- Joined
- Sep 1, 2006
- Messages
- 223
- Reaction score
- 18
- Points
- 18
- Location
- Sheffield, England
- Your Mac's Specs
- Macbook Pro 1st Gen with upgraded Ram and Hard drive
Hello everyone.
I am coming to the end of 8 projects in November and will have enough (spare) cash to do one of 2 things. I will either buy an iPod Touch, or upgrade my MacBook Pro.
I have decided to do the latter and put the cash as an investment into the biggest tool I use for my work, my Apple Laptop. I cannot reason buying an iPod touch appart from the reason it is gorgeous, blew me away when I used it and is the latest thing. I have an old iPod Photo 20Gb I bought off Ebay for £22 which was broken and I fixed it. I have a PSP which I use for protable video and portable internet (even though the internet isn't as good as on the touch - edit: The internet is USELESS compared to on the Touch ) so I have decided against it.
"But I thought this thread was about upgrading your Macbook Pro?" I hear you cry.
Ok.
Here's what I want to do. I want to upgrade my existing 1.5Gb RAM to 2Gb RAM which is easy enough. I'll just get that off crucial.co.uk. It is only £25 or so for a 1Gb stick!! I upgraded the standard 512Mb RAM with a 1Gb stick when I bought the MBP in April last year and it cost me over £100 !! but anyway.
My main questions are these...
I want to upgrade the hard drive to either 160Gb or 250Gb and am thinking of going for 5400RPM as I think a 7200RPM variant would use the battery power more when mobile and also generate more heat (and is more expensive)
But which model, size and speed would YOU suggest? Has anyone upgraded theirs? and if so, what brand hard drive did you go for? was the OSX installation as simple as booting the Installation DVD, using the Disk utility, wiping the new hard drive, and then installing OSX from scratch?
Also, I tried to take the top off my MBP before just to 'have a look' but I could not for the life of me lift the top off, it seemed to still be attached somewhere and I couldn't figure it out, so before I warped the lid, I put it back together.
Was I missing some screws? I think I got them all, but I recentyl looked on iFixit and I think i may have not removed some hidden screws near the RAM compartment. Anyone had a similar experience when taking their MBP appart?
If and when I do go to do all this, I am going to see if the little fans need cleaning in there and do it nicely just so everything is done in one go.
So, any advice or similar stories from people who have done these things would be ace. But most of all I would really appreciate reccomendations on the BRAND and SPEED of hard drive to buy. Keep in mind I am in th UK and I also use www.ebuyer.co.uk a lot to buy my parts, so if you are stateside and can look on there and post a link to s pecific hard drive, that would be awsome.
Cheers chaps (and chapettes) I really appreciate the advice in advance you guys may give.
Mel
I am coming to the end of 8 projects in November and will have enough (spare) cash to do one of 2 things. I will either buy an iPod Touch, or upgrade my MacBook Pro.
I have decided to do the latter and put the cash as an investment into the biggest tool I use for my work, my Apple Laptop. I cannot reason buying an iPod touch appart from the reason it is gorgeous, blew me away when I used it and is the latest thing. I have an old iPod Photo 20Gb I bought off Ebay for £22 which was broken and I fixed it. I have a PSP which I use for protable video and portable internet (even though the internet isn't as good as on the touch - edit: The internet is USELESS compared to on the Touch ) so I have decided against it.
"But I thought this thread was about upgrading your Macbook Pro?" I hear you cry.
Ok.
Here's what I want to do. I want to upgrade my existing 1.5Gb RAM to 2Gb RAM which is easy enough. I'll just get that off crucial.co.uk. It is only £25 or so for a 1Gb stick!! I upgraded the standard 512Mb RAM with a 1Gb stick when I bought the MBP in April last year and it cost me over £100 !! but anyway.
My main questions are these...
I want to upgrade the hard drive to either 160Gb or 250Gb and am thinking of going for 5400RPM as I think a 7200RPM variant would use the battery power more when mobile and also generate more heat (and is more expensive)
But which model, size and speed would YOU suggest? Has anyone upgraded theirs? and if so, what brand hard drive did you go for? was the OSX installation as simple as booting the Installation DVD, using the Disk utility, wiping the new hard drive, and then installing OSX from scratch?
Also, I tried to take the top off my MBP before just to 'have a look' but I could not for the life of me lift the top off, it seemed to still be attached somewhere and I couldn't figure it out, so before I warped the lid, I put it back together.
Was I missing some screws? I think I got them all, but I recentyl looked on iFixit and I think i may have not removed some hidden screws near the RAM compartment. Anyone had a similar experience when taking their MBP appart?
If and when I do go to do all this, I am going to see if the little fans need cleaning in there and do it nicely just so everything is done in one go.
So, any advice or similar stories from people who have done these things would be ace. But most of all I would really appreciate reccomendations on the BRAND and SPEED of hard drive to buy. Keep in mind I am in th UK and I also use www.ebuyer.co.uk a lot to buy my parts, so if you are stateside and can look on there and post a link to s pecific hard drive, that would be awsome.
Cheers chaps (and chapettes) I really appreciate the advice in advance you guys may give.
Mel