Better Hard Drive or Better Price? (MBP)

[thaloveabove]

So I've decided to take the plunge and get myself a MBP. Going to use it for day to day activities such as internet and e-mail, but also for a lot of audio work using Logic Pro 8. I'm just getting into the audio editing scene, though, so I don't really know what specs will hold me back and what will be overkill. Here's what I'm debating over...

I can get a brand new MBP 2.4 GHz with 2 GB RAM and a 160GB 5400 RPM hard drive for $2099 with no tax and free shipping from ecomElectronics. This even beats the price of a refurb since there's no tax and free shipping.

Only thing I'm worried about is the lower capacity and slower hard drive compared to the available 200GB/7200RPM and 250GB/5400RPM drives for new MBPs at the Apple store. Buying a new MBP from the Apple store with a higher capacity/speed drive would run me at least $600 more due to sales tax and higher price alone.

So my question is... do you think it's worth the $600 higher price for the upgraded hard drives (kind of weary to upgrade on my own and void the warranty)? I was thinking it might be good just to get the cheaper MBP with the smaller HD, and eventually get an external HD to store all my stuff when needed. Don't wanna spend extra cash when I don't need to. Could I run a decent Logic 8/daily use machine with the 160GB/5400RPM drive or would I run into significant bottlenecks? Also planning on running XP or Vista with Boot Camp if possible.

Thanks for the help guys. Much appreciated...

 

[phungy]

That site looks a bit sketchy...have you bought from them before?

 

[superleccy]

Could I run a decent Logic 8/daily use machine with the 160GB/5400RPM drive or would I run into significant bottlenecks?

I run Logic Pro 8 daily with that exact same setup. It's perfectly usable. Plenty of times I've recorded 8 simultaneous tracks of live audio; never had a problem there.

OK, it moans at me sometimes during playback if I've got loads of tracks and lots of effects. Sometimes it does specifically moans about hard drive speed. But there are good workarounds that never fail:

• Temoprarially turn off time machine;
• Freeze some tracks;
• Work with the project file on an external HD - preferable FW800 or eSATA - in fact you/I should do this all the time anyway.

SL

 

[thaloveabove]

Wow thanks for the quick responses guys...

That site looks a bit sketchy...have you bought from them before?

Haven't personally bought from them but did a bit of research. There are 74 reviews from Pricegrabber (4.71 out of 5 average) that can be found here. Also found one user of the forums here who .

Work with the project file on an external HD - preferable FW800 or eSATA - in fact you/I should do this all the time anyway.

Does working on resource intensive projects in logic work ok from an external HD? I get the impression that anything you're actually working with should usually be on your internal HD. Is that a misconception? Does an external FW800 or eSATA perform about the same as an internal drive?

 

[superleccy]

Does working on resource intensive projects in logic work ok from an external HD? I get the impression that anything you're actually working with should usually be on your internal HD. Is that a misconception? Does an external FW800 or eSATA perform about the same as an internal drive?

Improves things for me, but not done any actual performance tests.

The theory is that if your project is on the same disk as your application (and effects libraries and OS etc etc), then the head on your drive is having to jump around a lot between these things - which causes hiccups. If your project is on a separate (good, fast) drive, then the head on that drive can just concentrate on the audio... nice and smooth, like!

You could say that "two heads are better than one".

SL