[joec]

What do you think of the following configurations? The prices are before tax. I will use it for MS Office, Internet, Email, Edit phones using Photoshop Elements. My thinking is to move photos to external drive and only keep the nice ones on my MacBook HD. Also, are there a lot of difference using Photoshop retriving photos from external HD vs. the internal HD?

1. White MacBook 1GB RAM + 80GB HD standard configuration + 120GB external HD -> Total around $1420

2. White MacBook 1GB RAM + 120GB HD upagrade -> Total $1449

3. White MacBook 2GB RAM + 80GB HD -> Total $1474. Buy HD when I need more space.

Want to keep purchasing price around $1500.

[shifuimam]

External drives will have slightly slower response times. However, they also have the benefit of taking your data to any computer. My recommendation would be to get option #1, except get your own hard drive and hard drive case. A 120GB drive and a USB or FireWire case will cost total less than what you'd pay for the drive and case already assembled. Not only that, but you're guaranteed to get the full warranty on the hard drive (get a Seagate, which has a five-year warranty) if you put an "internal" drive in an external case.

Just my $0.02.

[digitalscrap]

I vote for option 3, because that is exactly what I purchased. The 2GB of RAM will benefit you more immediately than the HD space. I just purchased a 250GB Lacie Mini drive to use with the AirPort Extreme (n) for backups and to keep data that isn't critical I have on my Macbook. Even with everything I need on my Macbook (plus some movies) I still have over 40GB free. I am going to purchase a 100GB or so OWC pocket drive whenever I decide I need more portable storage. The Macbook is insanely good with 2GB of RAM.

[mduell]

I'd go with #3 and add a 250G external drive when you can scrape up another $100.