hd or ram??

[Steven1621]

for the 15 in powerbook, what would be a better upgrade?

1. 1 SO-DIMM of 512 RAM - $90 (To upgrade later to 1024 from Crucial)
2. 80 GB 5400 RPM HD - $112 (Instead of the standard 80 GB 4200 RPM)

What would have the biggers effect on performance?

 

[Chaszmyr]

I'd go with the RAM

 

[dudewheresmymac]

the RAM will have a larger affect on performance but you will have a harder time upgrading the hard drive in the future..

so i recommend that you get the hard drive upgrade when you by it then when you get enough money later on you get more RAM plus the prices on RAM is consistantly falling so you might be able to get more later than you would be able to now

 

[SilentPanda]

I'd normally say Hard Drive but... since it's the same size at 4200 or 5400... I'd probably do the RAM. Unless you're going to do a lot of disk intensive stuff (i.e. importing video). But just remember, putting in a different hard drive later is really a pain if not impossible whereas putting in more RAM later is super easy.

 

[sethypoo]

RAM!

Better yet, go to http://www.crucial.com and buy a 512MB stick for half the Apple price! Heck, buy a GB stick! Add it yourself, and put the money you would have spent towards the hard drive.

Edit: Cancel that! Crucial has upped their prices way too much. Sorry! Go for the RAM upgrade on Apple.

 

[applefan]

If you haven't purchaced yet and you can only upgrade one or the other now, I'd upgarde the the HD.

The RAM is cheep and easy to upgrade later the HD isn't

 

[virividox]

HD, ram can wait, and sicne ram prices fluctuate you can get a better deal in the future.

 

[Rincewind42]

Just so you know, the faster HD will reduce your battery life since it draws more power, whereas more RAM will give you longer battery life since more will be cached in memory.

Personally I'd go with the memory. If you really need a higher performance HD you can get a FW800 drive that is much larger & faster than the 5400 RPM model.