A Boy and His Toys

[f4f3]

A sure sign of lack of interest at work is when I start tinkering with my gadgets (ooh er missus).

Cheapest upgrade of the day has been £3.49 for am Internet Radio application for the iPhone. WunderRadio (despite the appalling name) seems to be pretty smooth – it used the GPS functionality of the iPhone to come up with a list of local stations, including all the BBC channels, and the “reception” was good enough for me to listen to the Archers at work.

 I had been thinking of paying £50-£100 for a stand-alone unit for the bathroom, but got hung up on the need for AC power in a room with no power outlets. Now all I have to do is dig out my old battery powered dock and hope it works with the iPhone (even if it doesn’t, speakers seem to be dirt cheap these days).  So, since I’ve saved myself, oh, at least £50, what should I spend it on? I’m so glad you asked…

My humble MacBook has started to slow down, partly because I’m running more streaming video on it and partly because I have about 80 gig of music and video on it. Upgrading RAM and hard disk space always seems to help, so….

I remember (he said, settling into an comfortable chair by the clubhouse fire and ordering up a pink gin) I remember the first time I upgraded one of my Macs. I think I doubled the RAM up to 16 mb, and bought a 250 mb external drive. The RAM cost about £200, if I remember rightly, and the drive about the same. That would have been in about 1994. I had to practically disassemble the machine, and was left with a couple of extra screws when I put it back together again.

I just had a look at the procedure for updating the hard drive on a Macbook. The phrase that sticks in my mind is “slides out on rubber runners”. It involves loosening three screws and sliding the thing out. I may also have to use a coin to open the battery cover.

Replacing the RAM is almost as easy.

I had a quick look at Crucial for memory upgrades, and I can go from 1gb to 2gb for about £30. I need to have a look at the Macbook first, though, since it may be new enough that I can actually go to 4gb. And if I can, well, I will.

Hard drives seem to be something under £70 for 250 gigs. I’m hoping to go for a half terabyte, though, just so that I can use a new abbreviation (and also because I remember costing memory in £k/Tb not too long ago). Does anyone have recommendations for a particular drive, or for a supplier? I’ve always gone for the biggest and cheapest in the past, so I have no brand preference. Crucial will get the RAM order, because they’ve always been cheapest, and easiest to deal with.

 

 

Comments

[pshtaku.livejournal.com]

I was thinking - that battery powered dock isn't that old. Then I remembered that it's atleast 4 years old! Which in gadget terms is ancient!

Mine is still my by bed, and is coming to Las Vegas with me!

[f4f3.livejournal.com]

Yup, in gadget years that's about a century :)
There was a change of doc somewhere along the line, I know, but there's also a line-in socket, so for listening to Radio 4 while I'm in the shower, that should be fine. Plus that means the iPhone isn't draining the battery to recharge.

[parthenia14.livejournal.com]

I have a multitude of Freecom external drives. They seem fine. *crosses fingers*

[f4f3.livejournal.com]

Will check to see if they make internal drives, thanks.

[deililly.livejournal.com]

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/index.php
http://www.dabs.com/homepage.aspx are two places I have bought from and been happy. Overclockers has a less wide range of stuff I have found but if they stock something it is quite often cheaper.

Dunno about hard drives with the mac/pc divide but I use seagates and maxtors.

[f4f3.livejournal.com]

I'd forgotten about DABS, thanks.