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Considering this 13" MBP setup. Thoughts

wattage

wattage

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Oct 14, 2005
320
0
My wife and I have shared our MBP since '06 and its time for her to have one. I'm thinking of this setup and would love thoughts.

Base model 13" MBP 2.4 GHZ: $1199
Eshop: RAM 8 GB(4x2): $288
ZipZoom Fly: Seagate Momentus XT 500GB,4GB SSD: $135
Power Support: Anti-glare Film: $35
____________________________________$1657.

Her use is basic and simple, Web, Mail, Photo, lite Video.
I think it's a pretty sound setup, we REALLY want anti-glare option from Apple on 13" but thought 13" with film was more portable and fun than 15".

Would love some input from everyone.
 
I purchased the base 13" MBP a little over a month ago, and couldn't be happier. I would stick with the 4GB of RAM until you see the need to upgrade. The prices for 8GB or RAM keep getting cheaper and cheaper. I am going to wait until it hits the $199 mark, and then go for the upgrade. Based on what Ive been seeing, it will hit that mark around the beginning of 2011...just a thought though. And yes, the micro center deal is awesome. Wish I would have known about that myself!

Good luck!
 
That set up would serve you well, but the 8GB RAM is way overkill for the uses you have listed. I do all that on 2 gigs without a problem, so I would say stick to the 4 that it comes with, you really won't see a difference if you upgrade with relatively light use like that.
 
elpmas said:
Don't buy the anti-glare film, it might be a little blurry...instead of 8gb & the hybrid, get a ssd & use external hd to store your stuff. just mo.
Click to expand...

I looked into SSD, but just too expensive and don't want to require and external for photo/music libraries. As for the screen she will try the glosssy and if the reflections are too much we can either throw on a film or return and upgrade to 15" as last case scenerio.

Agree that RAM upgrade can wait a while.
 
Put the Momentus XT 320GB drive into her 13"MBP yesterday and it was so easy! I love the new unibody design, so much easier to get into than the first MBPs. So far so good, quick boot time and apps do open faster, though I didn't time a before/after comparison.
 
Looks good, however, I don't feel 8GB is necessary.

Whops, didn't even look at the date ... June.

Glad shes enjoying it!
 
I stumbled on this thread today. I'm within 6 months of upgrading my white Penryn Macbook. I'm keeping lots of stuff on external fireware drives. My Macintosh HD is nearly full. I get beachballs on top of beachballs but I think it has more to do with the 400 meg pdf files I'm working with. As long as I don't have one of those pigs open, I'm fine.

I've thought about the 13 in and the 15 in. I like the 13 in size better but I have an iPad to carry around. I really should be looking at either a 15 in or even 17 in MBP or an iMac. I'm just sayin' that for me portability isn't a big deal when I have the iPad to take with.

Glad she likes the 13 in MBP. I still haven't even upgraded my teeny weeny little 160 gig HDD. I might do that to prolong this machine's life or I might go for the upgrade. Can't decide yet...
 
r0k said:
I stumbled on this thread today. I'm within 6 months of upgrading my white Penryn Macbook. I'm keeping lots of stuff on external fireware drives. My Macintosh HD is nearly full. I get beachballs on top of beachballs but I think it has more to do with the 400 meg pdf files I'm working with. As long as I don't have one of those pigs open, I'm fine.

I've thought about the 13 in and the 15 in. I like the 13 in size better but I have an iPad to carry around. I really should be looking at either a 15 in or even 17 in MBP or an iMac. I'm just sayin' that for me portability isn't a big deal when I have the iPad to take with.

Glad she likes the 13 in MBP. I still haven't even upgraded my teeny weeny little 160 gig HDD. I might do that to prolong this machine's life or I might go for the upgrade. Can't decide yet...
Click to expand...

Upgrade to new 13", and then do this:

http://eshop.macsales.com/search/40GB+ssd+extreme

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other World Computing/DDAMBS0GB/

(Original HDD to go where optical was.)
 
r0k said:
I stumbled on this thread today. I'm within 6 months of upgrading my white Penryn Macbook. I'm keeping lots of stuff on external fireware drives. My Macintosh HD is nearly full. I get beachballs on top of beachballs but I think it has more to do with the 400 meg pdf files I'm working with. As long as I don't have one of those pigs open, I'm fine.
Click to expand...

How much is "lots"? You can upgrade the 13" MBP yourself to 1000 GB (haven't found anyone confirming that they fit into the MacBook, so I doubt they will, but they fit in any new MBP), and I think there are companies that fit 2000 GB if you give up your DVD drive. SSD drives help most with thousands of tiny files, not that much with 400 MB files. Beachballs are most likely caused by not enough RAM. Remember you can attach a huge monitor to all MacBooks, so I personally think small MBP + huge monitor is better than big MBP.
 
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