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Upgrading NEW White Macbook

I

iveast

macrumors newbie
Original poster
As is everyone else, I am in the conundrum of shopping for a new notebook at a time when Apple has lost their minds & done away with firewire. I have a feeling it will come back, or they will begin producing a 13" pro, but before that happens, I am looking into upgrading my PBG4 1.33 to a NEW (updated) white macbook.
My question is regarding upgrading the memory & harddrive. iFixit makes the changeout of these items look incredibly easy. Is it? (i am by no means a fix-my-own-computer person, but I did recently replace memory and harddrive in my PBG4, and that was much more involved than what it looks like this process would be) I can get a 320G 7200 HD on ebay for under $60! Add in the RAM from ebay, and you are looking at upgrading the $999 macbook for under $100 - Apple charges nearly $300 for these upgrades, and it is a 5200 HD!
Am I missing something? Can I really put the 7200 HD in the new macbook? Is it really as easy to replace as it looks?
Thanks, all!
 
It's incredibly easy to do.

I bought a nice Torx driver set to handle my Mac upgrades. iFixIt provides great images and instructions. Just take it easy. None of it requires any major force to install.
 
It is easy yes, and by the way, make sure you get 800MHz DDR2 Ram, it will run at 800MHz and not slow down to 667MHz. It's well worth it.
 
Good call, revitalist! (honestly, I thought memory was memory was memory) And the memory i almost bought was actually DDR2-667 PC2-5300... So, now i am on the lookout for DDR2800 PC6400, is that correct.

Thanks a lot for the help!

Also, kind of still on the subject, if I install a new hard drive, are there risks in cloning my old drive? Is it possible for the drive on my PBG4 to have things on it that shouldnt go to my MB - fragments, or things that may slow the new machine down?
 
I upgraded mine to 4gb using 800hmz ram, and 500 gb hd.
Make sure you have the correct screw driver (philips #0) b/c I stripped one of mine and it was very difficult to get out.


iveast said:
As is everyone else, I am in the conundrum of shopping for a new notebook at a time when Apple has lost their minds & done away with firewire. I have a feeling it will come back, or they will begin producing a 13" pro, but before that happens, I am looking into upgrading my PBG4 1.33 to a NEW (updated) white macbook.
My question is regarding upgrading the memory & harddrive. iFixit makes the changeout of these items look incredibly easy. Is it? (i am by no means a fix-my-own-computer person, but I did recently replace memory and harddrive in my PBG4, and that was much more involved than what it looks like this process would be) I can get a 320G 7200 HD on ebay for under $60! Add in the RAM from ebay, and you are looking at upgrading the $999 macbook for under $100 - Apple charges nearly $300 for these upgrades, and it is a 5200 HD!
Am I missing something? Can I really put the 7200 HD in the new macbook? Is it really as easy to replace as it looks?
Thanks, all!
Click to expand...
 
It seems that all memory on ebay that is labeled "macbook," is 667. When I search for 800 memory, I find it, but it never says that it is compatible with macbook. What, exactly, am I looking for? Is there a style or special pin number that I am looking for when memory shopping?
 
just go w/ the 667mhz memory. My understanding is that the macbook can support be backwards compatible w/ the faster memory. Meaning it'll function, but at 667mhz instead of 800, you're not gaining any performance by getting faster memory.
 
NO NO NO
The nvidia whitebook supports 800mhz ddr2, so you should def. get it. Only the older whitebooks (intel chipset) were restricted to 667mhz.
 
But... all of the 800mhz memory physically looks different from the 667mhz. Am I missing something again? If the chips are physically different, how will they both fit into the machine?
 
Great! Thanks, Stachelsk! Looks like I will be picking up that, along with a Western Digital Scorpio Blue 500gb internal HD. I think that should round out my new white MB quite well.!

Thanks for all of the great help!!
 
I got the same corsair one for $20. I ran the memory test and everything passed. I also bought the WD 500GB drive.


relativist said:
Stachelsk's link goes to 667MHz ram, you don't want that.

This is the RAM I got:

http://shop3.frys.com/product/5791462?site=sr:SEARCH:MAIN_RSLT_PG

But, the price went up, when I bought it the price was $40 with $20 MIR. Now it's not worth it. I suggest you get something like this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231156

Good luck.
Click to expand...
 
Yes, it will be easy. Especially after your experience opening up a PBG4.

I wouldn't clone the old HD, it's a different machine and the OS would install files specific to the Macbook, you don't want the old G4 system files. To get your files/apps/preferences from the old HD, I'd use Migration Assistant. You can specify what you want transferred. This is what I did when I moved from a PBG4 to a Macbook last year. I didn't have to reinstall any application, it transferred everything.

iveast said:
Also, kind of still on the subject, if I install a new hard drive, are there risks in cloning my old drive? Is it possible for the drive on my PBG4 to have things on it that shouldnt go to my MB - fragments, or things that may slow the new machine down?
Click to expand...
 
AAhhh.... Migration Assistant. Always wondered what that was about. That makes more sense. I was going to use SuperDuper to clone the drive, but that is exactly what I was afraid of - stuff from my PB that doesnt "belong" on my MB. I will poke around the Apple forum anyway, but how exactly does that work? Do I format the drive, USB it to my PBG4 and start Migration Assistant? or, do I install the new hard drive to the MB & firewire it to the PBG4? Migration Assistant doesnt really tell you how to handle it.

And thanks for the RAM tips, too! You all are an amazing help to what could be a very nerveracking process.
 
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