about to buy a macbook (white)

hi guys, i bought a dell a couple of months back, but im kinda tired of lugging it around. So i have decided to turn to the apple side. for one, im going into design, so i'll need it for that aspect, and two, they just look so darn good!!!i'll be getting the mid-level macbook, in Canada, with the 2.0 GHz core 2 duo processor. i was wondering, the hard drive capacity is 80GB, but when all is said and done, and all the software that comes preloaded, what will i be left with? 70 GBs? maybe 65? i have an external harddrive but i was just wondering how much space is actually left. Thanks!

 

I am in the same situation. From what I've read on MacForums, you may have about 70-75 when you receive the MB. So depending on how much you want to install, that's how much is going to be left. I plan on upgrading it to 100 or 120 with 7200rpms (not thru Apple of course).

 

Probably 70.
Subtract about 3 gigs for the true amount of space on the harddrive. The install isn't a full install, but is around 8 gigs probably. But it may have been as much as 10.
I would say, go ahead and reinstall OS X and then choose what you don't want installed (extra printer drivesr you don't need, language packages, x11, etc).

 

hollownail, (I should just read it off Apple.com but I have an exam in less than 7 hours and I'm procrastinating anyways) does Apple include CDs that will let you reformat/reinstall OS X?

 

Yes, you get the real software. All of it.
It's I think 2 dvds for the OS and theres some other cds for other software I believe. I don't remember exactly what, but yes, you get a real copy of OS X.

 

Good to know. Thanks so much!

 

If you purchase an 80GB HD, you will only get 75GB to use for your personal files and apps. However, the pre-installed iLife Suite takes up an impressive additional 10GB of space (yes, TEN GIGABYTES).
However, it is easy to uninstall it though. I for one removed the Office trial versions (500MB), Garageband (500MB), iPhoto (500MB) and some other stuff. To uninstall an application in OS X, just drag the .app file into the trash, and there is no need to restart your machine, so you only have to spend like 5 minutes uninstalling 5GB of stuff as opposed to an hour or so in Windows.

 

^^That is good to know, Thanks Budding.

 

Yeah, my "80" gig hard drive ended up being about 74 gig and several gigs were already used when I got it. I got 2 OS X dvd's but that was it as far as cd's go.

 

Dragging those apps into the recycle bin will not remove it completely. There are other locations where files are being stored for those apps.
Garagebands install is around 3-4 GB. It has a lot of sample and such that are in a shared directory.
Dragging the GB app into the recycle bin will still leave you with several gigs of data on the HDD from the app.

 

Very good info