I am pondering buying a MacBook Pro. It will be for the business and as such used primarily for running a couple of databases, a webserver, TextMate, a bunch of Ruby processes, and the occasional Photoshop (although that might end up being run under Windows).
I think I’d like to be able to run Parallels so I figure 2GB is the amount of RAM I’d need? Is the recommended option still buying the machine with 512MB RAM and order 2GB non-Apple RAM elsewhere and install it yourself?
If it is, what kind of RAM do I actually need to buy (I suck at buying RAM, took me two tries to order the proper RAM for my machine at work), and is it easy enough to install it on my own without voiding warranties and whatnot?
As for the harddrive I am considering the 7200 RPM option. Does this actually give any performance benefits, or will it just suck the life out of the battery? I am not too worried about disk space. I’ll get an external disk eventually, or simply use the server at home or some disk in the sky for storage.
I am aiming for the 15” 2.16 GHz configuration. It seems to me that it gives the best compromise of power and portability. The 17”, while impressive, doesn’t give that much extra benefit and appears slightly too large to lug around.
Any extras I desperately need? Anything I need to be aware of?
Yeh definitely go for 2GB RAM but not from Apple as their price is too high.
Regarding the RAM module I’ll suggest
kingston 1GB Value RAM PC-5300 (667MHz) 200-pin SO-DIMM DDR2 RAM
Maybe this thread will help
http://forums.appletalk.com.au/index.php?showtopic=17850
You get more of a performance boost going from 4200 to 5400 than 5400 to 7200rpm. As for battery life, you might notice 5-15 minutes decrease. You’ll have to decide if the programs you use access the disk frequently, if they do, you’ll notice the speed.
Also if you buy the drive separately, make sure you get the SATA interface hard drives. You can use the original drive as an external if you get an usb adapter kit (I did this).
You will not void your warranty by installing your own RAM.
Go here and they have guides on everything you’ll need for the MacBook Pro:
http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/85.0.0.html
I just installed the Corsair brand equivalent of what is mentioned above in my new Refurb MBP. Looks great, works great.
I thought about upgrading the hard-drive seperately but the guide I saw said you need to remove a ton of torx screws. I might someday but for now it’s not worth the effort.
Awesome, this is good stuff, exactly what I was hoping for. Thanks :)
I have the macbook pro as u know and when running parallels with 1gb ram it grinds i must admit .. so go for 2gigs for sure .. :) but why not ps in osx ? oO
‘
Personally, I went for the 5400rpm drive primarily because I’ve been told (no confirmation, just local folklore) that the faster drive is also a little noisier which didn’t appeal. 5400rpm seems enough to not be an obvious bottleneck in the system.
FWIW I’m running a local webserver with about two dozen virtual domains, tens of MySQL databases, TextMate, Transmit, NetNewsWire, Mail, a couple of browsers and ocasionally Photoshop together quite happily.
Parallels will work great but the more RAM the better. Don’t dismiss Photoshop via Rosetta through - it’s a pain for high-res print work but for 72dpi screen graphics it’s fine - about on a par with my 1.5GHz G4 Powerbook.
Macrobe Flash, on the other hand, will drive you insane. Use that in Parallels if you need it at all. Hope that helps.
I have the Pro, 2 ghz, 2 gigs ram, 7200 hard drive, plus a 30” ACD. I would say its about as close to perfection as you can get. =) Parallels + Virtue Desktops is awesome.
The hard drive speed is important when you are running 12 apps, plus constantly running test suites and switching to parallels and back and everything. Eventually you’ll run out of ram and begin swapping to disk, in which case you’ll want the extra speed. Then again, I care more about performance then mobile concerns, as this is my dev workstation first and “nice to have” on the road second.
Battery life isn’t more then 3 hrs anyway, so I wouldn’t worry about battery life with the 7200 harddrive. If you are really gonna go road warrior style you’ll carry the AC adapter and an extra battery, anways.
Hope this helps - have fun!
It has been ordered - thanks guys.