The time finally has come

[bunnspecial]

Sometimes I wonder if I should switch to intel too... The prices have dropped so much lately. You can get an original white macbook for close $100 now...

I paid $100 for my black Macbook, albeit with a dead hard drive. I threw an SSD in and it's as fast as my 2011 MBP, although it's "stuck" at Leopard.

I also made $140 for my mid-2009 White Macbook(can run Yosemite officially). It was working fine, although I also put an SSD in it. It came with an aftermarket battery that died after 3 months-I replaced it with a gently used(6 cycle) OEM battery for $50 that works perfectly.

 

[Altemose]

I paid $100 for my black Macbook, albeit with a dead hard drive. I threw an SSD in and it's as fast as my 2011 MBP, although it's "stuck" at Leopard.

I also made $140 for my mid-2009 White Macbook(can run Yosemite officially). It was working fine, although I also put an SSD in it. It came with an aftermarket battery that died after 3 months-I replaced it with a gently used(6 cycle) OEM battery for $50 that works perfectly.

Let me know if you ever go to sell one of those white unibody MacBooks. I always wanted one!

 

[bunnspecial]

Let me know if you ever go to sell one of those white unibody MacBooks. I always wanted one!

My mid-2009 is pre-Unibody.

My BIL has a Unibody Macbook. He bought it used, and I used it for a little while the other day in SUM to reset the password for me. He's been asking me to do it for a while, but it was the first time I'd been at their house in a while that he was there(he's a pilot, and is gone every other week). In any case, after I used it for a few minutes, I think I said "I need to buy one of these."

I think you know me well enough to know that it will probably happen

My room mate has an Aluminum Macbook that I've been trying to talk him into selling me for a year. Given that until recently, he'd been unemployed and living off savings for 6 months, I would think he'd jump on it but says he really doesn't want to sell it(despite the fact that he never uses it). I suppose I can't really hold that too badly against him.

In any case, those Aluminum Macbooks still bring surprisingly high prices.

 

[sd3188]

hi

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hi

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[Altemose]

My mid-2009 is pre-Unibody.

My BIL has a Unibody Macbook. He bought it used, and I used it for a little while the other day in SUM to reset the password for me. He's been asking me to do it for a while, but it was the first time I'd been at their house in a while that he was there(he's a pilot, and is gone every other week). In any case, after I used it for a few minutes, I think I said "I need to buy one of these."

I think you know me well enough to know that it will probably happen

My room mate has an Aluminum Macbook that I've been trying to talk him into selling me for a year. Given that until recently, he'd been unemployed and living off savings for 6 months, I would think he'd jump on it but says he really doesn't want to sell it(despite the fact that he never uses it). I suppose I can't really hold that too badly against him.

In any case, those Aluminum Macbooks still bring surprisingly high prices.

There are a few machines I really want to own from the Intel era. I want a mid 09 MacBook as I find it cool to run Mavericks on a pre-unibody white MacBook. I also want a unibody white MacBook and a 2007 MacBook Pro 15"!

 

[bunnspecial]

There are a few machines I really want to own from the Intel era. I want a mid 09 MacBook as I find it cool to run Mavericks on a pre-unibody white MacBook. I also want a unibody white MacBook and a 2007 MacBook Pro 15"!

Our department chair just got a new 15" Retina(along with a 27" iMac) but had a 15" pre-unibody before that. I don't know if he bought the first MBP with his own money or with department money. If he bought it with his own money, I'm tempted to make him an offer on it. Of course, if it was bought with department money, he can't sell it...

 

[Altemose]

Our department chair just got a new 15" Retina(along with a 27" iMac) but had a 15" pre-unibody before that. I don't know if he bought the first MBP with his own money or with department money. If he bought it with his own money, I'm tempted to make him an offer on it. Of course, if it was bought with department money, he can't sell it...

Definitely make an offer...

 

[eyoungren]

I would like a all black UI... Is there a option for PPC Leopard?

Candybar and, Magnifique.

I use the Black Gloss theme in Candybar and the Black OSX them for Magnifique.

Be warned that window backgrounds will STILL be white. And your menubar will change to black as well.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1932210/Black_Theme.zip

 

[128keaton]

I paid $100 for my black Macbook, albeit with a dead hard drive. I threw an SSD in and it's as fast as my 2011 MBP, although it's "stuck" at Leopard.

I also made $140 for my mid-2009 White Macbook(can run Yosemite officially). It was working fine, although I also put an SSD in it. It came with an aftermarket battery that died after 3 months-I replaced it with a gently used(6 cycle) OEM battery for $50 that works perfectly.

Man, you are lucky! I have two mid-2007 Whitebooks, but I've always wanted a blackbook.

 

[gooser]

There are a few machines I really want to own from the Intel era. I want a mid 09 MacBook as I find it cool to run Mavericks on a pre-unibody white MacBook. I also want a unibody white MacBook and a 2007 MacBook Pro 15"!

in the last year and a half i've also picked up two mid 2009 macbooks. would've gone for the unibody but i wanted firewire. one's running 10.6 and the other's running 10.9. well satisfied with both of them, they're my only intels out of 9 macs. it's crossed my mind to get another for a parts machine.

 

[LordeOurMother]

I know someone selling three MacBooks at the $120 mark on here and they are 08s I believe. It is amazing how the world changes in technology.

I don't know. I'm happy with my ppc's. It's just tempting haha.

 

[eyoungren]

Re: Battery.

Yes, the price on the battery was quite good. Considering that the last time I bought a battery it cost me $80 I was quite happy. However, I am not expecting much. It's a generic Made In China battery and if it lasts six months I will be happy.

Mobile power is not why I bought it though. The MBP I just bought comes without a battery. The seller was nice enough to include a charger in the auction so that could have been the end of it. But I have an issue with toting around a laptop that has a giant hole in the bottom. Not to mention that moving it would require shutting it down first or the Mac would just shut off when I pulled the cable out.

I tend to take chargers with me in the places I take my laptops because I am usually there for awhile and those places tend to have plugs. I want however to be able to close the lid, disconnect the Mac, transport it and not have to reboot it. I don't turn my Macs off.

I can't do that without a battery. Since even dead batteries (by experience) hold enough of a charge to allow sleep for the limited amount of time my Macs tend to sleep it doesn't really matter to me if the battery is superb or not, just that it can hold a charge long enough to support sleep between extended periods.

Now if this battery turns out to be really good, so much the better, but I just need a solution that fixes my particular 'problem' - and that's why I was ok with a generic no-name battery for $20.

Not that I needed to explain this, but if no one around here has figured out yet that I tend to make long posts over miniscule things - well, now you know.

 

[bunnspecial]

Man, you are lucky! I have two mid-2007 Whitebooks, but I've always wanted a blackbook.

The Blackbooks are special...something about the plastic/texture used on them make them unlike any other laptop I've ever used. I always get compliments on mine whenever I use it.

There's a girl in the class I'm teaching this semester who has one also, and we trade compliments on them all the time . It's too bad she's not single

I'd like to find an early 2008 model, but am quite happy with my late 2007(which isn't that different from the early '08).

 

[bse5150]

Welcome to the future!

 

[eyoungren]

Welcome to the future!

LOL!

Well…at least until Apple changes the architecture again.

They've done it twice now. Can't trust them.

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Here's the battery I ordered by the way, in case anyone is interested:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/181559949646?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT

(MODs, not my auction, I am not the seller nor an involved party)

 

[bunnspecial]

LOL!

Well…at least until Apple changes the architecture again.

They've done it twice now. Can't trust them.

There have been rumblings about ARM for at least a year-if not longer-now.

I can't ever see it for "professional" computers(x86-64 actually offers some real-world advantages in terms of software-an advantage that PPC didn't have) but could see on something like the new Macbook.

I have to admit that ARM processors are getting pretty good, and they would give Apple a level of control that they've never before had.

 

[eyoungren]

There have been rumblings about ARM for at least a year-if not longer-now.

I can't ever see it for "professional" computers(x86-64 actually offers some real-world advantages in terms of software-an advantage that PPC didn't have) but could see on something like the new Macbook.

I have to admit that ARM processors are getting pretty good, and they would give Apple a level of control that they've never before had.

Yeah, I agree.

To add to that however, while laptops have become quite powerful I just don't ever seeing them replacing desktops. There's a lot that we do here that over time a laptop would just be unsuitable for. And what we do, while intense some times, is not at all above average or extreme for the design industry.

Laptops will do in a pinch, my A1139 functioned as the primary production machine for three weeks until the MacPro got here, but asking for more than that out of a machine designed to be mobile and used in small spurts versus being constantly working is asking too much I think.

Some laptops are capable of that but it's just not what they are intended for. That kind of over time stress on a machine is better suited to a desktop model I think.

 

[bunnspecial]

Yes, I am going to have to adjust my Geektool layout, LOL!

I'm used to it though with my own DLSD so it won't be much of an adjustment.

It actually cost less than what that DLSD cost me so I'm very happy.

I don't guess I realized that you'd had a 17" DLSD also.

The 17" MBPs(all of them, as far as I know, up to the last late 2011 models) have a 1680x1050 screen. The DLSD 17" uses a weird resolution that's a little bit larger than 1680x1050, but I don't think by more than a few pixels in each direction. It's enough that you won't notice a difference.

If the money ever materializes, I'm going to track down the nicest mid-2012 15" with a 1680x1050 HR Matte Screen that I can find. Say what you will about Unibodies, but those 15" HR matte screens are gorgeous. The only matte screen Apple makes now is the MBA, but IMO it's a step down in quality from the MBP screens(even the pre-Retina glossy ones) Hopefully I can get the 15" before they're too out of date. Altemose actually gave me a lead on one for a great price the last time I mentioned it on here, but it's still more than I can afford at the moment.

 

[MatthewLTL]

Yeah, I agree.

To add to that however, while laptops have become quite powerful I just don't ever seeing them replacing desktops. There's a lot that we do here that over time a laptop would just be unsuitable for. And what we do, while intense some times, is not at all above average or extreme for the design industry.

Laptops will do in a pinch, my A1139 functioned as the primary production machine for three weeks until the MacPro got here, but asking for more than that out of a machine designed to be mobile and used in small spurts versus being constantly working is asking too much I think.

Some laptops are capable of that but it's just not what they are intended for. That kind of over time stress on a machine is better suited to a desktop model I think.

I agree with you on that A laptop will never replace a desktop, just like a tablet or phone will never replace a laptop.

 

[MagicBoy]

There have been rumblings about ARM for at least a year-if not longer-now.

It's just fanbois with wishful thinking. It won't happen barring a paradigm shift in the CPU market. The 5W TDP of the new MacBook kills off any potential opening for an ARM device running OS X.

Took Apple 14 years (and an additional transition to PowerPC) from first porting the Mac OS to Intel before they launched an Intel Mac.

 

[eyoungren]

I don't guess I realized that you'd had a 17" DLSD also.

The 17" MBPs(all of them, as far as I know, up to the last late 2011 models) have a 1680x1050 screen. The DLSD 17" uses a weird resolution that's a little bit larger than 1680x1050, but I don't think by more than a few pixels in each direction. It's enough that you won't notice a difference.

If the money ever materializes, I'm going to track down the nicest mid-2012 15" with a 1680x1050 HR Matte Screen that I can find. Say what you will about Unibodies, but those 15" HR matte screens are gorgeous. The only matte screen Apple makes now is the MBA, but IMO it's a step down in quality from the MBP screens(even the pre-Retina glossy ones) Hopefully I can get the 15" before they're too out of date. Altemose actually gave me a lead on one for a great price the last time I mentioned it on here, but it's still more than I can afford at the moment.

You could always sell a few Macs…

LOL! Yes, I have the A1013 and the A1139. The A1013 had the second logicboard die so I ordered another Mac with a bad screen. Swapped in the screen and in putting it back together the connector for the trackpad ribbon cable promptly came off the logicboard. If I futz with it for a while I can get it to start but the trackpad and the keyboard no longer work.

The A1139 is no longer with us. So, this new MBP is a reboot into a new era for me. As I explained to Altemose, the A1013 was the cost of admission for me to move beyond the Titanium era and now this MBP is the cost of admission to move into the Intel era.

 

[bunnspecial]

Yeah, I agree.

To add to that however, while laptops have become quite powerful I just don't ever seeing them replacing desktops. There's a lot that we do here that over time a laptop would just be unsuitable for. And what we do, while intense some times, is not at all above average or extreme for the design industry.

Laptops will do in a pinch, my A1139 functioned as the primary production machine for three weeks until the MacPro got here, but asking for more than that out of a machine designed to be mobile and used in small spurts versus being constantly working is asking too much I think.

Some laptops are capable of that but it's just not what they are intended for. That kind of over time stress on a machine is better suited to a desktop model I think.

I go back and forth on this. Before I got big into PPC Macs, my MBP was essentially the only computer I used for about two years, and it's still used a WHOLE lot(I'm working on thesis corrections on it now). I probably used it 12+ hours a day for two years, and even now use it 4-6 hours on a workday, and probably more on the weekend or when I'm working from home(as today). I'm showing an uptime now of 25 days. My records show that the hard drive was replaced on April 24, 2014 under Applecare and is showing a power-on time of 3056 hours, or 127 days. Or, in other words, over the course of 350 days, I've used it for a cumulative total of 127 days, or over 1/3 of a year.

That's not an insignificant amount of use, and it's showing no signs of slowing down.

 

[MagicBoy]

The 17" MBPs(all of them, as far as I know, up to the last late 2011 models) have a 1680x1050 screen. The DLSD 17" uses a weird resolution that's a little bit larger than 1680x1050, but I don't think by more than a few pixels in each direction. It's enough that you won't notice a difference.

If the money ever materializes, I'm going to track down the nicest mid-2012 15" with a 1680x1050 HR Matte Screen that I can find. Say what you will about Unibodies, but those 15" HR matte screens are gorgeous. The only matte screen Apple makes now is the MBA, but IMO it's a step down in quality from the MBP screens(even the pre-Retina glossy ones) Hopefully I can get the 15" before they're too out of date. Altemose actually gave me a lead on one for a great price the last time I mentioned it on here, but it's still more than I can afford at the moment.

Close but no cigar.

Non unibody is 1680x1050 standard. Optional 1920x1200 offered with the C2D in mid-2007.

Unibody machines are all 1920x1200, with optional AG.

The 15" with the HR-AG option was my perfect machine. Shame the GPU was borked!

 

[bunnspecial]

It's just fanbois with wishful thinking. It won't happen barring a paradigm shift in the CPU market. The 5W TDP of the new MacBook kills off any potential opening for an ARM device running OS X.

Took Apple 14 years (and an additional transition to PowerPC) from first porting the Mac OS to Intel before they launched an Intel Mac.

I'm largely in agreement, and I don't really(at least at this time) see an ARM-based PC being practical. They're great for mobile devices, but just don't have the versatility of x86-64. The super low TDP Intel processors are only going to continue to get better(Intel is dumping a LOT of money into these now, from what I understand). I understand that the first gen Macbooks are a little bit slow for real work, but again I expect that this will improve as technology evolves.

As far as I know, Apple is the only company to survive a full-blown architecture transition, much less doing it twice(and coming out stronger each time). You might even say that they've done it three times already, if you count the Apple II(even though it was made along-side the Macintosh for a while). A lot of that is-I think-due to the loyalty that Apple has built over the years, and people that will go along with whatever they do. Even so, the x86-64 transition happened at just the right time and really was one of the best moves Macintosh moves Apple has ever made(as much as I love my PPC Macs). At least in the current climate, moving to ARM would likely be a step backwards.

 

[eyoungren]

I go back and forth on this. Before I got big into PPC Macs, my MBP was essentially the only computer I used for about two years, and it's still used a WHOLE lot(I'm working on thesis corrections on it now). I probably used it 12+ hours a day for two years, and even now use it 4-6 hours on a workday, and probably more on the weekend or when I'm working from home(as today). I'm showing an uptime now of 25 days. My records show that the hard drive was replaced on April 24, 2014 under Applecare and is showing a power-on time of 3056 hours, or 127 days. Or, in other words, over the course of 350 days, I've used it for a cumulative total of 127 days, or over 1/3 of a year.

That's not an insignificant amount of use, and it's showing no signs of slowing down.

I'm not arguing dependability. Laptops have seriously progressed in that regard. I'm arguing more from a stress on the CPU point of view as well as a positioning issue.

What I mean by the last is this. In my immediate work area I have six tower computers running with two extras stored at my desk (and off). One of these towers is running three displays. I can't do that with a laptop. Nor can I put a laptop on the floor where many of these towers are currently sitting. I have to leave room for cables as well. I can put two towers side by side in my space requirements. I can't really do that with a laptop.

Most of these computers are on 24/7. With a laptop that would require leaving the lid open. Not a big deal, but laptop keyboards seem (to me) far more prone in collecting dust over time then the keyboards attached to desktops.

If I get crap in a desktop keyboard or spill something I can replace the keyboard. Do that with a laptop and I potentially ruin the entire computer. Sure, I can attack external keyboards but again, I've got to leave extra space for the ports on the laptop.

As to CPU use, I am often in multiple apps doing things that require intensive processing. I feel desktops are more designed for that long and intense use then laptops. As I've said, laptops have come a long way and in point of fact my old TiBook 400 did a year in production work here. However, I'm not surprised that it only lasted four more years after that having had it's CPU pegged to the max day in and day out because Photoshop, QuarkXPress, Illustrator and Acrobat were hitting it hard.

Just my thoughts on that.