Forums » MacOS X

so i was looking at apple.com

Jan 01, 2007 who? me? link
and well i have to wonder
the hardware they're putting in their laptops, why does it suck?

like for example, the macbook, you cant even put a friggin graphics card in there! WTF!!! and the hard drive 4200 rpm! are they kdding! come on apple what the hell is going on here?

there even putting sucky harddrives in the macbook pro! 4200 rpm again! im not paying $3k for this kind of hardware. this stuff was standard 5 years ago.
Jan 01, 2007 Suicidal Lemming link
Perpendicular magnetic recording was standard 5 years ago?
200 GB hard drives in a 2.5" form factor was standard 5 years ago?
Surely you know the difference between a laptop hard drive and a desktop hard drive! (hint: the size)
Jan 01, 2007 who? me? link
oh ok
so you're saying that there are other things to take into account than disk drive RPM! my you must be ignorant.
Jan 02, 2007 chillum baba link
You also must know that a 2.5" drive of the same capacity as a 3.5" drive has a higher data density, meaning you need to move the head over a smaller area of the disk to read the same amount of data, which means you can reduce RPM to increase battery life without reducing throughput?

Gotta agree on the graphics chipset though. Wish they'd put a "real" (ATI or Nvidia) chipset in there.
Jan 06, 2007 Gavan link
Rail against the Macbook all you want (I've not seen any real world benchmarks of their new integrated memory system yet, but I have my reservations). But you're misinformed about the Pro. Not only does it come standard with a 5400rpm HD, but, on the 17" you can downgrade to a 7200rpm 100gig drive. You can do the same on the 15" you just have to do it yourself. You can also DYI yourself a faster bigger drive if need be....
Jan 08, 2007 smittens link
Also the MacBook Pro kicks ass.
Jan 09, 2007 Snax_28 link
Thank you for that useful addition to the conversation Smit.
Jan 19, 2007 mdaniel link
rpm is by no means the only measure of speed, right? Like MHz/GHz isn't either anymore. You can not simply look at a number like that and make your judgement. You can have your 12000 rpm drive with the wrong driver, cable, controler, motherboard, etc etc and its slow as a snail. Apple integrates their Hardware in an optimal way not many manufacturers can. My 5 cents.

But yes, It sucks they have no nvidia/ati card in the macbooks anymore. I hope apple comes out with a SMALL macbook, like 12 inch ibook used to be. Maybe a bit thinner and with isight. I would get one just to use the internet at the cafe I go to and to browse around the house.