MacBook specs comparison...

Hi guys..

see I am contemplating between the two white macBooks but I can make nothing of the specs given by the Apple site. All I see are more numbers. So i was hoping you guys could give me a hand by telling me how it affects me.

Lower end MacBook
2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
1GB memory
80GB hard drive1
Combo drive

Middle end MacBook
2.16GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
1GB memory
120GB hard drive1
Double-layer SuperDrive

The only thing I can make of is that the second one has a bigger HD. thats all.=p. Does 2.16Ghz overpower the 2.0Ghz substantially? & I have no idea at all (besides one sounding more cool) what the difference between the combo drive & double layer super drive?

oh, i am planning to use this MacBook for not really huge editing programs like CS3, Sketchup, AutoCAD. stuff like that. one more thing, would be glas if anyone could give me a recommendation of a third party Ram upgrading. Planning to add the 1G to maybe 2G?

Thanks guys. hope you can give me a hand.! =)

The mid level not only has a larger hard drive, and .16Ghz advantage, but it also has a dvd burner. The lower end mac has a cd burner and dvd rom, it cannot burn dvds.

right. that made complete sense. does the.16GHz make a lot of difference?

I mean either way, I'm gonna upgrade the memory to 2G anyway. The HD space & DVD burning is not a problem for me. If am to splash more than £100 for the middle range one, it will be primarily for the .16Ghz. So the main question here is if it is worth it, when I am upgarding the memory to 2g?..

thanks again. =)

Well the extra 160MHz isn't worth that much; but with the extra hard drive space and DVD burner I'd say you should consider it.

Personally, I have a 160GB HDD in my MacBook Pro, and I would have got the 250GB if I could afford it. I've had this Mac about a week and there's only 2GB left on the internal drive and I've filled my 250GB external. That might be just me; I'm a media slut and work with uncompressed digital video.

Also, I wouldn't buy a computer unless it had a DVD burner. Going through as much data as I do, it's very important that I can slap things on DVD to free up HDD space.

You might never run into these problems, but if you can comfortably afford the mid-range model I'd go for it, just so you don't get to the stage in 3 or 4 years time where you want to burn a DVD or your HDD needs an upgrade.

Agree with Levi - the .16Ghz is not worth the upgrade price at all. You would not notice any difference unless you had the two of them sitting side by side.

Really depends on what you use your computer for. Personally, would not buy a computer without a DVD burner any longer. However, I did buy that low end MacBook for my wife. It is all she needed for playing a couple of cheesy games, e-mail and IM'g.

I have a formula that seems to work pretty well for my friends that come to me looking what to get related to hard drives. Take a look at the hard drive space you have used on your current machine. For similar useage over the next 2-3 years - double that at a minimum and then add 25%. This should give you adequate space on your internal drive without having to worry about it. Now I also always recommend an external for back up, just in case, as soon as you can afford it.

A DVD writer is one of those odd things at the moment where it's still somewhat niche, it's most useful for those people who are burning movies and things still, but it's starting to become more and more necessary for the general consumer with the increasing amount of data that everybody is accruing in general. You may find that whilst you're still OK with CD-R's for now, in a year or so time you might want to backup your entire photo collection which would be much easier on a DVD than several CD's. A lot of iLife is also so easy to use that you might also find yourself messing around with video editing that you don't do at the moment.

You're probably also going to want as much hard drive space as you can afford. I've used 60GB of my MB's 160GB in a month or so, and haven't really got into full swing in a lot of the video and audio production I want it for.

As has been previously mentioned, you're unlikely to notice the .16Ghz speed jump, though you will eventually notice in the long term the hard drive space and lack of DVD burner.

As for RAM, I've always had pretty good luck with Corsair and Crucial. Dabs is a pretty good place to get stuff, you should be able to get 2x1GB sticks for around £50.

bobtomay said:

Really depends on what you use your computer for. Personally, would not buy a computer without a DVD burner any longer.

Click to expand...

I agree; I need to have a computer with a DVD burner.

The .16GHz is not worth the extra money!

I was in the same position as you and i opted for the lowest spec macbook with the combo drive because its cheaper.

In the last 2 years i havent burned on single DVD so no need for that. My current PC laptop has 80 gb of space and im using 20gb at most and havent went over that in the last 6 months. I also have a black macbook that does have a DVD burner if i ever need it.

If your like me go for the bottom one and save some money but if you are like the other people here pay the extra 100 and get a bigger HD and DVD burner! Its all about you really only you know what youll need and we cant really advise you there!

yea. Thanks for everyone's help.

i will probably go for the lower end one. Just bought 2G memory stick from Crucial. Don't really burn CD/DVD except for university assignments hand out. But do have an Acer laptop who does DVD burning just in case. Regarding the HD I already have 150GB & 250GB external to backup. & havent even use half of the 80GB on my Acer.

thanks anyway guys. loads of help.

I was debating the same thing about a month ago...

I chose the 2.0ghz model... If you're not needing to burn DVD's... then really, (for me at least) the choice is very easy... get the 2.0ghz. You can upgrade the HD and RAM anytime later.