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replacing parts on unibody macbook???

O

OSXRANDOMANIMAL

macrumors newbie
Original poster
i was wondering if things other than the HDD and RAM are user replaceable. mainly, i would like to replace the nvidia 9400m with the macbook pro's nvidia 9600m GT, is this possible?
 
You can replace anything you want. It's just a matter of how involved you would like to get, and how much money you have.
 
MrM said:
You can replace anything you want. It's just a matter of how involved you would like to get, and how much money you have.
Click to expand...

i was under the impression certain things you just could not upgrade, but thank you. two more things

1. where in the world can i find this video card for purchase?
2. sorry for the double thread post, safari has been screwy.
 
OSXRANDOMANIMAL said:
i was under the impression certain things you just could not upgrade, but thank you. two more things

1. where in the world can i find this video card for purchase?
2. sorry for the double thread post, safari has been screwy.
Click to expand...

In your first post you said replace, not upgrade. After re-reading your post I realized that I missed what you were getting at anyway.

Swapping out the NVidia Card for another probably will not work, unless you would like to be the first to try and hack it together. But I've got a lot of money that says it absolutely will not work.

The only things you can really "upgrade" are the RAM and the HD.
 
MrM said:
In your first post you said replace, not upgrade. After re-reading your post I realized that I missed what you were getting at anyway.

Swapping out the NVidia Card for another probably will not work, unless you would like to be the first to try and hack it together. But I've got a lot of money that says it absolutely will not work.

The only things you can really "upgrade" are the RAM and the HD.
Click to expand...

well it would be replacing and upgrading i suppose. i don't see why this wouldn't work, the card is obviously a compatible device, i would just have to configure some things around.

i don't really know anything about the inner workings of OS X, things like BIOS or whatever it is called on this platform. but it seems to me that this should work fine in the macbook.
 
I'm pretty sure the video card is soldered onto the logic board. So have fun with that one.

The harddrive and RAM are user replaceable.
 
OSXRANDOMANIMAL said:
yes that's what i was afraid of. i will have to find a definitive answer though.
Click to expand...

Here's your definitive answer: You cannot swap the 9400M out for the 9600GT.

The 9400M is not only the GFX chip, but the main chipset (read: Northbridge, IIRC) , chip as well. That's part of the reason the Pro has both chips.

If you don't believe me, check out the logic board itself: http://static1.ifixit.com/igi/AUZYBwBSf4DGQiru.large The chip with the smaller center bit is the Core2Duo, the larger is the nVidia chip. Under the thermal paste is the label MCP79MXT-B2. MCP79 is the chipset used. (http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/First-Look/Mac/MacBook-Unibody/Page-6 multiple images under step 17)

Here's what the Pro Logic Board looks like: http://static2.ifixit.com/igi/n2TrniSjqkvPPsuc.large
 
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