So, I recently decided that my 16-month old Macbook with 80 GB hard drive (I continually had to free up space) and 1 GB of RAM just isn’t cutting it anymore (because I wanted to run Windows alongside OS X with VMWare Fusion). So, I headed over to the Berlin Gravis Store to pimp my machine. Unfortunately my model Macbook can only handle 3 GB max, so I got a 1 GB (30 EUR) and 2 GB (60 EUR) chip. I wanted to get a 320 GB hard drive (120 EUR), but they were out of stock, so he said I can order it online and only pay 5 EUR for shipping. Not bad since the subway trip and back to the store would’ve put me out 4 EUR.
The RAM installed, no problem. Just unlock the battery bay, unscrew 3 screws, flip 2 levers, pull out 2 memory cards, push in 2 more with quite some force, shut the case and ready to go. The hard drive was a bit more complicated. I downloaded Carbon Copy Cloner and backed up everything to my Time Machine external hard drive. So, again, unlock battery bay, unscrew 3 screws, pull out hard drive tab, stick in new hard drive, screw it back in and ready to go. I booted from my Time Machine drive (only possible after the carbon copy cloning), and everything worked fine.
I only lost my SVN repositories which I had to checkout again, and then restore my working files back in using Time Machine. [If you're looking for a good graphical app for SVN on OS X, I'd recommend the new Versions.] All in all, a relatively headache-free upgrade, and not a bad amount of extra power for only 220 EUR. I’m just a little worried, because my computer seems to get much hotter than it used to, even reaching temperatures of 85 C (185 F)! But it could also be getting hot from an exorbant amount of hard drive use lately as I backup stuff and move large files around. I downloaded smcFanControl and it doesn’t seem to be helping too much. I’m even using a Lapinator.
Update: I discovered the problem was that I didn’t attach the special legs to my Lapinator, thus the air under my laptop didn’t have space to ventilate.
Woot Lapinator! Lucky you don’t have the pro… hard drive upgrade was a warranty-breaking pain in the ass.