What's the better Macbook config for the $1,600 price point?

[eifer]

The standard Macbook for 1,599 (2.4ghz, 2gb ram, 250gig hd)
or
The base Macbook with 4 gb ram, 2.0 ghz cpu, and 250gig hd.

In the past, ram has seemed to be OS X's bottleneck, so I wonder if the money is better spent on the extra ram rather than the extra ghz. Backlit keyboard is not a factor.

 

[mobilehavoc]

The standard Macbook for 1,599 (2.4ghz, 2gb ram, 250gig hd)
or
The base Macbook with 4 gb ram, 2.0 ghz cpu, and 250gig hd.

In the past, ram has seemed to be OS X's bottleneck, so I wonder if the money is better spent on the extra ram rather than the extra ghz. Backlit keyboard is not a factor.

I got the new Macbook 2.4ghz WITH 4GB of DDR3 RAM for $1620. No brainer for me.

 

[bluefiberoptics]

Go for the higher processor. You can always upgrade memory later.

 

[mcdj]

I got the new Macbook 2.4ghz WITH 4GB of DDR3 RAM for $1620. No brainer for me.

huh? you got 2gb of RAM for $20?

 

[eifer]

I got the new Macbook 2.4ghz WITH 4GB of DDR3 RAM for $1620. No brainer for me.

w/ education or military discount?

 

[neiltc13]

Most people won't be able to notice the difference between 2.0 and 2.4GHz processors in everyday operation. It depends entirely on what you're using the computer for, but MacWorld's benchmarks have shown that there is little to separate them in performance.

As for RAM - do you REALLY need 4GB RAM?

My advice to just about everyone who is buying a MacBook right now is to get the 2.0GHz model and upgrade the hard drive yourself.

 

[mobilehavoc]

w/ education or military discount?

EPP discount...6% on Macbook and 8% on RAM. Good stuff.

 

[lermal]

EPP discount...6% on Macbook and 8% on RAM. Good stuff.

I got the same.

 

[mcdj]

EPP discount...6% on Macbook and 8% on RAM. Good stuff.

that doesn't really help the OP now does it?