PowerBooks on Feb 2nd?

[marks]

dvd superdrive and idvd

Yes, faster DVD burning would be nice.

But, just so you know, iDVD does not work if you do not have an internal superdrive. I mean it does not work AT ALL. You can't burn DVD's without third party software. In fact, it can't even be installed on your computer. Last year Apple sent me a comp copy of iLife and there were 2 versions. One for the Superdrive people with iDVD on it, and one for people like me, with just the other 3 programs. Now it might not be worth spending the extra $180 just to have idvd work, but think about the alternative: you might get burn speeds of 4x or 6x? with your external drive which will cost you $200 anyway. Then you will have to go and buy a third party software program like Toast Titanium ($70) or DVD PRO ($400) that will let you burn DVDs on your external drive, which is what I have to do. iDVD lets you make semi-professional DVDs and they give you the program free if you buy a superdrive Mac.

Anyway, just thought you might not have know.

I just ordered a PB G4 1.25 SD which is scheduled to ship on 1/29. I hope Apple introduces this week so I have a chance to upgrade my order

 

[marks]

Also

I forgot one other thing. External DVD drives are not portable. Are you planning on traveling with your external DVD drive which is as big as a 12" Powerbook with it's power cord and noise to go along with it?

 

[Bear]

Re: Also

Originally posted by marks
I forgot one other thing. External DVD drives are not portable. Are you planning on traveling with your external DVD drive which is as big as a 12" Powerbook with it's power cord and noise to go along with it?

A very good point that a lot of people seem to forget. Or maybe they don't need a DVD drive when they're not at home.

However, I keep seeing people make suggestions that they don't realize the portability issues. I for one will go for the internal superdrive.

Also as a side point, if you're getting Applecare, the Apple superdrive will have a 3 year warranty.

 

[MacRAND]

16x DVD burner

Originally posted by crees!
8x DVD drives? Why not 16x since Apple likes to be ahead of the curve.

Don't you think Apple should wait until Pioneer, Plextor or some other laser drive manufacturer develops the technology, designs a 16x DVD burner, then actually manufacturers it before we expect Apple to install one in a computer?

I thought they were doing pretty good to come out with an 8x at such a reasonable price. Undoubtedly they are working on a 12x or 16x as the next level, I can be patient. I just love my toys to get faster and better.

 

[crees!]

Re: 16x DVD burner

Originally posted by MacRAND
Don't you think Apple should wait until Pioneer, Plextor or some other laser drive manufacturer develops the technology, designs a 16x DVD burner, then actually manufacturers it before we expect Apple to install one in a computer?

I thought they were doing pretty good to come out with an 8x at such a reasonable price. Undoubtedly they are working on a 12x or 16x as the next level, I can be patient. I just love my toys to get faster and better.

Rumor upon rumor seems to distort the next. Looking into it, Philips has demoed a 16x DVD+R burner and expects them to be out by the end of this year. Though it's +R I'm sure -R will soon follow.

 

[Bear]

Re: 16x DVD burner

Originally posted by MacRAND
Don't you think Apple should wait until Pioneer, Plextor or some other laser drive manufacturer develops the technology, designs a 16x DVD burner, then actually manufacturers it before we expect Apple to install one in a computer?

I thought they were doing pretty good to come out with an 8x at such a reasonable price. Undoubtedly they are working on a 12x or 16x as the next level, I can be patient. I just love my toys to get faster and better.

Much like CD-Rs, I expect DVD-Rs to have a maximum reasonable burn spead. Burning CD=-Rs above 32x tends towards more coasters and more usability issues on the burned CDs. besides a disk in 3 minutes (or less) is fine.

With a DVD burner, I expect 8x which will be about 8 or 9 minutes for the whole DVD to be reasonable and probably at the limits.

Remember CD-Rs and DVD-Rs will wobble more at higher speeds and cause problems.

 

[JonRaven]

Applecare and the Superdrive

Yes I guess since I bought both the applecare and the superdrive 1.25 model pbook that it will be covered for three years as well so I guess if it stops working I will end up with an upgraded (faster) drive as well... so I guess it does make sense to pay the extra amount and get the internal superdrive afterall. Plus yes I am sarting to agree with the portability issues as well as the iDVD software thoughts.

My scepticism towards the superdrives in the pbook series all started when I tried to burn a DVD copy of a recorded show I played last month on a friends powerbook....and the thing took soo long to burn and I was not feeling good at the time and the time seemed even longer because of it (you all know how sickness can make time excruiating). So I figured when I bought my own powerbook that I would opt out on the internal and go for a faster one....but I am starting to see that that thought is not as smart as I used to. But i still would love for APPLE to give me one of the faster upgrades (if they release this week) in exchange for the slow one.

I don't neccessaily want a faster processor then the 1.25 seeing as it will move like lightning compared to my G3 Pismo Pbook. But I would love to have the faster DVD burning and whatever other cool upgrades they might throw in...or even scarp all those and just give me a faster DVD burner and a discount of some kind.

Cheers to all my new Apple friends on here.

 

[chriscorcoran]

Did any one notice that the next verison of the PowerPC 970s were confirmed by IBM? The PowerPC 970FX. With the timing of this rumor and the fact the new chips only use half the power of the current G5s it leads me to believe that maybe some truth in the release of new powerbooks. And lets not forget Steve did say that there would be G5 PowerBooks by the end of the year and Steve in never wrong. lol

Viva Apple!

 

[Snowy_River]

Re: dvd superdrive and idvd

Originally posted by marks
Yes, faster DVD burning would be nice.

But, just so you know, iDVD does not work if you do not have an internal superdrive. I mean it does not work AT ALL. You can't burn DVD's without third party software. In fact, it can't even be installed on your computer. Last year Apple sent me a comp copy of iLife and there were 2 versions. One for the Superdrive people with iDVD on it, and one for people like me, with just the other 3 programs.

Now, I'm puzzled by this. I bought iLife about a year ago, and it came on 2 CDs, one was for iTunes, iPhoto and iMovie, and the other was just iDVD. iDVD is a big program. Is this what you thought was the two different versions?

Now it might not be worth spending the extra $180 just to have idvd work, but think about the alternative: you might get burn speeds of 4x or 6x? with your external drive which will cost you $200 anyway. Then you will have to go and buy a third party software program like Toast Titanium ($70) or DVD PRO ($400) that will let you burn DVDs on your external drive, which is what I have to do. iDVD lets you make semi-professional DVDs and they give you the program free if you buy a superdrive Mac.

Just another little bit of food for thought. Most external DVD burners now come with software to allow DVD burning, like Toast Lite. So, the $200 for the external is really total cost. Now, if you want the added features of something like Toast Titanium, then you can spend the money on it.

 

[Snowy_River]

Originally posted by chriscorcoran
Did any one notice that the next verison of the PowerPC 970s were confirmed by IBM? The PowerPC 970FX. With the timing of this rumor and the fact the new chips only use half the power of the current G5s it leads me to believe that maybe some truth in the release of new powerbooks. And lets not forget Steve did say that there would be G5 PowerBooks by the end of the year and Steve in never wrong. lol

Viva Apple!

The processor alone, alas, is not enough to put the G5 into a PowerBook.

This topic is extensively discussed here.

 

[MacRAND]

16x DVD burner by the end of 2004?

Originally posted by crees!
Rumor upon rumor seems to distort the next. Looking into it, Philips has demoed a 16x DVD+R burner and expects them to be out by the end of this year. Though it's +R I'm sure -R will soon follow.

Don't Philips and SONY have a fixation on +R tech? And didn't SONY bet all of its chips on Beta instead of VHS? (Beta was better, but SONY got selfish and lost to VHS. Here we go again with -/+R battle?)

Every time a new DVD speed is released for manufacture and distribution, rest assured that the next step higher in speed is already being tested in someone's lab, or maybe even being readied for demo (remember Lisa 20 years ago?).

Phillips came up with algorithms that made CDs and now DVDs possible, so it's not surprising that it is one of the top labs pushing the envelope. However, going much beyond 16x, say to 24x, is approaching the physical limits of DVD writing on spinning plastic discs. Take heart, there are other paths for technology to pursue in order to achieve better read/write speeds than mere disc rotation speeds; the challenge is which technology will the industry pull out of Pandora's box?

IBM recently sold its Hard Drive business to Hitachi reportedly because HD technology is rapidly approaching a dead end, while speed and capacity of flash memory is in its infancy.
I believe DVDs as we know them are also approaching a dead end, at least as far as write speed is concerned, soon - even capacity. Will this open the field to competitive media, or simply foster a new approach for laying down tracks on a spinning disc?
What about 3 dimensional memory?

Digital image technology is rapidly replacing chemical technology of photo film. Kodak has announced it is ending manufacture of film Cameras in North America, but will continue to exploit 3rd world markets such as China.

With its Rebel, Canon has broken the $1000 price barrier for a quality Single Lens Reflex digital camera with interchangeable lenses.
The age of the digital image has a arrived in support of Apple's Digital Hub. This can only mean that more & more techno Toys are on the way.

 

[crees!]

Re: 16x DVD burner by the end of 2004?

Originally posted by MacRAND
Don't Philips and SONY have a fixation on +R tech? And didn't SONY bet all of its chips on Beta instead of VHS? (Beta was better, but SONY got selfish and lost to VHS. Here we go again with -/+R battle?)

Every time a new DVD speed is released for manufacture and distribution, rest assured that the next step higher in speed is already being tested in someone's lab, or maybe even being readied for demo (remember Lisa 20 years ago?).

Phillips came up with algorithms that made CDs and now DVDs possible, so it's not surprising that it is one of the top labs pushing the envelope. However, going much beyond 16x, say to 24x, is approaching the physical limits of DVD writing on spinning plastic discs. Take heart, there are other paths for technology to pursue in order to achieve better read/write speeds than mere disc rotation speeds; the challenge is which technology will the industry pull out of Pandora's box?

IBM recently sold its Hard Drive business to Hitachi reportedly because HD technology is rapidly approaching a dead end, while speed and capacity of flash memory is in its infancy.
I believe DVDs as we know them are also approaching a dead end, at least as far as write speed is concerned, soon - even capacity. Will this open the field to competitive media, or simply foster a new approach for laying down tracks on a spinning disc?
What about 3 dimensional memory?

I'm totally with you on this... seeing somewhere like you need a constant 500Mbps data stream to burn at 16x which most likely will be the "fastest" DVD burn speed. Could be 24x like you said but I haven't look too far into it.

I would say the next generation of harddrives are going to be pretty exciting. I read up a ton about new storage technologies about a year ago (holographic and atomic storage, among others)... pretty promising stuff.

 

[kingtj]

Re: 16x DVD burner by the end of 2004?

Personally, I'd guess that IBM sold their hard drive business more because they decided to dump it after all the problems with defective IBM Deskstar IDE drives. (Seems odd it changed hands right after that fiasco was at its height - with people starting to call their drives "Deathstars" and so on.)

I agree that eventually, some type of flash memory will be the future hard drive replacement, but I don't think it's coming any time too soon. Flash technology still hasn't even really addressed one of the largest hurdles; a limited number of reads/writes before it wears out. This issue isn't so bad on something like a flash memory stick for a camera - where you really don't rewrite to the thing thousands of times in a short period of time. But computers write data and erase it again *all the time* while you run applications (temporary files/directories, virtual memory on the hard disk, etc.).

It takes longer to kill off a technology than many of us "techies" would like to admit. Look at the floppy disk. Completely outdated and obsolete technology, yet almost every Windows-based PC *still* ships with one, and Sony kept using them in their "FDC" line of digital cameras quite recently. There's at least a couple manufacturers still finding it profitable to build new floppy disk drives.

That's why I say, you won't see hard drives going away any time too soon. We'll probably just end up with 2 or 3 manufacturers supplying all of them, and they'll be more of a commodity item than something getting lots of updates and size increases in the future. (There's still some room for advances in laptop drives, however. You can't even buy a 7200RPM laptop drive in sizes larger than 60GB today!)

Originally posted by MacRAND

IBM recently sold its Hard Drive business to Hitachi reportedly because HD technology is rapidly approaching a dead end, while speed and capacity of flash memory is in its infancy.
I believe DVDs as we know them are also approaching a dead end, at least as far as write speed is concerned, soon - even capacity. Will this open the field to competitive media, or simply foster a new approach for laying down tracks on a spinning disc?
What about 3 dimensional memory?

 

[JonRaven]

7200RPM drive in a Powerbook 1.25?

Hey there again

Has anyone heard what the new 7200RPM drives are like in the powerbooks? I was wondering how much extra heat and noise they cause over the 5400rpm ones. I finally got my 1.25 today from the shipper and everything seems to be in order. I know...it is about time as far as I am concerned with all the problems i had been having getting it.

Anyways I am thinking about doing the drive swap i was talking about...but i dont wanna ruin my powerbook by putting in a 7200rpm drive if it is going to catch on fire or sound like a jet engine when it is booting up or doing some Pro Tools plug in adjustment.

Any thoughts?

Because i didn't end up buying a custom and took the stock 1.25 with superdrive and i just got it today and am planning on signing the bill tommorrow to pay for it....I guess I will be ok for the apple 10 day policy! Wouldn't you think? I am not worried about getting any faster processor or anything...I am sure I am going to be quite happy with my 1.25....but the $300 will be nice as a refund!

If you have any real world experiance or links or anything about the 7200 drives going in aluminum powerbooks....let me know as soon as possible please.

Thanks everyone as usual for listening to my rants hahahahha

Cheers and best wishes for tomorrow everyone.

Jon Raven

 

[crees!]

Re: 7200RPM drive in a Powerbook 1.25?

Originally posted by JonRaven
Hey there again

Has anyone heard what the new 7200RPM drives are like in the powerbooks? I was wondering how much extra heat and noise they cause over the 5400rpm ones. I finally got my 1.25 today from the shipper and everything seems to be in order. I know...it is about time as far as I am concerned with all the problems i had been having getting it.

Anyways I am thinking about doing the drive swap i was talking about...but i dont wanna ruin my powerbook by putting in a 7200rpm drive if it is going to catch on fire or sound like a jet engine when it is booting up or doing some Pro Tools plug in adjustment.

Any thoughts?

Because i didn't end up buying a custom and took the stock 1.25 with superdrive and i just got it today and am planning on signing the bill tommorrow to pay for it....I guess I will be ok for the apple 10 day policy! Wouldn't you think? I am not worried about getting any faster processor or anything...I am sure I am going to be quite happy with my 1.25....but the $300 will be nice as a refund!

If you have any real world experiance or links or anything about the 7200 drives going in aluminum powerbooks....let me know as soon as possible please.

Thanks everyone as usual for listening to my rants hahahahha

Cheers and best wishes for tomorrow everyone.

Jon Raven

I really don't know the need for that fast a HD in a laptop. I have the 5400 drive and I do video editing and high res digital imaging.. plus play demanding games.. so... I don't know what to say other than don't go through the extra trouble.

 

[MacRAND]

7200RPM drive in a Powerbook 1.25

Originally posted by JonRaven
Has anyone heard what the new 7200RPM drives are like in the powerbooks?
I was wondering how much extra heat and noise they cause over the 5400rpm ones.
Any thoughts?
Jon Raven

http://eshop.macsales.com/Catalog_Page.cfm?Parent=91&Title=2.5" IDE & SCSI for Laptops&Template=
60.0GB Hitachi/IBM Travelstar 7K60 **7200RPM** 8MB Data Buffer ATA/6 9.5mm UltraSlim 2.5" NoteBook Drive. 3yr Hitachi Warranty. (HIT08K0939) $259.99
Details: http://eshop.macsales.com/Catalog_Item.cfm?ID=5930&Item=HIT08K0939

My buddy Dennis had a slow 20 GB HD in his Ti PB, does heavy video editing with FCP4, wanted a larger, smoother, faster drive so he put this 60 GB Hitachi/IBM Travelstar 7K60 7200 rpm 8MB Buffer HD inside and loves it; says it is noticeably faster and he has fewer dropped frames. Ti PB are already hot, but does not feel 7200rpm has added any heat or noise, but maybe a little more load on battery, however he always uses AC except while on the road.
Says he'll take 7200rpm out when he replaces his 15" Ti PB with a new 17" PB, so he can put it in the new one.
He has a few prejudices, loves IBM and is crazy about speed and quality. Got to have the best!
Uses the old drive in a compact external FireWire enclosure for raw footage.

Also planning to use his DVD Studio Pro 2 to burn DVDs to an EXTERNAL FW 8x DVD SuperDrive and as soon as Apple comes up with the driver for either Pioneer or Plextor.

What are your priorities, Jon?

 

[kingtj]

Re: Re: 7200RPM drive in a Powerbook 1.25?

Yeah... I was considering putting a 7200RPM in my Powerbook 15" myself (since I just ordered it with the stock 4200RPM drive). I know on my old Toshiba laptop, the hard drive definitely felt like it was the one thing holding back the overall performance of the system - so I feared the 4200RPM drive in the PB 15" would be the same way.

So far though, it doesn't feel slow at all. I guess despite the 4200RPM rotational speed, everything else has been improved over the technology used in older laptop drives.

I read a few messages on this topic (don't have the URLs handy anymore to refer you to them, though), and the general opinion seemed to be that putting a 7200RPM in an Aluminum Powerbook only gives a marginal speed boost. (Benchmarks will say it's better, but in "real world" use, you won't see that much difference.)

Originally posted by crees!
I really don't know the need for that fast a HD in a laptop. I have the 5400 drive and I do video editing and high res digital imaging.. plus play demanding games.. so... I don't know what to say other than don't go through the extra trouble.

 

[MacRAND]

7200 rpm drive in a Powerbook 1.25 for High-End Mac User

Originally posted by kingtj
... on my old Toshiba laptop, the hard drive definitely felt like it was the one thing holding back the overall performance of the system - so I feared the 4200 rpm drive in the PB 15" would be the same way.

I read a few messages on this topic and the general opinion seemed to be that putting a 7200 rpm in an Aluminum Powerbook only gives a marginal speed boost. (Benchmarks will say it's better, but in "real world" use, you won't see that much difference.)

If all a person does with their PowerBook is surf the internet, shuffle eMails, and write a letter while listening to iTunes, the " speed boost" accomplished by jumping from 4200 to 7200 rpm is indeed only a "marginal" improvement.

A HD speed boost becomes clearly significant when running FinalCut Pro 4.0, DVD Studio Pro 2, Toast 6, Adobe Digital Design Creative Suite programs, installing programs & updates, or doing any Hard Drive intenive work.

A 4200 rpm HD is a bottleneck when a 25-33% gain in speed is paramount to a High-End user considering an upgrade to 7200 rpm.
But, a 7200 rpm drive is a waste of money (about $100 difference) if your use never challenges the speed limits of your system.
Admittedly, the difference for those in the middle with a 5400 rpm drive is much less significant (and indeed "nominal") and may very well be hard to justify unless the user is truly a high-end professional or otherwise has an excuse for replacing the drive such as to increase memory storage size.

So the question becomes:

Can I get by with a 4200 rpm drive and thereby conserve battery power (actually, a comparison of power draw stats show a negligible difference)? or

Do I need maximum HD performance since I often tax the speed limitations of my system especially the hard drive?

Is it worth $260 to replace a 60 GB
4200 rpm 12ms seek 2mb buffer 7.14 latency Toshba HD with a faster 60 GB
7200 rpm 10ms seek 8mb buffer 4.20 latency Hitachi/IBM HD?

Stats: www.otherworldcomputing.com (hard drives)

Frankly, the only way to get a performance boost out of my 700MHz iBook, since no CPU upgrade is practicable (possible?), is to remove the
30GB 4200 rpm 12ms seek 2mb buffer 7.14 latency Toshba, and replace it with a
60GB 7200 rpm 10ms seek 8mb buffer 4.20 latency Hitachi/IBM.
Plus, I'm running out of room on the 29 GB hard drive and need a 60 GB.
(I want a G4 1GHz (plus) iBook or 15" PB so bad I could just burst!)

 

[JFreak]

do not change it yourself! doing that to albook voids warranty. in tibook the hd was user-changeable part, but albook's hd isn't.

but do get the 7200rpm drive! in my experience it runs cooler than 4200rpm drives, doesn't eat battery any more than slower drives, but is hugely faster. i'd say it doubles the speed compared to stock 4200rpm drive, but my hd usage is somewhat greater than average joe's.

hd change from 4200rpm to 7200rpm boosts performance more than adding ram from half to full gigabyte. much more. it just "feels" faster overall even when not doing hd intensive work.

 

[MacRAND]

WARRANTY! Have Apple auth. Dealer replace Hard Drive in Alum. G4 PowerBook

Originally posted by JFreak
Do NOT change Hard Drive yourself! doing that to al Book voids warranty.
In ti Book the HD was user-changeable part, but al Book hd is not.

Get the 7200rpm drive!
I'd say it doubles the speed compared to stock 4200rpm drive, but my hd usage is somewhat greater than average joe's.
HD change from 4200rpm to 7200rpm boosts performance more than adding ram from half to full gigabyte. much more.
It just "feels" faster overall even when not doing hd intensive work.

THANKS, JFreak, for the Warranty Warning! about changing out a Hard Drive in the Alum PB and suggesting we use an Apple Authorized Dealer/Repair Service, I would have tried to do it myself!

Glad to hear someone else feels they have gotten the same benefits out of a significant increase in HD speed, specifically in a laptop, because I have personally been doing that for over 10 years in desktops (MacLC) and towers, always with exceptionally good results.

Although Apple has gotten better about installing faster OEM drives, I really wish they would offer better OPTIONS for Hard Drive speed upgrades out of the Apple Store so we don't have to mess around with it after purchase.
(DO YOU HEAR US, APPLE?)

 

[tombq]

Benchmarks for PB 17" 1G ($2299) vs. 1.33G ($2699)

I am having a rought time holding back my purchase that I planned on making last weekend. I need to start work with it asap!

I might decide to get the 17" unit anyway but in this time of pre-64bit chips I am wondering if this will be woefully slow in a year. I will be using it for Adobe Creative Suite and Photoshop and LOTS of internet ... Any advantage to Lever3 cache at 1M IN ADDITION to L2 in the 1G version? Especially if I enhance the unit with a 7200rpm drive?

Finally, is it weird that I prefer the Nvidia card as I NEVER play a game (well, I miht use a flight simulator

OR DO I CALM MY JETS and sit tight? (and yes, higher resolution and LCD contrast would be dreamier with a 17" PB)

 

[ragelux]

Don't bother waiting

Just to add my 2 cents, I was holding back for a couple of days as well, thinking about waiting until Feb. 2nd to see what happens, but then I decided, what the heck, is all this waiting really worth it?

If Apple announces on Feb 2nd that there will be a minor upgrade, it will take a least another 2-3 weeks or longer until you will receive your Powerbook. (About a month from now on)

I frankly ordered my new 17" Powerbook on Monday and will receive it tomorrow. (Not through the Apple store, but through macconnection.com where I got an extra 512MB Ram, plus 100$ Rebate and Free Printer with it as well)

In my opinion the only upgrade worth waiting for is the one to the G5 CPU.

 

[spaceballl]

Do let us know how the 7200 rpm drive affects iBook performance. The 4200 rpm drive is definitely a bottleneck, but only tests will show if 7200 rpm is overkill. I wish a site could show the difference in benchmarks between the stock drive, a 5400 rpm drive, and a 7200 rpm drive. I want to wait until the PB G5 comes out, but I could use a little speed boost on my iBook until then (as WELL as the extra space). I already have the RAM maxed out to 640mb.

have you guys read the Mac OS X Panther review at Ars Tecnica? Definitely the most honest review I've ever seen, but VERY interesting. It states that Panther uses the hard drive a lot for caching, etc... more than OSX did in previous releases so I'm thinking that going to 7200 rpm might be a great idea.

-Kevin

 

[JFreak]

faster hard drive is overkill only when the disk would be faster than memory, and that will not happen. hard disk is really slow compared to memory, as memory throughput is some gigabytes and disk throughput is some megabytes [edit: add "per second" here]. that alone is reason enough to get as fast a hard disk as is possible.

you will notice a really nice performance boost in any laptop if original 4200rpm drive is changed to a 7200rpm drive. at the same time disk cache probably grows from 2 to 8 megabytes, which will also affect a lot.

go for it, even for an older ibook.

 

[MacRAND]

iBook G3 benefit from 7200 rpm drive

Originally posted by spaceballl
Do let us know how the 7200 rpm drive affects iBook performance. The 4200 rpm drive is definitely a bottleneck...
I could use a little speed boost on my iBook until then as WELL as the extra space.
...Panther uses the hard drive a lot for caching, etc... more than OSX (Jaguar) did in previous releases so I'm thinking that going to 7200 rpm might be a great idea.
-Kevin

KEVIN, you are absolutely right, and our limited RAM is probably a big reason.
It had always bothered me to hear my iBook HD working away at a mere 4200 when I just knew a 7200 would do the work far faster. Like listening to a little 4 cylinder VW Bus puffing away trying to keep up with a V-8 Dodge Hemi cruzing along effortlessly uphill at the same ground speed.

If you need a LARGER Hard Drive, why put another 4200 or even a 5400 in your iBook when you can get a 7200 for not that much more money. You only have ONE hard drive in a laptop.