Mac Mini Upgrade Ram and HDD Drive

Question

Hey there guys, I am going to buy a new mac mini 2.0 Ghz next month. My question is this that on the apple support site it says that if I upgrade the RAM myself or hard disk and I damage any component of the hardware my warranty is void.
My question is this that, If I buy a 320GB Western Digital Sata drive put it in and a 4GB(2Gb x 2) 1066mhz DDR 3 Ram Modules, Will that void my apple warranty, I am planning to get an Apple Care plan to make it a total of 3 years warranty. So where Do I stand? meaning that I don't mind if the new hard disk and ram that I buy myself is not covered in the warranty as I will have individual warranties from the respective companies.
But still does it means that, everything is covered Minus the hard disk and ram that i Individually buy.. everything else would still be covered for the 1 year initial warranty and then 2 year for apple care protection plan. does it mean that?
Is there anyway I don't spoil my warranty? I really cant afford to buy the memory and hard disk from apple, since its too expensive. I am looking forward to get the Mac Mini base line unit, 2.0 Ghz with 1 gb of ram 120gb hdd.

Answer 1

As far as I can see anywhere in Apple documentation there are no officially user-serviceable part in the mini (anyone have a link to the contrary?).
But, in the U.S. at least, warranty law seems to be in consumers' favor these days, and unless you specifically break something with your unauthorized upgrade, Apple still has to honor the warranty.
The mini manual in fact says:
"If you open your Mac mini or install items, you risk damaging your equipment,
and *such damage* isn’t covered by the limited warranty on your Mac mini."
Your damage isn't covered, not the warranty is voided.
But, NEVER EVER send any product in with a user upgrade even if upgrades are officially allowed -- because it's really common to just be sent back a swap instead of your machine. With the mini, you'll want to observe that doubly so, just to eliminate the possibility of them complaining about your upgrade. Keep the original parts, and put them back in if you ever need service.
For this Apple Store situation, the only thing he could legitimately charge you for is a "labor charge" for the act of having to remove your RAM *for testing the other problem*. That should be like $30 not $300, and you should get your custom RAM back in a little baggy. Tricking you into buying Apple RAM to "solve" your other warranty problem, or as a condition of getting warranty service, is probably fraud.
Nonetheless -- definitely not a good idea to bring in the mini with the custom RAM in the first place...
Note that there are some gray areas as to damage -- for example if you put in a processor upgrade (in the older minis with processor sockets) and that ran much hotter, Apple could legitimately claim the heat damaged some other part that failed.