My First Repair: A Nice Challenge

My Problem

Replace logic board; replace HDD with SSD; move HDD to optical bay; upgrade RAM.

My Fix

All in all, everything went well. Considering that this was my first repair ever, it took me much longer (4-6 hours) than indicated (40-60 mins). Also, during the repair I had to watch a couple of video tutorials on YouTube, because sometimes the guides alone weren't sufficient.

My Advice

To anyone who's going to do this repair, make sure you also get a 5.5 mm Phillips screwdriver. During the repair I came across a step which required this particular screwdriver, but I didn't have one since it wasn't mentioned on the list of required tools of the logic board replacement guide.

Furthermore, there is a Phillips #1 Screwdriver listed as a required tool for this repair, but I didn't use it since I managed to carry out that particular step using a Phillips #00 Screwdriver instead.

Also, at the end of the logic board replacement guide it says: "To reassemble your device, follow these instructions in reverse order". This is slightly misleading, simply because in doing so you would omit a very important step, namely to apply new thermal paste first. Therefore, I would advise to either include or refer to the 'Applying Thermal Paste' guide at the end of the logic board replacement guide.