<p>I know there are a million threads on notebooks, especially iBooks, but I was searching and couldn't find any discussions on the hard drive specifically. I'd like to buy an Apple iBook 12", and was wondering if I should keep the 40GB or upgrade to 60 or more. I will be a freshman in college next year; I listen to a fair amount of music, but don't use too many other programs besides the essentials (Microsoft Word, Powerpoint, etc). </p>
<p>So what do you think is better? 40 GB or more? Also, how is the 1.33 processor...I know many laptops come with higher processors but I don't know if they are necessarily better and/or worth it. </p>
<p>I'm sorry if there was already a thread on this! If someone knows of one and can give me the link, I'd appreciate that as well. </p>
<p>One more thing:
I'm in a 7 year BS/MD program, so in three years I'll be in med school (just wanted to add this in case it matters with respect to the Apple and its compatibility with programs used in med school.)</p>
<p>Think of it as buying a huge garage- you'll have plenty of space, but you'll have less money to fill it up. If you download illegally free music, that won't be a problem (unless for some reason you can't do it at school), but if you are buying music, you might want to stick with the 40 GB until you fill it up, and then upgrade.</p>
<p>If you're just getting music and the basic programs, you should be fine with 40GB. Let's say your operating system and programs take up 20 GB. That leaves you with 20 GB (or 20480 MB to store songs). Most songs take up between 3 to 5 MB. For the purpose of this, let's assume all of your songs are 5 MB.</p>
<p>20480 / 5 = 4096</p>
<p>So you could store over 4000 songs on just 20 GB of hard drive (probaly more since most songs are less than 5 MB). I don't know about you, but I don't have (or need) that many songs. Then again, you are talking to somebody with a 250 GB hard drive :).</p>
<p>I'd agree with the others...40 GB should be adequate enough for you.</p>
<p>As for the processor, Apple is still using the G4 processor in the ibook (the switch to Intel won't happen for another few months). 1.33 ghz is quite fast for a Mac. You'll be fine with it.</p>
<p>As for using your Mac in Med school, I honestly don't know.</p>
<p>the 40gb should be fine but my girlfriend just bought one and the 80gb drive was the best deal (the price increase on the 100gb drive was huge but the 80gb drive wasnt bad).</p>
<p>The key is to not buy any extra ram. I repeat DO NOT BUY EXTRA RAM!!!</p>
<p>Apple wants $450 for an extra 1gb and some other obscene amount for 512mb. My girlfriend ordered hers with the built in 512 and then I ordered her a 512mb stick off of newegg for $50. I could have gotten the 1gb chip for ~$150 which is a savings of $300!!! That is more than enough savings to justify a bigger hard drive if you want one (or applecare or an ipod rather than just hte mini).</p>
<p>Well I think 60 gb is perfect for me, and I have a lot of digital pics, songs, and a few movies on my computer. If you don't download movies then 40 gb should be enough.</p>