Well, after much deliberation I bit the bullet and ordered a Powerbook 15 inch superduperdrive. Yes, there are upgrades in the pipe, and no there is no readily available stock at my far-too-close-for-comfort apple store around the corner. So fingers crossed I got in an early order for the speed-bumped next edition.

Anyway, as a switcher from the trusty PC to the Mac, I have some Powerbook type questions for all of you far-more-qualified people, which I'm sure are classed by you as newbie questions

Numero 1 - Is it worth doing a BTO for the purposes of upping the HDD to 5400rpm, or would it be better going - after picking it up - to a 7200rpm doodad from a Streetwise type shop?

Number 1 Part 2 - Can I/You/Mr. Qualified Apple Person upgrade the HDD, or do I have to send it back to Apple?

Number 2 Bit A - Is there any supercritical software that I should consider buying while I am picking up aformentioned laptop from the Apple Shop? Perhaps Office? Or Something else? 99.99999% of the people I currently work with use PC's and Office, making me the 0.00001% of the population using Mac. I'm going overseas later in the year, so the problem will go away... soon... (not soon enough).

Number 3, Section 1 - Is there a dock available for the Powerbook?

Thanks for your help!

1) if speed is so important i would purchase the computer standard then buy an external 2.5 at the speed you want (7200) then swap the drives over so you have the fast one in the computer and the PBs original in the external case.

2) any authorised apple tech can do it. most will charge you lots but i will do it for free for you if you in melbourne.

3) buy office if you can...... the PB has no word processing software (and no text edit doesn't count)

4) i don't think docks are worth it..... there are apparently a few third party docks but i wouldn't have a clue what brands or how much.

1) I got the BTO 5400 HD and there is a noticeable increase in speed over the 4200RPM drive which is standard. Somthing like it takes a third off your startup time, so yes, I would say get the 5400RPM and then if you need more speed, get a 7200 or even 10,000 in an external case via Firewire, or installed in the pBook.

2) I love Office 2004, (normally i hate Micro$oft stuff) and it integrates flawlessly with PCs. It sounds like a fairly crucial buy for you.

3) Not sure: I would assume so, but it would be harder to make a dock as the ports are on the side of the Powerbook and not across the back like on older powerbooks.

Good - they were just the kind of answers I was looking for. Thanks muchly for that!

Congratulations. Now to your questions:

1a) It depends how much you need/want the extra HD speed and how much you want to pay for it. It's only $75 or something for a CTO upgrade to a 5400RPM drive, but a 7200RPM drive will cost you lots more ($300+). It's not user installable so you would need to pay a tech to do it or void your warranty. More $$

IMO you would be better off spending your money on RAM.

2) Yes, get Office. Unless you feel like using open-office or neo-office - they both work OK but they're a bit ugly and kind of crude. Unfortunately iWork, elegant as it is, just doesn't cut the mustard as far as professional office suites go. As far as other software goes I can't think of anything super-critical that's not already included. Depends what you will use it for.

3)Not as far as I know. With airport extreme & Bluetooth you shouldn't really need one.

EDIT: Ngrh. Beat me to it Ozi/macmate!
BTW macmate it's nice of you to offer to offer to swap the drives over for free. B)

Ooooh, more replies - thanks!

I got the Ram upped to 1Gb after all the recent discussions about the Mini, and the capabilities of the OS when sitting in a 256Mb/512Mb pool of Ram. I'm a little bit concerned with the speed of the 4200rpm drive, because it just doesn't sound like a very fast drive Actually, as a long time PC laptop user, I've learnt to minimize bottlenecks, since the darn things are slower than desktops as it stands.

Seriously, my biggest concern is the usual - I don't know what I don't know! I've watched the Mini discussions about cpu speed, bus speed, disk speed, etc. I know how all of this effects Windows/PC operation - where bottlenecks appear. I don't know it all scales for day to day OSX use. But I'll find out soon enough, and if the drive is too slow, I'll grab a faster one, and stick the supplied drive in a firewire case - easy fix!

Not so seriously, my last question: should I blog my experience like every other switcher? "And this is the box it arrived in - here's me opening the box..."

thanks..... it would be a pitty to have to pay for it...... just want to show what a nice bunch us mac people can be.

i'd go more for a 'hey i have had it a month and here is what i have thought.' type thing rather than, 'here is me opening the box'


Ric

No It's not very fast at all - especially for a Powerbook. I would have gone for the 5400 even if you do think you might put it in an external case later.

If you really must. :P