Not all laptop lines are equally upgrade-friendly, though, and most vendors still resist encouraging users to grab their screwdrivers and muck around inside their laptops. In general, you'll have an easier time working on a second-tier brand, or a whitebook, because the internal components in these models are usually easier to reach and replace.

To illustrate the upgrading process, the example of a good whitebook model: the Intel Centrino-based Asus M6000N with a 1.4GHz Pentium M processor, 256MB of RAM, and a 5,400 rpm 20GB hard drive is used.
The components of a 2.0GHz Dothan Pentium M processor, 512MB of RAM, and a 60GB hard drive were updated. If you're looking to save money, it's still cheaper to buy rather than upgrade a laptop.

One word of caution: Before you try any of this at home, take heed of the industry-standard warning. Once you upgrade your CPU or hard drive, your warranty is void.

Follow these tips for successfully upgrading your laptop. Before starting to work on a laptop, take some time to do the following.

1. Back up My Documents to a CD or DVD
2. A small set of jeweller's screwdrivers
3. Needle-nose pliers
4. Containers to hold screws
5. A grounding strap
6. Remember to ground yourself before you touch anything inside your PC by touching a piece of metal or wear a grounding strap on your wrist
7. Place all screws in containers away from your work area. These are small, difficult-to-replace screws, and if you lose one in the carpet, you're toast.
8. Do not remove a screw or unplug a cable unless it's essential to your upgrade.
9. Laptops are considerably more difficult than desktops to reassemble, so the less you disconnect, the better.
10. Laptops often use similar screws of different lengths. To be safe and avoid confusion later in the upgrade process, keep screw groups in a bundle and label them, such as 'four screws from under battery' or 'four heat-sink screws.'
11. Upgrade components one at a time, booting the system after each addition. This way, if there's a problem, you immediately know where to look.

• Upgrade Laptop Hard Drive
• Upgrade Laptop Memory
• Upgrade the Processor