06-14-2009, 01:49 PM

Been using Windows forever, both work and home and for business and pleasure. I'm leaving for Iraq soon and the wife wanted an upgrade over her current computer so I said how about I buy a Mac and give you my 6 month old Windows Laptop. She agreed
Now I never had any issues with Windows. Vista SP1 was slow but SP2 fixed that, plus the Beta and RC1 of Win 7 was very impressive. So i'm not leaving PCs because of hate towards Microsoft. I just wanted something new, and I know there are tons of benefits to Apples. I couldn't afford the top of the line Mac Book Pro but I did get a good deal on the 13". Got the 13-inch 2.26GHz and upgraded the HD to 320GB and RAM to 4GB. With the education discount I got the whole thing for $1460 w/ 3 year warranty. I was thinking about getting the higher end 13" but instead went for the slightly slower processor with more HD space and same Ram as the higher end 13". With warranty it was cheaper than the 2.53GHz. Plus I got a free IPod Touch, pretty cool. So, question here is to you Mac guys, how good of a deal is this and did I do right by not going with the 2.53GHz? I mean its only 0.27GHz slower, I dont think thats a huge deal, at least it wouldn't be on a PC.

06-14-2009, 01:59 PM

The difference in speed won't be that noticeable (if at all). Both are good processors and as such, you should be fine. RAM is arguably more important and as long as you have enough RAM to do what you need to do, you should be fine.

Best of luck in Iraq and best wishes for your safety!

06-14-2009, 03:17 PM

The processor speed would not have been that noticeable. I would recommend for any future Mac purchases to never upgrade the RAM, and possibly not the HD either. At least not from Apple.

For instance, Apple charges $100 to upgrade to 4 GB. You can buy the 4 GB kit for MacBook Pro from Crucial for $63, and still have the original 2x1GB sticks to sell or whatever. Also, DDR3 memory prices will drop, and that 4 GB kit will be less in the future, though Apple will still likely charge $100 for it. You may find RAM cheaper than the price from Crucial, but that's what I use and I like that they guarantee that it will work with your system.

Then look at HD. It costs $100 to upgrade from the 160 GB to a 320 GB from Apple. Newegg has a WD 5400 RPM drive with a 500 GB capacity for $89, and again, you have the original for back up or to sell.

Also, you can upgrade the hard drive and the RAM yourself without voiding your warranty. The manual that comes with your MacBook Pro even gives you instructions on how to do it.

06-14-2009, 03:38 PM

When it comes to notebooks the only thing that really matters is the CPU, and the GPU. Both of these things can't be updated at all.

The RAM and the HDD can be upgraded at any time.