I'm a bot confused about the price differences between the Mac store in Chiang Mai and the various Mac shops I've been to in Bangkok. In Chiang Mai I was quoted 46,900 for a 13" MacBook Pro 2.26GHz. Upgrading to a 250GB hard disk brought it to B50,200 and for a 320GB hard disk it was B50,5000 (B3,300 for a 250GB hard disk and B3,600 for a 320GB hard disk). I could have it with the new hard disk at the end of the day.

In Bangkok, I have been to several Mac stores. They all say for the same MacBook Pro if I want to upgrade the hard disk it willl void the 1 year warranty. However, if I order it through them from the Mac shop (in Singapore) I can get a 250GB hard disk upgrade for B48,826 or a 320GB hard disk for B50,752. Doing it this way I still get the 1 year warranty. I must then wait for about 1 week for the computer to arrive.

I'm confused why there are such different prices and why the warranty in Bangkok is invalidated by the hard disk change while in Chiang Mai there was no mention.

Any thoughts on this?

Apple stores in Thailand are approved resellers. They are only allowed to sell NEW boxed from the factory items. They should not do custom configurations such as you request. However most will.

Just order from the Thailand Store online. Normally get things i order from there in 2-3 days if it states ships within 24 hours.

Also you could use the education discount....but I didnt say that

Here's my thoughts on it: The hard disk upgrade never invalidates your warranty since the new unibody MacBook Pros. These are made so that users can upgrade RAM and HD. The manual has instructions on how to do it, and if you have a screwdriver you can do it yourself

Caveat: This being Apple, my "user-upgradeable" hard drive came with brackets held down by Torx-6 screws, so you need a Torx-6 screwdriver. This little fact was not mentioned in the user manual. But anyone with experience with Macs knows that they always do that - some screws, somewhere, are inexplicably Torx, so you never open a Mac without a Torx 6 handy

Anyway, if you have a Torx-6, it's easy as pie.

Those shops who told you it would invalidate the warranty, stay away from - they apparently have no idea what they're doing. Dangerous if they're as clueless on other matters!

It sounds like the shops would charge your the full price for the new HD - I'd then expect them to give you the HD they removed from the Mac separately. But you should get them to buy that back for a rebate of about BHT 1,000. The Apple store BTO model which takes 1 week comes with the HD replaced, so you don't get the old one - the reason the 320 is more than at the authorized reseller is that the official prices for bigger HDs and RAM at the Apple store are a total rip-off.