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quietjim · Mar 5, 2004, 12:57 PM

I'm going to start leading a team to edit and produce a 36 page quarterly magazine. We've just been approved to buy 3 15" powerbooks. I've had macs for years (I will miss my Pismo) but I have some questions about these.

1. Any thoughts on the relative value of buying at an Apple store, direct ship from Apple or from a reseller like MacWarehouse? Resellers do seem to add some goodies and I've had good experiences with MacWarehouse and MacConnection.

2. We're buying two with CDROM drives, one with a superdrive, all 80 GB hard drives. Mine will be the superdrive model. I notice these are 4300 RPM drives; I have a 7200 60 GB drive in my Pismo. Would I be better off swapping that one for the 80 that comes installed? Is HD replacement in the 15" the same level of difficulty as a Pismo?

3. We're going to be upping the standard RAM...better off to buy it installed or from someplace else and install ourselves?

4. The main applications we'll be using are Adobe InDesign, Photoshop (the CS suite), Macromedia Studio and MS Office. Any thoughts on making these work appreciated.

Thanks in advance to any who can provide help

NYCFarmboy · Mar 5, 2004, 01:34 PM

1. Any thoughts on the relative value of buying at an Apple store, direct ship from Apple or from a reseller like MacWarehouse? Resellers do seem to add some goodies and I've had good experiences with MacWarehouse and MacConnection.

******* I like Amazon.com...free shipping. and no sales tax...and lower prices to begin with. check http://www.macprices.com for the latest deals. but in my own experience Amazon has been wonderful to deal with. Some of the mac resellers like clubmac etc are just really a pain to deal with if you have any problem.

3. We're going to be upping the standard RAM...better off to buy it installed or from someplace else and install ourselves?

*************If you can install it yourself I would go that route. The "free ram" upgrades from some of the resellers results in installation fees that are higher than the cost of the ram itself.

iREZ · Mar 5, 2004, 01:43 PM

1. I'll strictly go through Apple or an authorized Apple reseller, just so I know that I'm indeed getting a one year warranty and will be able to return a "dud" and get treated with Apple customer service. Just remember to read the fine print, free ram is indeed free, but there seems to always be an outrageous installation fee hiding underneath.

2.Hard drive swapping is alot of work on the new al books. Your best bet is to upgrade to the 5400 rpm hard drive. It should handle things pretty well, but you can gut your 15" and install much faster HD's.

3.Go to www.crucial.com for all your ram needs. Great customer service, quality product, not to mention very good prices. Don't buy ram from Apple unless you dont care about spending an uneccessary amount of overhead.

4.Not sure what the question is, but they should all run fine on you 15".

FlatLyna · Mar 5, 2004, 01:43 PM

Originally posted by quietjim:

2. We're buying two with CDROM drives, one with a superdrive, all 80 GB hard drives. Mine will be the superdrive model. I notice these are 4300 RPM drives; I have a 7200 60 GB drive in my Pismo. Would I be better off swapping that one for the 80 that comes installed? Is HD replacement in the 15" the same level of difficulty as a Pismo?

[/B]

There is no way to change the drive without taking the powerbook apart, so buying with the faster drive is likely the better option. (I wish this wasn't the case!!)

SEkker · Mar 5, 2004, 02:37 PM

HD replacement in the Pismo is a snap and did not void the Apple warranty.

HD replacement in the Al PBs is a pain and does unless you can prove it was installed by an Apple Certified Technician.

If you intend to purchase a 3 year AppleCare plan, I'd definitely go with an Apple installed HD.

dodo_nutter · Mar 5, 2004, 04:52 PM

defiantly buy the upgraded drive as a BtO option because otherwise you either void your warranty or spend money taking it to a certified engineer. Also on the RAM front i agree with iREZ, crucial (or similar) all the way. Apples BtO RAM prices are extortionate and its not as if upgrading the RAM in these things is hard.

The apps you want all run fine and it makes it easier if your all using Macs because as good as PC-Mac networking is, Mac-Mac is better and easier on all fronts and you wont (sorry shouldn't) have any problems making them all work together.

Good luck!