[r00fus]

Apple makes it VERY easy to migrate your entire system across machines, thus lubricating this entire process.

That combined with resale make this kit very attractive to their customer base who can instantly choose to be in your camp or the author's camp.

On the other hand, the market probably doesn't value modifications or add-ons as well, so re-selling my year-old MBP with optical replaced by SSD, 750GB 7200RPM rust platter, and 8GB RAM would probably not be "cost effective".

[evgen]

Lucky for you that that RAM, SSD, and additional drive in the Optibay are fairly standard and can follow you to the new system unless Apple uses different RAM in the next rev. I am in a similar boat and the only thing that gnaws at me is that when I bought the 8G of RAM it was around $600 and now you can get it for close to $200 -- the RAM has depreciated faster than any other part of my laptop.

[r00fus]

Hate to add to your pain, but I actually bought my 8GB (2x4GB) kit for $80 (was about 2 months ago).

Aside from an MB Air I bought for my dad (non-upgradeable RAM), I always tell folks to go minimum on RAM spec and find suitable add-on RAM, often 3-6 mo later.