A few questions before joining the MAChine

i will get a macbook 13" in the next few weeks, but before i do i have a few questions for those that have one.

1. i dont want to pay a ton for them to upgrade the memory, so i will probably do it myself. is it worth it ($$$ wise) to get a macbook with 1 gig ram (2 sticks i assume) and then upgrade to 2 gigs (1 gig x 2 sticks)

2. we have a "home theater" PC connected to our tv. without using cd/dvds how would i be able to transfer movies and other large files back and forth between the mac and the pc? should the pc have a different HD for this kind of thing? maybe another external drive?

3. since ALL of my roomates have the macbooks as well, i wanted to get mine with a vinyl sticker lid or skin or whatever thats called with some kind of graphic. any recomendations on where to get that?

thanks for reading and answering my questions!

 

Yeah, it's worth it to upgrade to 2GB of RAM (and yes, if you buy it from somewhere else like newegg, you can get a great deal. I'd highly recommend G.SKILL, which is inexpensive but still works great in MacBooks).

For point 2, I think getting a large external USB 2.0 drive would be best; format it Win32 and you'll be able to easily use it with both your Mac and PC. You might also just be able use shared network drives to move stuff back and forth though. If you share a drive on your PC for example, you should be able to mount it on your MacBook.

For point 3, here's some to get you started (there's others too though):

http://www.macvatar.com/
http://www.gelaskins.com/catalog.php?Device=5&Category=7&p=1

EDIT: A few more:

http://www.macstyles.com/
http://www.itoppers.com/13macbookmods.html

 

It is not worth it to get it through Apple. Shop around and you will find some great deals on RAM. As a little bonus you will automatically have extra RAM just in case, or for diagnostics.

There are several ways to do this. Yes, you can definitely network them and transfer files that way, although, if it is wireless it could be slow. You could also use an external drive that you take back and forth. I would format it in HFS+ and then install MacDrive 7 on the HTPC.

 

if i purchase an external usb 2.0 drive...

-do i use a usb cord to transfer from the mac to the HD?
-does that HD need to be connected with a wire as well to the HTPC in order to run the media from it because of the required codecs?
-what are the differences in the way i format that drive (win32 vs HFS+?)

 

Just get a crossover cable and connect the PC with the Mac. Then you can setup file sharing in System Pref>Sharing on your Mac and Network Setup Wizard on the PC.

If you use a HD it will be just like using a DVD. You connect the HD to the PC first using the cable that comes with it and put your files on the HD. You then unplug the HD and plug it into the Mac and move the files from the HD to your Mac. You have to format the drive in FAT32, and none of your files must be greater than 4GB.

 

Yes, definitely upgrade your own RAM. Much cheaper that way.

As for the formatting, HFS+ is for Mac OS X, NTFS for Windows and FAT32 for both.

With Mac OS X, it can read NTFS, but can't write. So you can't put anything into a NTFS drive, or edit a file, but you can open them.

With Windows, you can't see or write HFS+. So it doesn't show up at all. There is MacDrive so Windows can read and write to HFS+, so if you want to buy that, you can.

With FAT32, both Mac OS X and Windows can read and write to that external hard drive. There are some drawbacks to FAT32 though.

 

i will probably choose to get an external HD and use FAT32 on it so all of the laptops in the house and the Home Theater PC can read the same files. What are the drawbacks of FAT32? The only thing that I am finding online is that it is "slightly" slower compared to the other file systems. Would this be a major problem with a 500gig or larger external drive? Any experiences or advice?

 

I don't think it would be a major problem really; in terms of practical effect in how you would be using it, I have a hard time believing you'd see any noticeable difference.

I think the other weaknesses of FAT32 have to do with file-size limits (I think limited to a max file size of 2GB) and I think less efficient use of disk space.

Do you plan on using the MacBook to write to this shared drive, or just read from it? If it will just be reading from it, you would still be fine with NTFS.

-Zadillo

 

i find that if you have a quick enough network, even if it is wireless, you should actually be able to play them back right over the network, without transferring files, but there are so many different ways to do what you are asking about, and you seem to know many of them, so i would just try and see what works best for you ya know.