[iomatic]

Maybe; I don't know. I'm just letting you know what they think.

Originally Posted by striker100

The Hitachi hard drive is not quieter than the Seagate hard drive. It couldn't be since the Seagate is for all intensive purposes silent.

[striker100]

Originally Posted by Fusion

It's the Hitachi Travelstar 7k100. Here's a link about the specific drive.



Yes, it comes with the 7200rpm 100gb drive. Are you sure they were talking about the Ultimate version and not just the 15" SD Powerbook? I have 4 Apple stores in my area, 2 of them didn't even know what an "Ultimate" version was, 1 didn't get any from Apple and the other one had a ton of them in stock.

Very strange, I'm in an Apple Retail Store right now and asked a salesman which hard drive comes in the" Ultimate" version Powerbook. He said it's the 5400rpm drive and that the 7200rpm drive is only available as a special order online. I really wish they knew what they were talking about. Thats the third person at an Apple Store that gave me the wrong info!

[Fusion]

Originally Posted by striker100

Very strange, I'm in an Apple Retail Store right now and asked a salesman which hard drive comes in the" Ultimate" version Powerbook. He said it's the 5400rpm drive and that the 7200rpm drive is only available as a special order online. I really wish they knew what they were talking about. Thats the third person at an Apple Store that gave me the wrong info!

Are you sure they know what an Ultimate version is? They might think you are just asking for the "SD" version, because there used to be 3 versions at the stores, and now there is only 2. Some stores have never had an Ultimate version shipped to them, so they have always had 2 options, combo drive and super drive, and now they only have one. When they had the two, they probably called their super drive version the ultimate.

All I know is I called 4 Apple Stores in my area, only two of them even "knew" what an "ultimate" version was. Pretty sad right there. And then, out of them, only 1 of them had gotten them in. They said they had a ton of them, so I wen't down and picked it up. I am typing on it right now, and it did indeed come with 1x1GB RAM and the Hitachi 7K100 Travelstar 7200RPM 100GB HD.

If they are claiming that it comes with the 5400RPM drive, how large are the claiming it to be, i.e. are they saying it's the 100GB one or the 120GB one? What Apple store are you at? I could call them and find out more info for you.

[striker100]

Fusion,I was at the Walt Whitman Mall Apple Store on LI NY. Afterward the salesman told me he had a spec sheet in the back and when he came back he again told me it was a 5400rpm HD, I forgot to ask what size. He seemed to know what I meant by the Ultimate Powerbook. The Powerbook I have is the last Ultimate 15" Powerbook with the 100GHz HD, 1gb ram and 128mb vram video card. I'll have to call another store to see what they say. By the way, which Apple Store did you get it from?

[Fusion]

striker100,

That is weird if he knew what it was and that was the spec sheet. It could be possible that they are shipping out two different versions of the ultimate, one with the 7200 100GB and the other with the 5400 120GB but that would seem really strange.

I got mine from the University Village Apple Store in Seattle, WA.

I had the previous generation ultimate as well, for a mere 3 days, so I was able to exchange for this one and save some money.

[amazing]

Since everyone's now got their battery broken in, how about downloading X-Charge and giving some exact times?

If you decide to accept this mission, please specify screen brightness, HD size and rpm, etc. It's a lot easier (and more precise) when you've got software graphing your battery life.

[robertj]

Hey! I picked up my new Powerbook 15" from FedEx today (missed their delivery this morning) and the 100GB 7200-rpm hard drive in mine is model # ST910021A, i.e. the Seagate Momentus.

I'll look into X-Charge in the morning.

[Fusion]

Damn you robert!

I'd love to hear your reaction on the noise of the drive... this hitachi drive really is loud. It has yet to actually bother me, but if I had a choice, of course I would want it silent, ya know? Anyway, can you EVER hear yours at all? Like in a silent room, could you hear it clicking if you listened hard enough or is it really SILENT?

[a2daj]

I picked up one of the new "ultimate" 15" PowerBook setups (singe 1 GB stick, 100 GB 7200 RPM) from the Alderwood Mall Apple Store north of Seattle. They knew nothing about the additions initially. But based on the price I specced out the machine on one of their floor models via the online Apple store then they spent about 15 minutes trying to verify it that it had a single 1 GB stick and the HD was 7200 RPM.

I don't think I've heard my Hitach drive yet except for spinning up. It's a lot better than the IBM hard drive that was in my old TiBook 800.

[robertj]

Originally Posted by Fusion

Damn you robert!

I'd love to hear your reaction on the noise of the drive... this hitachi drive really is loud. It has yet to actually bother me, but if I had a choice, of course I would want it silent, ya know? Anyway, can you EVER hear yours at all? Like in a silent room, could you hear it clicking if you listened hard enough or is it really SILENT?

This HD is definitely not loud. I can hear it, but it's difficult to hear over the fan. But it's not completely silent, I think. The difference is probably marginal between the two, especially compared to the noise of the fan.

[striker100]

Funny. here in the NY metro area none of the sales associates at Apple Retail Stores are aware that the "Ultimate" 15" Powerbook come with the 7200rpm hard drive. I've asked at 4 Apple Stores (though not the SoHo store) and every time was told it comes with the 5400rpm HD. Strange.

[Fusion]

robert,

That sounds about the same noise level that I experience. It's not "loud" but I can hear it, where as the HD in my previous ultimate, the 5400 drive, I could never ever even hear it. The noise level on this one, like you say, can be extremely hard to hear, especially in comparison with the fan or in any room with noise. But I would prefer to have it like my old one where it is completely silent.

[hallvard]

Originally Posted by Fusion

robert,
That sounds about the same noise level that I experience. It's not "loud" but I can hear it, where as the HD in my previous ultimate, the 5400 drive, I could never ever even hear it.

I'll be going for the standard 80 GB 5400 RPM drive then as I'm done with noisy computers!

From somewhere else I've read that MacOS together with the standard software only takes up 14 GB, so 80 GB should probably be fine for a long time. Especially when I'll be buying a large external drive of some kind for video/audio use.
What do you guys think?

[Fusion]

You can get it "A LOT" less than 14GB.... do a clean custom install and in the options uncheck "additional languages, addition asian fonts, printer drivers and bundled software. I think I got it down to 4 or 5.

[hallvard]

Originally Posted by Fusion

You can get it "A LOT" less than 14GB.... do a clean custom install and in the options uncheck "additional languages, addition asian fonts, printer drivers and bundled software. I think I got it down to 4 or 5.

Even better!
So you agree that 80 Gigs should be plenty for "normal" use then?
And with the DVD-burner I'll have the possibility to transfer files I don't use all the time as well.

[Fusion]

of course it will be fine. My wife's iBook only has 30gb and that is fine for her for normal use. I just happen to watch a lot of videos, listen to a lot of music, etc... so it takes up space fast. But all you have to do is watch your space. On top of that, if you ever do start running out, external drives are dirt cheap these days.

[mduell]

Wow, quite the FUD and speculation fest going about sound. How about some numbers?

Seagate 100GB 7200RPM
Idle: 25dB
Operation: 29dB

Hitachi 100GB 7200RPM
Idle: 26dB
Operation: 30dB

Seagate 100GB 5400RPM
Idle: 24dB
Operation: 29dB

Hitachi 100GB 5400RPM
Idle: 25dB
Operation: 27dB

You're not going to notice it.

[a2daj]

Originally Posted by striker100

Funny. here in the NY metro area none of the sales associates at Apple Retail Stores are aware that the "Ultimate" 15" Powerbook come with the 7200rpm hard drive. I've asked at 4 Apple Stores (though not the SoHo store) and every time was told it comes with the 5400rpm HD. Strange.

When I bought my Ultimate 15" PB on Tuesday, one of the guys found an internal email sent out Monday around 10 PM PST mentioning that the HD in the Ultimate 15" was 7200 rpm. I'm guessing the Apple Store folks around your area missed the memo...?

[Fusion]

Originally Posted by mduell

Wow, quite the FUD and speculation fest going about sound. How about some numbers?

Seagate 100GB 7200RPM
Idle: 25dB
Operation: 29dB

Hitachi 100GB 7200RPM
Idle: 26dB
Operation: 30dB

Seagate 100GB 5400RPM
Idle: 24dB
Operation: 29dB

Hitachi 100GB 5400RPM
Idle: 25dB
Operation: 27dB

You're not going to notice it.

Damn, 1db. That's it, I'm returning it Monday morning and asking for my money back. Geeze Apple! I mean, I could have dealt with .5

[B Gallagher]

I just got my new PB yesterday.. and also had about 14GB or so taken up with OS X. Do you recommend doing a clean install, so that OS X will take up less space?

[hallvard]

Originally Posted by mduell

Wow, quite the FUD and speculation fest going about sound. How about some numbers?

Seagate 100GB 7200RPM
Idle: 25dB
Operation: 29dB

Hitachi 100GB 7200RPM
Idle: 26dB
Operation: 30dB

Seagate 100GB 5400RPM
Idle: 24dB
Operation: 29dB

Hitachi 100GB 5400RPM
Idle: 25dB
Operation: 27dB

You're not going to notice it.

Excellent! How about the specs and/or the model number of the "standard" (80 GB/5400) drive?

[amazing]

Originally Posted by B Gallagher

I just got my new PB yesterday.. and also had about 14GB or so taken up with OS X. Do you recommend doing a clean install, so that OS X will take up less space?

to save space, you can download Delocalizer, which will allow you to take out all the extra foreign language support that you don't need. If you don't intend to use Garageband, you can burn the application and support files (2.4 GB) to DVD and then delete them from /Library/Application Support

You can also delete all the printer support files that you don't need from /Library/Application Support/Printers. To simplify the font menu, use Font Book to deactivate and then delete whatever fonts you'll never ever use.

If you do a reinstall in the future, do a custom install and then don't install the extra language resources, the printers, and the extra fonts. For any printer you own or use, download its driver directly.

[mrmister]

I hope people do know that decibels are measured logarithmically, so a difference is 1 db is actually fairly significant.

http://www.phys.unsw.edu.au/~jw/dB.html

[iomatic]

If I read that correctly (I'm in the arts-- be gentle!), then at 25dB – 26dB, it's not as significant an increase?


Yes? No?

I'll tell you this much; I can barely hear the Seagate now.

Originally Posted by mrmister

I hope people do know that decibels are measured logarithmically, so a difference is 1 db is actually fairly significant.

http://www.phys.unsw.edu.au/~jw/dB.html

[zixxer]

hey all, i am switching from a thinkpad t40p to a 15" powerbook and the last decision is the drive...anyone have any battery numbers yet?

[mduell]

Originally Posted by mrmister

I hope people do know that decibels are measured logarithmically, so a difference is 1 db is actually fairly significant.

http://www.phys.unsw.edu.au/~jw/dB.html

Decibels are the log of the audio power, but human perception of loudness is not linearly related to power.
An increase of 10dB sounds like twice as loud.

[Fusion]

Actually, after my sarcastic comment here about the noise, it did start to bother me a bit today. I was listening to music THROUGH SPEAKERS right next to the powerbook, very loud speakers, a 5.1 system. I had it on lower volume, but still enough to hear the music across the house. While I was working on my machine, I could still hear the HD ticking away even with the music... it was slightly annoying

But again, this is a pure aesthetics thing, it's not affecting the operation of the computer at all so I'm not complaining too much.

[zixxer]

fusion, whats your battery life like with it?

[sharrissf]

So mine came a few days ago and here are my impressions.

1) I saw some stuff about the drive being hitachi, but mine is seagate:
ST910021A is the model number

2) The screen is GREAT. The combination of the faster drive and the awsome screen
make this much more of a desktop replacement than prior models (BTW, I write software
this is all from a software developers perspective not a graphic artist who may have
a different opinion).

3) This does a build and test run slighty faster than my old 1.6 ghz g5 desktop which
I found really surprising.

Another thing I thought was interesting was that they only upped the price by 200 bucks for the major drive improvement. A 100 gig laptop drive retails for around 300 bucks. I figured the way they overcharge for memory this would be a 500 dollar option :-).

Anyway, I'm loving mine and I recommend it to others.

Cheers,
Steve

[Fusion]

zixxer > I haven't really had a good chance to test it yet. I believe I am getting around three and a half hours though. That's just a guesstimate based on the time I was using it in a 3 hour class the other day and there was still time left. It is DEFINITELY better battery life by far than a 1.5 15" I had before.

And as time moves on this noisy HD continues to annoy me. I think I'm at the point now where I would have rather had a slower drive if it meant quieter. There is just something annoying about having a laptop clicking all the time. It's the sound too, like a weird metal clicking that has a ring to it... just plain annoying... and it's doing it even as I type this.... I'd love to hear some feedback from Seagate owners if they ever hear their drive. I'd be willing to purchase another HD and replace it myself and keep this one as a backup in an external enclosure. Grrrr....

[mduell]

Originally Posted by sharrissf

3) This does a build and test run slighty faster than my old 1.6 ghz g5 desktop which
I found really surprising.

Another thing I thought was interesting was that they only upped the price by 200 bucks for the major drive improvement. A 100 gig laptop drive retails for around 300 bucks. I figured the way they overcharge for memory this would be a 500 dollar option :-).

The G4 is faster on a clock-for-clock basis in many (most?) apps. The G5 trades performance-per-clock for higher clockrates, just like the Pentium 4.

To burst your price bubble, 100GB 5400RPM laptop drives are about $150, 100GB 7200RPM laptop drives are about $230.

[mduell]

Originally Posted by sharrissf

3) This does a build and test run slighty faster than my old 1.6 ghz g5 desktop which
I found really surprising.

Another thing I thought was interesting was that they only upped the price by 200 bucks for the major drive improvement. A 100 gig laptop drive retails for around 300 bucks. I figured the way they overcharge for memory this would be a 500 dollar option :-).

The G4 is faster on a clock-for-clock basis in many (most?) apps. The G5 trades performance-per-clock for higher clockrates, just like the Pentium 4.

To burst your price bubble, 100GB 5400RPM laptop drives are about $150, 100GB 7200RPM laptop drives are about $230.

[a2daj]

Originally Posted by Fusion

zixxer > I haven't really had a good chance to test it yet. I believe I am getting around three and a half hours though. That's just a guesstimate based on the time I was using it in a 3 hour class the other day and there was still time left. It is DEFINITELY better battery life by far than a 1.5 15" I had before.

And as time moves on this noisy HD continues to annoy me. I think I'm at the point now where I would have rather had a slower drive if it meant quieter. There is just something annoying about having a laptop clicking all the time. It's the sound too, like a weird metal clicking that has a ring to it... just plain annoying... and it's doing it even as I type this.... I'd love to hear some feedback from Seagate owners if they ever hear their drive. I'd be willing to purchase another HD and replace it myself and keep this one as a backup in an external enclosure. Grrrr....

Maybe there's something wrong with your drive. Clicking is bad. My Hitachi 100 GB 7200 RPM drive doesn't click. I had a Western Digital hard drive that clicked. Very annoying, especially when the system would pause every time it cilcked (about once every 15 secs). The replacement drive still clicked but no system pauses.

[JeffHarris]

I got my new PowerBook on Thursday. I'd decided to splurge on the 7200 rpm drive, because the hard drive speed can be a big bottleneck, especially considering OS X reliability on virtual memory for so many things. (forgive the generalities, I'm no tech geek, just a MacGeek).

This machine seems SO much faster than my old 1GHz TiBook, it's hard to really gauge real-world differences. But it does seem MUCH faster. A moderately complex VectorWorks model, which took 2 minutes to render on the TiBook, I could watch it appear in about 20 seconds. How much of that is attributable to the hard drive? I dunno... it's certainly a combo of many things... RAM speed, video card and VRAM, etc. But, I'd say that it's WELL WORTH the extra money for the 100GB x 7200 rpm drive!

Anyway, I ran System Profiler and the hard drive is NOT identified by manufacturer, just model number, which I don't recognize (but looks suspiciously like a Seagate model number), since I've been lusting for a 100GB/7200 HD for the past year or so. Here's the poop from System profiler:

ST910021A:

Capacity: 93.16 GB
Model: ST910021A
Revision: 3.04
Serial Number: 3MH00V17
Removable Media: No
Detachable Drive: No
BSD Name: disk0
Protocol: ATA
Unit Number: 0
Socket Type: Internal
OS9 Drivers: No
S.M.A.R.T. status: Verified
Volumes:
XXXXXX
Capacity: 93.04 GB
Available: 38.12 GB
Writable: Yes
File System: Journaled HFS+
BSD Name: disk0s3
Mount Point: /

[mduell]

Originally Posted by hallvard

Excellent! How about the specs and/or the model number of the "standard" (80 GB/5400) drive?

Pretty much the same as the 100GB 5400RPM... 1 dB or less difference.

[Fusion]

Originally Posted by JeffHarris

I got my new PowerBook on Thursday. I'd decided to splurge on the 7200 rpm drive, because the hard drive speed can be a big bottleneck, especially considering OS X reliability on virtual memory for so many things. (forgive the generalities, I'm no tech geek, just a MacGeek).

This machine seems SO much faster than my old 1GHz TiBook, it's hard to really gauge real-world differences. But it does seem MUCH faster. A moderately complex VectorWorks model, which took 2 minutes to render on the TiBook, I could watch it appear in about 20 seconds. How much of that is attributable to the hard drive? I dunno... it's certainly a combo of many things... RAM speed, video card and VRAM, etc. But, I'd say that it's WELL WORTH the extra money for the 100GB x 7200 rpm drive!

Anyway, I ran System Profiler and the hard drive is NOT identified by manufacturer, just model number, which I don't recognize (but looks suspiciously like a Seagate model number), since I've been lusting for a 100GB/7200 HD for the past year or so. Here's the poop from System profiler:

ST910021A:

Capacity: 93.16 GB
Model: ST910021A
Revision: 3.04
Serial Number: 3MH00V17
Removable Media: No
Detachable Drive: No
BSD Name: disk0
Protocol: ATA
Unit Number: 0
Socket Type: Internal
OS9 Drivers: No
S.M.A.R.T. status: Verified
Volumes:
XXXXXX
Capacity: 93.04 GB
Available: 38.12 GB
Writable: Yes
File System: Journaled HFS+
BSD Name: disk0s3
Mount Point: /

That's the seagate drive. Can you comment on the noise, i.e. can you ever hear the HD spinning or clicking?

[halw]

Originally Posted by striker100

Fusion,I was at the Walt Whitman Mall Apple Store on LI NY. Afterward the salesman told me he had a spec sheet in the back and when he came back he again told me it was a 5400rpm HD, I forgot to ask what size. He seemed to know what I meant by the Ultimate Powerbook. The Powerbook I have is the last Ultimate 15" Powerbook with the 100GHz HD, 1gb ram and 128mb vram video card. I'll have to call another store to see what they say. By the way, which Apple Store did you get it from?

I picked up an ultimate from this exact store. Kinda funny, but I spoke to four different people who told me initially that they only stocked the 80gb/512 model, one person told me they had the one with the 100gb. I walked into the store found out about the ultimate and bought it thirty minutes later...

[Jellytussle]

I've had my 15" with the Seagate ST910021A since last Wednesday, and it is WHISPER quiet in comparison to my old TiBook (the last incarnation of those). I think that those dB numbers are all well and good, but there's none of the 'clickyness' with this new drive, which has a huge subjective effect. Battery life is good, too, and this is the first powerbook i've seen that actually has a decent colour profile out of the box. Nice.

[thephotodork]

Originally Posted by Fusion

That's the seagate drive. Can you comment on the noise, i.e. can you ever hear the HD spinning or clicking?

i got the ST910021A drive in my powerbook and it is very quite. i have owned a 500mhz pismo and a 1ghz 12-inch both of which had slower drives that were much noisier. literally i cannot hear this drive unless i put my ear to the trackpad while i am accessing the drive i can start to here a slight whine, but no clicking. very nice drive in my opinion. and the fast access from the 7200rpm drive is definitely appreciated on the slow 167mhz architecture of the powerbook line.

but simply put, this drive is not audible. in a quiet room with this machine, the only thing i can hear is myself breathing and typing.

[JeffHarris]

Originally Posted by Fusion

That's the seagate drive. Can you comment on the noise, i.e. can you ever hear the HD spinning or clicking?

I've been using my new 15" PowerBook w/7200 rpm drive and 1GB RAM since Thursday morning when I got it. The new HD seems a bit quieter than the old 60GB drive in my old TiBook 1GHz. I don't hear the mechanism starting and stopping with this one. The fan doesn't go on all the time either!

The speed difference is pronounced. When I ran the auto-setup and FireWire Target Disk file transfer when first starting the new PB, it was smooth quiet and fast. Copying files is much faster. I transferred 4.6GB of photos from an external drive (LaCie 250GB w/FireWire 800) and a 3GB folder (separately)... I didn't sit and time any of it, but they both finished much sooner than I'd have expected using the old machine and 4200 rpm drive.

Putting it to sleep and waking are extremely fast also. Logging out and back in is done in less than half the time than with the old TiBook and drive. Restarts are MUCH faster, too!

I rarely use the battery for more than a few minutes at a time, so battery life isn't as big a concern to me as to others.

I think that because OS X relies so heavily on virtual memory, getting the 7200 rpm drive is certainly worth the extra cost.

[jfelbab]

I have the Hitachi HTS721010G9AT00 in my Ultimate. It is totally silent. It is apparent that Apple is using multiple drive vendors. I doubt there is any info on the packaging that will allow you to determine the drive type without opening it and running profiler.

The screen is excellent. Very bright. I compared the 15 to the 17 and the 15 is noticeably brighter and crisper. The screen has a tendency to lean towards blue in it's native defaults. An enhanced calibration takes care of that easily.

The battery seems to go for around 5 hours in my typical usage. This is not with the lowest power saving settings but the normal setting. Charging seems vary fast.

Overall I'd say this is a nice improvement over the last model and should hold me well into the new MacTel cycle.

Again, for those concerned about drive noise, this Hitachi is totally silent. No discernible sound whatsoever in my unit.

[mduell]

Originally Posted by JeffHarris

This machine seems SO much faster than my old 1GHz TiBook, it's hard to really gauge real-world differences. But it does seem MUCH faster. A moderately complex VectorWorks model, which took 2 minutes to render on the TiBook, I could watch it appear in about 20 seconds. How much of that is attributable to the hard drive? I dunno... it's certainly a combo of many things... RAM speed, video card and VRAM, etc. But, I'd say that it's WELL WORTH the extra money for the 100GB x 7200 rpm drive!

That sort of performance improvement is probably primarily from RAM quantity. Not having to swap is an easy way to get a ten fold performance improvement.

[Fusion]

Originally Posted by jfelbab

I have the Hitachi HTS721010G9AT00 in my Ultimate. It is totally silent. It is apparent that Apple is using multiple drive vendors. I doubt there is any info on the packaging that will allow you to determine the drive type without opening it and running profiler.

Are you sure about that? You NEVER hear it, even under heavy disc usage in a silent room? Mine is very loud with the clicking sound when it is accessing the drive so this is really worrying me if you have the same drive and you cannot hear it at all.

[jfelbab]

Originally Posted by Fusion

Are you sure about that? You NEVER hear it, even under heavy disc usage in a silent room? Mine is very loud with the clicking sound when it is accessing the drive so this is really worrying me if you have the same drive and you cannot hear it at all.

I'm absolutely sure about that. Noisy laptops are one of my most hated things. I can't hear this drive at all. Not when it starts up nor when reading or writing huge files. It makes no noise at all and that's an observation in a very quiet room. I love the silence.

[Fusion]

Originally Posted by jfelbab

I'm absolutely sure about that. Noisy laptops are one of my most hated things. I can't hear this drive at all. Not when it starts up nor when reading or writing huge files. It makes no noise at all and that's an observation in a very quiet room. I love the silence.

Thanks for the reply.

Very strange... I'm starting to wonder if something is wrong with mine. Maybe I should take it in for repair

I've heard horror stories about Apple laptops coming back from repair...

[freshleon]

here are some deailed pics of the new 15":

http://procrastinet.com/archives/000408.html

- Leon

[robertj]

Originally Posted by Fusion

Very strange... I'm starting to wonder if something is wrong with mine. Maybe I should take it in for repair

Fusion, you should definitely take it somewhere to have it diagnosed and make sure there's not something wrong with the drive. The most likely scenario is that the drive is functioning within specs, but is just particularly loud, in which case the only solution would be to buy a new drive (or live with the noise). Do you have Applecare? There's a disk that comes with Applecare that will diagnose and check your disk. But definitely take it to an expert and find out. Best of luck.

[Fusion]

robertj,

Thanks for the advice. Today, 10.4.3 came out. After updating, my system hung. Then, after a force reboot it took a rediculously long time to boot. And to top that off, after I was up and running again, the drive started making a very loud and really strange hissing noise... !!!

I've decided to not put up with it any longer. I called the Apple store and they informed me that if the machine is within the 14 days from purchase, they would exchange it for a new one, no questions asked if something is wrong with it... so I am on my way down there tonight to exchange for a new machine.... I just pray that it doesn't have any dead pixels, because that is my other peeve.

[iomatic]

Bummer, man. Good luck. BTW, if it's an AppleStore online order, can you exchange it a physical Apple Store?

[iomatic]

wtf.