pros and cons of BTO MBP

[mightymike107]

Like many of you, I'm waiting for the new MBP. My question is this, could someone please describe the pros and cons of upgrading the hardrive (5,400 vs 7,200), an upgraded graphics card (128 vs 256), and upgraded ram (1gb vs 2gb); in terms of performance and battery life? if you want to include speculated hardware into your analysis, be my guest.

cheers,
mike

 

[Chone]

Like many of you, I'm waiting for the new MBP. My question is this, could someone please describe the pros and cons of upgrading the hardrive (5,400 vs 7,200), an upgraded graphics card (128 vs 256), and upgraded ram (1gb vs 2gb); in terms of performance and battery life? if you want to include speculated hardware into your analysis, be my guest.

cheers,
mike

The BTO 256 VRAM is not worth it, the 7200rpm HDD is definitely worth it and 2GB might be nice too but 1GB is fast enough for you to wait some time to save up anbd upgrade.

 

[Apple Corps]

Like many of you, I'm waiting for the new MBP. My question is this, could someone please describe the pros and cons of upgrading the hardrive (5,400 vs 7,200), an upgraded graphics card (128 vs 256), and upgraded ram (1gb vs 2gb); in terms of performance and battery life? if you want to include speculated hardware into your analysis, be my guest.

cheers,
mike

The biggest con is returning a CTO to Apple for an exchange or refund is pretty much a no no.

I will order a stock unit, add 1 GB ram on my own, and hope for a modest improvement in the gpu. For real HD speed I will be running an external Raptor drive through the 34mm ExpressCard slot and adapter. Much better speed, capacity, and easy to expand or carry a backup. Plus - no additional heat inside your notebook.

Not sure about the gpu - kind of depends on what is offered - like the 256 level of vram though.

We all hope this tedious wait on a Rev B MBP is at an end w/i 7 days.

 

[Bill Gates]

I'm hoping the next MBP will have an easy-access hard drive bay. If it does, then I will purchase the base configuration. That way I can exchange my computer outright if problems arise. Then I'll just purchase a quality 7200RPM 2.5" drive online.

 

[miniConvert]

I'd be inclined to upgrade the HDD and the graphics card. The former will be a pain to upgrade and the latter will likely be impossible - so best to plan for the future if you're going to purchase such a wonderful, powerful machine.

RAM you can add any time, cheaper than you can doing a BTO config.

 

[Apple Corps]

I'd be inclined to upgrade the HDD and the graphics card. The former will be a pain to upgrade and the latter will likely be impossible - so best to plan for the future if you're going to purchase such a wonderful, powerful machine.

RAM you can add any time, cheaper than you can doing a BTO config.

miniConvert - We all HOPE that this MBP release will have the fast swap hard drive bay that is found on the entry level MacBook - super fast and easy hard drive swap / upgrade.

 

[mightymike107]

Thanks for the informative answers, but the heart of my question was how these upgrades affect the battery life vs what performance enhancements they add. Any examples which speak to this?

 

[merc669]

For real HD speed I will be running an external Raptor drive through the 34mm ExpressCard slot and adapter. Much better speed, capacity, and easy to expand or carry a backup. Plus - no additional heat inside your notebook.

What 34mm Express would you use to run the Raptor or would you just run a Firewire 800 External Drive with a Raptor Installed?

Bill.......

 

[miniConvert]

Thanks for the informative answers, but the heart of my question was how these upgrades affect the battery life vs what performance enhancements they add. Any examples which speak to this?

The differences will be minor. Of course a lower spec is likely to give better battery life, but if there was a dramatic impact you'd have heard more about it from the communities rather vocal members

 

[generik]

If anything the differences are minor, apart from the hard drive, 512mb extra of ram, and 128mb of vram you are basically paying 25% more for a wee 100Mhz increase in processor speed.