Just a few things before I switch

Hey guys, I'm getting really close to getting my macbook but here's just a few questions I'd like answered by you know it all's

1. is 60gb enough memory? I'm a college student and plan on using it to write/store documents, store music (255 songs so far on windows media player), and perhaps dabble into some graphic art. Should I upgrade to 80?

2. I'm a fan of getting my money's worth, so do you guys think is it ok if I went with a refurbished mac? The only problem is that if I wanted a 80gb hard drive macbook, I'd have to get the refurb black macbook (1,299). Color isn't really a deal breaker for me (although I have to admit black looks real slick).

3. I want to upgrade to 2gb of ram but not through apple cause they charge a lot. So is newegg the place to get the ram? If so, would this work in the macbook: G.SKILL 1GB 200-Pin DDR2 SO-DIMM DDR2 667 (PC2 5300) Or would you recommend something better?

Thanks for taking to time to read this guys, I'm soo looking foward to getting my mac. I'm ready to free myself of the PC handcuffs and wonder off into the promise land of macs lol

 

You'll almost definitely find that more hard drive space will help you. I would stick with the 60GB stock in the MacBook though, and use the money to buy a 100, 120 or 160GB HD from newegg or macsales.com or somewhere similar. The hard drives are pretty easy to swap out.

From what I've heard, buying refurbished actually works pretty well. Some people even prefer it because a refurbished computer is likely to have had any issues ironed out, so you're more likely to get a pretty solid machine right from the get go. And they're still available with the same AppleCare warranty, so you are normally in pretty good shape.

Yes, that G.SKILL RAM is correct. I've generally heard good things about people who have used it, but you can also shop around at ramseeker.com, ramjet.com, macsales.com to see if you can find any better deals.

Good luck!

 

Another advantage of refurbished is that they sometimes come with upgrades, like HD or RAM! Do not upgrade either of those through Apple like zadillo said. Get them through a 3rd party. This has two advantages, one, it is cheaper, and two, you get backups if something goes wrong in the future.

 

Yeah, I've really been amazed by the number of stories I've read about people getting "bonus" upgrades for free from their refurbished units......... 1 or 2 gigs of RAM free, 80GB HD when they expected 60, etc. Has to be a pretty nice surprise...

 

I wish they would have sent me a nice bonus

 

I think you should be fine with the harddrive upgrade through apple, checking the prices Apple's harddrive prices are in line with the rest of the industry, meaning you aren't getting ripped off, and in some cases I have found you actually lose money upgrading your harddrive by yourself. Make sure you look around!

 

But the advantage of getting the standard drive with the unit, is that you can pay the same amount for a new drive as what it would have cost to have that drive upgraded.
So, you end up with a 60gig and say... a 100gig for the price of a 100gig from apple. Then you could get an external enclosure and use that original drive as an external harddrive for backups or storage (or both).

 

Indeed. Or you can sell the drive, it is brand new after all.

 

Wow! thanks for the posts!!! I'm glad I asked you guys before making my purchase. I still have to decide whether or not I want black or white. However, I've got another question for you. Will I be able to upgrade my OS to leopard when it comes out?

 

Traditionally Apple hasn't offered upgrade pricing on new OS's, but yes, you would be able to buy a copy of Leopard and install it. Since you're a college student you do get it at an educational discount, so it will be about $69.

 

educational discount only for college students and not for school students?

 

Pretty much, yes, although they do have an option for homeschooled students, who seem to be able to get the same discounts as college students.

-Zadillo

 

Is this discount available only in US?

 

The education discount is available in Canada and I'd imagine probably most other countries Apple sells to as well.

 

Well guys, I'm happy to say that I purchased my macbook today. Now I just have to make it through the long dreadful waiting period...Oh well, I know it'll be worth it. Thanks guys for everything! Can't wait to share the experience of owning a mac!

 

Awesome, hope you enjoy it!

 

grats man. the waiting period sucks, but hey, could be worse.
could be like, 1 month + for an alienware.

 

dcook, like you i was not sure if the macbook would suit my computing needs. Being a life long windows user i was reluctant to make the change but over time i came to be more and more interested in apple.
it is a purchase i do not regret. the 60gb is a very decent amount of space. I have over 2000 songs in my itunes, a bunch of torrent tv shows, iwork, ilife, a ton of photos from my 7.2mp sony,adobe photoshop cs, sim city 4 rush hour and i still have something like 17gb left...so you can definately live with the 60gb comfortably

 

Thanks Kace! I'm already reading the apple support site to ease the transition into OS X. I've only used it a couple of times so I'm fairly familiar with the OS but it should be fun learning how to use something new!

 

Someone's probably already recommended this to you, but just in case they haven't, it is definitely worth checking out the O'Reilly book "Mac OS X Tiger: The Missing Manual". It's excellent and will provide a lot of useful advice on getting used to OS X.

-Zadillo

 

Nope, no one has recommended it until now. Thanks Zadillo. While were on the topic of learning new things, I bought 2 gigs of ram, can I assume that it'll be relatively "easy" installing the ram? I mean what's to it? Just pull out old ram, put new one in, then turn it on? Sorry if this is a repost of the same subject, just wanna make sure I don't break my new mac

 

Yup, doing the memory install is really easy on a MacBook. Check out this great video from Other World Computing:

http://eshop.macsales.com/tech_center/index.cfm?page=Video/macbook/macbook/high.html

(you'll also see the HD installation in that I think, if you're ever interested in swapping your HD out).

 

Thanks Zadillo (again). Really appreciate the support. You guys are the best!

 

We need to start charging money here for help.

just kidding.

 

*gives xbandaidx $.02*

 

Not that I don't want this thread to die, but I was using my friend's macbook and she wanted to know why, when she opened up her wigets notepad, it wouldn't let her edit it (as in delete, type in new stuff) It would however, let her change the color. Any ideas?

 

Um... You mean the stickie widget?
Not sure, thats odd.

 

I just tried it now and it worked fine for me, it does indeed sound odd, has she done anything diffferently lately?

 

Not that I noticed (although I haven't had much experience with OS X). Yes, I'm talking about the stickie widget (the thing that looks like a post-it note). She bought it from Apple, (black 2gb 80gb). Any suggestions?