need memory and hard drive upgrade advice for MacBook

[stvfisher]

I'm new to the world of Mac's and I am about to buy my first (of what I hope is many) Mac. The plan is to buy the 'BlackBook' and upgrade the memory and hard drive for optimal performace. I have a few questons concerning this....

1.) Replacing the Hard Drive and Memory does not void the warranty, does it? ( I do plan on buying applecare - I realize those replacement parts will not be covered).
1a.) Is AppleCare really worth it?

2.) Since it's so cheap, I'm going to get 4GB of RAM from OWC. Any preference on brand (OWC, Micron or Samsung)? I know nothing of the OWC brand, never even heard of them before I started researching for my purchase. I was going to get Samsung just because i've never had a problem with their memory, but it's over $60 more than OWC brand!

3.) As for Hard Drives - I want to get the biggest/fastest I can. 7200RPM, 16MB cache, 200GB... should I go for Hitachi or Seagate? I've always been a WD person so I'm not sure about these two brands. Looks like the Seagate offers SATA 3.0 Gb/s while Hitachi is only 1.5 Gb/s - is this something I will notice?
3a.) Am I wasting money on the 16MB cache / 7200RPM, or will I notice a difference? Would I be better to just get the 320GB/5400RPM/8MB cache for the same price?

Here are links to the memory and hard drive I was looking at.

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Samsung/53DDR2SAMP4G/

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Seagate/ST9200420ASG/


Any comments and past epxeriences with any of these items/brands would be greatly appreciated!

(FIRST POST!)

 

[gnasher729]

3.) As for Hard Drives - I want to get the biggest/fastest I can. 7200RPM, 16MB cache, 200GB... should I go for Hitachi or Seagate? I've always been a WD person so I'm not sure about these two brands. Looks like the Seagate offers SATA 3.0 Gb/s while Hitachi is only 1.5 Gb/s - is this something I will notice?
3a.) Am I wasting money on the 16MB cache / 7200RPM, or will I notice a difference? Would I be better to just get the 320GB/5400RPM/8MB cache for the same price?

RPM is only a decisive factor for disks of the same size. A disk with higher data density transfers data faster at the same RPM. And data at the outside of a disk is transferred faster, which means when you have 160 GB stored on a 320 GB drive (half full) it will be a lot faster than with 160 GB stored on a 200 GB drive (80% full). And remember - if its slow, you can wait. If the hard drive is full, there is nothing you can do. 320 GB is 120 GB bigger.

The 3.0 GBit/sec vs 1.5 GBit/sec is completely irrelevant. Your hard drive will max out at transferring maybe 60 MByte/sec, that will use up about 0.6 GBit/sec. 3.0 GBit/sec is for RAID arrays. And if your Mac has 4 GB of RAM, any memory that is not used will be used for disk caches anyway. Go for 320 GB (or compare the price with the price for a 250 GB drive).

 

[DarkFlame]

1. Nothing you are planning on doing voids the warranty.
2. Applecare is like car insurance, apple makes money off of it, so odds are you are going to lose money. You are paying for piece of mind. If you do run into any issues you will be covered well.

My hd recommendations are the WD 320gb drive for 209 and kingston memory for 89.99. Great ram, lifetime warranty. Get them at newegg.

 

[stvfisher]

I will certainly look at newegg for the Kingston memory - I've ordered plenty of Kingston in the past and have been very happy.

I'm suprised to hear recommendations to go with the larger 5400RPM hard drives, I really thought people would suggest the 7200RPM!

Thanks for the input - I'm still listening if others want to comment : )

 

[applefan69]

I'm new to the world of Mac's and I am about to buy my first (of what I hope is many) Mac. The plan is to buy the 'BlackBook' and upgrade the memory and hard drive for optimal performace. I have a few questons concerning this....

1.) Replacing the Hard Drive and Memory does not void the warranty, does it? ( I do plan on buying applecare - I realize those replacement parts will not be covered).
1a.) Is AppleCare really worth it?

2.) Since it's so cheap, I'm going to get 4GB of RAM from OWC. Any preference on brand (OWC, Micron or Samsung)? I know nothing of the OWC brand, never even heard of them before I started researching for my purchase. I was going to get Samsung just because i've never had a problem with their memory, but it's over $60 more than OWC brand!

3.) As for Hard Drives - I want to get the biggest/fastest I can. 7200RPM, 16MB cache, 200GB... should I go for Hitachi or Seagate? I've always been a WD person so I'm not sure about these two brands. Looks like the Seagate offers SATA 3.0 Gb/s while Hitachi is only 1.5 Gb/s - is this something I will notice?
3a.) Am I wasting money on the 16MB cache / 7200RPM, or will I notice a difference? Would I be better to just get the 320GB/5400RPM/8MB cache for the same price?

Here are links to the memory and hard drive I was looking at.

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Samsung/53DDR2SAMP4G/

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Seagate/ST9200420ASG/


Any comments and past epxeriences with any of these items/brands would be greatly appreciated!

(FIRST POST!)

first off, welcome to the Apple family I hope you enjoy it as much or if not more then did wiih your previous PC.

About the harddrives, as everyone is saying id get he 320Gb at 5400RPM. really 7200 RPM's doesn't provide a noticable difference.. plus since 5400RPM is more standard you can sleep easily for years without worrying that you'll start having harddrive issues.

I say apple care is worth it... but then again i guess it depends if your the semi-paranoid type like me. See I'd be heartbroken if my Macbook died, so I got applecare, and now even if i never use it. I still feel good knowing if anything goes wrong apple will look after me.

That being said, the applecare decision is entirely yours.... some people like it, some people hate it and think it's a rip-off.

 

[stvfisher]

Thanks for the replies. I'm going to order the following from newegg.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136197

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820134373

If I have selected the wrong parts, please let me know! As far as I can tell they are compatible.

Is the RAM always $100, or is this a sale I should take advantage of ASAP?


As for the AppleCare - I'll purchase it just to be safe. You can't put a price on a piece of mind. I figure $10 a month for 'insurance' isn't that bad. One major problem and it will pay for itself.

 

[gnasher729]

I say apple care is worth it... but then again i guess it depends if your the semi-paranoid type like me. See I'd be heartbroken if my Macbook died, so I got applecare, and now even if i never use it. I still feel good knowing if anything goes wrong apple will look after me.

And remember that you can buy AppleCare any time within the first twelve months (and you get 12 months warranty anyway). If you have no problems with your Mac for eleven months then don't buy AppleCare. If you have problems within the first eleven months, get AppleCare.

 

[stvfisher]

I have another question, and ratherr than start a new thread I figured I'd ask it here....

Any reason to buy directly from Apple? The BlackBook is a few dollars cheaper on newegg and comes with a free carrying case. Will I be missing any benefits of buying dircetly from Apple?

 

[marbles]

Any reason to buy directly from Apple? The BlackBook is a few dollars cheaper on newegg and comes with a free carrying case. Will I be missing any benefits of buying dircetly from Apple?

No .

Also maybe newegg will do a deal on the RAM also if you buy at same time as the macbook ?? worth a try

 

[stvfisher]

No .

Also maybe newegg will do a deal on the RAM also if you buy at same time as the macbook ?? worth a try

Thanks... I bought my macbook from newegg 5 months ago

 

[marbles]

I have another question, and ratherr than start a new thread I figured I'd ask it here....

Any reason to buy directly from Apple? The BlackBook is a few dollars cheaper on newegg and comes with a free carrying case. Will I be missing any benefits of buying dircetly from Apple?

what you said here ^ makes it seem like your about to buy a blackbook