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Want 802.11n in your CD Macbook? Check this out.

mick4394

mick4394

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Oct 25, 2006
554
0
Flyover country
I came across this on digg this morning. This guy took the 802.11n card out of a Mac Pro and swapped it with his Macbook 802.11g card. From what he says, it's a pretty straight forward swap. The three antenna wires, in the C2D Macbooks, are not an issue. The Mac Pro card only requires 2 antenna wires. Here's the link:

Macbook 802.11n upgrade
 
That's pretty sweet! Don't know that I would dare do it to my MB at the moment but might be tempted when wireless-n is a bit more common. How do you get hold of a Mac Pro airport card though?
 
From the Article:

- The module in our tests came out of a MacPro. It is however possible to buy one from an Apple authorized repair center, unlike those for the Core 2 portables which can only be obtained through exchange.
Click to expand...
 
sunfast said:
That's pretty sweet! Don't know that I would dare do it to my MB at the moment but might be tempted when wireless-n is a bit more common. How do you get hold of a Mac Pro airport card though?
Click to expand...

I won't open mine up until the warranty runs out, but when that time comes, you better believe I'll be cracking mine open. This upgrade is the perfect excuse.
 
The card is just the upgrade kit for the macpro, just like the bluetooth kit!

walk into an apple store and ask for one!
 
slick316 said:
I dont know about that one, the description states that its 802.11g, it makes no mention of wireless N. Also seems awfully cheap, aren't the airport cards more like $100?
Click to expand...

I think that may be it. Remember, none of these Macs were advertised as being N-capable, only G, but they are in fact N cards.
 
Tell them that your Mac Pro's warranty is void or something, tell them that you will install it yourself. I can't see any reason why they wouldn't sell you one. :confused:
 
The General said:
Tell them that your Mac Pro's warranty is void or something, tell them that you will install it yourself. I can't see any reason why they wouldn't sell you one. :confused:
Click to expand...

I told them my warrenty had expired and I just wanted to purchase one. They still would not sell me one! That is so friggin stupid. Anywho, is there an apple service center near atlanta? I only know of our 3 apple stores but no service centers.
 
Thats pretty cool. I wish apple would offer an upgrade like this. Improved wireless performance should be had by all!
 
i will check when 802.11n become necessary, like, in 2010? lol, seriously, why bother doing that in this kind of expensive and adventure way? 802.11n is merely one of the draft, not necessarily will be popular anyway. even if it will, im sure there will be vendors who produce usb 802.11n wireless card.
 
clevin said:
i will check when 802.11n become necessary, like, in 2010? lol, seriously, why bother doing that in this kind of expensive and adventure way? 802.11n is merely one of the draft, not necessarily will be popular anyway. even if it will, im sure there will be vendors who produce usb 802.11n wireless card.
Click to expand...

I'd argue for some people it is necessary. I don't have N yet, but I'm looking forward to getting it once more mainstream routers have it. I move huge video files around on my network all the time, and G speeds are horribly slow. The N standard has been ratified (or pretty close) at this point anyway. As for USB wireless cards...who the hell wants to have that crap sticking out of their laptop? I'd definitely go for doing this upgrade myself.
 
I found a local Apple Service center around Atlanta. I send him and email and he responded. Here is the the email.

Hello,

I am looking for a part for my Mac Pro, I went to the Apple Store and was told that they will not sell me this part because it is not user installable. They told me to look up a certified service center and that you should be able to order that part. The part number is MA688Z/A. It is the Apple Airport Extreme Kit for Mac Pro. Is this something you can order? If so, how much? I can pick it up locally.

Thank you,

Reply
We can get them. Apple suggests that it be installed by an Apple service center.

The kit is $49.00 and includes the card and the screws. It has no installation instructions with it. The Bluetooth is a separate kit.

We have some of them on order and they should be here in a day or two.
--
Frank Chew
fchew@onyxconsulting.com
Onyx Consulting, Inc.
3296 Northcrest Rd.
Atlanta, GA 30340
770-451-8223
 
I went to CompUSA tonight to look for a card for my iMac.

They had the wrong version of the card (MA687Z/A), but they did carry it.

Couldn't find anyone in sight to check in the back though.

This is the wrong forum for this, but looking at some pictures of the iMac disassemblies and it looks like you can just pop off the top and the card is right there. Not much in the way of major surgery.

If I can get a hold of one of these cards I'm going to try it. The one machine that I can't wire happens to be the only one not capable of "N". Grrrrr... ;)
 
skippy911 said:
I told them my warrenty had expired and I just wanted to purchase one. They still would not sell me one! That is so friggin stupid. Anywho, is there an apple service center near atlanta? I only know of our 3 apple stores but no service centers.
Click to expand...

Well they probably knew you were lying as the MacPro has not even been out for 6 or 7 months now. :p

Kevin :apple:
 
OldSkoolNJ said:
Well they probably knew you were lying as the MacPro has not even been out for 6 or 7 months now. :p

Kevin :apple:
Click to expand...

Lol thats true I hadn't even thought of that.

yaroldb said:
I found a local Apple Service center around Atlanta. I send him and email and he responded. Here is the the email.

Hello,

I am looking for a part for my Mac Pro, I went to the Apple Store and was told that they will not sell me this part because it is not user installable. They told me to look up a certified service center and that you should be able to order that part. The part number is MA688Z/A. It is the Apple Airport Extreme Kit for Mac Pro. Is this something you can order? If so, how much? I can pick it up locally.

Thank you,

Reply
We can get them. Apple suggests that it be installed by an Apple service center.

The kit is $49.00 and includes the card and the screws. It has no installation instructions with it. The Bluetooth is a separate kit.

We have some of them on order and they should be here in a day or two.
--
Frank Chew
fchew@onyxconsulting.com
Onyx Consulting, Inc.
3296 Northcrest Rd.
Atlanta, GA 30340
770-451-8223
Click to expand...

Cool thanks for the info. I will try to give them a call in the morning.
 
Hmmmm.. Now a real reason to crack open my MBP...

Then while I'm in there I can put in a better hard drive, take out the dvd rom, add a second hard drive, and put some arctic silver 5 on the heatpipes.
 
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