MacUpgrades.co.uk offers a wide range of fixed price upgrades and repairs for your Apple computers. You can drop in to our offices in Sawston, Cambridge or if you are not local you can either have us collect or send in your computer yourself. Sameday fitting is available for most items, contact us for details. We also offer on site installation services and training on your premises.
MacUpgrades offers a wide range of on-site services for your Apple equipment. We offer all of our upgrade services, and most of our repair services too.
All our engineers have at least 15 years of experience with Apple hardware and software
Enter your serial number into the box below for specific upgrades for your machine. Each upgrade has been tested in the machine we list it for. Compatability is 100% guaranteed or your money back.
How to find your serial number in software
You can find your Mac's serial number in Apple System Profiler: Select the Apple Menu > About This Mac, then (depending on the version of OSX you are running) click the System Report button or the More Info button. This brings up System Profiler, and on the Hardware Overview that is displayed by default you should see your serial number, and be able to copy/paste it. The procedure does vary slightly between different versions of OSX.
If you can't boot your Mac
If your Mac is not working, the serial number is printed on the computer casing but the location varies. Here are the main locations of serial numbers on Apple computers.
Unibody MacBook Pro - Laser etched onto the base.
MacBook, Early MacBook Pro, PowerBook G4 - Inside the main battery bay. Remove battery to locate.
iBook (White) - Under the keyboard. To lift keyboard, pull back on the release tabs between the F-keys.
Intel iMac, iMac G5 - Underside of the foot/stand.
iMac G4, iMac G3 - Underside of the iMac.
Mac mini - On the underside of the Mac mini.
Mac Pro 2006-2012 - On rear of machine near graphics card ports.
PowerMac G5 - On lower chassis under side panel. To remove side panel, lift lever on rear of Mac.
PowerMac G3, PowerMac G4 - Label on the back of the Mac.
Your Mac's Model Identifier can be found in System Profiler. You can use the drop-down menus above to be taken to a page that displays upgrades specifically for your exact model.
COVID Update (Feb 2021): Online orders and mail-in repairs/upgrades are happening as normal. Collection and drop-off are operating by appointment - please call us on 01223 833 412 to book a slot.
MacBook "Core 2 Duo" 2.4 13" (Black-08)
Here you can find the exact specifications of this Mac, along with guaranteed compatible upgrades for it, and an upgrade tool to let
you quickly build an order which can be saved
for later or shared with a friend.
Part Number: MB404LL/A
Model: MacBook Early 2008
Model Identifier: MacBook4,1
Model Number: A1181
Max Operating System Version: OS X 10.7.5 (Lion)
Earliest Supported OSX Version: OS X 10.5.2 (Leopard)
RAM Pairing: There is a benefit but not a requirement to install memory in matched pairs
Compatible RAM for this Mac
What is RAM and how does it help? - Click here for more info
RAM stands for Random Access Memory, it is a short term store for data which is only used while the machine is in operation. This is not where your data and applications are stored (that's the Hard Drive or Solid State Drive) so RAM can be replaced without worrying about any data transfer issues.
How much RAM you need depends very much on what you are doing with your Mac. Adding more and more RAM does not necessarily speed your machine up - rather the better way to think about it is that not having enough RAM will slow you down. When your system runs out of physical memory it will use virtual memory on your hard drive instead, this is orders of magnitude slower than RAM, and will result in more instances of the spinning wheel or stuttering.
The more RAM you have, the more things you can do at once and you are able to switch between them better. Also as later operating systems come along they have greater requirements, so a machine feeling fast running OSX 10.7 with 4GB of RAM may well feel sluggish in OSX 10.10 with the same.
Here are the amounts of RAM we have found to be the real minimum for comfortable use in different operating systems. The minimum levels here are not absolute, but even lighter users will be well advised to take steps to minimise RAM use (principly restricting the number of applications they use simultaneously) if they are below them. Of course for some more specialist users of RAM intensive applications, even the ideal amounts listed will be grossly inadequate.
Mac OSX 10.6 Snow Leopard - Min 2GB, ideal 4GB or above
Mac OSX 10.7 Lion and 10.8 Mountain Lion - Min 4GB, ideal 6GB or above
Mac OSX 10.9 Mavericks,10.10 Yosemite, 10.11 El Capitan - Min 6GB, ideal 8GB or above
macOS 10.12 Sierra - 8GB or above
Some systems may not be able to use these amounts but will still run the newer OSs, in these cases maximising your RAM will be the best you can do. To get a better idea of your own specific RAM requirements, you can use the Activity Monitor utility built into OSX. This will let you see how much RAM you really need while using your Mac in the way you use it. Activity Monitor is inside your Utilities folder, which is inside your Applications folder. Apple have an in-depth explanation of how to use Activity Monitor here.
There are lots of different types of RAM. The RAM modules and compatability information below was generated from the Serial Number or Model ID you selected, and is guaranteed to work 100% or your money back. Even if your manual says otherwise! Original manuals, and even online documentation, are not updated after a machine is released and therefore not up to date with the actual maximum RAM that can be used. Many machines can make full use of more RAM than the offical spec, and we guarantee that the maximum amounts we list will work flawlessly, and be fully utilised by your Mac.
Compatible Internal Hard Drives & SSDs for this Mac
Internal Drives: your options explained - Click here for more info
The hard drive or solid state drive is where all your documents, data and applications are stored permanently.
Below this box are all the drives we do that are guaranteed 100% compatible with this Mac, based off the Serial Number or Model ID that you have selected.
The list below is divided into sections for the main types of drives, which can include:
Solid State Drives (SSDs) - large chunks of Flash memory used for storage, the fastest and most reliable option, but also the smallest and most expensive.
Hard Disk Drives (HDDs) - the standard rotational drives used in older Macs. Big and cheap, but much slower than SSDs and subject to mechanical failures that do not effect SSDs. These have a spin speed measured in Revolutions Per Minute (RPM), with higher numbers being faster operating drives.
For more details on the differences between these drives, please see this post on our blog.
With most Macs there are lots of options for having more or faster storage, and many can take multiple drives so you can mix and match SSDs and rotational hard drives to find your ideal combination of size, speed and budget. Some Macs have more than one main drive bay, and many Macs can use our range of caddies to replace their DVD drives with additional hard drives or SSDs. Some Macs also have additional drive bays that can be used with a mounting kit. If you have multiple types of bay in this Mac, you can select them with the grey tabs below this box.
It is very important with all system drives (that is, a drive that you boot from) to leave a good amount of free space to allow the system to work well. We recommend leaving around 20-30GB of free space on the system drive, The closer you get to full on your system drive, the slower the Mac will perform.
A 1TB drive can hold:
Up to 1,000 hours of digital video
Up to 250 two-hour DVD films
Up to 320,000 digital photos
Up to 16,660 hours of digital music
All drives come blank and will need to be formatted (erased), and if they are to be a boot drive, have an operating system installed. There are a variety of ways of restoring your data, either through time machine or by cloning.
We sell drives, tools, enclosures and cables for you to do the work at home (see the "Cables, Adaptors & Tools" tab above), or you can send/bring your machine to us for us to do the work - prices all below. However you do it, you can be sure you are getting the correct part with our 100% compatibility guarantee.
Click to Close
Main Drive Bay
Optical Drive Bay
This Mac has 1 main drive bay which can take any of the drives below
Apple drive fitting documentation: Drive Fitting Guide (note: the Apple guide skips over transfering the bracket from the old drive to the new one, see Steps 6, 7 and 8 in this iFixit guide)
Graphics & Display Repair Services (parts included if applicable)
Here are our list of fixed cost repair services for broken display repairs for this Mac. We are able in many cases to separate the LCD and glass from a whole range of Apple Macs, rather than replacing a whole display assembly (which can run into many hundreds of pounds). We've been doing these repairs for years, and the results have been very good.
Here are our list of fixed cost repair and installation services for this Mac. All machines for repair or upgrade can either be shipped to us (we can arrange collection if desired), or you are welcome to drop the machine into our offices in Sawston, Cambridge. We have been doing Apple Mac repairs since 2001, you can be assured of a complete, speedy, good value and professional service.
You can use this tool to build an upgrade order and
have us. Using this tool will also generate a link
you can use to create this order again yourself, or
share with someone else.
Note: This tool only selects from in stock products. Items that are out of stock, or special order items with extended lead times, can be added to your order from the other tabs.