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Getting new mac book pro, shall i get the biggest hard drive?

Maschil

Maschil

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jun 19, 2011
581
104
Mississippi
Hello everyone. Very soon i will become a user of a mac book pro, but i am wondering which customization's i should get. I've pretty much concluded that the 8gb is not needed because i simple watch videos, use word processors, don't play games, make power points/presentations. However i do have a ton of videos mainly mp4s....currently i have a external hard drive but i would like to have my files backed up in atleast two places, one being on the external hard drive and the other on my computer. So my question is shall i get the 750 gb upgrade from apple or is it easier just to buy that separate and install it?

Also i'm new to apple so if you know of any good tutorial videos please let me know. Thanks.
 
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That's what I'm going for, the 750GB drive. I prefer not to faff about upgrading later.
 
I have a 13" MBP / 8GB RAM. I tend to use more than 4 on a regular basis, but you might as well wait until you get it to decide if you want more RAM. You can install it yourself.

Personally, I wouldn't bother with the 750 GB HDD. I say this because I have much more data than this (paperless existence), and really, no matter how big a drive I get everything won't fit, so I focus on managing my storage more efficiently instead. I'd suggest getting two 1TB external drives. In my case, I have three, but that is mainly because I want to make absolutely sure that nothing gets lost.

I keep one 1TB at the office and one 1TB at home full of my archived files (mainly PDFs of scanned / downloaded books and articles). The content on these is identical. I update these every few days with changes, but in general, I don't modify the files. I just add new stuff. When these two fill up after a year or two, they get retired and I get two more.

I also have one 1TB at home hooked up through Time Machine. This takes care of the files I am working on at any given moment.

Finally, I use SugarSync for my really important files and the files I am currently working on in order to keep them accessible on any device no matter where I go, and to preserve the stuff I couldn't stand to lose in case of a major catastrophe (office and home destroyed in natural disaster or some other calamity--not a crazy concern, considering that two of my colleagues lost a bunch of data in the tsunami in Japan).

I suppose it is a bit over the top, but I literally have tens of thousands of dollars worth (that's how much it would cost me to replace it--I couldn't sell it for more than a hundred dollars!) of materials that I have painstakingly collected over the years during research trips, so it seems like a small investment for peace of mind.
 
You don't say which system you're getting. The base 13" comes with a 320GB drive and is $150 to upgrade to 750 when you order the system. So it may be cost effective to do it yourself if you feel comfortable doing the disk change.

However some models come with 500GB disks and those are only $50 for the upgrade to 750GB. Based on the price of the drive and how much you'd probably get if you sold the 320GB drive, it's gonna be close to a wash. I'd get the drive form Apple in this case.

And some of the models come with the 750GB. You're set in this case.

Just remember if you need to bring in the system for service or replacement, you may need to put the original drive back in. So you really can't sell it either.

Although you asked what was easier. Easier is to order the system with the size drive you want.

Note the above prices are US prices.
 
thanks so much. This helps, i never thought about that fact that if something is wrong i would most likely have to bring back the original hard drive.... hmmm i would be getting the least expensive mac book pro. 13 inch 4gb ram, 750gb most likely. my question is though would that big of a hard drive cost atleast 80? i think the upgrade on appls website from 320gb to 750 is like 130-150 so its not that much of a difference plus i wouldnt have to worry about installing it incorrectly.
 
It seems like the 750GB disks are in the $80 range + shipping and such. And I wouldn't want to crack open a brand new laptop to change the disk until after the first 30 days of use. (Actually I would just order the size disk I wanted when I ordered the laptop, but that's me.)

Sometimes saving money getting third party stuff (memory for example) can be worth it. Sometimes it's not.
 
Bear said:
It seems like the 750GB disks are in the $80 range + shipping and such. And I wouldn't want to crack open a brand new laptop to change the disk until after the first 30 days of use. (Actually I would just order the size disk I wanted when I ordered the laptop, but that's me.)

Sometimes saving money getting third party stuff (memory for example) can be worth it. Sometimes it's not.
Click to expand...

why? nothing magical happens after 30 days that makes it easier or a better time to do the upgrade. Apple supports user upgradability of their hard drives on macbook pros and even have specific instructions on how to replace said hard drives.
 
I agree with those that say just order the 750GB drive from Apple. I just got my 15" MBP 2.2 i7 yesterday (yay!), which came with 750GB standard. But if I was getting the 13", I would definitely have upgraded to the 750. Also, you may save a few bucks by ordering from another source and installing yourself, but to me it's not worth the hassle (order, shipping time, disassemble MacBook, replace drive, etc) Plus you would then have 2 vendors to handle warranty issues: Apple for the computer and some web vendor for the hard drive. Not to mention that the aftermarket HD could be a problem when getting warranty service from Apple.

Go for the Apple 750GB upgrade! :)
 
scoobydoo99 said:
I agree with those that say just order the 750GB drive from Apple. I just got my 15" MBP 2.2 i7 yesterday (yay!), which came with 750GB standard. But if I was getting the 13", I would definitely have upgraded to the 750. Also, you may save a few bucks by ordering from another source and installing yourself, but to me it's not worth the hassle (order, shipping time, disassemble MacBook, replace drive, etc) Plus you would then have 2 vendors to handle warranty issues: Apple for the computer and some web vendor for the hard drive. Not to mention that the aftermarket HD could be a problem when getting warranty service from Apple.

Go for the Apple 750GB upgrade! :)
Click to expand...

agreed, thats what i am thinking, so thats atleast one choice for me settled, the next one is ipad 1 or ipad 2... hehe i will do something searching around the forum to see what people are saying...
 
I'd also recommend upgrading the HDD through Apple. For me I upgraded from 320 GB to 500 GB and it was only $45. It would have been more expensive for me to buy the HDD and do it myself. For me I would have paid a little more anyways for Apple to go ahead and do it just so I don't have to deal with it. The last thing I want to do is open my brand new MBP and install new hardware.
 
crush500 said:
I'd also recommend upgrading the HDD through Apple. For me I upgraded from 320 GB to 500 GB and it was only $45. It would have been more expensive for me to buy the HDD and do it myself. For me I would have paid a little more anyways for Apple to go ahead and do it just so I don't have to deal with it. The last thing I want to do is open my brand new MBP and install new hardware.
Click to expand...

I'm not so sure about that... but whatever floats your boat: http://www.amazon.com/Western-Digit...SDGU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1308618480&sr=8-1
 
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when i purchased my mbp i went with the 500gb (largest) hd configuration from apple simply because i wanted to have all apple stock parts in my computer, and I wanted a 500gb drive. it's definitely stupid price-wise on paper, but it just "feels" right and it's nice to know that if something goes wrong, it's nothing that i have done in terms of hardware, and i can just take it into an appointment without having to swap anything out. just peace of mind, really, and money wasn't an issue at the time. if you are pressed for cash, definitely go aftermarket and just save the original hdd for repair purposes. in my case it was worse though as the 500gb was the second config so it was over $100 for a 500gb rpm drive, around double the price. definitely bad on paper, but double the price for pre-installation and mainly the peace of mind that i mentioned earlier was well worth it to me. plus, this hard drive seems to kick ass for no reason.
 
dagamer34 said:
I'm not so sure about that... but whatever floats your boat: http://www.amazon.com/Western-Digit...SDGU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1308618480&sr=8-1
Click to expand...
What?!?! That link just proves my point. I paid $45 for Apple to upgrade to 500 GB for me. The link is for a 500 GB HDD that is $54.99. How is that any cheaper than the $45 I paid Apple to do it for me?

Now I had the education discount. For others it may be cheaper to DIY but for me it was cheaper to let Apple do it. Even the upgrade to 750 GB would have been cheaper once I took into account shipping costs and the hassle of installation.
 
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