what kind of task) will the 7200rpm hard drive make? Is it worth sacrificing 50GB of HDD for the extra rpm? How much difference will the extra power of the 2.6GHz make.

I would expect to be using it for quite a few years to come.

Any help would be very gratefully received.

I just jumped from my 3 year old PowerBook G4 1.67 GHZ 1.5 G ram. Last night I purchased the 2.6 GHZ with the 200 G HH because that is what was there when I finally arrived. Today I ordered 2X 2 G ram for $95.00 and can not be any happier. Even with the 2 G ram this blows my old PowerBook away by a mile. Usually I keep my laptops 2/3 years to get my money's worth. If you stop to get the next one it never ends. Coming from where I was this is AWESOME

 

[jjahshik32]

That's very interesting, thank you.

Is it easy to re-sell the 1gb RAM modules? Out of interest, if most image editing tasks can sit in the RAM when at work, what use would the extra rpm be with the hdd? I understand that with film the hdd use will be intense when using Final Cut Pro/ After effects, but will the benefits of the speed of the internal drive make much difference, bearing in mind the footage resides on a number of external HDDs?

Keep the stock ram (usually I do inside the mbp box with the original hd) because if something goes wrong in the future you should put the stock hd and ram back in to ship to apple. You dont want them to return your notebook with your hd and 4gb of ram missing.

Note: hitachi travelstar 7k200 maybe even up to 320gb soon is much faster/better quality than stock 7200rpm apple hd. I think apple uses seagate or I think now Fujitsu which isnt bad but not the fastest, either way you putting in your own hd cost alot cheaper/better performance, especially playing around with hd content you want the best hd possible. Not to mention the hitachi 7k series are the worlds fastest 7200rpm drives with 16mb cache.

 

[ckeck]

You may not be able to afford the top model with the prices Apple charges for RAM

Just pick up a 4GB kit from Crucial (high end RAM) for $100-$105 I think it is. That will save you a ton.

www.crucial.com

 

[fwdr]

Right, that's it then,

2.5, with 2gb ram and 250gb Hdd and then buy the upgrades at a later stage.

I have no doubt, having used the G4 1.33 with 786 Ram for the last 3 years, I' going to be blown out of the water either way!

You've made a concerned buyer confident that saving the cash is the right thing to do! Many thanks.