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Buying a used Mac from OWC?
- Thread starter crowe-t
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While I haven't bought a Mac from OWC before, I know that practically everything they sell is extremely overpriced, sometimes even going hand-in-hand with Apple.
I bought a used 2012 top-spec quad-core Mini from them in 2016. Apple discontinued the quad Mini in 2014, so the 2012 was actually 50% faster than the top 2014 Mini and consequently hard to find at the time. Very pleased all-around, it was like new and has been flawless ever since. It certainly wasn't a "bargain", but it was faster and about $100 cheaper than a new 2014 Mini and it had a 90-day warranty (which was a big plus for me).
But like they say, "your mileage may vary".
But like they say, "your mileage may vary".
Perfect disaster. $1,700 for an A-1990 15". Unit arrived with scratches and bald spots on the gray ink. Warranty was two weeks, and when I discovered this problem, the warranty expired.
Then the unit stopped responding three weeks after their warranty ran out. Apple replaced the upper case under a recall, but left the touch ID non-operational. Then, keys began to fling off, and a class action law suit gave a second upper case replacement.
OWC said their warranty did not cover any repairs and I could send the unit in for a price. They did not advise me of the recall and the law suit.
Use craigslist to get your macs, and get the older ones. Upgrade the RAM, SSD, and the wifi. If able to, reprogram the EPROM that governs SSD speed to maximize throughput beyond what the factory permits.
Then the unit stopped responding three weeks after their warranty ran out. Apple replaced the upper case under a recall, but left the touch ID non-operational. Then, keys began to fling off, and a class action law suit gave a second upper case replacement.
OWC said their warranty did not cover any repairs and I could send the unit in for a price. They did not advise me of the recall and the law suit.
Use craigslist to get your macs, and get the older ones. Upgrade the RAM, SSD, and the wifi. If able to, reprogram the EPROM that governs SSD speed to maximize throughput beyond what the factory permits.
There is a hidden switch in the BIOS chip established to deliberately keep SSD speed way down.
Find and desolder with a hot air gun the BIOS Chip on the motherboard.
Use a BIOS flasher RT809F SOP8 adapter. Attach the BIOS chip.
Read firmware contents to find the two A7B5 entries.
download the 0.28.0 UEFITool.
Reverse engineer EFI image by replacing the BIOS chip's firmware with a modified - 3.0 GUID file. Replacing the A7B5 file changes chip speed. Replace the two A7B5 entries using the RT809F.
Write and refresh the BIOS chip. Resolder using sodler paste and a hot air gun.
Speed goes from roughly 1,362 MBPS to 2,800 MBPS.
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Thats beyond my technical skill but that would be pretty impressive results.
Maybe because the newer macs are of a poorer quality and perhaps they have soldered on RAM and SSDs that fail. Perhaps upgrading an A1278 from between 2012 and 2008 will yield a better laptop?
The newest Apple Silicon Macs are very good. Haven't had any issues yet it seems (apart from the obvious software compatibility challenges in the beginning). The 2016-2010 Intel MacBooks were a whole another story though.
You bought a known-defective Mac, mistake #1.
What exactly was this supposed to say?
Then that was Apple's fault and you should have taken it back? Where is OWC at fault here?
Apple has had an open service program on these for years, in place before the 2019 came out.
You still haven't established what that has to do with OWC.
Just spin in place three times while rubbing your head and say "Steve Jobs Steve Jobs Steve Jobs".
Disk controller chips are not 'double secret ultra throttled to punish the user'.
Lots of things!
They are still pretty fast if you get the i7 version, which is either a 3615QM or 3720QM. Both 4 core, 8 thread chips based on Ivy Bridge. Upgrade it to 16GB of RAM and add dual SSD's for either lots of storage or RAID0. Then, use OCLP to upgrade to Ventura. Performance will be good as the HD 4000 supports Metal.
Can do all modern simple tasks still.
what can "what" do?
so im gonna guess a Mac mini 2012
well everything, even on Catalina!
I using mine now watching Gotham on tv to a flatscreen
and sound through a JBL go speaker in my evening eaten place.
and typi'n on a MacBook Pro 2012- Mojave
this "old" stuff still works now!~)
I unfortunately have experience buying from OWC/Macsales.com and would emphatically NOT recommend that you buy a used Mac from them. I bought an M2 MacBook that was supposed to have a 1TB drive but only had a 250GB drive. That's a BIG price difference. Since I didn't catch their fraud as soon as I received it, they washed their hands of it and told me I could buy an external drive from them. I will not be buying ANYTHING from them ever again.
My issue isn't with Apple, it's with the crooks at OWC. While I don't always agree with how Apple does things--particularly with regard to the non-configurable RAM and storage on their devices--they are far more stable than any other computer I have ever used. And I've used a LOT of computers from different vendors over the years. Since I depend on my computer to make a living I need it to work, and I don't have time to rebuild a Windows box every so often (which I have had to do with every Windows computer I've owned, at least once a year). My old MacBook is 10 years old, and while it's a bit long in the tooth it still works just fine and hasn't required a rebuild even once. I still use it for some stuff. I do like Linux but the hardware and software support isn't where I need it to be yet, but it's getting there. Maybe once I move on from my current MacBook I'll evaluate putting Linux on a different type of notebook. I try to avoid using Windows as much as possible due to its instability, but for the few occasions I need it I can run it in a VM. I don't get religious about this stuff, a computer is just a tool to do a job, and sometimes good tools can be pricey. And all of them have their issues, no one has come up with the perfect technology yet.
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