Upgrade hard drive or buy external?

Joined
Mar 11, 2007
Messages
6
Reaction score
0
Points
1
My MacBook has a 100GB hard drive, but because I've got so much music stored on there, I've only got 7.5 GB of free space.

I'm looking for advice in choosing between the following options:

-Upgrade the internal hard drive to the 200GB model. This would cost $300+ to have installed, but is a slightly slowed drive (4200 vs 5400)
-Buy an external hard drive and simply keep my music on that. But I'd have to have it with me everytime I want to access my music.

So is it worth the extra expense of getting a larger internal drive?

Thanks in advance for any comments.
Scott
 
Joined
Nov 29, 2006
Messages
606
Reaction score
23
Points
18
Location
Barrie, Ontario, Canada
Your Mac's Specs
2.16 GHz Intel Imac Core 2 Duo//MacBook 1.83 Core 2 Duo//G5 Power Mac
If you need your complete music library, and do not want to transport the external HD, then yes it is worth the extra expense.
 
Joined
Feb 25, 2007
Messages
107
Reaction score
1
Points
18
Your Mac's Specs
Macbook Pro, 2.53GHz, C2D, 4G RAM, 250G HDD
Thats an amazing amount of music you have there. It might be worth asking yourself if you really need your entire library with you at all times. If you are able to keep the least listened to on an external HDD, it might be a cheaper option and also save the hassle of having to transfer such a massive amount to a new intenal drive.

Just my .02

Neil M.
 
Joined
Mar 4, 2007
Messages
50
Reaction score
1
Points
8
Location
Newcastle, UK
Your Mac's Specs
White MacBook 2.0GHz CD | 2GB RAM | 80GB HDD | SuperDrive | iPod 3G 20GB
Why not buy an iPod to store your music on? That way you've got access to your music with or without your macbook!
 
OP
S
Joined
Mar 11, 2007
Messages
6
Reaction score
0
Points
1
I have a couple iPods actually. One that has all the music on it and a nano for running, etc. The MacBook is used to add music, update songs, change playlists, etc.
 
Joined
Feb 5, 2007
Messages
465
Reaction score
19
Points
18
Your Mac's Specs
iMac 20" C2D 2.4 ghz 2gb iMac 20" C2D 2GB 256MB Graphics Macbook C2D 2GB Powermac G4 Dual 450
i would put all of that music onto an external hard drive...theres some good, small, portable ones like this little guy.
 
Joined
Dec 3, 2006
Messages
9,383
Reaction score
417
Points
83
Location
Irvine, CA
Your Mac's Specs
Black Macbook C2D 2GHz 3GB RAM 250GB HD iPhone 4 iPad 3G
What I do is keep my entire music library on my desktop PC and only have the songs I listen to 95% of the time on my Macbook.

So instead of wasting over 20GB of space on my laptop, I only use 13-14GB.

So in essence, my desktop PC acts like an external hard drive. The data is still available, but I have to connect to it to access it. But it's not as much of a hassle as it would seem because I rarely, if ever, need to access the 5% of music I barely listen to. :black:
 
OP
S
Joined
Mar 11, 2007
Messages
6
Reaction score
0
Points
1
Thanks. I had been leaning towards an external drive, but wanted to get some feedback from other owners as well.
 
Joined
Sep 15, 2006
Messages
236
Reaction score
2
Points
18
Location
Oxford, UK
All my music is still on my PC in APE fomat (lossless, but with about 50% compression).

If I were to move the files over to my MacBook, I would tend to favour an external drive.

I assume your music is already in a compressed format?
 
OP
S
Joined
Mar 11, 2007
Messages
6
Reaction score
0
Points
1
As far as compression, formats and lossless talk, I'm a bit uneducated. My albums were imported into iTunes with AAC encoder and 128 kbps since that was the default.
With the extra space on the external drive, I know I can handle higher quality recordings, but could you explain the difference between the AAC, Apple Lossless, etc?
And would I be able to tell the difference between 128kbps and 192? Also, I'm guessing I'd have to re-record all my CDs into iTunes if I was to get a higher quality?

It seems the majority of people favor the external and I picked up a great compact drive that is 160GB, but compact enough to carry around with the laptop.

Sorry for showing my lack of computer skills so blatantly!

Thanks

All my music is still on my PC in APE fomat (lossless, but with about 50% compression).

If I were to move the files over to my MacBook, I would tend to favour an external drive.

I assume your music is already in a compressed format?
 
Joined
Jan 14, 2007
Messages
190
Reaction score
10
Points
18
Location
Arkansas
Your Mac's Specs
Mac Mini 1.83, iBook G3 800, iMac G3 233, Mac Classic, Apple IIc. And too many PC's to count.
Get the external. I doubt you listen to all of your music regularly anyway, and it'll be cheaper.
 
Joined
Jun 17, 2006
Messages
542
Reaction score
19
Points
18
Your Mac's Specs
MacBook Pro 2.2ghz, 3GB, 250GB - 16GB White iPhone 3G - 2nd Gen 1GB Shuffle
I had a external USB hard drive for the longest time, but it got very annoying carrying around another device and using one of my USB ports. So I upgraded the internal drive and couldn't be happier
 
Joined
Sep 15, 2006
Messages
236
Reaction score
2
Points
18
Location
Oxford, UK
Scott R,

Only your ears can tell if you can hear a difference between 128kps and 192kps - and whether the difference is siginifcant.

Personally, I have found there are too many variables to come to a categoric answer - e.g. the listening environment, type of music, type of headphones/speakers, DAC etc all have an impact.

It usually boils down to a trade off between file size and quality. As hard drive space is now so cheap (compared to a few years ago), I am not so bothered about big files - though that could change if one was using an iPod etc.

Some tech info at this website :

http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=36465
 

Shop Amazon


Shop for your Apple, Mac, iPhone and other computer products on Amazon.
We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon and affiliated sites.
Top