Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

rightlyso

macrumors member
Original poster
When buying a Macbook, should I buy upgrade hard disk at the Apple Store or buy my own from a place like New Egg and install it?
 
Which ever is cheapest.

The salesperson at the Apple Store told me the Apple Upgrade is cheaper than buying it on my own.

Being a little skeptical, I shopped around and in about 5 minutes found a nice 320Gig for under $100.

Apple charges $150 to upgrade from 120 Gig to 250 Gig.

I figure I can buy the 120 now and wait a year until a 500 Gig is available for under $100, and put the 120 in an external enclosure.
 
Does this void your warranty or does Apple endorse this as a user-upgradeable part in the MacBook line?

no, it doesn't void your warranty. I imagine if you screwed something up in the process you might run into some issues, but it's such a simple upgrade that it's unlikely you'd run into trouble- though I suppose it's possible.
 
Does this void your warranty or does Apple endorse this as a user-upgradeable part in the MacBook line?

I asked the lady at the Apple and she said it does not void the warranty. However, in order to repair it they would take out the third party memory chips and install Apple memory. I don't know whether they'd do that for the hard disk as well.
 
NewEgg is going to be less expensive than Apple. My understanding is that upgrading either your RAM or your HDD doesn't void your warranty.

I've also had good luck buying from OWC. I've upgraded two MBPs w/ HDDs I bought there without any problems. Here's a link to their current upgrade options for the MB:

http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/memory/MacBook/DDR2/


Whichever you choose, good luck with your new MB!
 
no, it doesn't void your warranty. I imagine if you screwed something up in the process you might run into some issues, but it's such a simple upgrade that it's unlikely you'd run into trouble- though I suppose it's possible.

Cool... thanks.
 
^ all Intel Mac laptops have SATA drives.

I'd buy one from NewEgg after the fact, along with an external enclosure. That way you'll get the larger internal, and have the external for extra movies and stuff.
 
^ all Intel Mac laptops have SATA drives.

I'd buy one from NewEgg after the fact, along with an external enclosure. That way you'll get the larger internal, and have the external for extra movies and stuff.

What features do you look for in an enclosure? How do you make the external disk accessable by a Windows PC?
 
What features do you look for in an enclosure? How do you make the external disk accessable by a Windows PC?

I'd look for a firewire enclosure, although they're a bit harder to find compared to a usb enclosure for 2.5 inch drives. If you go for a USB enclosure, I highly recommended IcyDock enclosures: great quality. If you want it to be accessible to both Mac and Windows, format it in FAT32; you can do this with Disk Utility.
 
^ all Intel Mac laptops have SATA drives.

I'd buy one from NewEgg after the fact, along with an external enclosure. That way you'll get the larger internal, and have the external for extra movies and stuff.

Except the MacBook Air. Doesn't that have a PATA drive in it?
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.