Mac Book Pro

Interested to hear recommendations for the hard drive since they have a 160 gig that spins at 5400 and one that is 7200. For desktops and externals 7200 is always the norm but since this will be my first lap top, I would love some recommendations. I figured I'd go for the 2 gigs ram and then put in 2 more once I got it and save some money over the cost of Apple ram.

Steve B)

Steve

Pls keep computer related posts (unless it's NLE based) to the unrequited gear forum. It's easier for people to search for topics etc.

Thanks

Drew

I've been happy with the 5400 in my 1st gen Macbook pro, but I've just upgraded to a 7200, more for capacity then speed. It does make a difference in speed. Not huge but enough to be worthwhile. Just make sure that you don't change your mind. Changing the disk will void your warranty, and it's not easy at all.

I've got a 80Gb external as well, which I use to archive everything while traveling, just in case someone decides to nick my laptop. Laptop can be replaced, but not the images.

On the memory, unfortunately Apple provide two 1Gb SoDimms instead of one 2Gb. But you're still ahead of the game if you buy replacements. Again I'd wait until you're out of warranty before eBaying the old ones, as Apple may insist that the machine is returned to "as shipped" state before servicing it.

Derek

Interested to hear recommendations for the hard drive since they have a 160 gig that spins at 5400 and one that is 7200. For desktops and externals 7200 is always the norm but since this will be my first lap top, I would love some recommendations. I figured I'd go for the 2 gigs ram and then put in 2 more once I got it and save some money over the cost of Apple ram.

Steve B)

Interested to hear recommendations for the hard drive since they have a 160 gig that spins at 5400 and one that is 7200. For desktops and externals 7200 is always the norm but since this will be my first lap top, I would love some recommendations. I figured I'd go for the 2 gigs ram and then put in 2 more once I got it and save some money over the cost of Apple ram.

Steve B)

That is pretty much what I did. I likely would have gone with the 7200rpm drive if it wasn't for adding a 3 week delay to my order. Its just a matter of deciding if the extra IO is worth the price...it was worth the price for me, just not the wait. I now carry an external FW800 7200rpm drive with me to help, my Aperture library sits on there (as well as a dozen virtual machines for Fusion).

I also bought the memory elsewhere, I put it in 2 days after getting the laptop so its at 4GB now. I bought mine from Other World Computing (macsales.com) and highly recommend them.

Changing a disk drive certainly voids the warranty on the factory disk drive. It doesn't necessarily void the warranty on other problems, though it may cause an argument with Apple over it. It's a fact that MBP drives are hard to replace. The keyboard is even harder!

Spindle speed is only one factor in disk performance. A 250GB 5400 will provide overall performance as good as a 120GB 7200. The highest capacity 7200 is most likely the fastest at any given time though. I'm anxious for the 320GB drives to come out.

Craig,

Have you heard when the 320 is due out?

Steve

They are Toshiba products and their announcement claimed production in November. Unfortunately, you don't where the initial shipments will go so it's hard to say when they'll be available for upgrades.

I'm also anxious for the new "hybrid" SSD/spinning spindle drives. These should offer some interesting performance benefits, assuming their caching algorithm works well...otherwise it will have to wait for the OS to decide what should sit on the SSD side of it.

You are right, the RPM of the drive is only a part of the equation and the perpendicular storage format helps increase performance on the slower drives...but in the enterprise storage world, RPM pretty much always win for all out IO performance.

Hey Steve.

No prob re: RAM for your new laptop. Apple's costs a fortune, but it's typically identical to memory from other reputable manufacturers, and as long as you know the type of RAM your MBPro accepts, you should be fine with shopping around for a cheaper RAM chip (e.g., Tigerdirect, etc. ). The manual should tell you.

When I got my Powerbook G4 2yrs ago, I knew the exact type of RAM chip I needed, and the guy at the store where I bought the PB (who installed the RAM) was an Apple certified technician. As long as they're certified, if anything were to go wrong with the "non-Apple" RAM they installed I'm pretty sure it'd be seen as their fault, and therefore it should be covered by the warranty.

My .05.

Oh, how was SDUFEX?

Nick

Hey Nick,

It just seems odd that if you wanted to use 3rd party ram, (I always either buy ram from Crucial or Ramjet) that Apple has seen to make you remove the 2 1gig ram chips and then have to buy 4 gigs of ram (2+2).

If they come with 2 you should be able to buy 2 gigs of ram to bring it up to 4, instead of 4 gigs. Did I just make any sense?

The film festival went off brilliantly. The new theater topped the old(and that was pretty darn good) with its HD projection system and a really state of the art sound system as well. The quality of films has risen incredibly over the years making it much harder to compete. Because I had been so busy this past year, this was the first year I did not submit or have anything shown since we started this festival 8 years ago. I'd better get busy for next year. Some members of the committee decided to move next years festival up to next Aug 22, so the submissions deadline will be moved up as well, probably to June. I will get the info out as soon as the details are cemented.

Steve B)

Hey Nick,

It just seems odd that if you wanted to use 3rd party ram, (I always either buy ram from Crucial or Ramjet) that Apple has seen to make you remove the 2 1gig ram chips and then have to buy 4 gigs of ram (2+2).

If they come with 2 you should be able to buy 2 gigs of ram to bring it up to 4, instead of 4 gigs. Did I just make any sense?

Hey Steve.

Thanks for the update on SDUFEX, sounds like this new location was a winner!

Re: the RAM thing, well you're right, on SOME Apple models, in order to increase dramatically the RAM, one has to get rid of most or all of the previous RAM, typically because (particularly in a laptop) space is at premium.

It sounds like there's only 2 RAM slots in your MBP, and if each of them is already filled with a 1Gb stick each, then you woulnd't be able to add any new ram UNLESS you toss both the current ones and you buy two 2Gb sticks. (you can't have a 1gb + 2Gb configuration, because typically they need to be in PAIRS of the same size, to be "seen" by the processor). Some models (e.g., iMac) are a lot more flexible when it comes to ram, because there's more space on the motherboard allocated to RAM slots. In laptops instad, every millimiter is taken up by something, so choices and space are more limited.

I'm sure you could always buy the 2Gb + 2Gb of ram, and then sell the two 1gb of RAM on ebay as "mint"...

Hope that helps,

Nick

Macbook Pros can have different sizes of memory modules. 1GB + 2GB works fine.

Macbook Pros can have different sizes of memory modules. 1GB + 2GB works fine.

I confess to knowing little 'bout computers so I may crash and burn here but when I bought my Macbook Pro, I was told that the maximum that could be fitted was a total of 3Gb. I had asked for 4Gb.

Hey, 'aint' Leopard a hoot?

John, that's for older generation MacBook Pros, the current one (Intel 2.2, 2.4 and 2.6ghz processors, Santa Rosa chipset) accepts a maximum of 4gb. Here is the info from the Apple page:

Installed memory: 2GB (two SO-DIMMs) of PC2-5300 (667MHz) DDR2 memory (two SO-DIMM slots support up to 4GB)

Rocha's right. In addition, older MBPs could have 4GB installed but only used 3GB of it. Oddly, the machine was reportedly faster in that configuration.

I got mine from a independent Mac store. 4 Gigs of RAM installed for I believe 400$ less than the Mac store price.

spot on about buying third party RAM - far cheaper than Apple RAM and does the identical job..... Ramjet & Other World Computing have been my choice over the years and I can't begin to the think of the savings I've made as all my gear (8 in total) is fully RAM'd up....

It can't be stated clearly enough, though, research the topic for a good few hours to make sure you're about to stick the right RAM in your computer - there' tonnes and tonnes of different specced memory modules out there and the wrong one could totally ruin things for you.....

Macsales.com and a few other websites have big long dropdown menus of each and every Mac model released in the last few years and so by finding your one, you will be prompted to buy only the correct RAM...

installation is a serious no-brainer... instructions should have come with the machine in the user manual...

good luck

Macsales.com and a few other websites have big long dropdown menus of each and every Mac model released in the last few years and so by finding your one, you will be prompted to buy only the correct RAM...

I second Other World Computing/Macsales.com. Have bought so much RAM from them through the years for all my Macs and it has been solid. Had one chip that was bad and they took care of it right away.

When I have a problem I always go to my Mac guru who has worked for Apple as a trainer for years. He doesn't work for one of the Apple stores but is much higher up on the Apple chain. He, as well as Ken Stone have always recommended either ram from Crucial or Ramjet.

http://www.ramjet.com/

http://www.crucial.com/index.aspx?gclid=cp...cfsfaagodkrnu-g

I have never had a problem yet by following their advice. I can't say that I know what the difference is between well made ram and its opposite but I've had no troubles. Plus, their cost is significantly below Apple's

Steve B)

I highly recommend Crucial. I used to buy from cheapie places, but since switching to a Mac Pro and Macbook, I've used higher-end RAM. I've had problems with cheap RAM that passes RAM tests, but still fails intermittently.

Don't skimp on RAM quality!