Apple Macbook Pro - Help!

littlepanther

That's a tough call, 7200 rpm will mean your MacBook Pro will run faster but will reduce battery life. I went for 7200 rpm speed was more important.

Other option to try is to use a Flash drive in the PC Card slot as your boot drive. Much, much faster. You can expect boot times between 10 and 15 seconds. Also much faster access to apps and file, searching very fast too...just a thought.

Here is one of many resources online http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20091203220151255, do a search for more.

weegie.geek

The OP is looking for big storage, on a budget. Flash/SSD doesn't fit that bill in any way.

Wadz

weegie.geek wrote: »

The OP is looking for big storage, on a budget. Flash/SSD doesn't fit that bill in any way.

You got that spot on. I am using the laptop with the 'slower' hard drive & am not experiencing any probs.

Back to my 2nd question, did any have a look at the links that I gave for the RAM? Which ones should I go for?
Please advise.

thanks

littlepanther

It was just a suggestion, other people might be interested and OP may want to consider it in the future.

littlepanther

Check compatibility for memory by going to https://www.crucial.com/uk there is a system scanner tool there on the memory page. It has not failed me yet, it will tell you memory and combinations you can use. Prices are usually good but if you find cheaper elsewhere use the info you find on Crucial.

weegie.geek

Wadz wrote: »

You got that spot on. I am using the laptop with the 'slower' hard drive & am not experiencing any probs.

Back to my 2nd question, did any have a look at the links that I gave for the RAM? Which ones should I go for?
Please advise.

thanks

The Kingston should be compatible. It's the right spec at least. Macs might be a bit fussy (some non-mainstream PC motherboards are) so it's worth googling to see if someone's had luck with t hose ones. If not, crucial is your best best.

Scrilla

Wadz wrote: »

Just saw this one:
Kingston ValueRAM 2GB (1x2GB) 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM Unbuffered Non-ECC CL5 SODIMM Memory

£32.69 inc. VAT . Better deal but not sure if its compatible? Any idea??

http://www.lambda-tek.com/componentshop/index.pl?origin=gbase2.9&prodID=1290025

It looks like the answer is a yes (2008 discussion). I personally go for Crucial RAM.

littlepanther wrote: »

Other option to try is to use a Flash drive in the PC Card slot as your boot drive. Much, much faster. You can expect boot times between 10 and 15 seconds. Also much faster access to apps and file, searching very fast too...just a thought.

I've wanted to do this for quite some time as a cheap option to installing an SSD in place of my hard drive. There are a variety of mixed reports of which ExpressCard SSD to use with mixed results. If you've got a definitive answer to this, I'd like to learn from it please.

Wadz

Thanks for all your comments. I think I will pay the extra £13 something and get the ones from Crucial.
So I will have upgraded my Apple Macbook Pro 17", 120gb, 2gb to 640gb and 4gb for around £120!:money:
I am now looking at running Windows XP along side the OSX!

Thanks for all your help everyone!

diable

Wadz wrote: »

Thanks for all your comments. I think I will pay the extra £13 something and get the ones from Crucial.
So I will have upgraded my Apple Macbook Pro 17", 120gb, 2gb to 640gb and 4gb for around £120!:money:
I am now looking at running Windows XP along side the OSX!

Thanks for all your help everyone!

I think Windows 7 would be a better option.

Hammyman

Wadz wrote: »

I am now looking at running Windows XP along side the OSX!
!

Don't. Instead install Virtualbox which is free. Create a virtual PC with it and install Windows XP onto that instead. There's a speed hit but its not that bad and there's no faffing about dualbooting. OK, there's no 3D support worth a damn but unless you want to play Modern Warfare 2 it doesn't matter. You can also share folders from OS X very easily and they'll show up as networked folders in the XP virtual PC thus allowing easy access to files etc.