Should I upgrade my Macbook RAM, or go to PC laptop?

Hello,
I bought my 2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo 13" Macbook in mid 2008. Recently I replaced the hard drive (dropping the computer killed the original HD) with another 80gig. It currently has 1 GB of memory. I'm running Snow Leopard.
I used to do film editing on this machine for school when I got it, but no longer. Right now what I do mostly on it is play WoW (very often), use the internet and will be using Photoshop.
It has been quite laggy as of late while playing WoW, and while I realize this is also a Blizzard issue, as many mac users have the same complaints, I know that I should have more than 1 GB of memory. I have heard multiple things about whether or not 3 GB of memory is possible on the Macbook or not. I'd really like to upgrade my RAM before the new WoW expansion comes out, but my questions are:
1. Is it worth buying 2 GB of RAM to upgrade my machine?
2. Is 3 GB of RAM possible or necessary?
3. If neither of these options are a good idea, would be worth buying a PC laptop with 3 or 4 GB of RAM and a bigger HD for half the price of a Macbook Pro? (as a poor intern, I cannot afford to pay more than $600 for a computer).
Thanks for any suggestions.
Message was edited by: redheadtechie (edited title)

Your MacBook may fetch more than you think since new MacBooks lack Firewire.
Go to Apple menu -> About This Mac -> More Info. Under the hardware description it should say a MacBook x,x value. 1,1 can only be upgraded to 2 GB. 2,1 can be upgraded to 4 GB, but only 3 GB would be usable, And the 3,1 and later can be upgraded to a full 4 GB.
A PC laptop would not be able to run Mac OS X. Furthermore, you'd have to repurchase a lot of software you are running on your Mac for the PC, or see if a crossgrade is available. It may be time to consider alternative software packages that are less expensive for your current Mac, or for a newer Mac if you are tight under budget, or start saving for a newer Mac.
See my FAQ*:
http://www.macmaps.com/usedrefurbished.html
You may find a cheaper MacBook than you think you can.
- * Links to my pages may give me compensation.

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osamawazarat wrote:
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Hi all,
I need to upgrade my macbook's RAM and hard drive as after 3 yrs of use it is showing signs of aging.
I am novice in hardware stuff. I am planning on doing it entirely by myself and on tight budget will need to compare the prices across sellers and buy a suitable peice of kit. Please help
Questions:
1 - How to find out which RAm do I need to buy and what is the maximum I can go on my macbook?
2 - How to find which hard drive to buy and what is the maximum my macbook will support?
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Some of the specs are listed below:
Hardware Overview:
Model Name:          MacBook
Model Identifier:          MacBook5,2
Processor Name:          Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed:          2 GHz
Number Of Processors:          1
Total Number Of Cores:          2
L2 Cache:          3 MB
Memory:          2 GB
Bus Speed:          1.07 GHz
Boot ROM Version:          MB52.0088.B05
SMC Version (system):          1.38f5
MANY THANKS FOR READING AND REPLYING TO MY POST
[email protected]

Hi Chefjeegar
Yes that screwdriver kit has the #00 phillips screwdriver that you need to access the RAM and hard drive. You'll also need the Torx driver to change the hard drive. http://www.amazon.co.uk/LINDY-Computer-Technician-Precision-Torx/dp/B0000934GO/r ef=sr_1_1?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1348072554&sr=1-1
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Message was edited by: Richard Dittmer

Richard Dittmer wrote:
also...could I just buy a 1GB RAM and 2GB RAM and put them in to make it 3? or does it have to be 2 1.5GB RAM's
Memory doesn't typically come that way. It's almost always a base 2 value, and 1 GB is really 1,073,741,824 or 2 to the power of 30. 2 GB is really 2,147,483,648 or 2 to the power of 31. This is not the way disk drives are typically sold, although some of the newer solid state drives may be sold that way. Disk drives are sold with 1 GB = 1,000,000,000 bytes, where they guarantee at least that much capacity (could be more with enough extra capacity to allow bad sectors to be mapped out and still be at least the listed capacity). You'll notice that all single memory modules are sold as with base 2 memory capacity like 256 MB, 512 MB, 1 GB, 2 GB, 4 GB, etc.
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http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/macbook/stats/macbook-core-2-duo-1.83-13-s pecs.html
http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/macbook/stats/macbook-core-2-duo-2.0-white -13-specs.html
http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/macbook/stats/macbook-core-2-duo-2.0-black -13-specs.html
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http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/MemoryBenchmark/AppleMacBook/
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DrMino88 wrote:
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You may experience unexpected results if you have installed third-party system software modifications, or if you have modified the operating system through other means. (This does not apply to normal application software installation.)
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Insert OS X Installer Disc into the optical drive.
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