🚀 go-pugleaf

I'm a long time owner of a 1040 ST, from the early days, though suprisingly
I know little about the guts/upgrades or even available software.  I use
the machine for MIDI sequencing, and that's about it.

After 4 years or so, my machine is getting pretty shabby, and has a nifty
disk controller problem, besides being a TOS 1.1 machine with the file
dialog bug and the like.  I'm also severely memory constrained.  I don't
want to invest any money in a machine I'm convinced will roll over and
expensively die one day soon.

So, I've been thinking about getting a Mega 4, but I can't really afford
the full deal, even already owning a monitor (my 3rd, actually).  A local
music store starting selling 1040's with monitors for $599 recently, and
it got me to thinking: I don't really care about the blitter chip for my
application (do I?), and don't really need the new keyboard (I only press
single key commands at a time), and though I'd like the detached keyboard,
I can live without it.

So, finally, my questions:  Can I easily upgrade the memory of a new 1040,
can I do it myself (I don't solder well), or are there a number of firms/
individuals that can do this for me?  If the latter is the best recommendation,
any advice on who to do the upgrade?  Lastly, am I missing out on anything
big by not going with the Mega 4?  I don't read ST magazines, and poke my
head into this category infrequently, so I'm not as well-educated as I should
be on the subject.

All advice very gratefully appreciated,

Phil Z.