Well, after a week of research and drooling, I finally ordered the Macbook 13″ 2.0ghz. I decided to get the Macbook instead of the Pro because I didn’t really see much value in the dedicated graphics chip, illuminated keyboard and expresscard slot.

I ordered it with the stock 512mb RAM and 60GB HD, and I’m planning to upgrade it myself to 2GB and a 100GB 7200 rpm drive. I’ll repurpose the extra 60GB HD as an external drive for backups.

Apple’s upgrade cost of $500 for 2GB of RAM is just ridiculous when I can get it 2GB for $158 shipped from Omni Technologies, recommended by Alexander Limi and on this thread by several persons.

My only complaint is that the new Macbooks only come with Firewire 400, except for the 17″ which has the Firewire 800. After lugging around a Powerbook 17″ for 3 years, I decided my next laptop would be something more lightweight. For doing large sustained writes (such as audio/video capture), the Firewire 800 will definitely give better performance.

I read several articles and forum threads about the differences between a 5400 and 7200 rpm drive, and decided to go with the Seagate Momentus 100GB drive for $209 at Other World Computing. It won the Tech Report Editor’s choice as the best 2.5″ drive when compared with several other drives.

Even though it’s supposedly a bit slower than the Hitachi Travelstar, there were reports of the Travelstar being noisy, while the Seagate Momentus was described as whisper soft.

LaptopLogic did a full review and face off between the Hitachi 7K100 vs. Seagate 7200.1 and another review of a bunch of 2.5″ drives.

The latest shipping estimates from Apple.com report that the Macbook will be shipped on the 15th and arrive on the 20th. I hope it ships earlier than the 15th because I’m heading to San Francisco on the 18th and really would like to get it before I head out of town.

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