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A comment on The New MacBook Pro: Unfixable, Unhackable, Untenable. Parent comment

Re:The New MacBook Pro: Unfixable, Unhackable, Untenable by gnaffle on Friday June 15, 2012 @09:10AM (#4116266)
I've maxed out the ram, added an SSD _and_ added the biggest SATA drive I could find and fit it in the DVD tray using an adapter from iFixit. My laptop is from 2007 and it feels like a speed demon with the SSD and still can store all my media.

So now, I have the option of maxing out the hardware _hoping_ that it will last me many years. That's part of buying into a closed platform _and_ belonging to a niche of consumers.

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Re:The New MacBook Pro: Unfixable, Unhackable, Untenable by adolph on Friday June 15, 2012 @09:56AM (#4116468)
As someone who keeps and upgrades, I appreciate what you are saying. Is the profitably addressable market of keeper-upgraders large enough to justify laptops made larger by interconnects?
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Re:The New MacBook Pro: Unfixable, Unhackable, Untenable by gnaffle on Friday June 15, 2012 @12:02PM (#4117143)
Probably not, at least not for Apple.

A large part of their profit margin comes from making only very few models that share commonality in parts. Nobody is screaming for an optical drive either, so I suspect that the old unibody laptops will only be kept around for 1-2 years until demand decreases.

There's bound to be other companies that will cater to that market, but they won't be able to ship OSX on their laptops.

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Re:The New MacBook Pro: Unfixable, Unhackable, Untenable by mirkules on Friday June 15, 2012 @12:34PM (#4117328)
Is this the 2007 MBP you have? I would love to know the details of your upgrades because I have an '07 17" MBP that needs a refresher. Specifically the amount of RAM you have (I thought 4GB was the max) and the SDD?
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Re:The New MacBook Pro: Unfixable, Unhackable, Untenable by gnaffle on Friday June 15, 2012 @02:08PM (#4117810)
That's right, 4GB is the max. I'm using an Intel X25-M SSD. I don't find the memory to be a problem using the SSD. Be prepared to remove a lot of screws to get to the HDD, but the iFixit guides are great.
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Re:The New MacBook Pro: Unfixable, Unhackable, Untenable by StavrosK on Friday June 15, 2012 @06:59PM (#4119147)
I have a 2008ish MacBook (the white plastic one), I installed some extra RAM and a Vertex SSD (both very easy to do, as they're user-upgradable) and it's just as fast as my new Air or my desktop computer, there's no noticeable difference.
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Re:The New MacBook Pro: Unfixable, Unhackable, Untenable by mirkules on Friday June 15, 2012 @02:32PM (#4117940)
Yeah, the likelihood of messing it up is really what kept me back all these years (that, and voiding the [now-expired] warranty). I might give it a shot this weekend. Thanks for the info!
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Re:The New MacBook Pro: Unfixable, Unhackable, Untenable by ericd on Friday June 15, 2012 @05:26PM (#4118798)
I did the same thing with an 07 MBP, it went off without a hitch and made a big difference, for another data point. The iFixit pictorial guides were really helpful.
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Re:The New MacBook Pro: Unfixable, Unhackable, Untenable by epochwolf on Friday June 15, 2012 @01:24PM (#4117571)
I have an early 2008 MBP, the max supported ram is 4gb. I haven't been able to find anyone that says otherwise.
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Re:The New MacBook Pro: Unfixable, Unhackable, Untenable by ffi on Friday June 15, 2012 @03:53PM (#4118372)
I've got 8GB of RAM in my Late 2008 MBP (MacBookPro5,1)

http://blog.macsales.com/9102-secret-firmware-lets-late-08-m...

Looks like this won't fly in the Early 2008 MBP, but you might be able to get 6GB in there (note "Standard RAM"):

http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/macbook_pro/specs/macb...

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Re:The New MacBook Pro: Unfixable, Unhackable, Untenable by shinratdr on Friday June 15, 2012 @06:01PM (#4118937)
For many models, the Apple supported number and the real number is different. Usually it happens when the machine supports an odd amount of RAM (like 3GB or 6GB) that would require some wasted RAM if you wanted exact pairing.

With the MBPs sold in 2008, all of them support 6GB even though Apple claims only 4GB. Go ahead and try it. If it doesn't work I'll pay for your RAM upgrade.

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Re:The New MacBook Pro: Unfixable, Unhackable, Untenable by AnthonBerg on Saturday June 16, 2012 @05:52AM (#4120276)
... and 6GB is worth it over 4GB I can tell you.
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