Buying a seperate Hard Drive and RAM

[JimmyB248]

I'm travelling in the autumn and so size has become and issue and quite frankly, in terms of cost the MB seems like the perfect choice for me. I've been looking around, and I was wondering if I simply buy myself a MB off Apple with the educational discount, the 2.0 GhZ model comes at £844.83. That's with 512MB of RAM and a 60GB HDD. Now what I really want is 2GB of RAM and a 120GB HDD. Of course cost is an issue so I've been looking around, and wondered whether you guys thought it would work to buy myself two 1GB sticks from Orca and then buy myself a 120GB ATA HDD for only £56 rather than the £169 Apple is charging me. Would this work? I've been looking at videos and the RAM and HDD seem pretty simply to install. Could I just simply replace the HDD and RAM then do a fresh install and BAM! Got myself a maxed out MB for a damn cheap price.

What do you reckon?

 

[idea_hamster]

Two points:

First, buying non-Apple RAM seems to be a wise move. The only possible downside is that, should you get a bad stick (generally low probability), you will have to deal with the RAM vendor, not Apple. If this doesn't put you off, then buying third-party RAM is a good way to save a small bundle.

Second, the HDD is more complicated. The MacBooks all use SATA, not ATA (which is actually PATA). SATA, or Serial ATA, is not the same as PATA, or Parallel ATA. So the HDD that you linked to won't work in your MB or MBP -- actually for 2 reasons: (a) it's not SATA, and (b) it's a desktop HDD, so it's too big (3.5" not 2.5").

FWIW, you could buy that drive, put it in a Firewire enclosure, and use it as an external HD, but this runs counter to your space issue. (BTW, not to rethink your process here, but just how much space will you save by your switch to MB from MBP?)

If you're looking to change the HDD, chose one of these -- they're more expensive, but hey, they'll work.

 

[runplaysleeprun]

I agree with idea_hamster, do the ram yourself, you'll save a bundle. And, I would recommend getting name-brand ram, as the odds of getting a bad stick go way down, and if you do, a warranty is generally included. As for the HD, it might be more of a hassel than its worth to upgrade the HD. Are you really going to need more than 60gb of data accessable? Would an external HD be adequate to store data that you may not use often, and free up the space on the HD in the macbook?

 

[adk]

I agree with idea_hamster, do the ram yourself, you'll save a bundle. And, I would recommend getting name-brand ram, as the odds of getting a bad stick go way down, and if you do, a warranty is generally included. As for the HD, it might be more of a hassel than its worth to upgrade the HD. Are you really going to need more than 60gb of data accessable? Would an external HD be adequate to store data that you may not use often, and free up the space on the HD in the macbook?

Actually, the hard drive is quite easy to replace on the macbook. It's just two screws in the battery bay, you don't have to take apart the computer at all.

 

[Ubuntu]

I'm travelling in the autumn and so size has become and issue and quite frankly, in terms of cost the MB seems like the perfect choice for me. I've been looking around, and I was wondering if I simply buy myself a MB off Apple with the educational discount, the 2.0 GhZ model comes at £844.83. That's with 512MB of RAM and a 60GB HDD. Now what I really want is 2GB of RAM and a 120GB HDD. Of course cost is an issue so I've been looking around, and wondered whether you guys thought it would work to buy myself two 1GB sticks from Orca and then buy myself a 120GB ATA HDD for only £56 rather than the £169 Apple is charging me. Would this work? I've been looking at videos and the RAM and HDD seem pretty simply to install. Could I just simply replace the HDD and RAM then do a fresh install and BAM! Got myself a maxed out MB for a damn cheap price.

What do you reckon?

Can I ask; where did you get that education discount quote from? If it was from the online Education store, then wait. Go to the Apple Store, then the Education one, and you'll see the link for Higher Education, which can only be accessed from a network. Call the number below, you should get a bigger discount.

 

[Doctor Q]

Selling outside the Marketplace forum is not permitted.