Black MacBook 4,1 upgrade to 5,2 complete!

[zackkmac]

Hi all,

Finally got time to finish my project - a black MacBook with a 5,2 (2009) board installed.

Any recommendations on other versions of macOS I should try? Currently it is on Big Sur with an SSD and 4GB of RAM, though I think I have 8GB of compatible 800MHz RAM somewhere. It is a bit laggy but I'm sure the RAM increase will help with that. Under Big Sur, it doesn't seem to have working FN keys, Bluetooth, and some trackpad settings. I am just curious if there is a different OS you guys would recommend, all I really need is for this MacBook to be able to surf the Internet and occasionally play music. It works fine enough as-is but just open to suggestions!

Thanks in advance, attaching some pics of the finished product.

 

[TheShortTimer]

Congrats!

I've been meaning to tackle this project. I got as far dismantling to the BlackBook and purchasing the 5,2 parts but things haven't progressed since then. You've reminded me that I need to finish it off. I've struggled with 4GB on High Sierra performing moderate tasks with several applications running so I can imagine that amount of RAM wouldn't be sufficient for Big Sur.

What about Mojave or Catalina? They'd probably be less resource demanding but you'd still benefit from upgrading the RAM to 8GB.

 

[rampancy]

Hi all,

Finally got time to finish my project - a black MacBook with a 5,2 (2009) board installed.

Any recommendations on other versions of macOS I should try? Currently it is on Big Sur with an SSD and 4GB of RAM, though I think I have 8GB of compatible 800MHz RAM somewhere. It is a bit laggy but I'm sure the RAM increase will help with that. Under Big Sur, it doesn't seem to have working FN keys, Bluetooth, and some trackpad settings. I am just curious if there is a different OS you guys would recommend, all I really need is for this MacBook to be able to surf the Internet and occasionally play music. It works fine enough as-is but just open to suggestions!

Thanks in advance, attaching some pics of the finished product.

Congratulations on completing this mod! Like @TheShortTimer I'd been meaning to do this kind of mod for a while but never got around to it. It really does look amazing! I'm sure the lag issues with Big Sur will be addressed with the bump up to a full 8 GB of RAM, too.

 

[zackkmac]

Congrats!

I've been meaning to tackle this project. I got as far dismantling to the BlackBook and purchasing the 5,2 parts but things haven't progressed since then. You've reminded me that I need to finish it off. I've struggled with 4GB on High Sierra performing moderate tasks with several applications running so I can imagine that amount of RAM wouldn't be sufficient for Big Sur.

What about Mojave or Catalina? They'd probably be less resource demanding but you'd still benefit from upgrading the RAM to 8GB.

Congratulations on completing this mod! Like @TheShortTimer I'd been meaning to do this kind of mod for a while but never got around to it. It really does look amazing! I'm sure the lag issues with Big Sur will be addressed with the bump up to a full 8 GB of RAM, too.

Thanks to both of you for the input - if you have any questions on the mod itself I'd be happy to assist. Be sure your black MacBook is a 2008 variant as the internal parts (speakers, Bluetooth, thermal sensor, fan, etc.) will use 3-wall connectors instead of the 4-wall found in the 2007 models, which do not fit the 5,2 board as it uses 3-wall.

I think my plan now is to upgrade the RAM first and foremost, *then* see how Big Sur does with that and downgrade 1 OS at a time until I find a good balance.

Is there any software out there I could use to remap the functionality back to the fn keys? Such as brightness, volume, etc? Thought I had seen something like this before.

 

[TheShortTimer]

Thanks to both of you for the input - if you have any questions on the mod itself I'd be happy to assist. Be sure your black MacBook is a 2008 variant as the internal parts (speakers, Bluetooth, thermal sensor, fan, etc.) will use 3-wall connectors instead of the 4-wall found in the 2007 models, which do not fit the 5,2 board as it uses 3-wall.

Thanks for your offer. That's very kind of you.

I'll have to check the casing and confirm whether it's 2007 or 2008. It might be the former but I'll soon see.

I think my plan now is to upgrade the RAM first and foremost, *then* see how Big Sur does with that and downgrade 1 OS at a time until I find a good balance.

Is there any software out there I could use to remap the functionality back to the fn keys? Such as brightness, volume, etc? Thought I had seen something like this before.

I'm sure that other members have used software like this. I can't offer any advice on this front because the furthest I've ventured with unsupported releases has been Catalina and Mojave and the DosDude patches meant that everything worked out of the box including the Fn keys. Hopefully others can weigh in with suggestions.

 

[2Mourty]

I would love information on how to do this for my black macbook. I remember in a previous post you said that there were differences in screw placement for keeping the heatsink down. How did you overcome this issue?

 

[zackkmac]

I didn't have to do any modifications for it to stay secured, though someone else that did this project said they had to dremel the screw posts and relocate them. I found that there were enough spots to screw it down without needing to change anything to keep it in place.

I also downgraded it from Big Sur to El Capitan and it is a real joy to use.