upgrading laptops

thinking of getting a second hand laptop for my nephews in south africa for christmas. Just wondering how easy it normally is to upgrade things like cd drive, memory etc. I know you can't really upgrade the graphics but would like to get them one with a dvd writer or put one in a laptop I buy. My budget is £500ish max.

How easy is it to get hold of these parts also. Thought about getting them a shuttle but have to consider weight as taking it with me to south africa and pc's aren't cheap over there. If I could get a light shuttle then I would consider that as an alternative(I was looking at something like MSI mega 880(I think that's the one which also acts as a hi fi) or an aopen EA65).

Got a pentium 3 850mgz laptop for sale dvd-rom drive , 256 meg, 10 gig hard drive , built in nic, modem and sound pm if intersted selling for £400

I have a laptop to pimp aswell but I'll answer your qns first :)

Memory is dead easy to upgrade, you just goto www.crucial.com/uk and choose your laptop from the drop down list. they then select the correct ram (automatically) and give you a price. Fitting it is a case of unscrewing a panel in the back of the lappy and slotting it in - its even easier than PC ram. Upgrading the CD/DVD drive is just as easy, they come in modules that you can pull out and plug a new one in, simple as that. theres normally a catch on the bottom of the lappy to stop it falling out.

Hard drives are more complex to install, but buyin them is no more difficult than buying PC ones. Their location is different for every laptop, but for example my old thinkpad had its under the keyboard, so i had to lift up the KB, and then replace it. Not really that complex. GFX is only upgradable with special boards, like the alienware ones.

Ok now for the pimpage :)

got a 2gig lappy, 256ram, cdrw/dvd, 30gig HD, WiFi, Brand New battery, sound, 10/10nic, gfx, floppy for sale, PM me for photos, more info and a price - or just to discuss it :)