New 17” MacBook Pro

[John O'Donnell]

Major quibble. I sure wish they had retained the FireWire 400 port. Sonnet makes a nice adapter but having a second FW port comes in handy for tethered shooting and an external FW powered drive.

[edmoss]

Nice to see matt screens are back

[Felix01]

Apple had started to reduce their RAM upgrade prices to something reasonable...until now....this is quite a premium price to upgrade the new 17" MBP to 8GB RAM through the Apple Store. I've been seeing compatible 4GB memory modules for under $500. And, of course, Apple additionally saves the cost of 2x2GB chips when the upgrade is performed at the time of manufacture.

[Martin_Doudoroff]

After doing a little poking around, I’m not actually finding examples of 2x4GB 1066MHz DDR3 PC3-8500 SO-DIMM SDRAM for below $1,100, and I’m not actually finding many examples to choose from. What am I missing?

These modules seem pretty bleeding edge, so perhaps Apple’s current $1,200 asking price is only moderately excessive. Seems to me the thing to do would be to order the stock 4GB 17”, wait a month or two, and then order third party once volumes are up and prices are down.

[Jerry Skrocki]

I am wondering if the memory is user replaceable. On previous models access was gained through the battery compartment. This is not possible with the new 17" model. Would you have to dissemble the whole unit for access? This would probably void the AppleCare warranty.

Jerry

[Jerry Skrocki]

I found the answer to my question on the MacWorld website:

Expo: First impressions of the 17-inch MacBook Pro | MacUser | Macworld

Also, according to the Apple spokesperson on the show floor—and contrary to what some of the commentators have been saying—you can indeed replace the hard drive and memory on it yourself, even though the battery isn't user-replaceable. Since the bottom of the case is screwed shut, you’ll have to unscrew eight screws and remove the entire panel before you can get to the hard drive and memory. Although that does mean that replacing the hard drive is more complicated than on the MacBooks and 15-inch MacBook Pros, upgrading the memory is pretty much the same procedure on all these products.

Jerry

[BobSmith]

Originally Posted by Jerry Skrocki

Since the bottom of the case is screwed shut, you’ll have to unscrew eight screws and remove the entire panel before you can get to the hard drive and memory. Although that does mean that replacing the hard drive is more complicated than on the MacBooks and 15-inch MacBook Pros

If that's all that's required to access the hard drive, that's considerably simpler than the current MacBook Pros or the previous G4 Aluminums where you have to remove the top panel including keyboard and trackpad and undo the associated cables. And you have to undo about twice as many fasteners on the sides and bottom of the case to get there.

Bob Smith