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YoungTurk · Jun 17, 2001, 02:55 PM

Anyone with a 10 gig iBook who wishes they had waited for a 20? I know I am going to get the DVD model, but can't decide whether to get the stock 10 gig or CTO a 20. I do a lot of DV but also have a PM 733 with the Superdrive, as well as a portable 20 gig Firewire HD that I can connect my mini-DV Panasonic to.

What do you think?

Peter

-Q- · Jun 17, 2001, 03:20 PM

So far, 10 GB has been pretty sufficient. I've loaded all my apps and games and still have about 4 GB left for storage. But I don't do any DV work on the iBook, so I would imagine that 10GB might be a little cramped if I were.

And once more apps become carbonized, I can unload OS 9 and free up another GB...

But right now, 10 GB is good. YMMV.

Q

[ 06-17-2001: Message edited by: -Q- ]

Titleist · Jun 17, 2001, 04:32 PM

I find that 10 gigs is just fine. I shoot DV and 10 gigs is a LOT of video that could be dumped on to the drive. 20 gigs would be nice, but I don't feel hindered at ALL! I dump entire DVDs on to the 10 gig drive, and it doesn't chaffe at all. If you can go for the 20, get it. Otherwise the 10 feels great. I'm a real poweruser, and I don't feel that constricted at all. I mean, hell, you've got a G4. The iBook is NOT a desktop, it's meant to supplement your desktop. Invest in the G4, get a bigger HD if you need it. Otherwise, the iBook is great.

Voch · Jun 17, 2001, 07:30 PM

I'm doing pretty well with the 10GB drive (5GB free). I have some stuff that I rarely use on my beige G3 (6GB HD) and get to it via wireless file sharing (AirPort is soooo cool).

Voch

Chimpmaster · Jun 17, 2001, 07:41 PM

When i bought my indigo ibook it was quite expnsive to upgrade from the 10gb to 20gb.

It has come down in price however, and is a realistic option now. I reckon go for it - you can never have too much disk space.

10gb is enough now but maybe not in a year or 2 - esp if you like your video, mp3s and games.

Id get more diskspace over a burner if it was a toss up. Ibook dvd w/20gb would be great and if it was a toss up between the cdrw and something else, you can always get an external burner later. Get airport too - its very cool - and take advantage of the half price ram offer. 128 is not enough.

Milo Waye · Jun 17, 2001, 08:49 PM

[QUOTE]Originally posted by YoungTurk:
[qb]Anyone with a 10 gig iBook who wishes they had waited for a 20? I know I am going to get the DVD model, but can't decide whether to get the stock 10 gig or CTO a 20. I do a lot of DV but also have a PM 733 with the Superdrive, as well as a portable 20 gig Firewire HD that I can connect my mini-DV Panasonic to.

What do you think?
If you can wait, get the BTO. Your security blanket then will be longer and wider, and just as light. I got the 10 GB drive. I went to Elite Computers this weekend to see if they'd swap out for the 9.5mm 30 GB Toshiba I have. They wouldn't do it. Now I gotta decide whether to get a FW enclosure or sell the drive.

[ 06-17-2001: Message edited by: Milo Waye ]

HarshPlanet5 · Jun 17, 2001, 09:09 PM

I just ordered my iBook last friday.... and decided to go for the 20gig. I plan to do some DV with it..... not heavy stuff.... but I figured with that...and the fact that I like to load up on the MP3's.... plus all of unix stuff that I play with.... I'd like to be safe..... I figured it would be worth the wait of the BTO..... Hey..... it's supposed to be "my life... to go".

My only gripe is that the 20G option from apple is too expensive.... but I guess I wimped out from changing my own drive cause I got it anyway....

Jun 17, 2001, 09:53 PM

I played around with my sister-in-law's new iBook with a 10gig HD, and downloaded a bunch of programs for her and had about 3-4 gig left on the HD (with OS X).

My new iBook (with 10gig) is on it's way and now I wish I would've ordered the 20gig. I thought it would be easy to swap out HD's, like in my Wallstreet, so I was going to put the 10gig in a Firewire enclosure and put in a new 20gig myself. After looking at some of the web sites that showed the actual install procedure, I'm kinda wishing I would've got the 20gig pre-installed. Maybe if I get courageous, I'll try opening it up, but I wanna see more people do it first. I guess a 20gig ext. Firewire HD isn't a bad option.

macusrX · Jun 17, 2001, 10:21 PM

i know yesterday when i looked at a combo at CompUSA, it had the 10 (9.36 actual) drive. it only had 6.34GB left in stock format (all os 9 software, os x, and apps like nanosaur,etc.) this definitely is making me think that 20 is the way to go!

nigeljedi · Jun 17, 2001, 10:35 PM

I just ordered the 10GB, CD model and I wish I had the $$$ for at least the DVD model with 20GB. Oh, well. I'm not doing enough graphics stuff that I can't transfer it to CD with my Zip CD burner.
Do wish I had the 20GB model...can't stand cramped space...

oexecbmug · Jun 17, 2001, 10:36 PM

Well when I called the Apple store to change my order to 20 gb I was told by Miss Genealogy, that it had been shipped and next day the Fed Ex status confirmed. Have iBook and now I am hanging with 2.5 gb to go. up to 20 if you can...

HC

Jun 17, 2001, 10:59 PM

I played around with my sister-in-law's new iBook with a 10gig HD, and downloaded a bunch of programs for her and had about 3-4 gig left on the HD (with OS X).

My new iBook (with 10gig) is on it's way and now I wish I would've ordered the 20gig. I thought it would be easy to swap out HD's, like in my Wallstreet, so I was going to put the 10gig in a Firewire enclosure and put in a new 20gig myself. After looking at some of the web sites that showed the actual install procedure, I'm kinda wishing I would've got the 20gig pre-installed. Maybe if I get courageous, I'll try opening it up, but I wanna see more people do it first. I guess a 20gig ext. Firewire HD isn't a bad option.

murbot · Jun 17, 2001, 11:15 PM

Of course everyone's needs are different - I intend on using my iBook as my only machine, so drive space was a little more important to me. The demo I looked at had about 6.7 GB left and it didn't even have any extra software on it. I've got over 5 GB of MP3's sitting on CDR waiting to go on the iBook, and quite alot of software to install - I'd have the 10 GB filled on day 1. I BTO'd a 20 GB HD - I figured I wouldn't miss the extra $200 a year down the road, but I'd surely appreciate the extra space in a year.

todrain · Jun 17, 2001, 11:40 PM

I still have 6GB free on my 10GB hard drive.

I think for the extra money, you're better going external. Firewire is just as fast, and a lot cheaper. If you don't need a portable drive, you can get about 30-40GB for a little more than $200.

dbergstrom · Jun 17, 2001, 11:46 PM

I have a 10GB with a 20 in a firewire enclosure. Firewire speed is great. My drive enclosure from Other World Computing is light and bus powered. I can't complain.

Loaded 1.5 hours of DV onto the drive - about 15 GB. I think even with the internal 20 GB drive I wouldn't have been able to this (because of OS, swap space, apps, other docs, etc).

No matter what, you need a firewire drive for lots of DV.

Jun 18, 2001, 02:45 AM

Order the 10GB HD from Apple (or whomever) and then go buy the 20GB IBM Travelstar HD from TransIntl' for $141.

Then you can sell your 10 GB HD on eBay to folks with older PB's who'll be happy with 10 gigs.

Is what I'm gonna do. Not just for the breathing space but the 20GB Travelstars are supposed to be noticably faster too!

burdendds · Jun 18, 2001, 03:02 AM

I have over 25GB of MP3s (yep, 5500 songs and groing) so I think that I would be cramped even on a 20GB drive. I think it would be best for me to get an external enclosure and get a 40GB+ drive... 10GB should be enough for everyday use on the go..

iJed · Jun 18, 2001, 06:31 AM

I went with 10gig because it is cheaper to buy a new 20gig HD than pay Apple for the BTO option!

Knof8 · Jun 18, 2001, 06:50 AM

Hehe, I'm used to a max of 4GB from my old RevA iMac. Somehow I always kept at least 2 gigs free. I have have the 10GB dvd model and down to less than 5GB

not sure where it all went to. Anyways... You can basically end up with about 8 gigs of HD space if you went onto the 10 GB and trashed everything that came preinstalled that you didn't want like AOL, IE, Nanosaur. If you're going to be doing your DV on the road though then spring for the 20GB. I say this because you then don't have to worry about an external drive, you would easily have enough space to do a project on your own little laptop and still keep all the bells and whistles that apple already installed on it. If you're not going to do that though might as well save the money and spring it on something else, like a really large ice cream sundae. Of cours all of this is IMHO.

icruise · Jun 18, 2001, 09:25 AM

This is a big problem, since I personally think 10GB isn't enough for using MP3s and especially for DV, but having to get it from the Apple store increases your costs a lot. When you think that you can get (for example) a 10GB CDROM iBook with a free 128MB of RAM from somewhere like Outpost for $1299, or pay Apple for the 20GB drive and end up paying around $1600 with tax, it is questionable whether it is worth it. Of course the hard disk is, from what I have seen, incredibly hard to upgrade (take-apart-the-whole-machine-and-possibly-break-the-darn-thing hard) so just buying a separate hard disk is not an option for most.

I have heard that there are some online dealers like MacMall (if I recall correctly) who will do a custom BTO for you, and you could then avoid sales tax at least.

BrunoBruin · Jun 18, 2001, 09:27 AM

I would have gone for the 20GB drive but BTO through Apple also meant paying tax, and that would have pushed the price to $275! That was just too much for an extra 10. I got the base drive and, after installing apps and MP3s I have about 6GB left (mine did not come with OS X and I haven't installed it yet). Eventually I will move some of the preinstalled software (games, MP3s) to a CD and free up some space. This isn't my main machine so I figured I didn't need the space -- I didn't even install all my apps on it because I doubt I'll be using them on the iBook.