about to purchase MBP, how to configure

[cgper]

hi guys. i am waiting for any surprise announcements from Macworld and will be buying a MBP sometime this week.
my question is if it is worth it to upgrade to a 7200rpm hd at purchase or upgrade the entire drive myself.
also the RAM. upgrade at purchase or upgrade myself.

for the hd im going to keep it at 250gb and just upgrade the speed since im trying to keep the cost down. i think it is worth it to get from apple at $50?

and if i go to a retail store and they dont have it configured exactly how i want it will i have to wait or order online? im hoping to walk in and walk out with one so is that a plausible thought?

thanks guys, hope to join the mac world soon!

 

[Hot Snowboarder]

Sure you'll save money doing it yourself. But you don't get to play with your new toy as soon as you open it. Also remember you will have to install OS X on the new disk, whereas its already pre-installed from apple.

Small things really. I was too impatient to do it myself with my MBP .

 

[nippyjun]

For $50 i'd get it from apple. The question i have is does the extra speed cut into battery life.

 

[RKpro]

I just replaced my Hitachi 250GB 5400rpm standard drive a week ago, for a 320GB Seagate 7200rpm, the drive was like $100 from a local computer shop. And I also picked up a 2.5inch Sata to USB enclosure ($10) to use the old hitachi drive as an external drive for time machine.

It was very simple, in OSX while the old drive is in the MBP put the new drive in the external enclosure and connect to MBP. After formatting the new drive, a free app "Carbon Copy Cloner" can make a bootable copy of your original drive to the new drive. After it's done you can do an easy swap, and it's done.

Although I can't say I've noticed a dramatic change in speed where it matters, boot times haven't changed much, and programs load about at the same speed. But I've noticed it makes copies faster.

I did notice a significant increase in vibration, it's actually a bit annoying, in fact I'm considering exchanging the drive for a 500GB 5400rpm drive ($50 more). It would vibrate less, and because of much higher areal density I think performance should be close to a 250GB 7200rpm drive.

 

[Hot Snowboarder]

I had apple fit a 200G 7200rpm. Its still, not a vibration at all.

 

[MacJenn]

I had Apple put in the 250gb 7200 and it has no vibration and much faster than those 5400's. Buy a 7200.