Yes, it gets easier each time I think. I watched a quick youtube tutorial beforehand how to replace the hinges, so it was pretty straightforward too.
The memory upgrade really kicks things into gear, it was the first thing I upgraded on my laptop. Now has 36gb too :)
Nice. I am lucky, I have a decent budget here at work. My desktop is running 64GB of RAM. I'd never be able to afford that at home!