Battery Replacement on 4-year-old MacBook Pro

Mijn probleem

My old yet trusty MBP has served me well since Thanksgiving 2009. This computer still has some legs but two things plague it: short battery life and overheating. By replacing the old battery (which had 1000+ cycles, when Apple claims ~400 to be typical before death) I not only extended the computer's available time away from a charger, I also reduced the heat generated inside the computer and slightly improved performance.

Mijn oplossing

Repair was very simple, provided you have a small Phillips screwdriver and a tri-wing screwdriver (I had to buy the latter -- which I did through Amazon). Unscrew the bottom of the laptop case with the Phillips, unscrew the battery with the tri-wing, and pop in the new battery. The computer automatically recognizes the new battery so there is nothing to do on the software end at all.

Mijn advies

Provided you are not a complete novice in computer guts, I would recommend anyone with similar issues to do the same as I did. Perhaps not if your Mac is still within the warranty (mine is 4+ years old so warranty, schmarranty) which is voided by this action. Apple charges ~$130 to do this very same thing overnight at their stores, but if you're comfortable opening up a computer yourself, you can do it for ~$99 + tax + shipping.

Now what's next is replacing the optical drive with an SSD, porting my OS over to the SSD, and for ~$250 I will basically have a new computer that should run like the wind.