Considering purchasing an MBP, Need a few questions answered first

Hi all,

I was looking for some answers to questions I have about the MBP, and this forum seems like a great place to ask.

First, I have a question about the processor. I want to get an 15 inch MBP, and I was wondering if there is much difference between the 2.4 ghz and 2.6 ghz processors. Additionally, is there a noticeable difference in battery life?

Here is what I see myself using the MBP for (I'll be in college this Fall). Obviously, music, web browsing, watching movies, normal computer use, but also, I'm currently working on writing and animating a comic and flash video, so I will definitely be dealing with heavy image manipulation as well as Adobe flash. I definitely see myself editing music and editing video as well. So, based on that very general outline of what I'll be using this for, what would be a better choice, 2.4 ghz or 2.6 ghz (battery life is important to me, but if the difference is slight, let me know)

As a side note: how is CS3 for mac, I've heard it is not as good as the windows version. Is this true?

Next, I am definitely not paying 700 dollars for 4 gigs of ram, so I will be upgrading the ram myself. Obviously, I will save the original ram in case I need to send it in, but how easy or difficult is to open up an MBP and change the ram? I know that if I damage it by opening it, I'm pretty screwed so I'd like to know what I'm up against.

Same thing goes for an hdd upgrade (i'd like to have more than 200 gigs of space), are their any mac friendly hdds that are more than 200 gigs?

I'd also like to use windows xp via boot camp, is there any lag or anything, or is it basically like using a windows pc?

Thanks everyone!

About the processor, I'm gonna take a guess and say it's probably not gonna make that much of a difference. Then again, I might be wrong. I've got a 17" MacBook Pro and the battery life is pretty good. It's all a matter of what you're doing on it, though. If you're doing something more demanding, the battery is not gonna last as long, but I can have a browser open and be messing around in GarageBand and still get like 3 and a half hours of battery life. To me, that seems pretty good. That kills what battery life I got on my old Dell laptop.

I do quite a bit graphic design and stuff and so far, Photoshop has been fine. I haven't really noticed any differences, but I haven't gone too far in, so I might be wrong.

I feel on you on not playing $700 for 4gb's of ram. When it comes to adding more ram, it's really easy. You can look up how to do it on YouTube and they'll be videos. It's pretty much as easy as unscrewing a few screws and you're there. You don't have to take apart really much. I don't really know much about changing the harddrive, but if I were you, I'd just get an external one, cause I don't know how easy it'd be. It might be a breeze, but from my experience, getting an external one would be a better option.

About running XP, I have no clue. I've never done it and probably never will. If you really look around, you can pretty much find a way to do anything you need to do, including playing games and such.

But yeah, if you get one, enjoy. I know I am.

changing the MBP ram is very easy:
1) remove the battery
2) remove 3 screws
3) remove ram
4) install ram
that's it for the ram upgrade!

For the hdd: it's much harder to upgrade, but it's very doable. I went from 120gb to 320gb. The whole upgrade process takes ~40 minutes.

wow! thanks for your quick responses. This has definitely pushed me one step closer to purchasing an apple!

Before purchasing your new MBP. I would recommend waiting until the next update. If you search this forum and also Google, you'll find some rumours about the next MBP update.

My advice, if you can wait, keep your hard earned money in your pocket until the next update.

As a MBP owner, you'll love it!

Enjoy!

my MB runs a bit faster on XP than it does on tiger.... and it runs way faster than my sisters vio.

so when ur in bootcamp, it runs super fast. there is nothing u ahve to worry...

but i am also curious bout the harddrive upgrade. waht brands are compatiable?

The hard drive can be upgraded. However, Apple does not consider the hard drive a DIY part on the MacBook Pro. Replacing it will void your warranty. Therefore I recommend, if internal storage space is important, get the largest drive Apple installs and get an external drive for additional space at least until your year warranty is up.

@yellow19man: yeah I won't be purchasing until I know which college I'm going to (won't be until late April), so I definitely will be able to wait for cool updates

@bobtomay: Thanks for the info on the warranty, I did not know that replacing the hdd will void the warranty. Hopefully with the next update, there will be larger hdds.

Thanks!