RAM vs. better processor???

You can save yourself a few hundred bucks by purchasing the additional RAM from somewhere else and installing it yourself. It really is easy enough for absolutely anyone to do it.

If you have "X" amount of money and you are choosing between spending more money on RAM or more on the CPU, then spend it on the CPU and upgrade the RAM yourself down the road when you have an extra 90 bucks to buy RAM with.

 

When I purchased my MBP in June, I looked at it this way: you can always upgrade ram later, but you cannot upgrade your processor or video card.

For me, going from 2.2GHz to 2.4GHz isn't much of a performance boost, but I also doubled the video ram (128MB to 256MB), which does make a good amount of difference.

Just before the new year, I spent $100 to up the ram to 4GB.

If you have the money, go for the middle model. If not, then don't. But no matter what you do, buy the ram outside of apple (recommend OWC or Crucial). You will save yourself a lot of money!

 

Processor - RAM can be field installed and is currently cheap as wine.

Check OWC for RAM prices if you're in the States.

MacDann