Need help deciding what to buy

Hey guys, Im switching from a dell to a Mac. I was waiting til today to see if there was anything substantial from the keynote speech, but theres no way ill wait for snow leopard. But anyways, Im looking to get a macbook pro mainly for the dedicated video card. Now as for the other options on the pro, im pretty unfamilar. I know I want 4 gigs of memory and read that its way cheaper to not get it from apple. How easy is it to put in. I've never done anything inside a computer before. Also, what are your suggestions on a hard drive, all of the options have plenty of space for me, and i already have a 250gb external drive, the speeds of the drives make me want the 7200rpm, but im not sure how of a difference it will be. And last question is about the processors, which one would you recommend? i want the 15 in mbp and i im not sure on how much of a difference there is between the 2.4-2.5 and 2.6 ghz processors. thanks!

Hey there and welcome to the forums!

I have an older 15" MBP and I must say it's fantastic! I would definiately recommend it to anyone I know.

Yes, it is quite a bit cheaper to simply upgrade the ram yourself. Depending on what you'll be doing on the laptop, I suggest getting at least 2Gb. If money is no problem for you, then just go ahead and order more online. It's not too tough to install yourself. There are even videos on Youtube that you can find on how to install the ram, just make sure that you purchase the right kind. We can help you out with that around here if you have any questions on the memory upgrades.

From the sounds of it, I don't think you need to upgrade the hard drive. I don't notice a huge difference between speeds of the drives.

As for the processor, I think the baseline MBP would be fine. You won't really notice a speed difference unless your are rendering movies or doing heavy CPU work that takes hours. Usually the speeds would only shave off a couple of minutes anyways.

Hope this helps!

Yeah I will definitely upgrade to the 4gb of ram, ive been reading and they say that is the easy part. The hard drive isnt much of an issue. So I guess my online concern is the processor. I have a windows pc now thats pretty quick, its just that its 17 inches and way too big for me. So my parents are gonna take mine, and get me a MBP, good deal for me, plus free ipod touch. Anyway, right now I have been backing up all of my dvds onto my external hard drive because the hard drive on my current laptop is full. Is there programs for macs to do this kind of stuff, and would that be a good enough reason to upgrade to the 2.6 ghz processor?

Hey there. I back up DVDs onto an external all the time, and I have an older 2.33GHz MBP. As todd51 said, you're not going to notice much of a speed difference. Save what money you can.

okay, which hard drive would you suggest then? i may have to reformat my external hard drive so it works with a mac. im not sure how to do that, or if it works already, but it may have to be done. Is there a big difference between the 7200rpm and 5400 rpm hard drives? especially if im watching a movie off the hard drive? its 45 bucks to get the faster one, and im not too concerned about the 50 gb of less space

the big difference in the jump from the 2.4 ghz processor to the 2.5 one is the L2 cache goes from 3 mb to 6 mb.

as far as the disk speed is concerned you will notice faster load times with the 7200 rpm hard drive. you will easily be able to run a movie off either hard drive so it is a personal choice more hd space or more hd speed. personally i would go for space.

well i want the 512mb video card...so its either a 2.5 ghz or the 2.6...what is the difference between those. i really dont know what L2 cache is. i assume more is better.

Im more of a PC expert but since macs use intel CPU's i assume its the same thing. Without making your head spin, yes the more cache you have the better your CPU will perform.

sounds good, i think im gonna do the 2.5 ghz 15in model, with the 250gb 5400rpm hard drive, then upgrade the ram to 4gbs myself.

I went into buy a 2.5GHZ model, but decided to go down to the 2.4GHZ! I think you will be happy with the baseline model of the MBP. I am going to add 4GB of RAM one day, but right now the 2GB is fine!

okay so i looked at the HUGE price difference between the macbook and MBP, and think i may opt towards a a macbook. if i get the 4gb of ram(installed myself of course) there probably wouldnt be too much effect from the intgrated graphics? i assume there not terrible. i have 360 ps3 and wii so im not really going to be gaming on there, other that flash games and stuff like that. Are the graphics solid enough to watch quality dvds on their tho. i feel like i should just get the macbook and save myself a thousand bucks.