Got Mid 2007 A1226 MacBook Pro for $59

[JTToft]

I managed to acquire a Mid 2007 MBP 15" for just shy of $60 in a private deal just now. Granted, it does have a few faults in that it came without a battery, one of the RAM slots doesn't work, and the RAM cover on the bottom of the machine is missing, but I think $60 is pretty reasonable.

It's perfectly functional and in quite good cosmetic condition. Core 2 Duo 2.2 Ghz, 8600M GT 128 MB and 2 GB DDR2 RAM in one module.
It runs Leopard 10.5.8, which I might upgrade to Snow Leopard or possibly Mountain Lion. I don't think Yosemite would be wise on this machine, even though it does support it (as the oldest Mac of all, in fact).

I've always been fond of the pre-unibody design, so when I saw this I decided to jump on it. Should be fun to play around with. I might try setting up a Time Machine server on it.

If anyone has a RAM cover for this model lying around, feel free to send it my way. Or perhaps an idea for how I might fix the second RAM slot?

Oh, and I'm posting from it now, by the way.

 

[TomG1]

I managed to acquire a Mid 2007 MBP 15" for just shy of $60 in a private deal just now. Granted, it does have a few faults in that it came without a battery, one of the RAM slots doesn't work, and the RAM cover on the bottom of the machine is missing, but I think $60 is pretty reasonable.

It's perfectly functional and in quite good cosmetic condition. Core 2 Duo 2.2 Ghz, 8600M GT 128 MB and 2 GB DDR2 RAM in one module.
It runs Leopard 10.5.8, which I might upgrade to Snow Leopard or possibly Mountain Lion. I don't think Yosemite would be wise on this machine, even though it does support it (as the oldest Mac of all, in fact).

I've always been fond of the pre-unibody design, so when I saw this I decided to jump on it. Should be fun to play around with. I might try setting up a Time Machine server on it.

If anyone has a RAM cover for this model lying around, feel free to send it my way. Or perhaps an idea for how I might fix the second RAM slot?

Oh, and I'm posting from it now, by the way.

That's the laptop I'm still using to this day. Trusty old thing.

 

[sebseb]

For a computer that is 8 years old, it's pretty clean. I feel there's no scratches on top! I think you got a really good deal.

 

[JTToft]

That's the laptop I'm still using to this day. Trusty old thing.

- Cool. With an SSD thrown in, though, as far as I can see from your signature. This one has a 5400 RPM 120 GB Fujitsu hard drive.

For a computer that is 8 years old, it's pretty clean. I feel there's no scratches on top! I think you got a really good deal.

- It really is in rather good condition. On the top case there indeed aren't any scratches - or if there are, they're so small I can't see them. It does have some on the lid and the bottom case, though, but it's not bad at all.
I can post some more (and better) photos if people are interested?

I think it's a really good deal, too. For a usable computer that could potentially serve as someone's primary machine, $60 is amazing.

I'm installing Yosemite alongside its Leopard installation right now. Should be interesting to see how that goes.

 

[TomG1]

Apologies, it's a 120GB HD (Fujitsu, SATA), just updated my signature accordingly. Please do let me know how it handles Yosemite - I don't have the courage to go for it in fear that it'll push it off the cliff and ruin the poor thing!

 

[JTToft]

Please do let me know how it handles Yosemite - I don't have the courage to go for it in fear that it'll push it off the cliff and ruin the poor thing!

- I'd say it's usable. A bit sluggish, but I'm used to a 2011 with a modern SATA III SSD, so I might be spoiled by that. Mission Control and other animations are rather choppy, sometimes nearly skipping the animations completely and just jumping in and out.
Compared to its Leopard installation, it is slower, but actually not by much.
I had a boot time of just over 90 seconds to login screen and another 10-15 to a usable default desktop.

One weird thing it did do was disable both the internal speakers and the headphone jack... But a reboot fixed that, so it was likely just a fluke.

Installing Yosemite shouldn't ruin anything. You can always just revert back to whatever you're running now. And if you want to be completely safe, do a dual installation like I've just done.

Also keep in mind mine is running without its battery, which as far as I know degrades performance quite a bit. So if anything, yours will be faster than mine.

Off to install Mountian Lion too now.

----------

EDIT: Mountain Lion is far better than Yosemite on this machine. What are you running now?

 

[TomG1]

I'm running OS X Lion right now. My mbp goes through periods when it freezes/shuts down and is unresponsive, I had a new motherboard put in a couple of years ago but it's still bad sometimes. I really need a new laptop but just don't have the money for it.
Cool, I'll update to ML as soon as I can!

 

[z31fanatic]

Nice. I had an early 2008 with 4GB RAM and a SSD which I sold it 3 months ago. I regret selling it. Should have kept it around because it was still in great condition.

 

[Fairchild]

$ 60 is a good price for sure. Although i wouldn't put any money into it, because any upgrades you do might be wasted if it ends up having the dreaded GPU failure.

 

[JTToft]

Cool, I'll update to ML as soon as I can!

- ML should be better in every way than Lion. ML is a very nice OS and was the last OS before SSDs really became the norm on Macs. Mavericks and Yosemite expect an SSD, so they don't run as well with hard drives.

$ 60 is a good price for sure. Although i wouldn't put any money into it, because any upgrades you do might be wasted if it ends up having the dreaded GPU failure.

- Yeah, I don't plan on spending a lot on it. Certainly no internal upgrades. But I might get a Memory Door just so the underside isn't quite so exposed. The issue is, though, that I'm also missing the screws for mounting that door, and they're a bit harder to come by…

 

[Badrottie]

I hope the logic board is still good. It is good to see 2007 MBP again.

 

[wallaby]

Sigh... I came to this thread looking for info on how well Yosemite/El Capitan run on this Macbook Pro, as it's the same one I'm using. I keep running into apps that update themselves to an unusable state (beyond 10.6 compatibility) and then find it impossible to use old versions of the apps without a serial key (which the Mac App Store doesn't provide).

I've put it through the ringer: college, post-college, and a ton of upgrades (bigger 320GB HDD, 4GB RAM, replaced logic board, and a 48GB ExpressCard Slot SSD). But now, when I start the thing up to work on some website, I'm finding myself spending hours just trying to fix apps that used to work fine.

I'm downloading El Capitan as we speak. I plan to upgrade, put it on a thumb drive, and then do a clean install over the existing drive (with a backup, of course).

Why can't old things just keep working???

 

[MacRazySwe]

The Mid-2007 MBP was the first Mac I bought brand new, after saving an entire summer. The logic board had to be replaced twice under warranty, but after doing so it worked perfectly. I had it for five years, before passing it to my dad who used it until last year, when the dreaded GPU-failure finally killed it. Still, 7-8 years of use from a laptop is not bad.

I hope the computer serves you well! You got a good deal. However, as others have stated, I would not put too much money into it as it could give up on you any day.

 

[Freyqq]

Without a battery, it downclocks itself to 1ghz. So, a used, cheap battery would be a big help.

 

[snaky69]

Sigh... I came to this thread looking for info on how well Yosemite/El Capitan run on this Macbook Pro, as it's the same one I'm using. I keep running into apps that update themselves to an unusable state (beyond 10.6 compatibility) and then find it impossible to use old versions of the apps without a serial key (which the Mac App Store doesn't provide).

I've put it through the ringer: college, post-college, and a ton of upgrades (bigger 320GB HDD, 4GB RAM, replaced logic board, and a 48GB ExpressCard Slot SSD). But now, when I start the thing up to work on some website, I'm finding myself spending hours just trying to fix apps that used to work fine.

I'm downloading El Capitan as we speak. I plan to upgrade, put it on a thumb drive, and then do a clean install over the existing drive (with a backup, of course).

Why can't old things just keep working???

With a SSD it should run fine. My SO uses my 2008 machine on mavericks and it's slow but usable, mostly due to not having a battery installed (the computer throttles).