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How easy is it to customize your own MacBook Pro?

K

keitherson

macrumors member
Original poster
Oct 22, 2009
33
0
Everyone knows that Apple overcharges for their SDRAM, and their not-so-good SSD drives.

Does anyone have experience with adding your own RAM to MBP's, and replacing the "serviceable" hard drives?

Does any brand of 1066MHz DDR3 SDRAM work if you just put it in? What if the bus speed isn't 1066MHz?

Same questions apply for hard drives -- are all laptop hard drives built in the same dimensions, and will fit the MacBook Pro? Do all brands work with the machine? Are SSD versions the same shape/dimensions and put in the same way as regular hard drives?

And discrete non-integrated video cards -- is that something you can upgrade yourself? Like buy a NVIDIA GeForce 9400M + 9600M GT with 512MB and then replace it in a MacBook with NVIDIA GeForce 9400M graphics?

Or Blu Ray drives in place of the SuperDrive?

And do-it-yourself upgrades voids your warranty, correct?

Thanks for the help. :cool:
 
keitherson said:
Everyone knows that Apple overcharges for their SDRAM, and their not-so-good SSD drives.

Does anyone have experience with adding your own RAM to MBP's, and replacing the "serviceable" hard drives?

Does any brand of 1066MHz DDR3 SDRAM work if you just put it in? What if the bus speed isn't 1066MHz?

Same questions apply for hard drives -- are all laptop hard drives built in the same dimensions, and will fit the MacBook Pro? Do all brands work with the machine? Are SSD versions the same shape/dimensions and put in the same way as regular hard drives?

And discrete non-integrated video cards -- is that something you can upgrade yourself? Like buy a NVIDIA GeForce 9400M + 9600M GT with 512MB and then replace it in a MacBook with NVIDIA GeForce 9400M graphics?

Or Blu Ray drives in place of the SuperDrive?

And do-it-yourself upgrades voids your warranty, correct?

Thanks for the help. :cool:
Click to expand...

Ok, I'm gonna do my best to help answer some of your questions.

1. The RAM speed must match the Bus. If you buy faster RAM for a machine that doesn't support it, you can and most likely will get errors. Just use what is supported. My MBP 13" uses 1067MHz DDR3 according to "About this Mac".

2. Laptop hard drives come in two forms. 1.8" and 2.5". The MBP hard drive size is 2.5". Most people like this SSD. However it's very expensive. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...m_re=intel_x25-m_160gb-_-20-167-017-_-Product

Also, regular hard drives come in 5400rpm and 7200rpm. Obviously the 7200 is faster and causes more heat and vibration generally. All brands should work.

3. You can not change the graphics card at all.

4. No one has been able to successfully get Blu-ray working internally, at least from what I gather.

5. Replacing hard drive and adding/replacing ram are both allowable under the warranty terms. Any other modifications void your warranty.

Hope this helps

--melman101
 
melman101 said:
4. No one has been able to successfully get Blu-ray working internally, at least from what I gather.
--melman101
Click to expand...

Related to this:

There are no Mac OS X Blu-ray drivers and more importantly I have not been able to find any shipping 9.5mm slot loading Blu-ray drives. All the drives in PC laptops are 12.7mm

Cheers,
 
As for RAM, just go to Crucial.com, use their system scanner and get 4GB< for your machine. Cost me about £45, it doesn't void your warranty either :apple:
 
For anything involving your mac and uprades, I would advise you to go to macsales.com and find "your" mac and see exactly what they have to offer. If they don't have exactly what you are
looking for, get the HD type, ram type, etc. an then go eslewhere. This will help prevent you from buying the wrong part.

Ps, I have their ram in my macs and it is great. No problems. Their external enclosures are great as well.

Good Luck!
 
As far as the bluray goes, I thought one surfaced awhile back. It was absurdly expensive. Maybe fastmac.com? Who knows. I could be wrong. If I find it, I'll let you guys know.
 
No one has been able to internally get a Blu-Ray player in the unibody MacBook Pros because they use 9.5mm drives, but the only slot loading Blu-Ray drives out there are the 12.7mm ones.

If you have a pre-unibody and a 17" then you can easily get Blu-Ray working internally as the old 17" MacBook Pros have 12.7mm drives.
 
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