Upgrading the basic Macbook

I'm thinking of buying a Macbook. I'm leaning towards the first configuration (for 949€), as it's 200€ cheaper than the more expensive one. The only differences are the CPU (from 2.1 Ghz to 2.4 Ghz), the RAM (from 1 GB to 2 GB), the Hard Drive (from 120 GB to 160 GB), and the drive (from a Combo to a Superdrive).

The 2.4 Ghz probably isn't a lot faster than the 2.1 Ghz one, especially for the kind of tasks I'll be performing. As for the Hard Drive, 40 GB isn't really that much: I have an external HDD anyway. The RAM is a must, but I can upgrade that for 40 € by just buying the memory in a store. The combo would probably do fine, but I'd prefer a superdrive. Do only apple-manufactured drives fit on the Macbook, or are there any other models that would work?

 

I don't think anything else besides the apple ones would fit. I think you can get them off ifixit.com. But unless you know what your doing, I wouldn't recommend you try to upgrade the drive and especially not the processor. What tasks are you planning on doing?

 

Just some internet browsing, multimedia, word processing... The kind of tasks that a university student would perform. I was thinking some light gaming as well, games like Company of Heroes, Call of Duty, or Europa Universalis III. I've tried those games on a X3100-based PC with an inferior CPU at low settings and they work fine.

I'm not thinking of upgrading the CPU. If replacing the drive is so complicated then I might as well not do it. I don't really need a burner that much, if I realy have to then I could get an external DVD burner; they're pretty cheap nowadays.

 

Yea I think an external would probably be cheaper than buying a new internal one. For basic tasks like that I think 2 gigs of ram should be enough.

 

You can't upgrade the CPU anyway......it's soldered to the main board.

 

Is there a noticeable difference between the 2.1 Ghz CPU and the 2.4 Ghz CPU?

 

In theory, since Leopard has support for 3rd party burner in the OS level. You no longer need an Apple SuperDrive in order to work.

You can buy any SuperDrive on eBay for about US$100, but in my opinion, the effort to open the Macbook, remove the cables and stuff might not worth your time.

 

i rarely use the dvd writer on my notebook. So i picked the basic macbook and add 4gb ram + a big hdd into it. Now, it is working like charm.

 

Will I notice the difference between 2 GB and 4 GB of RAM?

 

It depends on which applications you are going to use

 

Just some internet browsing, multimedia, word processing... The kind of tasks that a university student would perform. I was thinking some light gaming as well, games like Company of Heroes, Call of Duty, or Europa Universalis III. I've tried those games on a X3100-based PC with an inferior CPU at low settings and they work fine.

 

If you play game, then the answer will be yes. Woa, You can play COD4 on X3100 ? Last time i tried, it refused to run >.<

 

Not Call of Duty 4, Call of Duty 1 and 2. However, I've seen a video on youtube of Cod4 running on a X3100 pretty smoothly with 1.5 GB of RAM and a T2330. I imagine it would be smoother with 2 GB of RAM and a T8100.

 

When you play games at low resolution, they requires more cpu's processing power than graphic card's

 

I just bought my macbook! I'm so happy, it's so amazing.
I'm gonna order the new RAM tomorrow.

 

Conrats on you MB, hope you like it!

Although, I'd say, see how it runs with 2gigs, you might not need the extra couple gigs of ram in the tasks you're doing.

 

r6mile I'm buying a macbook soon and was wondering what do you think of it without the ram upgrade? is it slow when multitasking? do you have to wait for apps to open?

 

seems fine with only 1 GB. i haven't experienced any lag in loading applications. i've only been using simple apps so far though, like firefox and bittorrent, so i guess u really notice the difference in more resource-consuming programs.

 

hm. alright thanks maybe ill test mine out then before buying the 4gb ram upgrade. when you get your ram can you give an update on any differences? thanks!

 

yeah sure. by the way, i just tried the demos of COD1 and UT2004 and they work really smoothly at default settings.

the 2GB RAM upgrade isn't that important in OS X as it is for Windows Vista. Vista is a lot more resource-consuming, which is why PC's need at least 2 GB of RAM to run it smoothly. but of course, 2 GB will make OS X run even better. 4 GB doesn't seem necessary, but in any case the more RAM the better!

 

very true, good advice! ill try mine out before upgrading.