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Buying a new MacBook Pro, Have ?'s

P

PoRT55

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 27, 2011
3
0
Im selling my Alienware and getting a MacBook Pro 17in. Just have a few ?'s before I buy. I want it to be fast but i also like storage.
First question, which one do I go with? I have no knowledge on the SSD, hoping yall could help me out on which to get;

500GB Serial ATA Drive @ 7200 RPM
or
128GB Solid State Drive [add $100.00]


Next is Processor
2.2GHz Quad-core Intel Core i7
or
2.3GHz Quad-core Intel Core i7 [add $200.00]

Next is Memory
4GB 1333MHz DDR3 SDRAM - 2X2GB
or
8GB 1333MHz DDR3 SDRAM - 2x4GB [add $200.00]

-- Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks again........Tim
 
What exactly is an SSD? Its an internal storage device like a hard drive but faster? 128gigs is not enough space for me and the 500 gig SSD is out of my price range. I apologize, i would be searching google to learn myself, but my alienware is broke and all i have is mycell phone to search. Seriously, any help at all on this will be greatly appreciated. I need to go buy the mac soon. Thanks again
 
PoRT55 said:
What exactly is an SSD? Its an internal storage device like a hard drive but faster? 128gigs is not enough space for me and the 500 gig SSD is out of my price range. I apologize, i would be searching google to learn myself, but my alienware is broke and all i have is mycell phone to search. Seriously, any help at all on this will be greatly appreciated. I need to go buy the mac soon. Thanks again
Click to expand...

An SSD is a faster storage device and is up to five times faster than a conventional HDD, especially when opening applications and documents and the computer will just feel snappier.
 
A mac is extremely easy to upgrade yourself. I would advice to go with normal processor, normal RAM; and afterwards upgrade RAM yourself.
Personally I am a total technical disaster, but after purchasing RAM from newegg.com and following the macsales.com tutorials, it's a piece of cake. You need some screwdrivers though.

As for the Hard Disk, since you need a lot of space, go with the 500GB stock hard disk. You could replace replace the optical drive with a 128GB SSD of your choice (look upon OptiBay solutions). Or you could choose the 128GB SSD from apple and replace the optical drive with a 1TB hard disk that fits.

If you *need* the optical drive, go with the 500GB stock drive, and if that's not enough upgrade it yourself to a TB.
 
simsaladimbamba said:
An SSD is a faster storage device and is up to five times faster than a conventional HDD, especially when opening applications and documents and the computer will just feel snappier.
Click to expand...

Only 5 times? 7200RPM is round 50MB/s max and latest vertex 3 that will be released soon is 500+MB/s
Anyway i think the OP gets the idea
 
tnerc1TfeebtRIi66W6xWY1Jd3hzq_7ZWyT-JW7HdLbyFsaKIyxUv1wj5bfja3dgogNSxN_20IxKQ6RJ_0snrid9cWQk9rbDph9iUuJI0HjW_HgMV3yjfBWQvd86

15,000RPM Hard drive ;)
 
Thanks for the help guys, i get the idea. I am actually pretty computer saavy, just have no experience with Mac's what so ever. This helped a lot, thanks again
 
Verix said:
A mac is extremely easy to upgrade yourself.

Personally I am a total technical disaster, but after purchasing RAM from newegg.com and following the macsales.com tutorials, it's a piece of cake. You need some screwdrivers though.
Click to expand...

those OWC/macsales videos are fantastic

i downloaded them onto my ps3, so i could follow them on my big screen step by step, pause and rewind as needed.

I'm pretty familiar with the insides of computers, but the owc videos was nice:allowed quick refresh + layout visualisation.
 
have a very similar question- yet for the latest mbp pro 15" they're selling
considering the Serial ATA 750 Go 5 400 rpm
and a Seria ATA de 500 Go at 7 200 rpm
(brand names not given on the french apple website http://store.apple.com/fr-edu/configure/MC723F/A?mco=MjEyOTY5NjI
wouldn't want any noise / vibration issues, but the prospect of slightly higher rpms for video apps is appealing.

SSD at + 1000 euro for are way out of my range.

this would be for a Quad core Intel Core i7 2,2 GHz 15" MBP

is it safe to go with a 7200rpm nowadays or is it still stepping into potentially noisy, vibrant and hot territory ? and it's best to stick with a 500rpm for internal and use a external 7200mpb like the ones i have already, through a SATA 2 card ?

thanks

b
 
First of all, welcome to our world :)

I would recommend you get the 128GB Apple SSD drive (only cause it works flawlessly and supports TRIM otb) + an external FireWire 800 drive like the OWC 750GB 7200RPM Drive for your media. I would recommend a Thunderbolt drive if it existed :)

Here's my notes on why I am recommending these - http://bit.ly/fp35F7

PoRT55 said:
Im selling my Alienware and getting a MacBook Pro 17in. Just have a few ?'s before I buy. I want it to be fast but i also like storage.
First question, which one do I go with? I have no knowledge on the SSD, hoping yall could help me out on which to get;

500GB Serial ATA Drive @ 7200 RPM
or
128GB Solid State Drive [add $100.00]


Next is Processor
2.2GHz Quad-core Intel Core i7
or
2.3GHz Quad-core Intel Core i7 [add $200.00]

Next is Memory
4GB 1333MHz DDR3 SDRAM - 2X2GB
or
8GB 1333MHz DDR3 SDRAM - 2x4GB [add $200.00]

-- Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks again........Tim
Click to expand...
 
If you get Only One upgrade for your MBP, get SSD. No doubt, no debate, trust me :cool:

Its silent, its super fast and really will change your computing experience.

And then get a 7200rpm external drive for all of your media.

bjaz said:
have a very similar question- yet for the latest mbp pro 15" they're selling
considering the Serial ATA 750 Go 5 400 rpm
and a Seria ATA de 500 Go at 7 200 rpm
(brand names not given on the french apple website http://store.apple.com/fr-edu/configure/MC723F/A?mco=MjEyOTY5NjI
wouldn't want any noise / vibration issues, but the prospect of slightly higher rpms for video apps is appealing.

SSD at + 1000 euro for are way out of my range.

this would be for a Quad core Intel Core i7 2,2 GHz 15" MBP

is it safe to go with a 7200rpm nowadays or is it still stepping into potentially noisy, vibrant and hot territory ? and it's best to stick with a 500rpm for internal and use a external 7200mpb like the ones i have already, through a SATA 2 card ?

thanks

b
Click to expand...
 
hello and thanks for these answers.

I already have 7200rpm external drives, that I use for live video through and E-sata card and this is fine.

SSD drives seem extremely expensive, and way beyond our current budget unless we get a 128 G drive which seems very small when you have a couple of 40 G heavy video apps on the computer as i do...

it's a tough one, because finances are an issue.

a 256 Gig SSD would be [+ 460,46 €] ie an extra US$650 and a 500Gig would mean an extra US $1450- considering that the basic MBP sells for US$2800 here- well $4300 for a 15" MBP with a 500g SSD is just not an option.

we're finally considering getting a new mbp since the 2007 one we have has been agonizing for a while now (as i described in my previous posts), and now we can barely afford a new 15"- yet I wasn't up to speed on the SSD's

as I was saying I was thinking of getting their 500 Gig 7200 rpm SATA internal drive, which is sold at the same price as the 750 G 5500rpm drive, but you would still say to go with 128 Gig SSD ? the links are pretty convincing- I'm not sure there's such a thing as a One Update here in Europe.

I've looked at the links given and i must say it is pretty impressive, i'm just a little worried about having a 80 to 90% full boot disk most of the time if we get the 128G, and 10G of available space- seems a little, well unreasonable.

if we were to get a 256 Gig SSD and a Hi-Res Antiglare Widescreen Display this boosts this rather ideal setup's price to US$ 3600 / 2560 euro, roughly $850 more than what we had planned, student discount included.... ouch- is there any chance that such a setup's price will go down in the next couple of months ?

edit- we're really focusing on the 128SSD with a 2Tera for my bootable e-sata drive dock, to save some $500- but which would mean having a pretty full HD most of the time- one idea could be be really careful with HDD space on the 128G, and upgrade it to something much more comfortable when prices have gone down a bit t. Opinions ?

thanks

ben
 
Last edited:
If the only upgrade you get is the 128GB Apple SSD, you won't regret it. I understand that it might be a challenge ensuring that you have some disk space left, but with a 2TB external, you should be ok for now.

Post WWDC & Lion's release, you should be able to get another 7200RPM HDD or SSD (TRIM support coming up by then I believe) & put it in the Optibay to get more diskspace internally. So its just a matter of defraying the costs for a few months. But the upside is Huge. SSD vs No-SSD is almost a quantum difference for the end-user.

bjaz said:
edit- we're really focusing on the 128SSD with a 2Tera for my bootable e-sata drive dock, to save some $500- but which would mean having a pretty full HD most of the time- one idea could be be really careful with HDD space on the 128G, and upgrade it to something much more comfortable when prices have gone down a bit t. Opinions ?
Click to expand...
 
thanks.
got 2 quotes from apple today, and placing the order tomorrow.
guess we're going with the 128GIG SSD then, which we'll probably upgrade later, and buying a new 2T external for my esata / FW800 dock.

thanks for your advice, it's been a great help, which i'm glad I got before taking the plunge.

ben
 
hello all
it still hasn't arrived yet, but I just noticed that the new models no longer had expresscards ports for e-sata 2 cards that I was using on my mbp.
it was faster than firewire 800, so that's a bit of a letdown.

what are people using for external e-sata II drive docks nowadays on the new mbp pros ?

thanks

b
 
I'm going to wait til this fall for Lion and possibly a refresh to the 15" MBP. They might be getting rid of the optical bay, which could make it .60" thick instead of .75" and have more TB ports instead of USB 2s and FireWire 800. Plus we should have a slurry of TB peripherals by then too. Who knows, maybe an IPS screen too.
 
bjaz said:
hello all
it still hasn't arrived yet, but I just noticed that the new models no longer had expresscards ports for e-sata 2 cards that I was using on my mbp.
it was faster than firewire 800, so that's a bit of a letdown.

what are people using for external e-sata II drive docks nowadays on the new mbp pros ?

thanks

b
Click to expand...

If you can afford the extra & don't mind the size & weight, the 17" MBPs still come with the ExpressCard/34 slots.
 
NikonD3s said:
I'm going to wait til this fall for Lion and possibly a refresh to the 15" MBP. They might be getting rid of the optical bay, which could make it .60" thick instead of .75" and have more TB ports instead of USB 2s and FireWire 800. Plus we should have a slurry of TB peripherals by then too. Who knows, maybe an IPS screen too.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately, with the optical drive gone, it may also be possible that Apple will use the saved space to "significantly" reduce the breadth of the MBPs & outfit them with 16:9 screens (current industry "standard") instead of 16:10 screens. :(
 
PoRT55 said:
500GB Serial ATA Drive @ 7200 RPM
or
128GB Solid State Drive [add $100.00]


Next is Processor
2.2GHz Quad-core Intel Core i7
or
2.3GHz Quad-core Intel Core i7 [add $200.00]

Next is Memory
4GB 1333MHz DDR3 SDRAM - 2X2GB
or
8GB 1333MHz DDR3 SDRAM - 2x4GB [add $200.00]

-- Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks again........Tim
Click to expand...

If you want storage, you don't want a SSD, they are fast for sure, but until I see one with at least 500GB storage for a reasonable price, I am sticking with HDD.

2.2 probably, the speed bump won't be THAT noticeable. Especially not for 200 bucks. But if you have the 20 bucks and reallly want it, go for it.

You probably won't use more than 4GB of ram. Just saying. You can always upgrade later, and probably for cheaper, so I would say save the money and do it yourself if you find you need the extra RAM.
 
SPEEDwithJJ said:
If you can afford the extra & don't mind the size & weight, the 17" MBPs still come with the ExpressCard/34 slots.
Click to expand...

rats, I missed this.

too late now...

it's a shame that design and sleekness seem to be taking over as primary product motivations, rather that actual versatility. guess it would be nice need a "pro" macbook pro version, heavier, maybe slightly less cool looking, but more oriented at portable heavy applications such as real time video / music / editing etc--- for which you actually would want flexibility (ports) in my opinion. I guess this is an old debate though...

we'll see what the "thunderbolt" ports give in the future, I guess....
 
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