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its hard for me to see that, but it looks like either a torx 7 or 8 ,

a higher res pic would be better.

It's definately a phillips - I might have ground it a bit trying to use a PH000. The PH000 is 2mm I think and this must be 1.x mm.

Anyone here modded a Macbook Pro 3,1?

phillips-screw.jpg
 
Help

Hi guys,

While doing the MCE upgrade my stupid giant hands snagged the connection to the bluetooth chip and ripped it clean off.

They are tiny tiny wires so a re-solder is damn near impossible. I also can't find a simple replacement cable...

Any ideas on where I can get one?

Thanks,
Henry
 
Out of curiosity, what does this conversion do to the weight of the laptop? Does the SSD+caddy weigh significantly more or less than the optical drive?

I'm also curious how much more it eats the battery. People have said that their MBP lasts for 4 or 5 hours after the mod, but that doesn't tell me much because I don't know how long they lasted before the mod. ;)
 
The MCE site says replacing the superdrive with a HDD in their caddy saves 1/4 lb in weight - not sure about this cheaper alternative though.
 
Out of curiosity, what does this conversion do to the weight of the laptop? Does the SSD+caddy weigh significantly more or less than the optical drive?

I'm also curious how much more it eats the battery. People have said that their MBP lasts for 4 or 5 hours after the mod, but that doesn't tell me much because I don't know how long they lasted before the mod. ;)

I used the newmodeus caddy - I'd say weight is about the same.

Battery life is now measured two ways:

One, with the HDD unmounted. That way, I get better battery life than before thanks to running only off the SSD.
Two, with the HDD mounted and running - battery life is 30 minutes less - give or take it's not all that easy to tell. But I feel like I am getting a lot less.

Guesses for medium use at full screen brightness: Before mod, 4:30. SSD only 5:00, HD+SSD 4:00. Very approximate values, depends on a lot of things. When watching my usage, I can easily go 6:00 or 6:30 with the SSD only.
 
I used the newmodeus caddy - I'd say weight is about the same.

Battery life is now measured two ways:

One, with the HDD unmounted. That way, I get better battery life than before thanks to running only off the SSD.
Two, with the HDD mounted and running - battery life is 30 minutes less - give or take it's not all that easy to tell. But I feel like I am getting a lot less.

Guesses for medium use at full screen brightness: Before mod, 4:30. SSD only 5:00, HD+SSD 4:00. Very approximate values, depends on a lot of things. When watching my usage, I can easily go 6:00 or 6:30 with the SSD only.

I posted my times the same way you did a few pages back. Im getting the same thing. about 6.5 hours with HD unmounted doing minor stuff like surfing the net with Itunes running...
 
Newmodeus shipping?

I tried looking through the pages, but i dont think it's been answered. I'm thinking of buying the newmodeus HHD caddy, and while they do ship to Denmark, i'm just a bit worried about TAX/VAT? Anyone knows whether they apply to this, and if yes then how much? it's really confusing..
Im thinking of getting an intel 80 GB SSD and then this newmodeus thing for my macbook pro 13", that should work right?
And yeah sorry, im new around here :)
 
Im thinking of getting an intel 80 GB SSD and then this newmodeus thing for my macbook pro 13", that should work right?
And yeah sorry, im new around here :)

Yes, This will work. This is the setup MacModMachine and myself have. I have the newmodeus caddy, He has something different but the caddy really dosnt matter. Its all personal preference. Mac Mod seems to prefer the homemade route and many other like the caddy route. whatever you like best.

Get the intel SSD and a good HDD and you wont regret it. Hopefully I will never have to go back to a Non-SSD boot drive because once you have it, you wonder why you waited so long...


.02
 
I tried looking through the pages, but i dont think it's been answered. I'm thinking of buying the newmodeus HHD caddy, and while they do ship to Denmark, i'm just a bit worried about TAX/VAT? Anyone knows whether they apply to this, and if yes then how much? it's really confusing..
Im thinking of getting an intel 80 GB SSD and then this newmodeus thing for my macbook pro 13", that should work right?
And yeah sorry, im new around here :)

Yeah, they shipped to me in Norway with FedEx. Fast too.
 
Yes, This will work. This is the setup MacModMachine and myself have. I have the newmodeus caddy, He has something different but the caddy really dosnt matter. Its all personal preference. Mac Mod seems to prefer the homemade route and many other like the caddy route. whatever you like best.

Get the intel SSD and a good HDD and you wont regret it. Hopefully I will never have to go back to a Non-SSD boot drive because once you have it, you wonder why you waited so long...


.02
Great, and yeah i could do it homemade, but for 40 bucks i think i'll just take the caddy :)
Thats exactly what i had in mind, getting the intel SSD, and a 500GB HDD, just need to decide which, and whether it should be 5400 or 7200rpm.
Yeah i have the Intel SSD in my Windows computer, and it's fast! really really fast! So when going from that to my mac, it just feels, well slow.. So now i want that SSD in here too!

Yeah, they shipped to me in Norway with FedEx. Fast too.
Nice, and there weren't any TAX or VAT (i can't remember which is already in the price, and which can get added later on?) added? I think i'll just order it :D

Thanks both of you for the fast reply :D
 
Nice, and there weren't any TAX or VAT (i can't remember which is already in the price, and which can get added later on?) added? I think i'll just order it :D

Not for me, no :)
Mind you, I asked them to be a little... discrete... on the form when it came to the pricing. Basically they lowered the pricing on the mail-form.
 
Not for me, no :)
Mind you, I asked them to be a little... discrete... on the form when it came to the pricing. Basically they lowered the pricing on the mail-form.

Heh that seems a bit risky eh? As far as i can tell, the caddy itself cost what would translate to 320 dkr incl shipping, and if i have to pay tax ontop of that, it would end out with 580 dkr.. Hmm i'll have to think about that..

Anyone else tried getting this shipped to the EU? or maybe even Denmark? or is there a seller of these caddys located in the EU maybe?
 
Heh that seems a bit risky eh? As far as i can tell, the caddy itself cost what would translate to 320 dkr incl shipping, and if i have to pay tax ontop of that, it would end out with 580 dkr.. Hmm i'll have to think about that..

Anyone else tried getting this shipped to the EU? or maybe even Denmark? or is there a seller of these caddys located in the EU maybe?

Anything above 80 DKK value is taxed and tolled. The tariff rate is 0% on hardware from USA which I guess this counts as. However Post Danmark charges 160 DKK tolling fee and after that applies 25% VAT to the total amount.

So, the 320 DKK becomes 600 DKK ($121).

Nice country we live in eh.


Your best bet is to talk to the seller and see if they can "cheat" with the value they put on the package. You would have to get him to write a very low amount like $4 or $5 if the shipping is $10, seeing how the total value (product cost + shipping) must be below 80 DKK ($16) to not get taxed and tolled.
 
does anyone have a link to a good external enclosure to drop the superdrive in?

really want to do this mod but use the optical drive a lot for dvd conversion. the setup would be an improvement though since i could use it with my netbook and to make up for the busted drive in my gf's macbook too!
 
Anything above 80 DKK value is taxed and tolled. The tariff rate is 0% on hardware from USA which I guess this counts as. However Post Danmark charges 160 DKK tolling fee and after that applies 25% VAT to the total amount.

So, the 320 DKK becomes 600 DKK ($121).

Nice country we live in eh.


Your best bet is to talk to the seller and see if they can "cheat" with the value they put on the package. You would have to get him to write a very low amount like $4 or $5 if the shipping is $10, seeing how the total value (product cost + shipping) must be below 80 DKK ($16) to not get taxed and tolled.

Ahh damn, that really sucks.. But yeah, not really a surprise, everything in this contry is just more expensive..

I guess i can try, and if they won't do that, i'll just have to pay full price..
It would seems a bit conspicuous to get a package worth $5 sent with a shipping cost of $10 eh?..
And if i chose one of those more expensive shipping options such as FedEx i guess it'll be taxed/tolled just for the shipping alone? Damn this country and all it's rules!

But thanks for clearing it up anyways :D appreciated!
 
I tried looking through the pages, but i dont think it's been answered. I'm thinking of buying the newmodeus HHD caddy, and while they do ship to Denmark, i'm just a bit worried about TAX/VAT? Anyone knows whether they apply to this, and if yes then how much? it's really confusing..

I'd not thought of that, I ordered a NewModeUS caddy to my UK address. Will post if customs and excise catch it.

I'm also considering Intel's 80GB SSD, pairing it with a Seagate 7200.3 320GB drive (seems to just steal the performance crown from the Seagate 7200.4 500GB and WD Black series). The 7200.3 is becoming difficult to source in the UK now though.

Tom's Hardware
 
I'd not thought of that, I ordered a NewModeUS caddy to my UK address. Will post if customs and excise catch it.

I'm also considering Intel's 80GB SSD, pairing it with a Seagate 7200.3 320GB drive (seems to just steal the performance crown from the Seagate 7200.4 500GB and WD Black series). The 7200.3 is becoming difficult to source in the UK now though.

Tom's Hardware

Thanks, I don't know if the same rules apply in the UK as DK? This country seems to just love putting extra tax/vat/etc on whatever they can!

The Intel SSD is really worth every penny! It's like getting a hole new computer! buy it! Don't know about regular HDD's though, im just gonna get a 500GB WD blue i think, i don't need my storage to be fast, it's just movies and pictures, doesnt matter :)
 
Thanks, I don't know if the same rules apply in the UK as DK? This country seems to just love putting extra tax/vat/etc on whatever they can!

The Intel SSD is really worth every penny! It's like getting a hole new computer! buy it! Don't know about regular HDD's though, im just gonna get a 500GB WD blue i think, i don't need my storage to be fast, it's just movies and pictures, doesnt matter :)

Ludvig how much did you pay for the Intel SSD? I'm so tempted to make this my christmas project, but paying $120 for the Newmode Caddy and $300 for a 80 gb Intel SSD is a lot. :/
 
Ludvig how much did you pay for the Intel SSD? I'm so tempted to make this my christmas project, but paying $120 for the Newmode Caddy and $300 for a 80 gb Intel SSD is a lot. :/

1500 DKK ~ 300 USD, so yeah it's expensive, but really, once you get used to the speed of it, it'll be the best investment ever! It really does feel like a completely new computer, but it's up to you..
You won't gain anything in games (if you do that) but just the overall response and feel of the computer, well it can't be described :) I definitely don't regret using $300 on the one i have in my windows computer, and i'm gonna buy a new one for my mac aswell :)
 
Did anyone have major problems getting an optibay hard drive to work?

I've tried a Seagate 500GB drive out of a freeagent go and also a toshiba 500gb out of their external drives with a newmodeus adapter and everything hooks up fine but will not work. Either the drive is recognized and 9/10 copies to it fail or it fails formatting(I tried the GUID partition option) or it isn't recognized at all. I've tried both EFI 1.6 and 1.7 with the same results.
I'm at a loss as both hard drives work fine when hooked up through usb. I can't imagine toshiba or seagate making them special and locked to the usb adapter. The stock dvd drive also works both before and after attempting to isntall the 2nd hdd.
I've got a 15" MBP Unibody 2.53/4gb/250gb hd model. I was planning to add the 500gb optibay drive and then swap the 250 for an ssd when it comes in the mail.

What drives are ya'll using for the 500GB drive?
Maybe bad newmodeus adapter?
Has anyone had a bad Newmodeus adapter?
 
@bigp655 I say it's a bad adapter.

Either the drive is recognized and 9/10 copies to it fail or it fails formatting(I tried the GUID partition option) or it isn't recognized at all. I've tried both EFI 1.6 and 1.7 with the same results.
 
I'm at a loss as both hard drives work fine when hooked up through usb. I can't imagine toshiba or seagate making them special and locked to the usb adapter.

They could be locked as well (latest WD 640 is)
So hook them up in place of your stock 250Gb drive, then you rule out adaptor's influence.
 
@bigp655 I say it's a bad adapter.

Either that, or one of the connectors is loose.

They really have locked hard disks? Gaaahhhh... sure hope not. My 500GB drive was in a Fujitsu external box, seems to have no problems though.
 
Does this void the warranty?

I have 2.5 years of applecare let so no way i'm risking that.
 
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