What add-ons should I get for MacBook Pro?

[Garbag3man117]

Hi. I am getting rid of my old eMachines ****-book, and buying a MacBook Pro. I am trying to decide whether or not to get some add-ons. I will be developing iOS apps and probably mac apps too. I would like to get into video editing, I do a lot of large file handling over my LAN network between computers, (which takes FOREVER on my old laptop, and its not the router limitation), and a lot of large file BitTorrent downloading. (which is just slow because of my internet speed.)

My questions are:

1. Should I get the 17 or 15 inch?
2. If I get an external screen protector, will the anti-glare screen be useless?
3. 2.2 or 2.3 GHz processor? What does the GHz do?
4. 4 or 8 GB RAM? What does more RAM do?
5. 750gb 5400 rpm hdd, or 500gb 7200 rpm hdd? Or should I get a solid-state drive? I've had this eMachines laptop for 2 years and the hard drive still works fine, and I use it every single day for hours at a time, and never turn it off. The only thing that doesn't work is the battery.

Thanks!

P.S. I've got a budget of around 3000 dollars, more or less. And This might help.

 

[madisonfaye]

1. Do you need the extra screen space? Or do you want more portability? This one will be mostly up to you. 15" for me personally is the perfect size since its usually on the move, but if it was normally just on my desk I might opt for the 17" (and 15" Hi-Res is amazing!)
2. Anti-glare screen protectors are awful, they blur the screen, make it look dimmer and create a rainbow effect. I have yet to seen a really good one unfortunately
3. A lot of people say 2.2 is more than enough, that you will hardly notice a difference between the 2.2 and 2.3. However, I honestly don't think its worth the money even though I got it haha. Now having it and comparing to others I don't see much difference.
4. I can't really explain RAM, but people say to never buy Apple's RAM upgrade because its like 200% more expensive than doing it yourself (which doesn't void your warranty). Essentially I think it gives you a boost when running multiple programs or more intense programs. I personally went for Apple upgraded 8GB RAM because I am awful with doing things myself lol. So pretty much if you can I'd upgrade that yourself for much cheaper.
5. Everyone swears by SSD, I've seen it in my Dad's Air and I have to say its incredible. His boot time is like 15 seconds. If you have an external HD and can afford the upgrade, I say go for it. For me personally, my logic is that I can upgrade it in the future when they become more cost effective. I got the 750GB, 5400 RPM because I've heard there are noise and heat issues with the 7200 RPM HDs. Can't speak from experience though, but added noise and heat didn't seem worth the tiny speed increase tests report (really its like no difference from the tests I've seen). If you want speed boost, I'd go SSD and maybe just do that aftermarket depending on what size you want. You'd have to talk to people who have them about this though since I'm no expert.


Good luck with your new MBP!!


Edit: If I could re-build my machine with $3000 I'd go for the 15" Hi-Res Antiglare, with 2.2 GHz i7, 8GB RAM, 128 GB SSD. I'd also then buy an external hard drive, and use the remaining money for Apple Care. If you want to do things yourself, maybe just go with 4GB RAM and upgradde yours to 8GB for around $60 (usually on newegg.com they have some nice deals), and then try to get a 256 GB SSD drive from another retailer.

Okay I'm done now hahaha

 

[Prodo123]

Hi-res screen. Everything else is user replaceable and overpriced, or just for vanity (2.2 Ghz -> 2.3 Ghz costs $200, seriously Apple?)

 

[Garbag3man117]

Thanks for your help, but I think you misunderstood me. I meant, if I buy the MacBook from Apple, with the anti glare glass screen installed, and I put a normal screen protector over it, will the screen protector produce glare? Thanks.

Oh, and what are the benefits of apple care?

 

[altecXP]

Thanks for your help, but I think you misunderstood me. I meant, if I buy the MacBook from Apple, with the anti glare glass screen installed, and I put a normal screen protector over it, will the screen protector produce glare? Thanks.

Oh, and what are the benefits of apple care?

Appel care is a great extended warranty service, the geniuses, while .. not that smart, are really good at trying to make sure you have the best experience, and do like trying to help. THey do a good job of taking care of you when they have t send your mac offsite for service.

Some screen protectors are antiglare, but it would be easier to just buy the antiglare screen. Screen protectors can help, but not by a whole lot.

 

[Prodo123]

Thanks for your help, but I think you misunderstood me. I meant, if I buy the MacBook from Apple, with the anti glare glass screen installed, and I put a normal screen protector over it, will the screen protector produce glare? Thanks.

Oh, and what are the benefits of apple care?

Don't put a screen protector over it, period. You'll get more scratches on the glass screen than you would without the protector.
And they don't make a protector for the antiglare at all. Even if they did, then think about this: You're putting a glossy piece of plastic in front of a matte screen, will it be glossy?

And you get 2 more years of Apple's warranty service as well as phone support. If you think you'll need it, or think you're not tech savvy enough to fix certain problems, then you might want to look into it.

 

[madisonfaye]

Oh alright! Well yeah, I wouldn't recommend putting any sort of film on your screen. The only option that wouldn't truly inhibit the viewing experience would be a clear (glossy) one, and that would defeat the purpose of the antiglare.

AppleCare extends your warranty from one year to three. It covers anything thats not related to you damaging your machine (ie. won't cover dropping it, spilling water on it etc). Its nice if 2 years from now your CD drive stops working, they will replace it for you. There are also many cases where peoples computers have recurring issues, and Apple replaced a 3 year old laptop with the current model. If youc an afford AppleCare personally I'd do it Better safe than sorry!

 

[blackbinary]

Hi. I am getting rid of my old eMachines ****-book, and buying a MacBook Pro. I am trying to decide whether or not to get some add-ons. I will be developing iOS apps and probably mac apps too. I would like to get into video editing, I do a lot of large file handling over my LAN network between computers, (which takes FOREVER on my old laptop, and its not the router limitation), and a lot of large file BitTorrent downloading. (which is just slow because of my internet speed.)

My questions are:

1. Should I get the 17 or 15 inch?

Screen space will be at a premium for what your doing. You could get an external monitor to increase the area you have to work with, but that wouldn't be the case when your out and about. Go with the 15" hi-res or the 17". The 17" is only a pound heavier.

2. If I get an external screen protector, will the anti-glare screen be useless?

There is no need for a screen protector, and yes, it may mess with the anti-glare. Certainly if the protector says its anti-glare, then the screen's AG is useless.

3. 2.2 or 2.3 GHz processor? What does the GHz do?

2.2Ghz. The 2.3Ghz is more expensive and does not offer a lot of value for what your doing. People say 'omfg .1 Ghz for $200', but the real difference is the cache size of the 2.3Ghz. Which really won't effect your performance, and is more aimed at professionals.

4. 4 or 8 GB RAM? What does more RAM do?

If your doing video editing, you'll want 8GB. Buy it aftermarket for around $75 instead of $200 from apple.

More ram will give faster access to data. If the data can't fit in ram, and is still on the hard drive, it will take a lot longer to process.

In the case of video editing, you want to fit as much of the video your working on into ram as possible, so that everything works smoothly, including playback.

5. 750gb 5400 rpm hdd, or 500gb 7200 rpm hdd? Or should I get a solid-state drive?

For coding, it doesn't matter at all. It's really only for video editing. So think if your really serious about it.

If you are, the best case would be an SSD, so that even the portion of the video that doesn't fit in ram can be accessed fast, and the transfer from SSD into ram is much faster than a standard HDD.

However, SSDs are rather small in size. You could get a hybrid hard drive, or go with the 500GB 7200 drive.

I've had this eMachines laptop for 2 years and the hard drive still works fine, and I use it every single day for hours at a time, and never turn it off. The only thing that doesn't work is the battery.

Thanks!

P.S. I've got a budget of around 3000 dollars, more or less. And This might help.

So to recap, I'd go with a 15" hi-res with 8GB of third-party ram, and a 500GB 7200 drive if you want to save some money.

Or a 17" 8GB ram, and a hybrid drive.

You can also get an optibay and replace the optical drive with a second hard drive. So you can have an SSD and a HDD. It's what I do and it works well.

 

[Garbag3man117]

Ok, thank you guys for your help. I'm going to go with the 17-inch mbp, with 4 gb ram, 2.2 i7, anti glare hi-res, and 750 gb hdd. I need the extra GB so i can dual boot ubuntu and mac, so i can get used to mac. Can anyone point me to a place to buy an extra 4 gb ram card that will fit it? Thanks!

 

[ABadSanta]

Ok, thank you guys for your help. I'm going to go with the 17-inch mbp, with 4 gb ram, 2.2 i7, anti glare hi-res, and 750 gb hdd. I need the extra GB so i can dual boot ubuntu and mac, so i can get used to mac. Can anyone point me to a place to buy an extra 4 gb ram card that will fit it? Thanks!

Your MBP will come with 2 dimms, so you need to buy 2 4GB dimms.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231342

is what I and many others here use, and it's great.

 

[Garbag3man117]

Okay, that looks good. WAY cheaper than the 200 dollars. Now, my question is, is there any way I can just buy 1 of those to save money? Or, can I buy the Macbook from apple without RAM? Is that RAM card compatible with the stock apple card, or can they not mix?

 

[JronMasteR]

No you can't buy the Macbook Pro without RAM from Apple. You can go with 2x2 GB or 2x4GB. That's your only option, at least if you buy it directly form Apple.

 

[Garbag3man117]

That's not really what I meant, but thanks. I've found a compatible cheap 4GB ram card, thats 40 dollars. Can I have a stock and 3rd party RAM card in the MacBook at the same time? Will it still work?

I know they want money, but the people at Apple are ass holes. It costs 200 dollars for an extra 4 gb RAM card Apple gets their cards from Samsung, and if you buy the exact same card directly from Samsung, its only 50 dollars. And this isn't a different card, its the exact same RAM card that Apple puts in their MacBooks. Apple charges 150 dollars more for installation.

And then they sued Samsung for copyright infringement, when Samsung makes most of their parts. Funny, huh?

 

[Prodo123]

That's not really what I meant, but thanks. I've found a compatible cheap 4GB ram card, thats 40 dollars. Can I have a stock and 3rd party RAM card in the MacBook at the same time? Will it still work?

I know they want money, but the people at Apple are ass holes. It costs 200 dollars for an extra 4 gb RAM card Apple gets their cards from Samsung, and if you buy the exact same card directly from Samsung, its only 50 dollars. And this isn't a different card, its the exact same RAM card that Apple puts in their MacBooks. Apple charges 150 dollars more for installation.

And then they sued Samsung for copyright infringement, when Samsung makes most of their parts. Funny, huh?

You will see diminished performance from mismatched sets like what you are looking into. Getting 2 of the same RAM is always the best.
Your MacBook Pro has Hynix RAM inside, which is really expensive. With decent discounts you could find a good 2x4GB set at $80.
And no, you cannot save money by buying only one RAM. Getting 8GB total is more wallet-friendly than a single 4GB module.

 

[saberahul]

eMachine to MBP - your jaw will literally drop when you notice the difference.

 

[Garbag3man117]

eMachine to MBP - your jaw will literally drop when you notice the difference.

I know. Sometimes I bike 8 miles to best buy just to sit in their apple store to use the mbp's. I have a broken Mac Pro that my friend gave me for christmas. It was used and broke in 2 days. I might want to change my sig lol. But that mac was soooo much faster than my eMachines, I am positive my jaw will drop. The MBP's are probably faster than the pro.

Anyway, can anyone tell me if these RAM cards will fit in the mbp? Apple says its only compatible with 8GBs RAM, but its a lie. It works fine with 16 GB.

I found the cheapest 16GB ram cards, and those are DDR3 1333 MHz PC3 10600 240-pin SDRAM, so they should be compatible. It doesn't state how long the card is. The RAM cards have to be: 67.6mm x 30mm (1.18 inch). That was from the official website here. The MBP I'm getting is a 15 inch early 2011.

I am going to save my money till christmas, and hopefully the prices will have gone down for SSD's and RAM cards and stuff. Maybe even a new MBP model. I'd like to see USB3. Then I'm gonna build me a kick-ass speed demon that I really don't need. I'm also going to sell my laptop with Win ultimate, photoshop, flash, and dreamweaver cs5, visual studio 2010 ultimate, and Vegas pro 2010 for hopefully 500 dollars. That would be nice, even though the actual hardware is ****. Gonna craigslist it and when I meet the buyer, readyboost the performance for eye candy lol. Make it look fast.

 

[Garbag3man117]

Bump

Anyone know about those cards?

 

[george-brooks]

Anyone know about those cards?

Those won't fit, they're for a desktop. Cheapest place I have found to get RAM is here.

 

[NZed]

Hi. I am getting rid of my old eMachines ****-book, and buying a MacBook Pro. I am trying to decide whether or not to get some add-ons. I will be developing iOS apps and probably mac apps too. I would like to get into video editing, I do a lot of large file handling over my LAN network between computers, (which takes FOREVER on my old laptop, and its not the router limitation), and a lot of large file BitTorrent downloading. (which is just slow because of my internet speed.)

My questions are:

1. Should I get the 17 or 15 inch?
2. If I get an external screen protector, will the anti-glare screen be useless?
3. 2.2 or 2.3 GHz processor? What does the GHz do?
4. 4 or 8 GB RAM? What does more RAM do?
5. 750gb 5400 rpm hdd, or 500gb 7200 rpm hdd? Or should I get a solid-state drive? I've had this eMachines laptop for 2 years and the hard drive still works fine, and I use it every single day for hours at a time, and never turn it off. The only thing that doesn't work is the battery.

Thanks!

P.S. I've got a budget of around 3000 dollars, more or less. And This might help.

17 inch for screen real estate. 15 for more portability. 2.3GHZ
dont opt in for the extra 8gb when ordering with apple, newegg sells them much much cheaper. why not 750gb 7200rpm momentus XT? Its a mixture of both SSD and normal disk.

 

[snaky69]

That's not really what I meant, but thanks. I've found a compatible cheap 4GB ram card, thats 40 dollars. Can I have a stock and 3rd party RAM card in the MacBook at the same time? Will it still work?

I know they want money, but the people at Apple are ass holes. It costs 200 dollars for an extra 4 gb RAM card Apple gets their cards from Samsung, and if you buy the exact same card directly from Samsung, its only 50 dollars. And this isn't a different card, its the exact same RAM card that Apple puts in their MacBooks. Apple charges 150 dollars more for installation.

And then they sued Samsung for copyright infringement, when Samsung makes most of their parts. Funny, huh?

You don't seem to understand how most laptops ship when RAM is concerned.

MBP's have to slots for RAM, and they are both filled when you buy it, whether you buy it with 4 or 8GB, as RAM works faster in what's called dual-channel mode(a matched pair of RAM sticks).

Therefore, if you want 8GB, you're going to have to buy 2x4GB, as you'll need to pull out the old RAM(2x4GB) and put in the new one.

 

[maflynn]

1. Should I get the 17 or 15 inch?

Do you need the screen real estate, the larger laptop is not really going to be all that mobile. I recommend the 15" and if you need the screen real estate purchase the hi-res version.

2. If I get an external screen protector, will the anti-glare screen be useless?

Save your money there is no need for such a thing on laptops

3. 2.2 or 2.3 GHz processor? What does the GHz do?

2.2, Ghz is the frequency in which the CPU executes an instruction, so its executing a computer instruction every 2.2 billion times a second (prefetch and other cpu methods of improving performance aside)

4. 4 or 8 GB RAM? What does more RAM do?

Start off with 4 and see if you need more later depending on your usage patterns and software.

5. 750gb 5400 rpm hdd, or 500gb 7200 rpm hdd? Or should I get a solid-state drive? I've had this eMachines laptop for 2 years and the hard drive still works fine, and I use it every single day for hours at a time, and never turn it off. The only thing that doesn't work is the battery.

SSDs offer you great speed but at lower capacities, they're more durable then hard drive in so far as the have no mechanical parts. That's not to say hard drives are not durable, but they are mechanical and stuff can happen. I'd recommend SSD if your budget and storage needs can accommodate it.