It’s interesting.
As a part of our technicians daily lives, we often encounter questions from our clients around saving money, how to, what’s the best option and can we do it cheeper and so on.
It’s always a trade off. Yes, it can be done cheaper and you will save money. But, at the end of the day, you get what you pay for, or do you?
For example, I bought a Macbook last December to replace my ageing powerbook G4. As a standard, the Macbook comes with 1 GB of ram in two 512MB chips. Now, for what I do on a daily basis, 1 GB of ram is simply not adequate. So, time to look around and buy some more ram.
As a technician, replacing ram in computers is pretty straight forward. With a Mac, replacing ram by anyone is straight forward (with the exception of the Mac Pro’s). With a Macbook, it’s really simple.
- shut the machine down
- take the battery out
- undo the metal bracket (3 screws)
- flip the hinge on the first ram slot – out comes the ram chip
- push the new ram chip in firmly
- repeat for the other ram chip
- put the metal bracket back
- replace the battery
- boot the machine back up
- done
Now, here’s the good part. Buying the ram for the machine.
Depending on where you buy it from makes all the difference.
- For a Mac, most people will buy it directly from apple. (at $740.00 inc GST per 2GB chip).
- If you know what you are looking for, then you can buy it through other retailers, and, it pays to shop around.
To put things into perspective, I purchased a 2GB ram chip for $55.00 inc GST! – I’m sure you can do the maths.
Now, here’s the important part. Warranty.
There are many people who will tell you that using “non-apple” ram will allow you to “void” your warranty. Not true. In fact, after upgrading my partners Macbook, I was surprised to find “Hynix” 512 MB ram chips in her Laptop – direct from Apple.
The Apple Macbook manual also shows you how to replace the ram yourself as well as is is a “user replaceable part”.
Well, that’s about it for now.
Warm Regards,
Scott Malpass
Director
Aquafruit Media
What’s in a name?
It’s interesting.
As a part of our technicians daily lives, we often encounter questions from our clients around saving money, how to, what’s the best option and can we do it cheeper and so on.
It’s always a trade off. Yes, it can be done cheaper and you will save money. But, at the end of the day, you get what you pay for, or do you?
For example, I bought a Macbook last December to replace my ageing powerbook G4. As a standard, the Macbook comes with 1 GB of ram in two 512MB chips. Now, for what I do on a daily basis, 1 GB of ram is simply not adequate. So, time to look around and buy some more ram.
As a technician, replacing ram in computers is pretty straight forward. With a Mac, replacing ram by anyone is straight forward (with the exception of the Mac Pro’s). With a Macbook, it’s really simple.
Now, here’s the good part. Buying the ram for the machine.
Depending on where you buy it from makes all the difference.
- For a Mac, most people will buy it directly from apple. (at $740.00 inc GST per 2GB chip).
- If you know what you are looking for, then you can buy it through other retailers, and, it pays to shop around.
To put things into perspective, I purchased a 2GB ram chip for $55.00 inc GST! – I’m sure you can do the maths.
Now, here’s the important part. Warranty.
There are many people who will tell you that using “non-apple” ram will allow you to “void” your warranty. Not true. In fact, after upgrading my partners Macbook, I was surprised to find “Hynix” 512 MB ram chips in her Laptop – direct from Apple.
The Apple Macbook manual also shows you how to replace the ram yourself as well as is is a “user replaceable part”.
Well, that’s about it for now.
Warm Regards,
Scott Malpass
Director
Aquafruit Media