New Apple MacBook Pros

My new MacPro should be coming in next week and I will be getting the Mac Book Pro shortly thereafter. However, although I will have the full Studio 2 installed in the Power Mac, I will just install FCP, Motion, Compressor, and DVD Studio Pro into the laptop. I really won't need Soundtrack with all its loops, nor Live Type with all its and which I can do a better Text job in Motion with, or Color which I haven't begun to really use. Lots of room can be saved. I'll need to get a new field external for the media files tho as I don't like having them on a boot drive.

Steve B)

For large things (video/audio) I would usually attach an ExpressCard/SATA Drive or FW800 drive and the laptop with the 5400RPM works fine in actual use.

 

I only have two Gigs of RAM and a slower MacBook Pro so enjoy the machine and do not worry about the drive too much

Thanks Drew, yea I tend to worry about everything computer-wise......

Your words were reassuring - yup even though the 7200/200GB Hitachi drive has really good reviews I opted for more space with the 5400/250GB, even though the extra space seems like overkill in 3 years it might not (but then the processor may be way too slow so ya never know...). I thought it was interesting though that if you tend to fill up the drive a bit then the slower drive with more free space is faster. Learned something.

Also I didn't even know what SATA, etc was till this compter shopping. Actually I just have a vague idea - I need to define it more closely - but it looks like a faster way than FW800 to hook up extra HD space?

But Drew if I shouldn't worry too much about what drive I got now --- well what then will I have to worry about???

Thanks a bunch, Carol

Carol, to speed things up, you can RAID 0 stripe your 2 drives.

Then you can worry about getting a backup drive.

Also I didn't even know what SATA, etc was till this compter shopping. Actually I just have a vague idea - I need to define it more closely - but it looks like a faster way than FW800 to hook up extra HD space?

Just another cable, but faster [Also a type of drive] Since more computers now are SATA, the SATA drives are coming out more often, in larger sizes and lesser prices than IDE drives. (The Sata drives can also be found or placed in FW400/800/USB2 enclosures designed to hold SATA drives.)

But Drew if I shouldn't worry too much about what drive I got now --- well what then will I have to worry about???

 

Thanks a bunch, Carol

Guess you can start with these:

1.) Will there be another Rocky movie?

2.) Does chewing lose its flavor on the bed post overnight?

3.) Will there be another Rambo movie?

4.) How many angels really dance on the head of a pin?

5.) Will Van Halen be good without Michael Anthony on Bass?

6.) How much wood would a woodchuck chuck?

7.) Will there be another Jaws movie?

8.) Will the academy somehow figure out a way to take back Scorsese's Oscar

9.) What was the last episode of The Sopranos about

Carol, to speed things up, you can RAID 0 stripe your 2 drives.

Then you can worry about getting a backup drive.

Yea (other Drew.. B) ..), I heard about RAID, didn't Eric do this? Not sure how it is done but I'm sure I can find info if I'm ready to ask? Have you done this?

I have a number of backup drives, portable firewire ones I travel with and FW800 Lacies on my desk. Are you talking about a different sort of backup? I appreciate any sort of data and experiences - I guess this SATA is an option also if needed. Thx, C

Guess you can start with these:

 

1.) Will there be another Rocky movie?

2.) Does chewing lose its flavor on the bed post overnight?

3.) Will there be another Rambo movie?

4.) How many angels really dance on the head of a pin?

5.) Will Van Halen be good without Michael Anthony on Bass?

6.) How much wood would a woodchuck chuck?

7.) Will there be another Jaws movie?

8.) Will the academy somehow figure out a way to take back Scorsese's Oscar

9.) What was the last episode of The Sopranos about

Yes, really the thing I'm most worried about (instead of my computer drive), right at this moment is:

"Is Dr Who going to quit regenerating during my lifetime?"

What a blow that would be if he was no more........??????

Thanks a lot, Carol

Yep. I did it:

http://echeng.com/journal/2007/04/26/320gb...-0-macbook-pro/

It's fast, and I have 320GB, but you have to be careful and back the thing up often because it doubles your chance of drive failure.

Since then, 7200rpm 160GB drives have come out. I'm using 2 x 5400rpm, and *wish* I had 2 x 7200rpm.

WoW Eric that is cool!!! B)

Yea, I don't think I'll do this unless I really feel the need for speed........., you took the burner out didn't you?

And yes that Hitachi 7200/200GB HD looked great and tempting but I still opted for the larger Hitachi 5400/250GB, opting for a bit more battery life, a little less heat, etc. Maybe I should have gone with the 7200 - I heard several things on it - the top two that I believed were that the 7200 in the laptop didn't really make that much difference in performance - like a 7200 does on a desktop for instance (and depended greatly on which brand of 7200 drive you got, the Hitachi 7200/200GB seems to be the fastest and the Seagate 7200/160GB that Apple uses a lot may not be much faster in many ways than the better 5400 drives); and the fact that when the drives get more full of data anyway the speed differences are minimal. I went for the biggest drive I could with the plan of keeping at least 50-75+ GBs free all the time - and backing up regularly of course. The mistake I made with my Powerbook 80GB drive was filling it up too much with applications and I had hardly any space to work much less free disk space for Photoshop, etc.

But then I've heard from side by side tests that the 7200s are much more snappy and it is noticeable even to consumers. I'm sure you know a lot more about it than me!!

Yes Eric I'm sure you want two of those 7200s and be sure that in no time at all I'll be wanting something updated in my computer also! I just hope the 4GB of memory I just got doesn't get antiquated too quickly. There is talk that Leopard will demand a minimum of 2GB to run, probably not entirely true but it will probably be required to run well?

Thanks for the pic and well done!!, Carol

Wow, now you guys got me thinking about this HD upgrade... I have only the stock 120gb on mine and use an external 120gb for photo storage/backup. Carol where did you do your upgrade? At a regular Apple store? I didn't want to miss my warranty.

Luiz

Historically, once a hard drive gets near double the capacity of its faster spinning cousin, it is essentially as fast. Today there was announced a 320GB 5400rpm drive that will fit in the Apple notebooks. I suspect that drive will be as fast as the 160GB and possibly 200GB 7200rpm drives available today.

The other advantage of using two drives as Eric does is the ability for the system to perform two IOs simultaneously. For single user systems, there is not a lot of parallelism occurring but two pending IOs is common.

I've never been a huge fan of the 7200rpm notebook drives because they always come at a capacity penalty. I upgraded my factory 160GB 5400rpm drive to 250 and the performance is better. The 200GB 7200 is probably better still, but not enough to give up 1/5 of the capacity for me. No matter how big a hard drive is, we always fill it up. My desktop now has 6 750GB drives in it. :-(

Thanks for all the data, very interesting!! Technology always keeps you guessing!!!

Luiz, I'd just wait until your 1 yr warranty is up and get Eric or someone to help you do it yourself!

I can't do it myself so I had an apple authorized reseller do my hard drive upgrade on my new machine (PowerMax in Oregon) so it wouldn't mess up the warranty. The computer is still warrantied through Apple for 1 year, the HD is warrantied through Hitachi for 3 years. Only downside is I have to send Hitachi HD if that is the problem instead of everything being covered by Apple. Not a huge problem.

I'm sure Eric put his RAID thing together himself but MCE provides kits to do the RAID thing yourself or have an authorized center do it, maybe I'll do it if it becomes "vogue" in the future - ha ha!!! :

Description of "ultimate mac"

http://www.aftercapture.com/pdfs/4/ac8_DreamSystem.pdf

I looked up MCE auth service centers and got two in Honolulu, they would also do other manuf upgrades, might be good people to ask ?s of and they are near you.

http://www.mcetech.com/resellers.html#HI

Later, Carol

Rob Galbraith has a useful evaluation of the LED display on the new Macbooks for Photographers:

http://www.robgalbraith.com/bins/content_p...cid=7-8741-9027

Alex

Alex,

I found it very informative and interesting. Thanks for posting it.

steve

Does anyone know if Apple intend to release a 17inch MacBook Pro with LED screen - they have obviously upgraded the 13 and 15 inch versions but the 17inch...?