I purchased the 15-inch 2.4 GHz MacBoook Pro.  This utilizes Intel’s Santa Rosa platform which enables OS X to address up to 4 GBs of RAM.  Since running virtual machines requires lots of RAM, I decided to manually upgrade the RAM to the maximum.  Because of Apple’s outrageously priced 4 GB upgrade (+$700),  I purchased a 4 GB (2 x 2 GB) kit from Crucial and installed it myself.  Even though the machine shipped with 2 GBs, I had to replace it all due to the fact that Apple uses 2 x 1 GB chips which use up all of the available RAM slots.  So, I have an extra 2 GBs of RAM on hand but I plan to keep it just in case as I have read that Apple can give you a hard time if they see 3rd party RAM installed if/when you bring it in for service. It was super easy using Apple’s own instructions and an eyeglasses repair screwdriver purchased for $2.99 at my local drug store.

I did opt for Apple to upgrade me to the 7200 RPM 160 GB drive.  Drive speed can also be a performance bottleneck with virtual machines so I figured the upgrade was worthwhile.  I probably could have done it myself more cheaply but the hard drive wasn’t as relatively overpriced as the RAM upgrade and I have read that changing the MacBook Pro’s hard drive is not quite so trivial as the RAM upgrade was.

I am currently running Tiger (OS X 10.4.10).  Since I bought the machine after October 1st, 2007, I qualified for Apple’s $10 Leopard up to date program and should receive it on, or shortly after, October 26.