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ghanwani

macrumors 601
Dec 8, 2008
4,823
6,145
Mine didn't. I had a 2010 white unibody Macbook (2.4 Ghz Core 2 Duo) that the system board failed on late last year. I would have hoped it would have lasted more than 5 years, but it didn't make it.

Was it not possible to get it repaired? I have heard cases where Apple repairs things like problems with a motherboard for a very reasonable charge, like $250 or so. (But I may be misremembering, so would be curious if you investigated that option.)
 

AZhappyjack

Suspended
Jul 3, 2011
10,184
23,659
Happy Jack, AZ
Was it not possible to get it repaired? I have heard cases where Apple repairs things like problems with a motherboard for a very reasonable charge, like $250 or so. (But I may be misremembering, so would be curious if you investigated that option.)

I thought about it... but I just put any repair dollars toward a new MBA...
 

MultiFinder17

macrumors 68030
Jan 8, 2008
2,739
2,085
Tampa, Florida
My mother, a high school english teacher, has a 2010 MacBook that she absolutely loves. I've been slowly upgrading it for her as time goes by; it currently has 6GB RAM and a 120GB SSD, and she never has any complaints about its performance. Most of her time on it is spent in Safari, Word, and Mail. It's running El Captain and she remains happy with it. I've asked her recently, and she has no plans or real desire to upgrade from it.
 

robvas

macrumors 68040
Mar 29, 2009
3,240
630
USA
The MacBook and MacBook Pro of that year perform just about identically - the only real difference is the MacBook has a screen that isn't as bright and has worse viewing angles. They are both 13.3" 1280x800 but Pro has the better screen. Same with the aluminum MacBook (non-Pro)

$250-$300 is more in line with the price in the USA, and make sure there aren't any cracks in the white polycarbonate case. You can fill it up with RAM and SSD and it will run great.
 

audicat

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jan 3, 2016
28
7
US
Well I can't find any better deals, maybe it's a better idea to just wait until I can spend more and buy a new or refurbished one from Apple.
 
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adam9c1

macrumors 68000
May 2, 2012
1,885
312
Chicagoland
I think that the 2011 introduces Thunderbolt and possibly airdrop, I'm not sure.

Having said that I am very happy with my 2010. I am the second owner and while the battery has low cycle count it does seem to drain somewhat rapidly but comparable to other laptops I'm using.

I have used SSDs of various brands and models for last several years and would highly recommend ANY ssd vs stock HD. On my 2010 I upgraded RAM as well. Prior to SSDs I have upgraded HD in my white plastic MB several times and each time I saw speed gains. WD, WD Blue, WD Black, and a few SSDs.

I think if you understand the limitations of the CPU and can get a clean enough machine (mine has only few scratches, other than that looks mint) go for it.
 

Coldmode

macrumors regular
Mar 10, 2010
179
29
Well I can't find any better deals, maybe it's a better idea to just wait until I can spend more and buy a new or refurbished one from Apple.
As long as you use an SSD, I think you'll be ok. I used a 2009 Macbook Pro for programming at work until early 2014 and that was fine...it didn't even have an SSD. If you're doing compiled application work you might find that the compile speed are slow, but if you're doing web development I think you'll be good with a 2010 model with an SSD. I would recommend the 13" MacBook Pro, if you can find one. They have processors that are a generation newer than the 2010 white MacBook (Arrandale i-series vs Core 2 series) and I think will generally hold up better than their plastic counterparts.
 

k3rnelpanic

macrumors newbie
Jan 10, 2017
1
0
Hell friend,

I myself am using the mid 2010 MBP. I have upgraded it with 6GB of ram and updated it to macOS Sierra. Though I had problems finding the right kind of ram because my Dad gave me the old ram sticks of his 2011 MBP which is running on 1333mhz. The 2010 MBP only accepts 1066mhz and I am definitely going to invest on this in the coming months. Gonna get an SSD as well.

Still a very capable machine. I've had this for 7 years now and never had complaints with it and I don't see myself replacing it soon.

I still can run iMovie and GarageBand decently. I've check the system requirements of Final Cut Pro and this 2010 MBP still meets the minimum. I also play CS:GO and Starcraft 2 from Steam and Battle.net, getting decent frame rates on medium settings.

What I like about my MacBook pro is that it may be 7 years old, but I can still see it lasting a few more years. Never complained about it slowing down because I am pretty much capable of maintaining my machines (I've also got a 2007 Dell laptop running on Win10 Pro and it still rocks).

So yeah. I believe that these MBP models will still hold up at least a few more years.
 

iMav

macrumors 6502
Jun 20, 2008
363
9
Columbus, WI
I recently picked up a 2010 plastic unibody MacBook off of eBay for cheap ($150-ish).

Out of curiosity, I wanted to see how serviceable it would be if I did some nice upgrades. I did the following:

- repasted the heatsink
- upgraded to 16GB of ram
- added a 128GB SSD and a 512GB HDD (rolled my own Fusion drive)

The result is a very usable system. Quite snappy for typical consumer tasks...Web browsing (Chrome), working with docs (MS Office), basic image manipulation (Pixelmator), etc.

Honestly, I could use this system as my primary right now.
 

911_Turbo_S

macrumors newbie
Jan 14, 2017
6
0
Currently own one. Got it back in 2010 and it has become sluggish over the years so removed the CD drive and replaced it with an SSD to improve performance. Also fused the SSD and HDD to create a fusion drive. Upgraded RAM to 8GB as well and it has been pretty good to live with. Never really done CPU intensive tasks with it, but it should be enough for typing documents, web browsing, watching videos, and even programming. $400 seems too much for it though. I saw in a local site for buying and selling that they cost around $240.
 
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