Show off your Early Intel Macs!

[MultiFinder17]

I love OCLP on my 2012 MBP and Air. I haven’t tried it on a non metal GPU in awhile. It seemed a pain with OTAs and the re patching compared to the metal gpu machines.

Honestly I haven't found it that much of a pain, and I find it to be a bit smoother than the dosdude patchers (Not to minimize those; I still use and love his stuff on other machines!). I have it on a 2010 27" iMac, a 2010 white MacBook, and a 2009 mini and it's delightful to use. Certainly gives them a much longer lease on life!

That said, it's smooth as butter on a native Metal machine - I use it on my 2013 27" iMac and I honestly can't tell the difference between this and a natively-supported machine.

 

[MultiFinder17]

Today I finally got my former main machine in my classroom settled into its new home on my desk cubby in my office! This beast of a 27" 2010 just barely makes the cut for 'it fits here and doesn't look horrifyingly huge'

Running OCLP Big Sur, I'm hoping that I can get another couple of years of productive life out of it

 

[Jack Neill]

Today I finally got my former main machine in my classroom settled into its new home on my desk cubby in my office! This beast of a 27" 2010 just barely makes the cut for 'it fits here and doesn't look horrifyingly huge'

Running OCLP Big Sur, I'm hoping that I can get another couple of years of productive life out of it

View attachment 1826084

I never knew Micheal Dorn was a solid foot shorter than Patrick Stewart.

 

[Jack Neill]

Plus a TB1/2 dock and Apple's TB3 to TB1/2 adapter presumably?

The Trebleet is a dual slot NVMe disk dock and is TB3 based, and yea I used a 2/3 adapter. When I add another drive and am not booting off of it, I am getting 850's R/W's. Pretty neat stuff here in the 21 century.

 

[Amethyst1]

The Trebleet is a dual slot NVMe disk dock and is TB3 based, and yea I used a 2/3 adapter.

Thanks!

 

[K two]

Mini3,1 lives! 😎

 

[Certificate of Excellence]

My new to me 08 MacBook Pro.

 

[netsrot39]

My beloved 2,1 Mac Pro. Although this machine is from 2007, it is still a beast and pretty much handles everything I throw it wonderfully. I bought this earlier this year for 100€ (including wireless mouse and keyboard which are not shown here). I added 32 GB of RAM, 2x eSATA ports which connect to a PCIe SATA card, a couple of hard drives and SSDs (also I'm using the hidden SATA ports), a USB3 card and the ATI Radeon 5770 which can be found in the 5,1 Mac Pros. I mainly use El Capitan (magnificent OS X version IMO) on this Mac Pro but I also do have Mountain Lion, Windows 7 x64 and Windows 10 x64 installed on it which also run great. All in all, this is a very capable machine even 14 years after its introduction. I still have one upgrade planned for this one and that is a Bluray burner (LG BH16NS40) which I recently purchased. I actually bought two of those BH16NS40 because I'm also gonna put one into my 3,1 which is my second Mac Pro. Shown above is the Mac Pro attached to a 24" Cinema Display where Waterfox is opened displaying the MacRumors forum page. I really think those cMP have aged the best when it comes to early Macs which is no surprise since they are so upgradeable.

 

[Certificate of Excellence]

View attachment 1829319

My beloved 2,1 Mac Pro. Although this machine is from 2007, it is still a beast and pretty much handles everything I throw it wonderfully. I bought this earlier this year for 100€ (including wireless mouse and keyboard which are not shown here). I added 32 GB of RAM, 2x eSATA ports which connect to a PCIe SATA card, a couple of hard drives and SSDs (also I'm using the hidden SATA ports), a USB3 card and the ATI Radeon 5770 which can be found in the 5,1 Mac Pros. I mainly use El Capitan (magnificent OS X version IMO) on this Mac Pro but I also do have Mountain Lion, Windows 7 x64 and Windows 10 x64 installed on it which also run great. All in all, this is a very capable machine even 14 years after its introduction. I still have one upgrade planned for this one and that is a Bluray burner (LG BH16NS40) which I recently purchased. I actually bought two of those BH16NS40 because I'm also gonna put one into my 3,1 which is my second Mac Pro. Shown above is the Mac Pro attached to a 24" Cinema Display where Waterfox is opened displaying the MacRumors forum page. I really think those cMP have aged the best when it comes to early Macs which is no surprise since they are so upgradeable.

Yeah man, it really is unfortunate where the macOS cut offs for these cMP machines have been placed. They really are fantastic boxes for modern needs and have been able to do anything I have thrown at them. I mean my 1,1 officially drops support at Lion but absolutely crushes it on Elcap with a new GPU - zippy as ever and that is using a spinner as a boot drive. Then again I've always been critical of Apple's notion and application of planned obsolescence. It is incredibly wasteful. I mean looking at how well 1,1/2,1/3,1/4,1/5,1 cMPs handle the modern web and macOS beyond their official cutoffs - how can it be anything else than that? Modern professionals that need bleeding edge technology and are dependent on the Apple ecosystem, I understand the need to upgrade and am not arguing that aspect of it, but for the average user who I think make up 85% of the ppl currently in the supported & unsupported Apple ecosystem - it is obvious to me that this is not the case and are left with machines intentionally cut off from new software as they are deemed obsolete and unusable by the manufacturer and which we know is not the case.

At the end of the day though, I probably should not be complaining as all this means is more beastly cheap macs for me

 

[netsrot39]

Yeah man, it really is unfortunate where the macOS cut offs for these cMP machines have been placed. They really are fantastic boxes for modern needs and have been able to do anything I have thrown at them. I mean my 1,1 officially drops support at Lion but absolutely crushes it on Elcap with a new GPU - zippy as ever and that is using a spinner as a boot drive. Then again I've always been critical of Apple's notion and application of planned obsolescence. It is incredibly wasteful. I mean looking at how well 1,1/2,1/3,1/4,1/5,1 cMPs handle the modern web and macOS beyond their official cutoffs - how can it be anything else than that? Modern professionals that need bleeding edge technology and are dependent on the Apple ecosystem, I understand the need to upgrade and am not arguing that aspect of it, but for the average user who I think make up 85% of the ppl currently in the supported & unsupported Apple ecosystem - it is obvious to me that this is not the case and are left with machines intentionally cut off from new software as they are deemed obsolete and unusable by the manufacturer and which we know is not the case.

At the end of the day though, I probably should not be complaining as all this means is more beastly cheap macs for me

I totally agree with the points you've made. The only drawback of the first two generations of Mac Pro is the 32bit EFI and lack of SSE4 instruction set for newer macOS versions but I think in 2021 El Capitan is still very usable and it runs so well on those cMP with the right upgrades (GPU and RAM mainly). I'm just a university student that doesn't need his Macs very much beyond office work and since the pandemic for conference calls. Of course I also have a private life and browsing the web, HD media consumption, the occasional video editing and pretty much everything else a non-pro user needs a computer for is possible on this Mac Pro without the need of much hacking and waiting. I hardly ever think about how old this computer is when I'm using it and it kind of blows my mind when I think about it that I was half the age I am now when the 2,1 came out. Feels totally like a modern computer to me but I do have to mention however that I don't game much (lack to time and mostly lack of interest too).

What I also love so much about this computer is its industrial design and the way how everything is put together on the inside. It is so damn easy to upgrade and hack newer stuff into these boxes. Since my interest in the current Apple has somewhat decreased, I'm not too bummed about not having the possibility to install newer macOS versions on this machine since I believe that they don't bring anything new exciting to the table, are getting more bloated with every release and are also becoming more restrictive. I just wish they was a macOS that is slimmed down like OS X Tiger was. Even though I wouldn't say Windows is my favorite OS, I still have to point out that it is quite pleasant to use it on such an old Mac because it will allow the machine to be used with up to date software for many years to come (I think web browsers will be supported on Windows 10 for a long time and also software in general does not get cut off so quickly like on macOS). But yeah to conclude I'd also have to say that Apple cutting of the 1,1 and 2,1 Mac Pros officially at Lion (and also at 32bit Windows 7) is kind of an insult for those machines and was very likely marketing strategy to sell newer Macs.

If the web does not change too much in the next years I could see myself using this 2007 Mac Pro still like in 2027 which would make the machine 20 years by then and still capable of modern tasks. But who knows how fast technology will eventually evolve ... Considered outdated by the average joe by now, those cMP still make great machines for non-professionals/non-gamers, cost next to nothing and parts are widely available (not to mention how their usability can be boosted for max performance with old server RAM, SSDs and various PCIe cards).

 

[Bustycat]

MacBook4,1 with the battery and display panel disassembled from my broken MacBook1,1.

The only problem is charging very slowly (0.2W), but it does charge about 0.75% per hour. The performance is not affected, proven by the Geekbench 3 result.

Original default Chinese system fonts (Heiti SC & TC) are replaced with Source Han Sans SC & TC.

 

[rampancy]

Major props to you for having a non-cracked display bezel and topcase. Your machine looks great!

 

[Bustycat]

Major props to you for having a non-cracked display bezel and topcase. Your machine looks great!

It’s a used one that I recently bought, and its display panel was without functional backlights. I am still thinking about methods to prevent cracking again. For very slow charging, I haven’t figured out the exact cause— the battery itself or logic board.

 

[MacFoxG4]

Mini3,1 lives! 😎

View attachment 1828869

Awesome! Looks like you got graphics acceleration working. How did you do it?

 

[K two]

OCLP025 nightly, here: https://github.com/dortania/OpenCore-Legacy-Patcher . Select TUI towards the bottom of the page.

 

[Ivor Bigunn]

Hi!

Here is my 2007 (Yes, 2007!!!) MacbookPro. It still works perfectly, but I only use it occasionally now.

After about 5 years Apple replaced a faulty Nvidia video card for free, under a Fault repair policy. Nice!

IB

 

[rampancy]

Looks like you have one of the legendary "Green Dot" MacBook Pro 3,1 units then! Believe the hype when people say that a fully repaired Nvidia GeForce 8600m-equipped MBP is one of the best (perhaps the best?) of the early Intel Macs out there.

 

[Amethyst1]

Looks like you have one of the legendary "Green Dot" MacBook Pro 3,1 units then!

I have both a 15 and a 17 3,1 with the Green Dot. Are they very hard to come by?

 

[B S Magnet]

I have both a 15 and a 17 3,1 with the Green Dot. Are they very hard to come by?

Over the last couple of years, the heavier share of the MBP3,1 and MBP4,1 units which tend to come up for sale on CL, Kijiji, or even eBay in North America/Canada tend to be the non-working units, often with sellers largely unaware of the root cause or, if aware, mention it as the reason why they’re getting rid of it — at least within the price ranges I’d been watching.

Fairly more spendy units with working GPUs do come up around here, but often there aren’t pictures to determine when the machine was built (i.e., a serial) or whether its bridge has the green dot. (After all, there’d be little more frustrating than to spend a fair sum on a working used MBP3,1 or 4,1, only to discover it was a rarely-used machine built before the GPU update and its GPU is basically nothing better than a ticking time bomb).

This, of course, could be changing, but I’ve not really checked lately. I do know that a lack of motivation on behalf of the seller/trader of the non-working MBP4,1 I acquired in 2019 was why I ended up trading a bag of coffee for it. Eventually I did find a green-dot logic board to swap in (and the OEM board with the bad GPU set to the side for now).

 

[Ivor Bigunn]

I had to research what is meant by "Green Dot" MBP 3.1. Ha!

Yes mine definitely has a replaced video card. I remember taking it into the Apple dealer here in Switzerland and telling the man that I did not want to spend a lot of money on a repair because the laptop was already 5 years old.

I was surprised and delighted when they repaired it at zero cost to myself, under an infinitely extended Apple warranty scheme for these Nvidia cards.

But I saw the bill which was around CH750.00 (= USD 750 also). 50%/50% Parts and Labour.

I see mine has 3GB Memory, which seems to indicate that it has an extra stick of 1Gb in it. I vaguely remember being BS'ed by the shop when I bought it, that 3GB was better "if I intended to use Bootcamp".

I see that you can still buy memory modules for these machines at Newegg, etc. Amazing!

As you see, I have installed Yosemite on it. It runs OK, but I read comments that 2-3Gb of memory is not really enough for Yosemite, so it is very slow. Personally I think it is just the 2-core 2.2Ghz processor and 800Mhz Bus speed that slows it down! Does anyone have any usefull thoughts about that??

I will try to run some speed tests I think.

The CD Drive works well also.

IB

 

[Amethyst1]

As you see, I have installed Yosemite on it. It runs OK, but I read comments that 2-3Gb of memory is not really enough for Yosemite, so it is very slow. Personally I think it is just the 2-core 2.2Ghz processor and 800Mhz Bus speed that slows it down! Does anyone have any usefull thoughts about that??

Put in 4, or better yet, 6 GB RAM to max it out (4 GB DDR2 modules are a bit pricey though), install an SSD and replace Yosemite with El Capitan (which is faster). If you don't need the latest OS X the machine can run, downgrade to Snow Leopard which will fly on there with an SSD. And make sure you have a working battery and 85W charger, otherwise the CPU downclocks to 1 GHz, slowing everything down to a crawl.

 

[Ivor Bigunn]

OK, thanks Am1.

I will look into this.

I used this unit only for a bit of printing and for the CD drive.

But i really like to have everything just so!!!

IB

 

[originaldotexe]

today's pickup which i got for free, it's a macbook4,1 (2008 macbook). came with the original leopard restore cd's, snow leopard retail 10.6.3, iwork, a bunch of chargers, display adapters, and other goodies, upgraded 640gb hdd, and this nifty little purple case. needs a good clean but after that it'll be a nice machine

 

[K two]

For '09 Mac Mini3,1 OCLP_025N now provides Monterey features equal to Big Sur. Can be used for daily ops. 👀 👍

 

[Bustycat]

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View attachment 1834510


today's pickup which i got for free, it's a macbook4,1 (2008 macbook). came with the original leopard restore cd's, snow leopard retail 10.6.3, iwork, a bunch of chargers, display adapters, and other goodies, upgraded 640gb hdd, and this nifty little purple case. needs a good clean but after that it'll be a nice machine

How did you get a device like that for free?👀