Brought 2008 MacBook out of retirement :)

[Pinkie Pie]

Today I wiped the hard drive, downgraded from Lion to Leopard, and installed The Sims Complete Edition on my early 2008 MacBook that I've hardly touched since 2013. It's ancient and barely usable (Opera still worked on Lion but I can open approximately 2 websites on Safari 3 - I'll need to upgrade to Snow Leopard to use the internet again), but I still love it. I love how sturdy the hinges feel and how smoothly, effortlessly they glide when I open or close the lid. I love the springy keys. I love the breathing sleep light. I even sort of still like the white plastic, though I definitely did not enjoy how much of it cracked and peeled off and had to be replaced (for free). This was the "cheap", low-end model but it's still running 13 years later, and because of that, I get to revisit a beloved 22-year-old game that doesn't run on modern computers. <3

I am always looking for a reason to express my appreciation for the longevity of the Mac. Who else has a surviving plastic MacBook?

 

[Amethyst1]

I do - also a white early 2008. Among others, I run Mountain Lion on it 'cause Lion is a steaming pile of ****. It's in very bad shape (battery and DVD drive dead, yellowed and warped case, yellow-tinted screen) so it mostly ends up collecting dust. The most awesome thing I've done with it is...

A Beastly MacBook (4,1) and MacBook Pro (3,1): Fun with entirely unsupported external GPUs

The MacBook lacks a discrete GPU (always has) and you cannot add one, right? :D My MacBook4,1 would like to disagree. The AirPort card is removed (hello USB WiFi dongle - yay!) , and a mPCIe-to-PCIe adapter (a GDC EXP Beast v8.5c) is connected in its place. The whole setup, with an...

forums.macrumors.com

 

[rampancy]

Pretty much most of my laptop collection are A1181 MacBooks - over the years I've developed a strong affinity for them due to their longevity and reliability, and ease of access/upgradeability. I've recently nursed a MacBook 1,1 and 5,2 back to health, and over the pandemic lockdown, I "built" a MacBook 2,1 out of a collection of spare parts.

Like you, I've largely used my MacBook as a retro gaming machine; I've stuffed the 500 GB drive I put into my 1,1 almost full with early 2000s games from GOG.com (running in WINE).

 

[EugW]

MacBook4,1 is actually quite usable on 10.7 Lion if you install 4-86 GB RAM and an SSD, and also install Firefox Legacy 68 ESR.

Firefox Legacy

A modern version of Firefox modified to work on older Mac OS X versions, including 10.6 Snow Leopard, 10.7 Lion, and 10.8 Mountain Lion.

parrotgeek.com

I do - also a white early 2008. Among others, I run Mountain Lion on it 'cause Lion is a steaming pile of ****. It's in very bad shape (battery and DVD drive dead, yellowed and warped case, yellow-tinted screen) so it mostly ends up collecting dust. The most awesome thing I've done with it is...

A Beastly MacBook (4,1) and MacBook Pro (3,1): Fun with entirely unsupported external GPUs

The MacBook lacks a discrete GPU (always has) and you cannot add one, right? :D My MacBook4,1 would like to disagree. The AirPort card is removed (hello USB WiFi dongle - yay!) , and a mPCIe-to-PCIe adapter (a GDC EXP Beast v8.5c) is connected in its place. The whole setup, with an...

forums.macrumors.com

? Are you running a hacked version of Mountain Lion?

 

[appletvbob]

Out of sheer boredom I fired up my MacBook 1,1 today. The battery died years ago, but it booted right up connected to power. The wifi connected quickly, though I couldn't find an online speedtest that worked. It's at the OS upgrade limit of 10.6.8 and whatever version of Safari it runs won't open many websites, The dedicated Google search box is a familiar old nice touch with the ability to go back to your search with one click. I never thought 2006 could seem so retro.

 

[groverb]

8GB? I thought that the most you can run is 6GB, but that's not in dual channel mode because you'd be running 4+2. And the most you can run in dual channel is 4GB (2+2). Is it documented anywhere that you can run 4+4?

MacBook4,1 is actually quite usable on 10.7 Lion if you install 4-8 GB RAM and an SSD, and also install Firefox Legacy 68 ESR.

Firefox Legacy

A modern version of Firefox modified to work on older Mac OS X versions, including 10.6 Snow Leopard, 10.7 Lion, and 10.8 Mountain Lion.

parrotgeek.com

? Are you running a hacked version of Mountain Lion?

 

[EugW]

8GB? I thought that the most you can run is 6GB, but that's not in dual channel mode because you'd be running 4+2. And the most you can run in dual channel is 4GB (2+2). Is it documented anywhere that you can run 4+4?

Yes you are correct. 6 GB. Sorry about that. I fixed my post.

 

[rampancy]

My only problem with a setup like that is that, in my experience, 4 GB DDR2-800 SO-DIMMs are practically unobtainium, and are priced almost as much as the MacBook I'd be upgrading it with...

 

[im_to_hyper]

Is your laptop running Mountain Lion with NexPostFacto?

That + SSD = awesomeness