I have an original 2006 MacBook which I keep running because it's a solid Machine even 11 years later (this post is being written on it). Recently, the display and DVD-R started going. By stroke of luck a co-worker, knowing I was a Mac guy, asked if I could help him clear out his wife's 2008 MacBook for recycling. I said yes at the cost of me getting all the hardware except the hard drive which I'd return to him in an external case for a backup in case they needed anything.
Yesterday, I spent the better half of the day scrapping the 2008 MacBook for parts and adding them to the 2006 MacBook (yes I could have pulled in the new motherboard but that'd be a new machine ;-). Thanks to the folks at iFixit https://www.ifixit.com/Device/MacBook_Core_Duo I've got a new display and optical drive. I threw in an old 128GB SSD I had (the 2006 hardware even supports TRIM!) and this machine is now flying like never before.
It was nice to see the standard hardware in these old laptops again. Everything is upgradeable. The machine is heavier than a Modern MacBook (my SO's 13" MBP 2016 is sitting right next to this) but I really wouldn't mind having slightly large machines for the upgradability again.
Yesterday, I spent the better half of the day scrapping the 2008 MacBook for parts and adding them to the 2006 MacBook (yes I could have pulled in the new motherboard but that'd be a new machine ;-). Thanks to the folks at iFixit https://www.ifixit.com/Device/MacBook_Core_Duo I've got a new display and optical drive. I threw in an old 128GB SSD I had (the 2006 hardware even supports TRIM!) and this machine is now flying like never before.
It was nice to see the standard hardware in these old laptops again. Everything is upgradeable. The machine is heavier than a Modern MacBook (my SO's 13" MBP 2016 is sitting right next to this) but I really wouldn't mind having slightly large machines for the upgradability again.
