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Appreciating the performance longevity of 1st Gen Macbook - Stop here!

A

Alag28

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Aug 23, 2006
388
18
Its been close to exactly 4 years now, on Aug 24, 2006 (still got the receipt) since i bought my Intel core duo 1st gen macbook..and its still kicking! ive had 2 hard drive crashes but i was smart and backed everything up, reformatted the hard drive and viola. Snow leopard, latest firmwares and updates, good amount of programs installed, upgraded the ram to 2gb and its been working just fine. I bought the Mini dvi to dvi adapter to treat it like a desktop and WOW the machine runs flawlessly.

Lets see if we have any more 1st gen owners with the same kind of experience AND skipped the temptation of getting a new model every 6 months or so.
 
LOL this is amazing, we have almost the exact same circumstances except I've only had the one hard drive fail...so far (touch wood) :D I've upgraded everything else just like you.

Do your fans spin up like crazy on any flash site too? Summer heat was a killer with the fans spinning up almost constantly, glad its cooler now.

Waiting til a nice update to the mbp line comes out, then maybe getting the 13incher or a new MBA, hope this thing keeps on kicking til then.
 
p.s. how can you not give your first gen some love in your sig? Sure anyone can boast about the latest and greatest, but nothing beats slightly dodgy cracking and yellowy plastic.
 
haha yup they still spin up when they have to but i guess thats a good thing..
defected trim around my macbook, my sleep light dosent work anymore, and thats about it

p.s your right gotta change my sig....that macbook pro was when i almost abandoned this baby but then i sold it and just stuck with this.
 
Shrug ... sure, why not? I ordered the MB the day they were released (May 2006) for my wife. She's still using it. I upgraded RAM to 2GB (the max) and put in a 250GB HDD.

It's showing its age though. My wife's increasingly irritated with getting the pinwheel, compared to her year old Dell at work. We'll probably upgrade sometime around its fifth birthday and give it to my daughter.
 
My first gen is still working and looking great. I went for the aluminum when they came out but I kept the 1,1 in the family by passing it down to my daughter for med school.

It's the 2.0 white running 10.6.4 with 2GB RAM and the 250GB drive from the aluminum. No scratches chips or cracks.

Aluminum owners call theirs a "Collector's Edition" but we know better ;)
 
1st gen MacBook still going strong. Ok, I had the logic board replaced under warranty, and disk upgraded twice, 802.11n installed... For the stuff I do on it, it's more than adequate, though I am using my iPad mordant and more.

For heavy-duty work, I have a MacPro with 8 cores, 12GB of RAM, and 7TB of storage :)
 
plinden said:
It's showing its age though. My wife's increasingly irritated with getting the pinwheel, compared to her year old Dell at work. We'll probably upgrade sometime around its fifth birthday and give it to my daughter.
Click to expand...

You might want to consider upgrading to a SSD for it. It gives computers a huge speed boost and once you get the new computer just move the SSD to the new computer. I have a fourth gen non-unibody MacBook Pro and it got a huge speed boost when I upgraded to a SSD.
 
01jamcon said:
Do your fans spin up like crazy on any flash site too? Summer heat was a killer with the fans spinning up almost constantly, glad its cooler now.
Click to expand...

Yeah that happens to my mid-2007 MB. Is that normal? I don't imagine watching YouTube vids puts an arseload of work on the processor..
 
I'm still using mine too! I've dropped mine on linoleum floor (bounce, out flies battery... definitely a slow-mo moment), and worse, on concrete.

I upped the RAM to 2 gigs and swapped in a 250GB... no failure though!

I've replaced the airport antenna cable because the original cable got sliced somehow in the hinge.

Lastly, my MacBook is now a half-caste.... I replaced the lid with black enclosure... it looks awesome. :D
 
my 1st gen Intel core duo 1.83 MB still rocks!gave it to my wife though when my MB aluminum arrived.Running OS X 10.6.4, with 2G RAM and 250 HDD havn't had any major problems whatsoever.Still runs fast, optical drive is just quite slow reading some cds and the fan a bit noisy but its tolerable. still love our White!:D
4928507978_c5336f826f.jpg
 
Fast/Furious said:
Yeah that happens to my mid-2007 MB. Is that normal? I don't imagine watching YouTube vids puts an arseload of work on the processor..
Click to expand...

Lol are you kidding, Youtube = flash and flash is one of the most processor intensive things ever. Open activity monitor when watching a video and see the cpu % jump to 100% or more. Plus there's no real graphics card to help things along like the newer mbp's. That's gonna require some good airflow to cool down the relatively weak processor.

I was asking cause I think might have quite a bit of dust inside which isn't helping.

Anyone have any idea why the new white Macbooks are much better at keeping cool even though their specs aren't a HUGE improvement on the older ones? Is it the new graphics? Bottom design?
 
lil' brudder said:
I'm still using mine too! I've dropped mine on linoleum floor (bounce, out flies battery... definitely a slow-mo moment), and worse, on concrete.

I upped the RAM to 2 gigs and swapped in a 250GB... no failure though!

I've replaced the airport antenna cable because the original cable got sliced somehow in the hinge.

Lastly, my MacBook is now a half-caste.... I replaced the lid with black enclosure... it looks awesome. :D
Click to expand...

Dude, I dunno about in Iowa, but in the UK and other places half-caste is really kinda offensive; its a 'mixed race' or 'biracial' Macbook now ;)
 
lil' brudder said:
I'm still using mine too! I've dropped mine on linoleum floor (bounce, out flies battery... definitely a slow-mo moment), and worse, on concrete.

I upped the RAM to 2 gigs and swapped in a 250GB... no failure though!

I've replaced the airport antenna cable because the original cable got sliced somehow in the hinge.

Lastly, my MacBook is now a half-caste.... I replaced the lid with black enclosure... it looks awesome. :D
Click to expand...

Care to share you MB in half caste?:D
 
my 1st gen is still going strong! only had one hard drive failure, and the faceplate cracked, and the charger set on fire, but apple replaced it all for free.
still got the 80gb hard drive in, need to change it out for a similar sized ssd, i tend to mainly use an external for everday use now.
im tempted to sell mine and buy a new mpb, but i might just buy myself a mac mini and carry on using the macbook out and about
 
do you think a unit that has never been moved from a desk will have less issues over time? few lid closures. no damage due to drops.
 
Fast/Furious said:
Yeah that happens to my mid-2007 MB. Is that normal? I don't imagine watching YouTube vids puts an arseload of work on the processor..
Click to expand...

That's a Mac thing. I've been fighting the pinwheel or the hourglass from 1999.

a 2 GHz core duo with 2 gb of memory should still kick ass for regular applications
 
stoveguy said:
do you think a unit that has never been moved from a desk will have less issues over time? few lid closures. no damage due to drops.
Click to expand...

Yer, it should put less physical stress on components (bear in mind, I've gone running with my MB in my bag and its still doing fine)

It doesn't alleviate heat issues though which are detrimental to the battery, hard drive and logic board.
 
Here, here!

I too am still toting my CoreDuo. It was my first Mac, way back in August of '06. As a result I call her "Eve".

Did the 2GB swap-out on the RAM as soon as I could. A couple of months later installed a 160GB Hitachi hard drive. Been running like a Swiss watch ever since.

Ever since Apple Care ran out, that is. Around October of last year the optical drive began to show signs it was about to wet the bed. It kept ejecting the Snow Leopard disc. Oddly enough it ate PhotoShop Elements 8 real fine. Now it spits back even music CD's.

In any case I can't recall the last time I've replied to a thread here. Reason I'm doing it tonight is from a Google search, which led me to Herr Rossman. I fully intend to write you at the email listed on your site. I like your style. It'll be coming from a uscg.mil domain, as I'm currently living in Guantanamo, where the WiFi is everywhere and is as slow as frozen ****.

In any case I'd like to finally get the ***** thing fixed. Only thing I'm waiting for is to score on a new unibody MBPro. Ya see, the original carton Apple sent Eve in is back at the Orlando house I lived in before getting flown here. I figure to use the new box to ship Eve to you in.

But I digress....it's taken a lickin and is still tickin!

Will write to you at your place of biz, bro.
 
Ah, I only have the second gen, a 1.83 core 2 duo.

But it works great, after all of 1 screen replacement, 1 optical drive replacement/upgrade to superdrive, 1 battery replacement (swelling), 1 power brick replacement (wire insulation gave way at magsafe connector), memory upgrade to 2x2GB (addressing 3GB), plus HD upgrade from 60 GB to 320 GB at 5400 rpm then 500 GB at 7200 rpm.

The hinge cover is off for good and various strips of plastic have found their way into the bin, but it's still my baby. Using 10.6.4 and it runs fine with Parallels 5 and some WnXP apps. GMAbooster is also installed for a bit of extra graphics oomph (CoD2 and HL2 both ok).

And my new macbook is sat on the shelf gathering dust..
 
I have a second-gen MacBook (2.0 GHz Core 2 Duo). Still working after two fan replacements, a top case replacement, a (largely unnecessary) logic board and LCD replacement, and a display bezel replacement!
 
I've had 2 2Ghz Core Duo MacBooks and 1 2Ghz Core Duo MacBook Pro. All great machines, and I still have one of the MacBooks (a black one), and it still runs great (though I was having problems with Safari and Firefox randomly closing so I started using Chrome and I've been much happier).
 
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