MBP upgrades

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May 18, 2010
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iMac 27" i7 2.93ghz quad core, iPhone 4, iPad 16gb wifi
Alright I may be getting ahead of myself here, but I think this is important. I'm looking at the 15-inch 2.4GHz i5. I want the hi rez glossy display and the 500gb 7200rpm HD. Problem is I can't afford both.

Obviously I can't easily upgrade the display down the road so that leaves me with a HDD upgrade.

Is this fairly simple? Cost effective? Even doable? I can also see upgrading the RAM in this thing as I am looking at it as a long term purchase. I'd like to use it for 4-5 years if I can.

Basically I'm trying to get the 15in w/hi rez glossy as cheaply as possible and then improve the computer down the road. Is this too difficult...should I just pony up the extra money (don't really have it)?
 
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Your Mac's Specs
iMac 20" 2.4 GHz Dual Core 3GB Ram 320GB Hard Drive 10.6.2 :: Ipod Touch 8 GB :: Beastly Gaming PC
RAM and HD upgrades are relatively simple. The hardest part about the hard drive is buying the right one (you would need a 2.5"). Once you have the disk, there are plenty of tutorials that walk you through the installation.
 
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2.8 GHz 15" MacBook Pro OS X 10.7.x & some old Macs
It's not too hard to upgrade the RAM and hard drive yourself. Apple even includes the instructions in the owner's manual. If you really can't afford them now then you really have no other choice but to upgrade them later.

Unless you are one of those RAM hungry users then I suggest upgrading the hard drive first because you will notice a speed increase from the stock 5400 RPM drive. The prices might even be low enough for SSD by the time you want to upgrade. You can then use the stock hard drive in an external enclosure as an additional backup hard drive.
 
OP
S
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iMac 27" i7 2.93ghz quad core, iPhone 4, iPad 16gb wifi
Very good points. I'm leaning more and more toward the 15-inch 2.4GHz with the hi rez display. I don't really need the extra processing power, but that extra resolution is really important to me. I checked out the difference today at an apple store and it was very noticeable. Good point about the SSDs too. Very intriguing. Anyway thanks for the feedback.
 
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Camp Hill, Pa
Your Mac's Specs
15in MBP - 27in iMac - iPhone
Hard drive install is super easy. You can get a 500GB 7200RPM drive for around $90.00
 

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