will a 40 GB HD suffice?

[remlemasi]

i am going to get the 12" iBook.

it's for college work. i don't do video stuff, no photoshop.

but i DO have about 10 GB of music (SLOWLY growing)
and about 4 GB of photos (also SLOWLY growing)

will it's stock option of 40GB suffice?

thanks

[onlyafterdark]

From my experiences I would say no. I saw both my music library and photo library double over the past year. They now take up a combined 28GB of space on my 40GB internal drive. I just recently purchased a nice external HD because of my space problem.

[Mac+]

My immediate reaction is to say this ... as always, buy as much storage as you can afford. However, a second reaction is to ask how long do you think you will keep this computer?

Obviously, if you don't have a way of backing up and offloading your data, then those 40GBs will eventually fill - maybe more quickly than you anticipated too.

A different approach might be to save for an external HD instead. That way you can keep it when you sell your iBook and use it for your next computer. :cool: (like what oad said!)

Oh - one more thing - bear in mind that OS X likes to use the HD for swap files and it is worth while keeping about 5GB (or thereabouts) free, I believe. Wiser minds than mine might chime in soon with a more accurate representation of the exact percentage or amount of HD space which should be maintained.

Hope this helps. :)

[_Ω_]

I would say yes. If you are not a AV whore (and I mean that an a nice way guys :p ) with a small music collection then you should be fine. Having space is always handy if you can afford it, but it is not too expensive to explore external options.

Personally I have a 60GB drive which was the largest size for the PB three years ago. In that time I have gone from 25GB to 35GB used, and that is mainly due to my increased music collection (up to 20GB now), as well as my fetish for hoarding all my installers (if anyones needs an old version of something I am your man!).

I also have a 250GB external that I use, but currently it has exactly what I have on my laptop and nothing else (meaning I am not using it to increase the amount of space my laptop has available.)

Where things go a bit crazy is if you are a rabid p2p person, which eats up space very quickly.


2c

[thequicksilver]

I would say absolutely not. I replaced a G3 iBook with 40GB about 16 months ago and it was getting pretty tight. 10GB or so of music, at least 5GB of pictures/digicam video, and lots of apps (iLife '04 alone at the time took up 4GB or so). It left very little breathing space.

I now have a 60GB HDD in my newer iBook and it's a lot better, but I do also have a firewire external drive as well. I could just about cope with the 60GB alone if needed be, but I'd still prefer an 80 or 100GB drive in here if I could. That'll come with my next 'Book after the Intel transition I'm sure.

Frankly I'd get the biggest drive Apple offer. The price difference isn't huge (£40 or £50 IIRC) and it really futureproofs your computer. It will also make it easier to sell if you choose to do so in the future - two years down the line, 40GB will be unacceptable for most, whereas 80GB will make your computer a more attractive buy.

[Luca]

External hard drives are cumbersome, but they're far better in terms of price per storage when you have a notebook. You can only increase your space so much in a notebook... 100 GB is as good as it gets. External drives can hold four times that for the same price. In lower capacities, an external drive has a base price of $50 for an enclosure and at least $60 for the hard drive (the smallest, cheapest 3.5" desktop hard drive is an 80 GB). After that, capacities increase dramatically while prices just slowly creep higher. 160-250 GB hard drives are generally in the $90-$120 range.

Basically you have two options. If you think you'll be able to get by with just the internal space, I'd suggest upgrading the iBook to the 80 GB internal drive. The 100 GB option is way too expensive to be worth it. If you think you'll need more than 80 GB of storage, you should opt for the smallest internal drive and buy at least an 80 GB external drive (preferably a 160 GB since they're only a few bucks more expensive). And remember that you can always add an external drive, so if you get a 60 or 80 GB drive now, thinking you'll have enough room, and you run out, you can still expand your storage. Plus you can move an external drive from one machine to the next.

[bassplayinMacFiend]

I would definitely get a larger hard drive. My music collection alone is 40GB, but I ripped all my CDs at 320Kbps. My photo collection is approaching 6GB, but since iPhoto added RAW capabilities, my iPhoto library is growing much faster than ever.

Staples has 200GB 3.5" Maxtor drives on sale for 79.94 this week so if you have an external enclosure this might be an option as well. But as has been mentioned, external storage is a PITA if you want to have everything with you all the time.

There is one maxim I've found true in my 25 years of computing; your data will grow to fill all available storage space. Right now I have 75GB of DV data I'm editing in iMovie and that's only from the last two months of shooting. I have about 4GB free on a 180GB HD at the moment, which is why I bought the external drive.

[Franz Josef]

40GB is really a little low these days for a laptop - you should consider 60GB or 80GB.

[goingin]

I am going for the 40 GB in my futere iBook, because when I need more space, I will use an external drive. Then, I won't have all my music with me when on the road, but that's where the iPod comes in :) And upgrade prices for the internal hard drive are quite high, and they stay 4200 rpm.

[Res]

I keep my 40GB of music (ripped from cd's that I own), and all of my iMovies and other multimedia files and on one of my two 160GB external hard drives, which including backups of my powerbook takes up a total of about 250GB. And even with all of that external storage I only have 2.91 GB of free space on my internal 40GB hard drive. Needless to say I plan on either swapping in a larger hard drive or sell my 800MHz PB and get a replacement with a larger drive.

Nowadays I would recommend a minimum of 60GB HD in a laptop if it is going to be your primary computer. Of course, you could start with a standard 40GB drive and swap in a larger one in a few months if you find it is not big enough for your needs (I'm thinking about getting the stock 12" iBook and adding an after-market 80GB 5400RPM HD and a dual layer DVD burner).

[BlueRabbit]

No. My 12" PB has a 40 GB drive, and it's barely enough for my music and files. I have about 12 GB of songs, and some pictures/movies. I do have an external 160 gig drive, but I can't stick my music or iLife apps on it.

Still, though, an external drive is pretty cheap, and can hold a ton of stuff. Very useful.

[sunrain]

I'd vote for a 60GB hard drive. That'll give you some comfortable room to spare. If you ever got into video work, you're better off doing that on an external drive anyway.

[intlplby]

as someone said.. get the largest you can afford, because you will end up using it....... and it's better to have too much than too little... if you run out of space it will cost you more in the long run

i would get an 80gb because it's a great value..... after 80gb it jumps in price considerably....

80gb, 5,400 hd - about $110 for a Hitachi Travelstar

after that it jumps to 180 for a 100gb drive and 220 for a 120gb drive that are only 4,200rpm

get a 5,400rpm drive... it'll make load times peppier

[remlemasi]

thanks for the replys fellas,

i was out of town for the weekend i could not reply.

i just did some shopping, an Toshiba 80GB 5400RPM HD is only $94 at newegg.com, prices are sure to go down in the next year or two when my 40GB fills up

at the online apple store w/student discount, it's $90 to upgrade to 80GB, but it's only 4200RPM

the prices are approx. the same but the toshiba is 5400RPM. how much will it cost to go to an authorized dealer and have them swap the drives if i purchase the Toshiba drive?

how hard is it to do by myself? (i know it will void the warranty)

thanks for everything.

[DMBand0026]

Think of the hardest mechanical project you've ever attempted, than multiply that by about 15. It's really not worth the trouble to try and do it yourself, you're better off spending a little extra money now. However, if you're still interested here (http://www.sterpin.net/uk/ddibookdualuk.htm) are step by step instructions on how to accomplish your task. It's an older iBook, but it's the same basic steps as far as I know. If I were you, just looking at that page would scare me enough to not want to attempt this.

[remlemasi]

link doesn't work...

but it doesn't matter, i wasn't REALLY thinking of doing it myself, just wopndering... :)

but how much would it cost to have professionals do it?

[DMBand0026]

Sorry. :o It worked for me when I viewed it the first time. If you're still interested, here (http://golem.ph.utexas.edu/~distler/blog/files/iBook500HDRev1.2.pdf) is a quite detailed PDF of basically the same thing that was in the link I posted.

Having a pro do it would be more trouble than it's worth too. It'll be pricey, time consuming, and will still void the warranty. I really think you'd be better off just sticking with a stock 80gig.

[bassplayinMacFiend]

DMBand0026,

Here's the correct link. Looks like they slightly renamed the webpage --> http://www.sterpin.net/uk/ddibookg4uk.htm

[Spiewak]

link doesn't work...

Sorry. :o It worked for me when I viewed it the first time.

Just wanted to point out, as pmazer and Brad mentioned in another thread (http://forums.applenova.com/showthread.php?postid=227853#post227853), that the board's "auto-replace" feature is what's breaking the link. After clicking on it, just replace the capital B in iBook with a small b and you'll have no problems. :)

[DMBand0026]

Awesome. I just remembered that the board does that. Thanks for pointing that out.