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I'm a Noob buying a laptop... Questions..

S

SethRogen

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jun 8, 2009
263
0
I'm buying a laptop right now for college. I'm planning on using this for years. I'm kinda a noob with all of this, and don't really understand all of the differences between each of the two (in all 3 categories). Are these charges truly worth the extra cash? Thanks!

Processor
2.4GHz Quad-core Intel Core i7
2.5GHz Quad-core Intel Core i7 [Add $250.00]

Memory
4GB 1333MHz DDR3 SDRAM — 2x2GB
8GB 1333MHz DDR3 SDRAM — 2x4GB [Add $200.00]

Hard Drive
750GB Serial ATA Drive @ 5400 rpm
750GB Serial ATA Drive @ 7200 rpm [Add $50.00
----
 
What will you be using the computer for? Unless you're planning on doing strenuous image/video editing the 2.4GHz will likely more than suffice.

8GB of RAM is recommended, but Apple charges $200 when you can buy 8GB and install it yourself for $50.
 
AdrianK said:
What will you be using the computer for? Unless you're planning on doing strenuous image/video editing the 2.4GHz will likely more than suffice.

8GB of RAM is recommended, but Apple charges $200 when you can buy 8GB and install it yourself for $50.
Click to expand...

I do edit videos a lot online for fun, but I'll mostly be using it for all the work/projects in college classes or the next 4 years, and obviously I'll also use it for leisure activity.

I'm looking at the 15 inch Macbook Pro btw.
 
The 2.4 i7 will suffice. I have the early 2011 2.3 i7 (which was the fastest offered at the time, I didn't pay the extra as Apple upgraded me and I wouldn't have paid for it) and I have yet to over power it. I am a power user routinely running 2-3 VMs along with web conference, email, messenger, and 2 browsers all concurrently as I am in support and need to simulate a lab server environment. You will be fine with the 2.4 and save the money for an SSD (which is the upgrade I would select if buying any of them (as it is only $100 or so when added at order time).
 
What's the difference between these two?
750GB Serial ATA Drive @ 5400 rpm
750GB Serial ATA Drive @ 7200 rpm?
 
The speed the platters within the drive spin at. All things being the same the faster the platter the more throughput the disk can transfer data with. The thing is that there is more than just data, the cache on the controller, the block alignment and the platter density and number of platters all make a difference in the throughput, so it is not just cut a dried. Generally a faster drive will give better performance, but as I said it is all relative. If you don't really need the space get the SSD instead and buy an external.
 
I assume you don't feel like installing any hardware yourself. In that case the one upgrade that makes sense is going for 8GB of ram. That should be enough for another 5 years. Since you're probably getting education discount, this upgrade is slightly less overpriced at $180. Doing it yourself would be cheaper, but not everyone likes that.

The processor upgrade (~3% speed) is for sure not worth it. The faster hard disk can be nice, but is not really necessary.
 
For 95% of users out there, the days of worrying about "the numbers" are pretty much done. You can safely walk into an Apple store, tell the sales person your needs and dreams and budget, and walk out without worry of being ripped off.
 
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