hoping someone can point me in the right direction.

im a pretty new convert to mac. well, 7 months with a mac book. as is always the way when i buy new technology i seem to miss out on newest upgrades and machines (shortly after i bought mine, osx 10.5 came out, and the new machines had double the ram and harddrive memory.)

anyway, im now looking to upgrade my mac book. extra ram and hard drive memory space and possibly an upgrade to osx 10.5.

bought my machine from best buy. where to be honest i got a pretty good deal, but where extra ram seems extremely expensive. now i have read that this is generally the case with apple everywhere, but i also remember reading on a forum somewhere that actually you don't need a specific apple ram and that this is just a ploy by apple to make more cash.

so is this true?...if so, what sort of ram will work with the mac book?
how about extra hard drive space?

also, i searched the forums for apple stores etc, but im guessing if i use them, they will tow the company line and say the macbook must have mac specific ram and memory. i heard there was an company somewhere in xu jia hui on the 13th floor of pacific electronics mall who specialise in macs. anyone used this service...and know the exact address?

thanks all

tron wrote:anyway, im now looking to upgrade my mac book. extra ram and hard drive space and possibly an upgrade to osx 10.5.

For the extra RAM, that's right: you don't need a specific apple RAM to upgrade your memory. How big is your current RAM, and how much bigger you want to add on to the memory?
As for the hard drive, unfortunately you're stuck with it. The only option is to get an external hard drive, apple's Time Machine or a third party hard drive, like the LaCie Hard Drive, will work just fine.
You can purchase the OSX 10.5 from the apple online, or visit one of the apple authorized dealers here and ask them to burn you one for 200RMB.

As noted, Macs are using the same ram as PC's, so you just need to know the specs of the ram you need for your machine. You can find that out by looking at the About This Mac by clicking on the Apple in the upper lefthand corner.

As for the hdd, I have been reading that is as easy to install as ram in the MacBooks. Apparently, upgrading the hdd in the macbook voids the warranty as much as upgrading the ram. Meaning that Apple will not service the computer if it was in fact the user-upgraded part that caused the failure.

I recommend asking Computersolutions on this forum for help in this. I believe he can also get you with the software you are looking for.

canuckian wrote:apple's Time Machine

Apple Time Capsule 500GB / 1 TB....... works great!!!

DILLIGAF

I don't recommend the Time Capsule.

I have 2, and have a few issues.

1 - Speed.
2 - Stability.

The 1TB at home keeps crashing.

I'm at the point where I'm probably going to gut the thing to get the 1TB drive out and put it into the NAS I've just bought.

It also not fun to integrate with other network equipment. It doesn't have a web interface.
The PC version of the software is buggy crap. (I'm mostly mac, but the Tv computer is a PC).

In theory its a nice product, but the admin side and the stability are two major issues.
It also doesn't do DNS nicely either - none of my PC's get added to the DNS when it allocates DHCP addresses, which means I have to use IP addresses to see things.

If you have 1 Mac, and nothing else, then the 500G is ok, but anything else, forget it and buy a real NAS.

thanks for the replies guys

well, i already have an external harddrive...using a maxtor 160 gig. all fine and dandy..was just hoping to add to the internal harddrive as i use a lot of music programs and its just easier to have all the large wav and aiff files on the internal, rather than hooking up the external. not a problem though if i cant add to the internal. will just make do.

my apple is a mac book intel core 2duo . currently have 1gb of ram DDR2 SDRAM. but muic programs really are pushing it to the limit at times.

any suggestions of where to go for a good deal on extra ram?

tron wrote:thanks for the replies guys

well, i already have an external harddrive...using a maxtor 160 gig. all fine and dandy..was just hoping to add to the internal harddrive as i use a lot of music programs and its just easier to have all the large wav and aiff files on the internal, rather than hooking up the external. not a problem though if i cant add to the internal. will just make do.

my apple is a mac book intel core 2duo . currently have 1gb of ram DDR2 SDRAM. but muic programs really are pushing it to the limit at times.

any suggestions of where to go for a good deal on extra ram?

You can go to the authrorized apple repair centre and change your HDD for just slightly more than 100RMB if you bring a new HDD with you.

thats what i did last time my hdd crashed, they checked, and say i need a new HDD. i asked "how much?", and they went "with our HDD or you bring yours?"

they even install the OS for you, same version as the one in your own old one. and you can get leopard too if you pay a little more.

I forgot the address, but i think if you do a search you can find one guy who told me where the repair centre is

If its not a MBPro, its easy to replace the drive.

You can put in a 320, but the largest reasonable priced right now is 250G.
Ram is cheap, although you'll basically toss out whatever you have in there right now.

Suggest buy 2 x 2G to max out the ram.

PM me, or come by the office if you need someone to do it. Can also help you put the data onto the new drive if necessary.

Lawrence.

my apple is a mac book intel core 2duo . currently have 1gb of ram DDR2 SDRAM. but muic programs really are pushing it to the limit at times.

any suggestions of where to go for a good deal on extra ram?


I recently upgraded my 1st gen macbook to 2gigs ram, and I have to agree with you, apple centers are ridiculously expensive. they're selling 1 gig for 1000rmb! so I thought there's another way. those cards are actually very simple and easy to replace, but i asked our company's it guy to assist me doing this thing. this guy has never seen a mac before but when he pulled out the cards, he said its the same as PC cards, so we got one at this ram wholesaler in xujiahui, and my 2 gigs only cost me 300 rmb total (150 rmb/each) ! not bad huh. I love china!!

Bit silly of you, should have put in 2 x 2G or if you are budget conscious 1 x 2G.

For the ram - you can buy Kingston KVR DDR 200 pin PC2 -5300 (667) DDR2 SO-DIMM
usually cost about RMB 180-200 per piece and very easy to install

Kingston KTA is almost twice more expensive. Both functions the same.

I got my RAM from: http://www.newegg.com.cn/

Good prices, good selection, fast delivery. If you can't do the Chinese, figure out what brand of RAM you want to buy and have a Chinese friend order it for you. You need a special screwdriver to get at the RAM, which I have. But, alternatively, I'm sure you could take it to the Apple center in Xujiahui and have them put it in for you.