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~ MacBook [Aluminum] Owner's Thread

I snagged one off of craigslist for $600. It's in great condition - has one little scratch on the bottom and that's it. It just needed a little iKlear. The only thing it didn't come with was the box. I'm happy to see the screen looks good to me. I think I got a great deal.

Anyone have a particularly good color profile for the alu macbook?
 
Awesome!

Eric S. said:
Welcome to the Collector's Edition Macbook club! ;)

http://snowleopardtips.net/tutorials/how-to-do-a-clean-installation-of-snow-leopard.html
Click to expand...

Thanks for the helpful link. I've formatted and off to the races. mozy helped me on how to transfer my meagre but import iPhoto library to this "Collector's Edition Al_uMB". I'm even running a trial of Parallels_5 with Win7 RC on it to retrieve my data off my WD Passport HDD (which will resume life as a Time Machine).

This is by far to most modern computer I've ever owned. I'm not only ecstatic & mesmerized by the look but also the performance. What I DO find strange is the bootup time is slower than what I expected. What I mean is if I press power on at the same time as my TiBook (running Tiger), the TiBook gives the Mac Chime first by 2-4seconds, and my uMB shows the Apple logo first by 5seconds, BUT the logon prompt shows up BOTH at the same time! :eek: I think my next major upgrade will be to the faster 320GB HDD @ 7200rpm with 16/32MB Cache. Hopefully by summer the 250GB SSD's will be under $200CAN.

Overall I'm just so ecstatic! How come iChat doesn't support MSN yet? Also Adium doesn't support video chat either :( .

DAMN this baby is THIN!! Now I understand why Steve Jobs had no interest in Apple making a NetBook! The performance of those blow chunks, and with Ion2 the price you pay for one is just around $300CAN cheaper than a new Poly uMB (before taxes), or the same for a used Collector's Edition Al_uMB with 4GB RAM ;)!!

Thanks all for a great community, great threads like this and great help! I'll be a 80% Mac User (home personal work) and a working Windows Tech Analyst for work; at least until I get VERY proficient. Wife already wants my TiBook and the newer poly umb for my Daughter. First is Mac Mini_2 (9400M) for home computer replacement.
 
Hi folks, just to let you know that I'm ready to upgrade my MacBook to a 500GB hard drive. After extensive research, I found that the Hitachi Travel 7K500 is the most highly regarded 500GB/7200rpm drive. I will post my experiences here. I'm buying my drive from Amazon.com:

http://www.amazon.com/Hitachi-Travelstar-Internal-HD20500IDK-7K/dp/B002FYJQB8/

Look forward to being able to carry all my work files from the past two decades with me at once! :p :D
 
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ubercool said:
Hi folks, just to let you know that I'm ready to upgrade my MacBook to a 500GB hard drive. After extensive research, I found that the Hitachi Travel 7K500 is the most highly regarded 500GB/7200rpm drive. I will post my experiences here. I'm buying my drive from Amazon.com:

http://www.amazon.com/Hitachi-Travelstar-Internal-HD20500IDK-7K/dp/B002FYJQB8/

Look forward to being able to carry all my work files from the past two decades with me at once! :p :D
Click to expand...

What a great price! Will it be quieter and faster than the one that came with our MacBooks?
 
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MacLadybug said:
What a great price! Will it be quieter and faster than the one that came with our MacBooks?
Click to expand...

It is noticeably faster and as quiet as the drive that came with the MacBook. It also reportedly has no impact on battery life. But please await my full report for more details. :)
 
Queen of Spades said:
I snagged one off of craigslist for $600. It's in great condition - has one little scratch on the bottom and that's it. It just needed a little iKlear. The only thing it didn't come with was the box. I'm happy to see the screen looks good to me. I think I got a great deal.

Anyone have a particularly good color profile for the alu macbook?
Click to expand...

$600 is an excellent price! I haven't seen any for less than $800 unless broken. Recently sold my 2.4 uMB for $950 but it was absolutely mint with all accessories and upgrade with 4GB of RAM.
 
Synchromesh said:
$600 is an excellent price! I haven't seen any for less than $800 unless broken. Recently sold my 2.4 uMB for $950 but it was absolutely mint with all accessories and upgrade with 4GB of RAM.
Click to expand...

Yes, I'm really pleased about the good deal I got. I didn't even haggle, that was what he asked for it. I figure it's good craigslist karma I've built up over the years. :D

Had it for a couple of weeks now, it runs like a champ.

So you went to the Air? How do you like it?
 
I like the Air but only because my requirements are different than most people's. I have a powerful gaming desktop and an HTPC on which I spend vast majority of my time so my main requirements are lightness and portability rather than outright power and ability for expansion. In that respect the Air is a champ and does very well. During the last trip I had to carry my big shoulder bag at the airport along with the Air in laptop bag and I must admit I could barely feel the weight of the Air while I could always feel that of the Macbook.

Of course, if this was my only or main computer I would definitely grab the MB instead since it's more powerful and can handle a lot more upgrades. It's also much less fragile than the Air which is important.
 
Being one of the original Aluminum MacBook owners, I just wanted to say that this machine is by far the best piece of electronics I've ever used. No computer (other than another Mac) comes close to it's sexy style, ease of use and rock solid reliability.

Four gigs of RAM, a terabyte of storage while still retaining the DVD/CD drive, 2.4GHz of power, and Snow Leopard to bring it all together.... I couldn't ask for more.

         :)
 
Chase R said:
Being one of the original Aluminum MacBook owners, I just wanted to say that this machine is by far the best piece of electronics I've ever used. No computer (other than another Mac) comes close to it's sexy style, ease of use and rock solid reliability.

Four gigs of RAM, a terabyte of storage while still retaining the DVD/CD drive, 2.4GHz of power, and Snow Leopard to bring it all together.... I couldn't ask for more.

         :)
Click to expand...

I didn't know there was a 1TB drive in the 9.5mm form factor, how did you do it? :confused:

In fact, Toshiba just introduced the first 750GB drive in that size:

http://www.engadget.com/2010/03/25/toshiba-announces-750gb-and-1tb-laptop-hdds-gives-them-awkward/
 
Chase R said:
Being one of the original Aluminum MacBook owners, I just wanted to say that this machine is by far the best piece of electronics I've ever used. No computer (other than another Mac) comes close to it's sexy style, ease of use and rock solid reliability.

Four gigs of RAM, a terabyte of storage while still retaining the DVD/CD drive, 2.4GHz of power, and Snow Leopard to bring it all together.... I couldn't ask for more.

         :)
Click to expand...

:apple:

I have to agree. The Aluminum MacBook Unibody is by far THE ... BEST ... computer I've ever owned. The design, the feel, the quality and simplistic things like the unified trackpad. Its as night and day as going from a trackpad on RIM BB Curve to a Bold 9700 as it is going from desktop to a MacBook and never needing a mouse! I bought the Magic Mouse thinking it would be exact but its not.

This MacBook Unibody ... has led me to purchase a Mac Mini_3,1 (9400M Early 2009) yesterday used for $550CAN [4GB RAM, 320HDD to match my Unibody).

PS I need help in transfering data over from WinXP SP3 please?!
 
Prom1 said:
:apple:

I have to agree. The Aluminum MacBook Unibody is by far THE ... BEST ... computer I've ever owned. The design, the feel, the quality and simplistic things like the unified trackpad. Its as night and day as going from a trackpad on RIM BB Curve to a Bold 9700 as it is going from desktop to a MacBook and never needing a mouse! I bought the Magic Mouse thinking it would be exact but its not.

This MacBook Unibody ... has led me to purchase a Mac Mini_3,1 (9400M Early 2009) yesterday used for $550CAN [4GB RAM, 320HDD to match my Unibody).

PS I need help in transfering data over from WinXP SP3 please?!
Click to expand...

I think that this Belkin Switch-to-Mac Cable is your best bet:

http://www.belkin.com/IWCatProductPage.process?Product_Id=460722
 
OK, I upgraded the hard drive to the Hitachi 500GB 7k500. I used the following procedure:

  • Performed one last back-up via Time Machine.
  • Swapped the hard drive using a $4.50 OWC 5-Piece Mini Toolkit, which has Phillips #00 screwdriver and Torx T6 tools you need.
  • Followed this OWC video to remove the hard drive, a procedure that took less than 10 minutes, tops.
  • Turned on the MacBook and inserted Snow Leopard DVD as it powered up and used the Utilities menu to "Erase" the drive, which formatted it.
  • Installed Snow Leopard.
  • After that process, which "officially" took 31 minutes, faster than the 42 minutes a re-installation took a week ago, the OS asked me whether I wanted to restore from a Time Machine back-up. After connecting to the network and entering the Wi-Fi password, it found the Time Machine back-up and began the restoration process, which officially took 4 hours and 31 minutes (for 200GB).

Here's what I have noticed so far:

  • QuarkXpress is asking for a reinstall because the activation file got "corrupted." I guess their copy protection scheme does not allow that file to be reinstalled. But Adobe reports no such problems with CS4.
  • I'm noticing a number of font problems. In Keynote, it reports that my "Digital Strip" font is not available but Suitcase Fusion 2 reports it properly installed. Similarly, some font rendering problems are showing in QuarkXpress files, but I hope that those are due to the corrupted install.
  • Mail said it was a new install and asked if I wanted to import my e-mail. I said yes and it imported my 80,000 e-mails no problem. :D

I will report on other discoveries later, but so far all I can say is WOW! This was the EASIEST hard drive upgrade EVER!

The Hitachi is dead-silent and I notice no vibration. I will see what impact it has on battery life, but so far this has been a relatively fantastic experience. :cool:
 
The Keynote and QuarkXpress font problems went away after the update to System 10.6.3. So except for QuirkXpress misbehaving, this was a flawless upgrade. :)
 
I have bad news folks. My MacBook is running at much higher fan speeds of late, so all I can assume is that the Hitachi 500GB drive is running hotter. So, I can't recommend this upgrade to anyone who, like me, needs to preserve battery power.

I'm not sure what I want to do right now. I don't want to go through the hassle of downgrading to my original 250GB drive. :(
 
ubercool said:
I have bad news folks. My MacBook is running at much higher fan speeds of late, so all I can assume is that the Hitachi 500GB drive is running hotter. So, I can't recommend this upgrade to anyone who, like me, needs to preserve battery power.

I'm not sure what I want to do right now. I don't want to go through the hassle of downgrading to my original 250GB drive. :(
Click to expand...

Do you have iStat or a similar program installed? It does a wonderful job for me keeping tabs on how hot all of my components are running, among other things. I highly recommend it if you don't have it already. Also in a side note, I have read that WD drives tend to run cooler than others.
 
alust2013 said:
Do you have iStat or a similar program installed? It does a wonderful job for me keeping tabs on how hot all of my components are running, among other things. I highly recommend it if you don't have it already. Also in a side note, I have read that WD drives tend to run cooler than others.
Click to expand...

Yes, I use iStat Pro. That's how I know it's running hot. But I'm not 100% sure it's the drive. I do use a lot of processing-intensive software, like Adobe InDesign and Illustrator, while also browsing on that heat-sink known as Firefox. :p
 
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