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tamedebaser · Feb 19, 2006, 09:10 PM

Hi,

Long time reader, first time poster. I am writing this on my 867 mhz 12 inch Powerbook which has a few problems and is starting to get long in the teeth, so I've decided to upgrade to a Macbook Pro. I'm gonna be ordering soon, and can't wait to work on a nicer, faster machine (in just "3-4 weeks")!

I do have a few questions. I have made a tentative decision to go with the 1.83 ghz model for a few reasons. First, I'm willing to start off with 512 mb ram then add a 1 gb stick in a few months, to spread out some cost. Secondly, I don't see a big advantage to the extra VRAM since I don't run an external monitor nor play games. So then it becomes a big upgrade price just to go up by 167 mhz (albeit x 2).

My question then becomes this: I conceptually like the idea of a faster HD, particularly for the iLife stuff which uses the HDD pretty heavily, but is the 100 gig 7200 rpm drive worth the upgrade price given that I'm sticking with the slower processor speed? I do know that RAM is usually the best upgrade, but since that can be added later, I'd be more interested in the HDD upgrade for now as that's harder to upgrade later on.

So, is ordering the 1.83 ghz configuration with the 7200 rpm drive putting my money in the wrong place? Keeping in mind that budget won't allow for the 2 ghz model with the faster HDD.

Thanks for any help!

toneloco28 · Feb 19, 2006, 09:19 PM

In the 1.83ghz model w/512 ram the bottleneck for the system is going to be the ram. The new intels go through ram like crazy when using rosetta, so I would be more concerned with getting an extra gig stick before a faster hard drive. The ram is a user upgradeable part however; so this may factor into your decision, as if you wanted to spring for a faster hard drive later, you would have to take it to an apple certified tech within the first year.

The faster hard drive will come into play when working on large video files. or moving data around, etc.. "Conceptually" it sounds good but if you don't have a pointed need for this upgrade, I think the 5400 hard drive will work out just fine.

Timetheus · Feb 19, 2006, 10:55 PM

First off, I agrre about the RAM, it's definitly a bigger factor all around. But the RAM can be upgraded easily, Hard Drives cannot (it will likely be possible, but if it's anything like the powerbooks.....)

Having used a 4200 RPM G4, and a 5400 RPM G4 of comparable stats I can say that that jump, at least, is significant, especially when using iLife apps like iMovie and iPhoto. things are just "zippier." That is to say things loaded noticeably faster.

I personally ordered the 100GB 7200RPM because I felt like a 5400RPM would be the only remaining bottleneck once I had upgraded the RAM. I think it's worth the $200 or the extra space and speed, especially given how hard of an upgrade that is. Given the number of people who upgraded their machines in various froums I've read, a lot of people seem to agree with me. I say go for it if you can afford it. - And definitely add RAM as soon as you can thereafter - that's easy at least.

cambro · Feb 20, 2006, 07:31 AM

Originally Posted by Timetheus

First off, I agrre about the RAM, it's definitly a bigger factor all around. But the RAM can be upgraded easily, Hard Drives cannot (it will likely be possible, but if it's anything like the powerbooks.....)

EXACTLY...

I would always get the HD you want when ordering...far more expensive and far more difficult to upgrade later.

RAM can be slapped in a month or two after you save your pennies.

terigox · Feb 20, 2006, 08:17 AM

Originally Posted by toneloco28

In the 1.83ghz model w/512 ram the bottleneck for the system is going to be the ram. The new intels go through ram like crazy when using rosetta, so I would be more concerned with getting an extra gig stick before a faster hard drive. The ram is a user upgradeable part however; so this may factor into your decision, as if you wanted to spring for a faster hard drive later, you would have to take it to an apple certified tech within the first year.

The faster hard drive will come into play when working on large video files. or moving data around, etc.. "Conceptually" it sounds good but if you don't have a pointed need for this upgrade, I think the 5400 hard drive will work out just fine.

I tend to agree with toneloco28, I've never been one for big fast hard driver either, thats what my NAS is for

But I would take a RAM upgrade over a hard drive upgrade, probablly because I dont do gigantic file transfers. I'd rather my system be faster multitasking while I'm working rather then when I'm saving stuff, just my opinion though

popstand · Feb 20, 2006, 08:38 AM

Looking online at speed test comparisons, I have found that there is a very significant performance jump between 4200-5400 RPM drives, but a much less dramatic jump when going from 5400 to 7200. Tom's hardware has good comparisons. I believe this is the rule of thumb. Yes, the hard drive will be the only bottleneck left in your system, but you have to decide if it's significant enough to justify the cost. I personally prefer space over a small incremental speed increase, so I went for the 5400 120GB drive.

tamedebaser · Feb 20, 2006, 09:11 AM

Just to keep the discussion geared to where I was aiming, I just want to point out that my plan is to wait a couple of months for the type of RAM that the macbook pro uses to come down in price, then add a 1 gig stick for what it would cost to get a 512 mb stick from Apple now. That upgrade will happen, so it doesn't really impact on my HD/CPU choice right now.

The real issue is whether it's false economy to get the 1.83 ghz CPU with the 7200 rpm hard drive. My wife and I do a fair amount of iMovie/iDVD/iPhoto work, and I'll be using garageband more with a more responsive machine (both the lack of HD space and the speed of my current machine have made me abandon garageband recently). So, considering that the budget will allow for either an upgrade to the 2.0 machine or to the 7200 rpm HDD, which would be a smarter choice?

Also, wanted to mention that I went to Tom's Hardware page and quickly went through his 7200 rpm HDD review, and he seemed to find that the performance was very good on both Hitachi and Seagate drives, with Hitachi being a bit quicker for normal laptop use.

Thanks for the continuing help...it's helpful and interesting to read the different viewpoints.

terigox · Feb 20, 2006, 09:41 AM

Whoops! Yea I definitly wasn't really answering the right question

Again, I would personally take the processor over the HDD.

In regards to the Tom's review, do we know what manufacturer of drives Apple uses generally?

tamedebaser · Feb 20, 2006, 10:30 AM

In my 12 incher, there's a Fujitsu drive. But that was quite a while ago. From what I've read, only Seagate and Hitachi are making 7200 rpm 100 gig drives at the moment, so it would be one of those two.

I guess a fair option might be to take the 2 ghz, then downgrade the ram to 2 512meg sticks to save a hundred bucks...then possibly up the HD to 7200 rpm, keeping the price the same as the base configuration. But I'm not sure that I want to spend that much...the one thing I'm sure of is to get at least a 5400 rpm 100 gig HDD. The rest is tough to decide...

And, believe it or not, I'm under time pressure from my wife, who wants to get working on some DVD's since the superdrive on my powerbook doesn't work properly since the 'book took a spill...due to getting yanked off the table by the power chord (I'm looking forward to the magsafe connector avoiding a repeat of that catastrophe!).

parsec_kadets · Feb 20, 2006, 03:04 PM

You also need to consider that the faster hard drive may have a negative impact on your battery life. Keeping that disk spinning at 7200RPM requires more power than it does to spin it at 5400RPM. That's why most laptops come with the slower drive to begin with. If it were me, I would take the extra 20GB or the slightly faster CPU.

tamedebaser · Feb 23, 2006, 09:05 PM

Just a quick message to let you guys know what I decided to do. You'll see it in my sig...my 1.83 ghz MBP with 7200 rpm hard drive is on its way! I decided to go for the HD upgrade over the processor upgrade mainly due to the price difference. Getting the 2 ghz in any form exceeded my budget, so the decision was pretty easy in the end.

The extra $100 for a faster HD seemed to be a reasonable price to pay, particularly to speed up the DVD encoding time (which seems to be when that hard drive is really crunching!). And if the $100 wasn't worth it...well, I guess we'll never really know, will we? But at least I won't be wondering "what if".

Thanks for all the help! Now, if our MBP (ship date of March 21st) can just get here as soon as possible, ours will be a happy household back into the production of infrequently watched and intermittently entertaining DVD's!