MacBook Pro 17" Disassembly Pix!

[FragTek]

Yup yup, I tore her all the way down to the bare aluminum case today out of shear boredom! To be honest, my MBP didn't seem to run as hot to really warrant needing to tear it all the way down and reapply TIC but I did it anyway :p From the pix you can tell that Apple is still caking on the TIC like a DQ parfait :rolleyes: It seems like it'd be so simple to tell the guys on the assembly line to take it easy on the TIC but they've obviously decided not to do that as of yet.

It was a fun project taking it all apart. This is the first laptop that I've ever completely dissasembled down to the frame. A few parts were a bit shaky pulling out all of the super tiny plugs, etc. Everything seems very well built though, I didn't have any problems at all (thank God!! i'm glad that I didnt end up with a $3000 paper weight...).

After applying the new TIC my temps dropped about 20*c under load. It's quite clear that they're using FARRRRR to much TIC on the chips.

Have a looksy @ the pix:

http://www.fragtek.com/pix/mbpdis_1.jpg
http://www.fragtek.com/pix/mbpdis_2.jpg
http://www.fragtek.com/pix/mbpdis_3.jpg
http://www.fragtek.com/pix/mbpdis_4.jpg
http://www.fragtek.com/pix/mbpdis_5.jpg
http://www.fragtek.com/pix/mbpdis_6.jpg
http://www.fragtek.com/pix/mbpdis_7.jpg
http://www.fragtek.com/pix/mbpdis_8.jpg

[FragTek]

http://www.fragtek.com/pix/mbpdis_9.jpg
http://www.fragtek.com/pix/mbpdis_10.jpg
http://www.fragtek.com/pix/mbpdis_11.jpg
http://www.fragtek.com/pix/mbpdis_12.jpg

[livingfortoday]

Nice! Those things are enormous inside! I'm excited for when Apple will give you the option of adding two hard drives in the 17". They could definitely find room in that cavernous aluminium frame!

And taking it apart is easy, afterwards comes the tricky part - reassembly!

[FragTek]

Every nook and cranny inside is pretty darn well packed up mate, dunno where they would be able to find the space for another hard drive withouth making it thicker. I'm more than conent with my 100 gigger though :) I've got a 100gb portable FireLite and 300gb desktop external hd to compliment it. Between those I have more than enough space for all of my junk!

I'll tell ya what, Final Cut Studio eats up a huge chunk of that 100gb drive! With bootcamp installed w/ 15gb partition I have less than 20 gigs of free space :( Thinking about installing FCS on my external desktop drive to save internal HD space. I use FCS fairly frequently but not enough to render it needing to be on my internal HD I don't think.

[benthewraith]

Every nook and cranny inside is pretty darn well packed up mate, dunno where they would be able to find the space for another hard drive withouth making it thicker. I'm more than conent with my 100 gigger though :) I've got a 100gb portable FireLite and 300gb desktop external hd to compliment it. Between those I have more than enough space for all of my junk!

I'll tell ya what, Final Cut Studio eats up a huge chunk of that 100gb drive! With bootcamp installed w/ 15gb partition I have less than 20 gigs of free space :( Thinking about installing FCS on my external desktop drive to save internal HD space. I use FCS fairly frequently but not enough to render it needing to be on my internal HD I don't think.

Hmm, interesting. I don't know what's taking up so much space on my computer. It says I have 33.75 GB left, but other than a 20 GB partition for Windows, the only apps are the apps that came with the computer (I deleted the Final Cut Studio Pro Trial from my computer). The only other things I have are Google Earth and Firefox. :( My iTunes folder is only 3.42 GB. :(

Anyways, back on topic, that's nice. Though I'd be afraid to dig into the inner workings of my computer. I actually also realized that if you did not use Windows sharing, that your comp runs a lot cleaner as well. :)

[FragTek]

Hmm, interesting. I don't know what's taking up so much space on my computer. It says I have 33.75 GB left, but other than a 20 GB partition for Windows, the only apps are the apps that came with the computer (I deleted the Final Cut Studio Pro Trial from my computer). The only other things I have are Google Earth and Firefox. :( My iTunes folder is only 3.42 GB. :(

Anyways, back on topic, that's nice. Though I'd be afraid to dig into the inner workings of my computer. I actually also realized that if you did not use Windows sharing, that your comp runs a lot cleaner as well. :)
I had to have a direct link between my XP files and my Mac files, it seems to be working pretty darn well.

Final Cut Studio 5.1 is like 6 DVD's IIRC. It takes up some ungodly amount like 50 gigs or something like that. Completely huge-tastic application.

[mikemodena]

I had to have a direct link between my XP files and my Mac files, it seems to be working pretty darn well.

Final Cut Studio 5.1 is like 6 DVD's IIRC. It takes up some ungodly amount like 50 gigs or something like that. Completely huge-tastic application.

70 gigs// :eek:

[MACDRIVE]

FragTek,

Those pictures are to die for. Nice! And yes, way too much thermopaste. :eek:

What are you using for a camera, if I may ask? :)

[FragTek]

FragTek,

Those pictures are to die for. Nice! And yes, way too much thermopaste. :eek:

What are you using for a camera, if I may ask? :)
Thanks mate. I use a Canon PowerShot S80. It is capable of taking MUCH better pix then what I've displayed in this thread, but I used the "Auto" mode which has a tendency to butcher pictures pretty well. I was in a hurry to get everything done though so Auto mode was the fastest way to point and shoot and achieve acceptable photos.

You should see what this baby can do in Macro mode with the correct settings in one of the manual shutter modes :D

Edit:

Here's a pic I just snapped with it setup for night shooting + macro. The detail is uncanny, great for taking PC hardware pictures after doing some voltmods, etc. This is the camera I use for taking the pix of my review hardware at OC3D.

http://www.fragtek.com/pix/mbpmacrokey.jpg

[Josias]

Cool pics. I can't believe you took off the screen. I would be afraid of making it a 3k doorstop...:D

Nice with glossy screen, but I gotta ask you, you said there wouldn't be room for an extra HDD, but do you think a internal powersupply might be possible? That would be sweet...:eek: :cool: :D

[sunrobby]

whats that white box besides the super drive? Is that the trackpad machine? Looks wider than the trackpad itself isnt it? means actually the trackpad can be wider?

[sunrobby]

i sometimes confuse with apple's product, they never put any warranty seal, so you can just rip off your ipod, or macbook. Its different for Dell/Sony/etc's laptop, warranty seal everywhere "Warranty void if seal is broken" :rolleyes: So what will make the warranty void for apple's product? :confused:

[Tompi]

whats that white box besides the super drive? Is that the trackpad machine? Looks wider than the trackpad itself isnt it? means actually the trackpad can be wider?

I believe that would be the table!

Thats the gap left when the battery is removed and part of the packaging.

(whats the deal with the thermal paste, still! Would have though Apple's manufacturers might have picked up on the problems of the 15"??!!)

[sunrobby]

I believe that would be the table!

Thats the gap left when the battery is removed and part of the packaging.

(whats the deal with the thermal paste, still! Would have though Apple's manufacturers might have picked up on the problems of the 15"??!!)

yes! just realized that :p so, the trackpad machine should be in the other side of the cover right

[Pressure]

Do we have some before and after temperature readings? Or is it just "OMG 20 degree cooler" without anything to compare it to?

Just wondering.

[lexus]

You just voided your warranty!

[cal6n]

You just voided your warranty!

No!

How many more times must this be explained to the hard of thinking?

You only void your warrranty if you damage your computer while you're in there.

[odedia]

So I guess now it's finally official, the processor in the MBP 17" is soldered in. Haven't seen an exact proof of that yet (just for the 15" so far)

[BWhaler]

very, very cool pics.

Please tell me you were able to put it back together.

[bbrosemer]

:( That made me sad to see it torn apart, and to also know now that the processor is soldered in also made me sad, I guess I was hoping for a miracle

[Mord]

is that thermal paste not just like bluetack, i was going to use the same stuff just spread thin, but it's nearly impossible so i just used some spare AS5

[FragTek]

Thx for the replies! She's running quite a bit cooler now and I'm definately happy about that. When under 100% load for a period of time it still get's pretty toasty. The metal bar above the F keys still gets hot enough to not make you want to put your fingers on it for more than about 5 seconds.

Too people wondering if I got it back together... YES. Everything from the first post on has all been posted on the MacBook :)

[Macmaniac]

No!

How many more times must this be explained to the hard of thinking?

You only void your warrranty if you damage your computer while you're in there.
LIES
You void your warranty if you open it yourself no matter if you do not do damage to it.......
Unless someone can post proof claiming otherwise from Apple's site then I stand by my stance.

No warranty for u!

[Mord]

no, warrenty is in tact unless you break something in their or cause damage that leads to future problems, (i'd advise investing in kapton tape yellow tape and foil tape so you can replace what you remove)

i am an apple certified technician, if you actually bother reading the warranty it is abundantly clear that at no point does it indicate that cracking the shell open voids the warrantee, heck even if you replace the thermal paste and the logic board breaks unless they can prove that was the cause of the problem they are bound by law to fix it for free.

that does not mean that the odd apple employee will make **** up like it's void just to sell you it CTO maxed out, or that the dude on the phone is asked will say that your warrantee is void if you tell him all the **** you did, if you argued it they have to fix it or at least look at it to see if the fault was caused by you.

[FragTek]

I took very good care of the tape and put it all back in place perfectly. U can't tell that I've ever broken in to it and ripped every last piece out :D lol

[sunrobby]

the gap on top of the battery space is the place where you should put in additional RAM isnt it? So where is the default RAM?

[FragTek]

the gap on top of the battery space is the place where you should put in additional RAM isnt it? So where is the default RAM?
No thats the standard pair of RAM slots. They come populated from the factory with either 1 or 2 sticks depending on how you ordered. You have to take out the memory to dissasemble, thats why there's nothing there in the pix. :)

[TheMonarch]

Whoa...


That 17" MBP has 4 speakers?! :eek:

Or has that always been there since the PowerBooks?

[sunrobby]

No thats the standard pair of RAM slots. They come populated from the factory with either 1 or 2 sticks depending on how you ordered. You have to take out the memory to dissasemble, thats why there's nothing there in the pix. :)

oh i see, i didnt see it in the pix thats why i thought thats the place to put in additional RAM and default RAM should be somewhere else. So the default RAM is there too.. Thanks :) Did you take a closer photo of each component? I mean i saw a macbook and mac mini's picture dissambeled somewhere and i saw the superdrive is made in Indonesia, and i can see in your picture that the airport (the box under the left speaker, it's an airport isnt it?) is made in china, how the rest, the harddisk, the memory, speakers etc.. just wondering who made it :p Also im curious about the ATI graphic card, where is the chip/board? Is it come together with the logic board? Thanks :)

[remowilliams]

Whoa...


That 17" MBP has 4 speakers?! :eek:

Or has that always been there since the PowerBooks?
Yeah the MBP17s have four speakers. It really sounds good, everyone I show it to is amazed by the sound. Well that and everything else about it :cool:

[dukebound85]

Yup yup, I tore her all the way down to the bare aluminum case today out of shear boredom! To be honest, my MBP didn't seem to run as hot to really warrant needing to tear it all the way down and reapply TIC but I did it anyway


One question. WHY would you risk damage to such a pricy piece of equipment? Sometimes I feel I don't understand people. Glad it turned out fine again though for sure lol

[dukebound85]

:( That made me sad to see it torn apart, and to also know now that the processor is soldered in also made me sad, I guess I was hoping for a miracle


Maybe with a ton of skill you could unsolder it and resolder in a new processor. or maybe im stupid at the moment which could vey well be the case

[FragTek]

Yup the stock sound system on this little guy is amazing compared to some other laptops I've heard... Very pleased with the onboard audio to say the least.

I tore apart my expensive piece of equipment and risked a paper weight because I was drunk, stoned, and bored one night :)

The majority of the parts are made in China. The Airport Extreme, which it is, is made in China. In the pictures if you look at the logic board you will see all 3 main processors. From left to right we have the x1600 GPU, the southbridge, and the Core Duo. The dedicated memory for the x1600 is on the other side of the logic board near the edge.

[MACDRIVE]

I tore apart my expensive piece of equipment and risked a paper weight because I was drunk, stoned, and bored one night :)


My obsessive thoughts about the thermpaste and the machine overheating would have been my motivation for disassembly. But the question in my mind is; would my obsession with the thermopaste be enough to overcome my fear of breaking something. :)