Advice on upgrading MacBookPro

Forums › Mac OS › Advice on upgrading MacBookPro

mailmarshall

362 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 60

#17345 22-Nov-2007 08:41

Hi

A friend of mine has been asking me for advice on whether he should order a Macbook Pro with upgraded harddrive and memory directly from the Apple site or is it better to buy a 'vanilla' base unit and then just upgrade it himself i.e purchase more RAm and harddrive from somewhere else.

I have warned him that it can be difficult to find compatible hardware for Apple sometimes and it maybe better to order the macBook Pro with the extra components pre-installed directly from the Apple Online store, rather than by parts seperately.

Anyone have any comments?

maninimepo

72 posts

Master Geek

#96360 22-Nov-2007 10:34

MacBook Pro's use completely standard parts. It's very easy to find memory and hard drives to fit them.

I would always do the memory myself - it's very easy and it's a user serviceable part.

However, the HDD isn't and although it's not tricky to do, upgrading it will make the HDD invalid.

The internet home of Nick Jennings

mailmarshall

362 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 60

#100755 18-Dec-2007 21:06

maninimepo : Can you recomend a brand for Macbook Pro RAM? I wouldn't want to buy something that wouldn't work properly and I cant find anything on google.

alsta

278 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 28

#100761 18-Dec-2007 21:38

Upgrading RAM won't void your warranty and is very easy.

as maninimepo says, upgrading Hard drive will void warranty.

The yearly MacWorld conference is on the 15th of Jan 2008 and it has been almost 6 months since the last MacbookPro upgrades.

If your friend can wait, it might be worth it...

Twitter : @twocolddogs

maddygp

41 posts

Geek

#100902 19-Dec-2007 20:34

Apple and its resellers charge FAR too much for RAM upgrades. Buy and install it yourself, and save hundreds of dollars.
E.g. the Apple store is charging NZ$1170 (!) to upgrade from 2GB to 4GB of RAM (2 x 2GB). Crucial.com are selling their high quality 2x2GB RAM for $US149.
E.g. Apple charges $250 to upgrade MacBook RAM from 1GB to 2GB, where you can buy the same Crucial RAM locally (e.g. www.ascent.co.nz) for $93
Crucial.com have separate Mac page on their website too. I upgraded my MacBook with Crucial RAM from Ascent and it has been great (noticably faster too).

Probably best to pay Apple for the hard drive upgrade though (even though arguably the price is higher than it should be ...)

Fossie

1240 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#101336 22-Dec-2007 00:51

I plan on waiting it out to get a macbook pro, your friend should aswell. For the ram, any decent brand should work well.