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"I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!"

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Beam42

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 9, 2009
8
0
I'm an Ozy.
G'day guys,

I'm jumping the PC ship and looking to get a MacBook Pro 17", probably a 2.93 GHz. However, because I'm a Photographer/Videographer and since I'm still suffering the initial price shock, I'm wondering if a good first move is to have installed; if possible, a single 4 gigs 1066 DDRRAM and then later perhaps go the second. Or is there another way for a Mac newbie to save some bucks, $1,700 for an extra 4 gigs is a real shock at this point, I'm already pushing the 6k mark.

Also with regards to the hard drives, is there any downside to the 7200 rpms and is it possible to go a 1 TB or even a 500 GB? And if so where do I go to buy one?

Regards

Beam42
 
Well, for the RAM, when you get the standard 4GB, it is 2x2GB, not 1x4GB. But either way, pretty much everyone here will suggest upgrading the RAM by yourself since you can save quite a bit of money by not buying the RAM from Apple. Maybe go for the 4GB right now, and when the prices start to get more sane, then upgrade it.

For hard drives, 1TB is not available, yet at least. And right now there is only 1 500GB 7200RPM drive, and its made my Seagate. I guess the only downside(s) to the faster drive is more noise/vibrations compared to a standard 5400RPM drive.

Hope that helps.
 
Not sure about the RAM question. I have 2 x 2GB (4 total) in my new macbook and it's nice.

As for the HDD, Seagate makes a 500GB 7200rpm drive that's available now. That's the highest combo of capacity and speed that I know of. There are lots of posts here about 7200 drives, most of which are very positive.
 
The computer will ship with 2 x 2GB RAM. I would upgrade the RAM yourself later on - DDR3 will come down in price as it becomes more commonplace. And hey, you might find you get along fine with 4GB. :)

There are no 1TB laptop drives yet, but you can get 500GB 7200 RPM drives. Only downside is slightly reduced battery life, but from what I've read it's not much.
 
That was quick!

Thanks guys... I'm already feeling at home and I'm a step closer to taking that jump... possibly this weekend.

Regards

Beam42
 
Beam42 said:
G'day guys,

I'm jumping the PC ship and looking to get a MacBook Pro 17", probably a 2.93 GHz. However, because I'm a Photographer/Videographer and since I'm still suffering the initial price shock, I'm wondering if a good first move is to have installed; if possible, a single 4 gigs 1066 DDRRAM and then later perhaps go the second. Or is there another way for a Mac newbie to save some bucks, $1,700 for an extra 4 gigs is a real shock at this point, I'm already pushing the 6k mark.

Also with regards to the hard drives, is there any downside to the 7200 rpms and is it possible to go a 1 TB or even a 500 GB? And if so where do I go to buy one?

Regards

Beam42
Click to expand...

Buy the least RAM you can from Apple and then later upgrade it yourself with third party parts. It's easy and much cheaper. For your usage you can get by with 2GB but it would be really nice to have 4GB. Getting more than 4 helps only a little, you may not need it as the performance bottle neck will be the internal disk at that point.

I think notebook hard drives top out at around 500GB. Maybe I'm not up to date on this but I've not seen a larger one. But you CAN plug in an external drive and there is no limit there except your budget. You WILL need a few external drives for backups

How to save money? Buy the smaller MBP. Buy used equipment. Go to Apple's on-line refurb store.
 
It's absolutely mad to buy two 4 GB stick of DDR3 for this laptop right now, even if it's from a 3rd party seller like OWC. The prices are just too expensive right now.

You can get the standard 2 x 2 GB for now, and a 4 GB stick now if you wish. That's 6 GB of RAM, which is not far from your goal of 8 GB. Also, you can actually see if you're getting a lot of page-outs. If you're not, then perhaps you don't need to spend significant amounts of green on another 4 GB stick. You never know.


Seagate makes the fastest 500 GB, 7200 rpm 2.5" harddisk right now for laptops. If you want larger, then perhaps an external HDD is a better solution.
 
DeusInvictus7 said:
Well, for the RAM, when you get the standard 4GB, it is 2x2GB, not 1x4GB. But either way, pretty much everyone here will suggest upgrading the RAM by yourself since you can save quite a bit of money by not buying the RAM from Apple. Maybe go for the 4GB right now, and when the prices start to get more sane, then upgrade it.
Click to expand...
Right now Apple's price on DDR3 is quite competitive. However in the next year or two that will change.
 
If you don't need an internal optical drive, there is aftermarket solution that take out the optical drive to put in another internal drive.

So you can have 2x 500gb = 1tb internal storage if that is really important. The aftermarket solution also provides you an external enclosure for your optical drive.
 
Consultant said:
If you don't need an internal optical drive, there is aftermarket solution that take out the optical drive to put in another internal drive.

So you can have 2x 500gb = 1tb internal storage if that is really important. The aftermarket solution also provides you an external enclosure for your optical drive.
Click to expand...

Thats the route I went, I have 256GB SSD and a 500GB drive inplace of the superdrive. I went with a LG BluRay burner as my external optical drive.
 
G'day kremer4,

kremer4 said:
Thats the route I went, I have 256GB SSD and a 500GB drive inplace of the superdrive. I went with a LG BluRay burner as my external optical drive.
Click to expand...

Please excuse my ignorance... the 'superdrive' is the CD/DVD RW and you now have 2 hard drives in your MacBook Pro!?

Regarding the Blu-ray issue, I was under the impression that the Mac management was still doing the "I'm sticking with Beta Video & 8-Track thing" with regards to Blu-ray. Mind you I was sure they would eventually do the mea culpa and perhaps even offer those like myself; and probably many others, who took the gamble that Mac management would put asides their proprietary interests; which is nothing more than weak minded neuroses, and reward our gambles with a reasonable priced Blu-ray upgrades... I'm an optimist.

Regards

Beam42
 
Sorry Consultant,

Consultant said:
If you don't need an internal optical drive, there is aftermarket solution that take out the optical drive to put in another internal drive.

So you can have 2x 500gb = 1tb internal storage if that is really important. The aftermarket solution also provides you an external enclosure for your optical drive.
Click to expand...


I somehow missed your post... I do have a TBI (Traumatic brain injury) which gives me the occasional 'blind spots' and I thank you for your suggestion.

My thinking is I'll probably keep to one 500GB drive, or possibly a 320 7,200 rmp drive and live in hope that soon the Mac management will do the Blu-ray RW thing.

On the question of the differing drive speeds, are there any downsides to the 7,200 drives other than the amount of storage?


Regards

Beam42
 
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