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Purchasing New Macbook Pro

C

chinkmeister

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 4, 2009
5
0
hi, im purchasing a new macbook pro 13 inch 2.53ghz (my first one) ^.^ in two weeks or so. But id like to know some things earlier on to get a head start in not breaking my head later on.

if i have the money to upgrade my HD from 250 to 500gigs with apple should i?
are there any cons into having a big hd on a laptop? for example if i have 450 gigs of video music and programs installed and only 50gigs left will there be a dramatic decrease in performance?

also is it a good idea to keep it stock? (250gigs) if so why? and if i do what external should i get for holding all my video's anime,big bang theory,the office ftw

last of all buying the macbook pro comes with a 1 year warranty, can i wait till last week the warranty ends and purchase the bestbuy warranty which allows one time, excuse my french **** up? if i spill soda and return to bestbuy and get a brand new one out the box?

thanks for the help:D just joined two mins ago first topic! excited to be here.:apple:
 
Umm, I would upgrade the hard drive, but you can't do that through Apple at Best Buy. I'd keep all of the music on the internal and all of the movies on an external, at least that's what I do.

You can wait until the last week to purchase AppleCare, but the Best Buy plan must be purchased at the time of purchase. AppleCare doesn't cover against spills or any other accidental damage.
 
I'd definitely upgrade the hard drive, just make sure to get a 7200rpm one like this one and not to get the standard one from Apple (The DIY upgrade costs the same and is significantly faster; the difference between 5400rpm and 7200rpm is huge). There most likely won't be any major slowdown unless you're really low on space (e.g. only 1-2 gigs free).

If you want insurance against accidental damage or theft, http://www.safeware.com/ is highly recommended from what I've heard. For AppleCare, wait until the last week or so of the warranty to buy it.
 
but yea um the 13 inch doesnt come with the option to purchase a 7200 rpm only 5400rpm. unless ur telling me to buy one from the store but doesnt that void the warranty ?
 
chinkmeister said:
but yea um the 13 inch doesnt come with the option to purchase a 7200 rpm only 5400rpm. unless ur telling me to buy one from the store but doesnt that void the warranty ?
Click to expand...

HDD and RAM can be serviced by the user itselves. In apples eyes that is not a warranty void. If you can afford it buy a SSD instead. And get a large external drive for movies and other things you don't need to have accessable on the Mac all the time.
 
1. Get a SSD as your boot drive - will vastly speed up booting/shutting down/app start times
2. Buy a Optibay MCE and replace your optical drive with a 500 GB 7200 HD. (comes with an external enclosure for the superdrive)
3. Use the standard 250 in an external usb powered enclosure for your movies.
That's the setup I'm hoping to do myself very soon.
 
VideoShooter said:
1. Get a SSD as your boot drive - will vastly speed up booting/shutting down/app start times
2. Buy a Optibay MCE and replace your optical drive with a 500 GB 7200 HD.

That's the setup I'm hoping to do myself very soon.
Click to expand...

The amount of money for an SSD still doesn't appeal to me, but maybe that's because I shut down my computer once a week.
 
can u guys link some of the best brands for hard drives, and thats 7200 rpm cos if im lazy i might just do 5400 rpm by apple :/
 
thegoldenmackid said:
The amount of money for an SSD still doesn't appeal to me, but maybe that's because I shut down my computer once a week.
Click to expand...

It all depends on what you are going to use the MBP for. If you want to use it for cs4 it would have gains going for a SSD but if you are a more "awerage" user a good 7200 rpm drive would be a better option. It is cheep as chips and you get a enormus gain in storage space. Different people different needs. :)

I am waiting for my Intel x25-E (I can not justify the price for my usage) I don't have the need for a big local HDD. I have a NAS solution for my storage needs.
 
thegoldenmackid said:
The amount of money for an SSD still doesn't appeal to me, but maybe that's because I shut down my computer once a week.
Click to expand...

Me too... but the app start times are pretty incredible from what I've heard and seen in demos. I find my 7200 drive in my 17 inch sluggish and would like something faster.
 
ahh i see thanks for all the replies! greatly appreciate it. so i might just get stock and work my way threw ordering a SSD drive and external case and switch out from my macbook correct?

only thing is ive read up on the SSD and comparing to 7200rpm the money is not worth it its not a huge speed difference. so ill think twice about that. i know seagate and hitachi and western digital are main 3 good brands out there or am i not correctly informed?
 
VideoShooter said:
1. Get a SSD as your boot drive - will vastly speed up booting/shutting down/app start times
2. Buy a Optibay MCE and replace your optical drive with a 500 GB 7200 HD. (comes with an external enclosure for the superdrive)
3. Use the standard 250 in an external usb powered enclosure for your movies.
That's the setup I'm hoping to do myself very soon.
Click to expand...

Just ordered a optibay :) going to put in my 250 GB slow 5.400 drive for some movies and tv series. Mostly brilliant device that optibay :) this made my day even better.
 
VideoShooter said:
1. Get a SSD as your boot drive - will vastly speed up booting/shutting down/app start times
2. Buy a Optibay MCE and replace your optical drive with a 500 GB 7200 HD. (comes with an external enclosure for the superdrive)
3. Use the standard 250 in an external usb powered enclosure for your movies.
That's the setup I'm hoping to do myself very soon.
Click to expand...

can you really replace the optical bay with a secondary hard drive?
would this void the warranty?
 
chinkmeister said:
ahh i see thanks for all the replies! greatly appreciate it. so i might just get stock and work my way threw ordering a SSD drive and external case and switch out from my macbook correct?

only thing is ive read up on the SSD and comparing to 7200rpm the money is not worth it its not a huge speed difference. so ill think twice about that. i know seagate and hitachi and western digital are main 3 good brands out there or am i not correctly informed?
Click to expand...

Seagate is good. But I tend to stikk with WD when it comes to HDD. Just take the one you want. I think seagate in general have faster search times than WD.
 
IDANNY said:
can you really replace the optical bay with a secondary hard drive?
would this void the warranty?
Click to expand...

I would say so yes. But I don't know for sure. Since the optical drive is not clasified as user replasable I would give a qualified guess that it will void the warranty.
The other question wold be: will apple ever know that you replaced it?
If you need to send it back in for service it is just to put it back to original specs. I for sure would never send it back with a 300+ euro SSD and a optibay.
 
MrBrekke said:
I would say so yes. But I don't know for sure. Since the optical drive is not clasified as user replasable I would give a qualified guess that it will void the warranty.
The other question wold be: will apple ever know that you replaced it?
If you need to send it back in for service it is just to put it back to original specs. I for sure would never send it back with a 300+ euro SSD and a optibay.
Click to expand...

thanks for the the reply that makes sense. Does anybody have comp that they did this on and it worked?
 
IDANNY said:
thanks for the the reply that makes sense. Does anybody have comp that they did this on and it worked?
Click to expand...

It will work fine with the optibay. There are alot of treads here about it :) the link in one of the first posts is a nce site to see different parts fore you mac (if you are in the US) I am in Ireland but since I am a Norwegian I allways order from Norway since we have 5 years consumer law. (no need for apple care)
that was a bit of topick. Just remember that an opitbay will drain the battery faster. The opitcal drive in the MBP don't really use much power. But a HDD will use a good amount.
 
Does apple officially offers ssd disk option for macbook pro while purchasing a new mbp?
I don't want to install it myself or doing a setup or having any incompatibilities.
 
Go to www.newegg.com and read reviews of internal laptop drives. I'm not big on Seagate or WD. If you are not a real power user you may not even need a 7200 drive. It certainly wasn't necessary for me. When you are at Newegg, look for drives that are quiet and are energy efficient. If you work off battery a lot you'd be bummed with a drive that cost you battery life.

You might also want to upgrade your RAM. It's a lot cheaper if you do it yourself rather than have Apple do it.


Mooch
 
cool11 said:
Does apple officially offers ssd disk option for macbook pro while purchasing a new mbp?
I don't want to install it myself or doing a setup or having any incompatibilities.
Click to expand...

I would recommend that you buy and change it yourself... SATA is a standard which means you shouldn't have any incompatibilities (unless you accidentally buy a 3.5" drive!), and it's super easy to change on the uMBP--you just take the bottom cover off, pop it out, and take the bracket off.

But, if you're still uneasy about doing it yourself, Apple or someone else can do it for you... for a premium.
 
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