SitDown. StartUp.

I bought my first Unibody Macbook Pro in February of 2010. For cost savings, I went with the baseline 13 inch model with 2.3Ghz, 4GB of memory, and a 320GB hard drive. After hammering my machine for about a year and downloading tons of software I noticed my baby began to slow down a little.

I did a little research and found that you can spend under $200 to upgrade the memory and hard drive-parts that Apple or a local tech shop would offer for $1,000 or more- by just replacing the parts on your own. Best of all, it was relatively painless and all the parts can be bought on Amazon.

Here is a list of the parts I replaced and how you can supercharge your Macbook:

Upgrading the Hard Drive:
Part: Seagate Momentus XT Hybrid 500GB Solid State Drive
Price: $99.99
Replaces: the 320GB Hard Drive
How-to: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3419

Upgrading the Memory:
Part: Kingston Apple 8GB (2x4GB) 1066MHz DDR3
Price: $87.99
Replaces: the 4GB (2x2GB) memory cards
How-to: http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1651#link1

What you’ll need:
Electronic Precision Bit Set
Non-Static Surface (i.e. sweatshirt or towel)
Steady hands

Total base cost to upgrade memory and hard drive: $197.98