I just want to say...

[NickZac]

that I am a hypocrite and I am sorry. I said I was going to not get a new MBP this go round on this forum, but when I went to dinner with Steve and the President, I had a few too many Zimas and Steve put some roofies in my Zima, and then I called up the orderline and bought a new 15 quad core, and proceeded to get every option the guy offered.

On a more serious note, I went with the 2.3 GHz SB over the 2.2 as feedback seems to favor the extra 2MB cache when doing tasks such as heavy hitting statistics programs such as SAS (the "computer killer"). A colleague has one and its capability to crunch numbers is unreal versus previous MBPs. I can't say how big the difference is as I have used the 2.2 only a limited amount. I bought it because running SAS and SPSS simultaneously, as I need to do, makes my 13 act like a Pentium I, and the 8GB of RAM gets maxed almost immediately. As i type this, I have less than 1GB of RAM free and only 700 of it is used on the system itself. I may wind up getting 16GB shortly.

But yeah, I just ate my own words, and they tasted pretty good.

 

[DustinT]

Grats man, thats a very nice piece of kit. Which SSD did you get?

 

[NickZac]

Whichever they ship it with, so I'd assume Samsung or Toshiba. The price of getting it through Apple came down so much I just went with that as it was easier. Even the $200 for 8 gigs of RAM isn't too bad for a factory upgrade.

 

[NikFinn]

Whichever they ship it with, so I'd assume Samsung or Toshiba. The price of getting it through Apple came down so much I just went with that as it was easier. Even the $200 for 8 gigs of RAM isn't too bad for a factory upgrade.

Even though you can get it for $80 on newegg?

 

[NickZac]

Even though you can get it for $80 on newegg?

Yeah, it's not all that much more and I really don't feel like having to open the computer up and put something in it, if for a few bucks more I can have the people at Apple do it and use a factory product which will obviously work optimized out of the box, as people have reported RAM issues on this and other forums. Yes, I realize it's easy to do and cheaper, but anytime you crack open a computer, you can make a mistake, something could go wrong, or you could discover an existing problem which is later (falsely) attributed to you. A lot of products allow end-user service, but if the third party products or services used damages the computer, your warranty can be and often is voided (for good and rightful reason). A lot of people don't realize this, and it can be hard to prove otherwise. Apple doesn't seem to do this but they are legally entitled to void a warranty when an end-user causes the machine to break from their own actions.'

But the short answer is it's easier and saves time, which also saves money.

I put the 8GB of RAM in my MBP 13 as did I a SSD, but it is just easier to buy it all at once and have it arrive and go to town. I'll probably pick up 16 gigs of RAM shortly and either have Apple install it (it's free IIRC) or pop it in myself.

 

[solaris7]

But the short answer is it's easier and saves time, which also saves money.

So true.

 

[ntrigue]

There used to be great polarity in RAM from Apple and from retailers. Now it's really not a huge concern.

 

[NikFinn]

Yeah, it's not all that much more and I really don't feel like having to open the computer up and put something in it, if for a few bucks more I can have the people at Apple do it and use a factory product which will obviously work optimized out of the box, as people have reported RAM issues on this and other forums. Yes, I realize it's easy to do and cheaper, but anytime you crack open a computer, you can make a mistake, something could go wrong, or you could discover an existing problem which is later (falsely) attributed to you. A lot of products allow end-user service, but if the third party products or services used damages the computer, your warranty can be and often is voided (for good and rightful reason). A lot of people don't realize this, and it can be hard to prove otherwise. Apple doesn't seem to do this but they are legally entitled to void a warranty when an end-user causes the machine to break from their own actions.'

But the short answer is it's easier and saves time, which also saves money.

I put the 8GB of RAM in my MBP 13 as did I a SSD, but it is just easier to buy it all at once and have it arrive and go to town. I'll probably pick up 16 gigs of RAM shortly and either have Apple install it (it's free IIRC) or pop it in myself.

$120 is a lot to me. If you buy quality RAM (say.. Crucial). I'm 99% sure upgrading your RAM does not void your warranty. There's not much that can go wrong when upgrading it. I think the only thing possible is physically breaking the RAM or perhaps, if you don't know how to use a screw driver, strip the screws.

 

[wingsabr]

Replacing ram is stupid easy. If you can operate a screwdriver, you can replace the ram and the HDD. I got 8gb for 65 from newegg with a rebate.

 

[NickZac]

If you are on a budget, a DIY RAM upgrade is probably the best way to go. I am not really on a budget anymore (although for my previous computers I ate a LOT of PBJs and Noodles). Not too long ago, I wouldn't be able to afford a 15 at all, but since I use my computer for at least 12 hours a day and have a few bucks to play with now, I figured just deck it out, especially since the 2.3 seems to be golden.

I have Crucial RAM in my 13 and it is great. It is probably more like 99.99% you won't have an issue, but there is always that chance. Once you have 'opened up' your computer, a technician can always say that your actions resulted in _____, hence you voided your warranty. Apple seems to almost never do this, but companies like Mitsubishi have been known to void entire warranties on their Evo's for something is petty as an aftermarket air intake.

SSD wise, going from a 500 gig HDD to a 128 gig SSD was only 100 bucks more. I have no need for over 128 so I went with that. Hopefully, Thunderbolt externals will become easy to find soon as most of my work using larger data files come off of externals and absolutely cannot be kept on this computer. Running a 512GB SSD external through Thunderbolt is something I would be interested in doing given Thunderbolt's speed potential, as most previous technologies really didn't warrant the purchase of a large external SSD due to a lower theoretical maximum speed of data transfer.

Beyond all though, it is the convenience factor. If I could have ordered my 15 with 16GB of RAM, I wouldn't mind paying a bit more or so than the cost of OWC's 16GB.

$120 is a lot to me. If you buy quality RAM (say.. Crucial). I'm 99% sure upgrading your RAM does not void your warranty. There's not much that can go wrong when upgrading it. I think the only thing possible is physically breaking the RAM or perhaps, if you don't know how to use a screw driver, strip the screws.