For the past month, I’ve been drooling, along with many others, over Apple’s latest notebook, the MacBook. As of today, I finally have enough money to purchase a MacBook, however, I’m not going to rush and buy one today. I still need some time to think of my options for configuring the MacBook, and wait until after graduation to see if my parents get me one for a present (*hint* *hint* if you’re reading this).
I have several options for configuring my MacBook, and I honestly haven’t completely made up my mind yet. One thing for certain is I’m not going to purchase the black edition. Being a PC user for the majority of my life, I’m looking to embrace Apple’s famous white designs and not look like a regular PC user. That leaves the CPU/DVD, RAM, and hard drive, all fair game for configuring.
Since the MacBook comes in either a 1.83GHz Core Duo model with a Combo drive (DVD/CD-RW) or a 2.0GHz Core Duo model with a SuperDrive (DVD±RW/CD-RW), I have to make this decision together. My current PC has an AMD Athlon 2500 processor, and my current Mac (Hackintosh) has an Intel Celeron running at 2.5GHz. Given those specs, either MacBook processor would be a huge upgrade. Since I’m happy with my current speeds on both my Mac and PC, I don’t feel the difference in processor speeds is going to matter that much. However, when it comes to drive options, I actually think this might be an issue. I’m quite spoiled with my DVD±RW drive in my PC, and since I’m looking for the MacBook to become my main machine, a DVD burner will be important. I’m just not sure if an extra $200 for an integrated DVD burner is worth it when for $50 I can get an external one. I don’t think I’ll have a need to do mobile burning, so I could probably get away with an external drive. Any comments on this issue would be appreciated.
On the RAM front, I’m not going for anything less than 1GB. OS X is RAM hungry, and I know I’ll need at least that much. My current Mac has 1GB of RAM and I get away with that just fine. Apple’s price to upgrade to 1GB is actually cheaper than doing it myself, so at 1GB it makes sense for an upgrade. However, over 1GB and Apple’s prices are more expensive than buying some RAM yourself. Given those facts, I’m fairly certain I will be ordering 1GB of RAM, and then possible upgrading sometime down the road myself.
The hard drive is the final configurable option on my mind. Apple’s stock hard drive in the MacBook is 60GB, which would probably serve me well if Boot Camp didn’t exist. Since I’m planning on using Boot Camp, I need to figure for extra space for a Windows partition. Another thing to keep in mind is my hard drive usage. My current Mac only has a 40GB hard drive, but that’s because it’s a Hackintosh, and I don’t trust storing anything important on it. My current PC has an 80GB hard drive, plus an extra 60GB drive for storing “downloads”. A quick look at my hard drive reveals that the majority of stuff on it is archived things, such as old projects or photos. That leads me to believe if I would need an external hard drive down the road, I could easily load archived things on it, and not have to lug it around with me. With that said, Apple’s $50 upgrade to an 80GB drive sounds like the most logical choice for me. I could easily manage with that storage size, and if more space would be needed down the road, an external hard drive would work for me. Besides, the next hard drive size up is 100GB and it would cost $150 to upgrade to it, making it not worth it in my book.
With all that said, it looks like my MacBook will turn out to be a 1.83GHZ Core Duo with a Combo drive, 1GB of RAM, and an 80GB hard drive. After adding a DVI adapter to hook it up to my LCD monitor, my final total for that model would be $1,201. If I would opt for the faster processor model with a SuperDrive my final total would be $1,351, $150 more. Do you think an additional $150 is worth it for a faster processor and a SuperDrive? While I’d like to keep my purchase as cheap as possible, I don’t want to miss out on a great value upgrade if it makes sense. Any comments on this issue would be greatly appreciated.
10 Comments
If you check with the college your attending they may have discount you get through apple from this as well. Might save you a few bucks.
The prices I mentioned are the reduced price I can get it at.
Not a good idea. If you’re planning to upgrade later, you’ll have to replace all your previous RAM, because you will only have two slots, both already used up by two sticks of 512. So, if you’re content with 1gb for a while, go ahead and order from Apple, else just get the standard and do all the upgrading yourself (it’s super easy).
Why in the world are you installing Windows on our MacBook? I have a MB Pro and I’m totally against installing Boot Camp. I’ll only do it, if there’s something really important that only runs on Windows, which there isn’t.
Yes, I do. $150 is not that much, considering you’re getting a faster processor and a DVD Writer.
But whatever you buy, I’m just psyched that it’s a Mac.
Simran has very good points. I personally would go with 2 GB. And why are you installing Windoze? I look very much forward in not seeing a Window logo – unless I am being paid in which it means at work. At home I want to relax and enjoy computing. Though currently I am not because I am using Windows. I am waiting for the new Mac Pro or whatever they’ll call it. $150 isnt that much so yeah get the faster processor and DVD Writer. An external drive is cumbersome and you’ll forget it someplace like I would probably.
Alright, here’s the latest configuration I’m running through my mind: 2.0Ghz Macbook + Apple 80GB HDD Upgrade + 2x1GB DDR2 Memory from Newegg + miniDVI to DVI adapter = $1422.00. I’ll need to do a little more saving, since I’m going to buy an iPod nano at the same time to take advantage of the free special (it’s a mail-in rebate, so I need to pay for the iPod upfront).
Good, this looks like it’s going to be a nice laptop. The only thing you’re going to miss is a graphics card.
iPod Nanos are cool, but I want the new U2! My old U2 colour (no video) is getting on me. I want to watch French Maids anywhere I go and show off: “look I’ve got hot French ladies dusting stuff in my iPod!”.
It seems I may be a little late to the conversation but I thought I’d give my thoughts anyway. RAM is crucial, don’t settle for anything less than 2GB  and you’re absolutely right to get the RAM elsewhere, Apple charges way too much for it.
The HDD upgrade is personal preference in my opinion and it also depends on what kind of work you do. I deal with graphics a lot so the upgrade would be worth it to me. The processor upgrade is a bit of a no-brainer as well, get it. Now that Intel is announcing their latest round of chips it’s better to be the best of the last bunch than the bottom of the barrel.
Again, those are just my thoughts, feel free to disagree and do whatever you want. ;^)
Thanks for the opinion, Mike. You are right about 2GB of RAM. Looking at Activity Monitor right now reveals that my 1GB is almost fully used. Having the extra RAM room will help speed things up, and it’s not that much more for an extra gig.
Regarding the hard drive, I’m figure the more I have, the better. Apple only charges $45 for a student HDD upgrade, so I’m figuring the extra 20GB will be worth it in the end.
Finally, you’re right about the processor also. I’ve started watching a lot of H.264 videos and my current machine is barely chugging along. The extra speed will help with that, and will somewhat future-proof me for whatever crazy technology Apple thinks of next.
Hello,
I downloaded this widget about a week ago and have read through a number of your articles and have found them very helpful. I have recently purchased the mbp 2.16 with 1gb of memory and love it. It is my first real experience with mac, aside from the ipod, and it is by a far a superior machine to pc. Wish I could offer some professional advice regarding specs, although, I would say that if College is on the horizon, then upgrading task speed, storage and memory would be to your advantage. Being a recent grad I know the last thing any college student should worry about is a sluggish computer.
You can get a Superdrive (e.g. Pioneer DVR-K05) for about $80 including shipping. The 1.83 GHz processor runs a bit cooler, and that’s probably worth some reliability without sacrificing any real world performance. (You’re never going to notice the difference.) So if you want the Superdrive save the Apple mark-up and eBay the Combo drive. And you can do that at any time, when/if you decide you need the Superdrive.
Same goes for the hard disk. I’d stick with the base 60 GB drive then upgrade it, whenever you see fit, using a replacement drive obtained independently and eBay the 60 GB drive. You can do this when/if you get near filling up the 60 GB drive. Or you can keep the 60 GB drive and install it in an external USB or Firewire case then use it for fast backup purposes.