Think you'll be hard pushed to find one converted to PPC power........
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That L3 cache though.
And I'd just like to point out that I'm going to be upgrading this computer to 32 GB of ram this week, because apparently 16 GB isn't enough for what I do.
My next main box, whenever that will come, will be a Ryzen. Can't wait to have a kickass AMD CPU again.
I recently snagged an A1150 2.0 Ghz Core Duo MacBook Pro for a decent price from a guy in my neighbourhood, and it even had a working battery to boot. I'd forgotten how beautiful these machines were.
I have to say, it really feels like the Core Duo Intel Macs (especially the MacBook Pro) haven't aged well. The chipset memory ceiling of 2 GB is fine for very light tasks, but even under light-medium multitasking, it really hurts. There's a tremendous amount of choice for web browsers, but many of them are unstable or produce kernel panics when going to sites like eBay, or crash on sites like even the MacRumors Forums. YouTube on AF works but even with the 30 fps user script, it sends my CPU temps skyrocketing. TFF 26 Intel works great with FoxPEP, but I notice a significant increase on CPU load vs. AF/IW/FF legacy.
Still, it's a gorgeous machine, and I can't bear to see it relegated to a shelf gathering dust!
I have to say, it really feels like the Core Duo Intel Macs (especially the MacBook Pro) haven't aged well. The chipset memory ceiling of 2 GB is fine for very light tasks, but even under light-medium multitasking, it really hurts. There's a tremendous amount of choice for web browsers, but many of them are unstable or produce kernel panics when going to sites like eBay, or crash on sites like even the MacRumors Forums. YouTube on AF works but even with the 30 fps user script, it sends my CPU temps skyrocketing. TFF 26 Intel works great with FoxPEP, but I notice a significant increase on CPU load vs. AF/IW/FF legacy.
Still, it's a gorgeous machine, and I can't bear to see it relegated to a shelf gathering dust!
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I tend to treat Core Duo MBPs like hypothetical dual-core G4 ones for that reason - helps keeping expectations low. Still love my 17".
And congrats on your find. You may want to look into Linux for a more up to date OS and browsers.
That is being extremely generous. They stank to high heaven at launch and had stopgap written all over them. Apple rushed them to market without solving their poor thermal dissipation issues. I saw the writing on the wall and sat that generation out.
InterWeb is a fast browser, but both it and SpiderWeb crash on the MacRumors forum page, with and witout foxPEP. Though I may just do a complete uninstall just to check. InterWeb also crashes on YouTube and eBay. Again, maybe it's partially an expectation thing, and also partially me having to do a complete clean reinstall of the browser.
It pains me to say it, but I have to largely agree. The 2 GB RAM limitation is one I purely place with Intel (as far as I know), and compared to the previous generation PowerBooks they were substantially faster.
However, what I do purely place at the foot of Apple is the thermal dissipation design of this generation of the MacBook Pro. Placing the CPU and GPUs at the bottom of the motherboard makes servicing of the thermal paste and fans really annoying and unnecessarily difficult (for me), and the whole implementation of heat dissipation (making the heat pipes turn the whole case into one giant heat sink? Really Apple?) makes for really poor longevity of the hardware.
I contrast using this MacBook Pro with my Core Duo A1181 (which is awaiting a replacement topcase and LCD assembly). I don't have to worry about about babying it at all with respect to CPU load and heat. Even YouTube works much better on it. Cleaning out the fans and replacing the thermal paste is an almost trivial affair.
That's interesting given the CD A1181's GMA950 is a POS compared to the MBP's X1600.
Only 32GB
djjeff@vmhost:/proc$ cat meminfoMemTotal: 198012524 kB
VM host ≠ workstation
Assuming he was referring to the x1600 GPU failures in addition to other problems, the issue remains on the late 2006 iMacs and MBPs. 7300GT and 7600GT in the 24" 2006 iMac are also failure-prone, I have a dying 7600 GT currently. The 17" iMac panel also fails, even on the GMA 950 model it develops lines in the screen.
It is worth noting that a lot of these failures are the result of thermal problems, poor cooling systems. I am unaware of any major problems with the late 06 MBs, I think they had fixed the "mooing" problem and random sleep/shutdown issues. Their speakers are prone to blowing out though, apparently they decay over time more so than most laptop/computer speakers.
The early MBs were plagued by casing problems. Pick your poison
My latest bargain on eBay was an assorted bundle of 'Mac cards', unknown detail or working condition. I thought why the hell not I'll take a punt. I have scored:
- Radeon 9600XT 128MB
- Radeon 9650 256MB
- Radeon 9600 Pro 256MB PC and Mac Edition
- Radeon 9000 Pro 64MB (seems dead though)
- Sonnet Tempo PCI SATA Card, boxed
- SIL3112 PCI SATA Card (I presume flashed)
- Radeon 2600XT 256MB for Mac Pro
- MOTU PCI-424 Audio PCI card
- Airport Extreme 802.11g card for G4/G5
- tons of assorted RAM, a couple of SATA Hdds, other random bits still to be identified
Still all to be tested, but quite happy with this haul, for the £68 I paid for it! I think it all came from a music studio or something.
- Radeon 9600XT 128MB
- Radeon 9650 256MB
- Radeon 9600 Pro 256MB PC and Mac Edition
- Radeon 9000 Pro 64MB (seems dead though)
- Sonnet Tempo PCI SATA Card, boxed
- SIL3112 PCI SATA Card (I presume flashed)
- Radeon 2600XT 256MB for Mac Pro
- MOTU PCI-424 Audio PCI card
- Airport Extreme 802.11g card for G4/G5
- tons of assorted RAM, a couple of SATA Hdds, other random bits still to be identified
Still all to be tested, but quite happy with this haul, for the £68 I paid for it! I think it all came from a music studio or something.
Think you'll be hard pushed to find one converted to PPC power........
No seriously, I am trying to sell this. I hardly use it.
Yes, I did, and it still crashes on the MacRumors forums...perhaps what I need to do is a clean reinstall of InterWeb.
It's very counterintuitive, but yes, from my experience with two CD A1150 MBPs and several CD A1181 MBs, the A1181s are far better in terms of usability and reliability. I attribute this purely to the fact that the A1181 had a cooling system that made sense, unlike the A1150. Despite the inferiority of the GMA 950, there's a lot I can do with my plucky MacBook that I couldn't do on this MacBook Pro without dealing with thermal throttling of the hardware, and/or ridiculous amounts of heat.
The early MBs were plagued by casing problems. Pick your poison
The reason why I love the A1181 range so much is that their chronic problems were relatively benign compared to other MacBooks. Yes, the case chipped or discoloured -- even with the newer cases with the revised plastics. And yes, there was the infamous mooing sound. But cosmetic issues can be ignored or mitigated (I like to put adhesive plastic covers on the palmrest of my MacBooks), and the mooing was addressed by firmware updates (or failing that, cleaning out the fan and applying fresh thermal paste, in addition to using utilities like SMCFanControl). Those kinds of issues wouldn't cause nearly as much headaches as a GPU failure...
As this is the PPC forum, you'd be far better off asking the same question on the Notebooks/MacBook Pro forum, or on the Marketplace/Macs and Mac Accessories forum with a ‘Feeler’ heading. You're sure to get some feedback there on approx value. Plus you need to provide more details on condition, memory, SSD capacity, cpu etc as there would surely be a significant price difference between a 2.2GHz and 2.8GHz model. Where I'm sitting there are many 2015 15" MBPro models going from 500euros to 1200euros.
I had the late 2006 MBP 15" with the X1600 graphic chip. I remember I bought it from the Hendon Applestore, whose opening I attended (still got the T shirt unopened). I liked everything about it except the ghastly screen. At the time, anti-glare coating was a thing and Apple slapped it on with a trowel. So much so, that it was like looking through a glitter fog. Whites were silver and still grey when you cranked up the backlight.
I dual booted with Windows and the small fonts in Windows were unreadable through the coating. Literally unreadable. I hated using that notebook. So much so, that I didn't care when it was stolen so I got the 2007 MBP and was much happier with that. The sharp glossy screen was night and day with the 2006 and I didn't care about reflections.
Thanks for the input. I also have a glossy 2007 15" MBP and combined with the LED backlight, I like the screen a lot. I just wish it was 1680x1050...
I did at the time and actually got a 1680x1050 HP notebook at the same time as my MBP with very decent battery life. That was more for work since few offices would accommodate Macs and I needed to run certain Windows only software. The ageing process has changed my wants and needs somewhat and I find I "dumb down" the screen resolution at times.
