Wow these things are built indestructible compared to the unibodies. Almost impossible for water damage to kill them, unlike the new ones. I wish apple would make there products this tough still. The beating these things can take is amazing. With a 6gb ram upgrade and a new harddrive, I rather have one of these for cheap than waste 3000 on a new mbp. anyone else agree? They pretty much get the same performance for 95% of what most people do
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Pre Unibody Macbook Pro's
- Thread starter KushPizzaSleep
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Agree completely, the preunibody macbook pros are like Volvos. Sure, the case gets dented, but only that part gets dented. I dropped my MBP off a ledge once and fearing it was completely and utterly destroyed, only the edge was dented. After 2 years of use that edge has actually naturally reformed into a straight line.
All the dents that happened above the DVI port, the front opening have naturally reformed back into the case due to usage or have decreased in their dent because you can easily bent them back.
The new unibodies are another story. My friend dropped his unibody off a chair, and dented a side (the LAN port) and now he can't close his lid.
It's just the way the unibody's were designed, the case doesn't deform very well and often deforms into the LCD because the sides and the top are in one block.
All the dents that happened above the DVI port, the front opening have naturally reformed back into the case due to usage or have decreased in their dent because you can easily bent them back.
The new unibodies are another story. My friend dropped his unibody off a chair, and dented a side (the LAN port) and now he can't close his lid.
It's just the way the unibody's were designed, the case doesn't deform very well and often deforms into the LCD because the sides and the top are in one block.
Very true I had a 15'' pre uni 2.66 500gb HD 4gb ram anti glare thing was a beast and is still going strong the new owner emails me about it lol. I never had one internal issue with it ever ever ever!
And casing wise just kept in my backpack to be free books binders pens all there to mess things up. Just very light really amazing. Now with my new pro I am rather nervous to even put it on a table free of case or wrapsol.
I have noticed that apple is making products that get even easier to break or scratch or dent its kinda a drag.
And casing wise just kept in my backpack to be free books binders pens all there to mess things up. Just very light really amazing. Now with my new pro I am rather nervous to even put it on a table free of case or wrapsol.
I have noticed that apple is making products that get even easier to break or scratch or dent its kinda a drag.
I'm pretty sure he's referring to the problems with pre-unibody MBP's with the GeForce 8600m GT. They've been known to fail.
2 of my roommates last year had discrete MacBook pros, both 15". They called them MacBook blankets(not joking, they said it all the time) because no matter how cold it was, if you were using it you didn't need a blanket. They got HOT, like really, really HOT. One of theirs fell out of their backpack onto marble tile because he didn't zip it (in his defense; he wasn't sober, nor drunk...so I guess he forgot to zip it, and we didn't notice fast enough to tell him...), the case got JACKED up BAD, the SuperDrive continually tried ejecting when no disk was inserted, over all it just wasn't pretty. My 13" pro fell ~3.5' onto hardwood and landed on the front left corner; you can't notice there's a bend/dent unless you're specifically looking for it. And my 2010 7,1(2.4GHz C2D, 4GB RAM) ran circles around them; not just a little faster, they got spanked. One even did a clean install of 10.6; it was still like the Lakers playing a college team. Not to mention battery life. Both of theirs were high end, loaded BTOs; mine was pretty much a base 13" with a C2D, and having a dual core iX processor would have only made the difference more pronounced.
I know this is just my experience, but IMO they aren't comparable. the discrete MacBook pro was a beast when it came out, but its not even in the same ballpark as the unibody.
I know this is just my experience, but IMO they aren't comparable. the discrete MacBook pro was a beast when it came out, but its not even in the same ballpark as the unibody.
I've noticed the opposite. My Unibody MBP has held up much better than pre-Unibody. Although I did drop my Unibody MBP from a 2' ledge and the aluminum around the ethernet port bent. Fortunately I was able to straighten it back out.
My pre-unibody had so many problems that they had to give me a unibody one under Applecare. The new one has less problems, except my display goes blank randomly and I need to force restart. I'm guessing it's an nVidia problem though.
I think they new ones are more durable, but the old ones looked nicer and had better keyboards.
I think they new ones are more durable, but the old ones looked nicer and had better keyboards.
Agreed. It is unbelievably easy to make scratches on the unibody macbook pros. I pulled a USB wire the other day, lightly hit my trackpad for a second, and it scratches the border and makes a small dent. I rubbed the protruding (around 0.01 mm) dent for a second or two and it turns into aluminium powder! I've seen the dents on other people's unibody macbook pros-my new mbp would not survive a drop without a dent.
I like the functionality of my 15" '08 MBP.
It has a dual-link DVI port, which my monitor plugs directly into with no dongles or adapters, and if I want to connect it to a TV with HDMI, I can use a ubiquitous adapter that costs like $2. And I can connect it to my old CRT TV that only has composite or S-video in. The only way to do that with a new MBP is with an active converter box, as far as I know.
I frequently use the Expresscard slot wiith an eSATA card that lets me connect fast external drives. I've seen sustained transfers 50% faster than Firewire 800. And unlike Thunderbolt, the cables cost a few dollars, the expresscard costs $15, and the enclosures cost $20. A 17" is simply too big- I would not buy one even for the expresscard slot, and I would be happy with the 13" if it had the same functionality as my 15". Unfortunately Apple sees the 13" as a "low-end" computer and refuses to give it the same features. I would happily give up the optical drive for more ports and a SSD.
I love the trackpad with a real button. I've used the new style, and I simply can't get used to it.
I have a SSD installed in the main hard drive bay and the old mechanical drive in the optical bay. I also have 6GB of RAM installed. For everything but CPU-intensive tasks, the computer is plenty fast and capable. I have a desktop PC if I ever want to play video games, but generally I don't have the attention span or free time to play.
Only downsides really are the screen resolution (1440x900) is too low, and the battery life is not great. I've gotten a new battery every year from Apple Care for the past three years, since the capacity always drops below 80% within a year. I don't use it on battery that much (probably why the capacity drops) so it is only a minor annoyance to have to bring the charger around with me.
For my next laptop, I will seriously consider going back to a PC. Probably the new Sony VAIO Z or a Toshiba R8xx.
It has a dual-link DVI port, which my monitor plugs directly into with no dongles or adapters, and if I want to connect it to a TV with HDMI, I can use a ubiquitous adapter that costs like $2. And I can connect it to my old CRT TV that only has composite or S-video in. The only way to do that with a new MBP is with an active converter box, as far as I know.
I frequently use the Expresscard slot wiith an eSATA card that lets me connect fast external drives. I've seen sustained transfers 50% faster than Firewire 800. And unlike Thunderbolt, the cables cost a few dollars, the expresscard costs $15, and the enclosures cost $20. A 17" is simply too big- I would not buy one even for the expresscard slot, and I would be happy with the 13" if it had the same functionality as my 15". Unfortunately Apple sees the 13" as a "low-end" computer and refuses to give it the same features. I would happily give up the optical drive for more ports and a SSD.
I love the trackpad with a real button. I've used the new style, and I simply can't get used to it.
I have a SSD installed in the main hard drive bay and the old mechanical drive in the optical bay. I also have 6GB of RAM installed. For everything but CPU-intensive tasks, the computer is plenty fast and capable. I have a desktop PC if I ever want to play video games, but generally I don't have the attention span or free time to play.
Only downsides really are the screen resolution (1440x900) is too low, and the battery life is not great. I've gotten a new battery every year from Apple Care for the past three years, since the capacity always drops below 80% within a year. I don't use it on battery that much (probably why the capacity drops) so it is only a minor annoyance to have to bring the charger around with me.
For my next laptop, I will seriously consider going back to a PC. Probably the new Sony VAIO Z or a Toshiba R8xx.
The aluminum MBPs are actually painted to look like aluminum. They really are made of aluminum, but I suspect raw aluminum is hard to get a nice finish on.