What have you done with an early Intel recently?

[Madr]

The HP Thunderbolt Dock G2 does work with Thunderbolt 3 Macs. It can work with Thunderbolt 1/2 Macs if there's a Thunderbolt 3 device between the Mac and the dock. Maybe @Madr will be able to confirm.

Thanks all for the good info! I can't confirm because the g2's are still not here yet and the only other tb device hub i have is an amazon basic tb4 that i haven't tested yet but may not be seen as tb3 dock so chances maybe low.

If i'm correct the g2's can extend my mac mini m4 tb ports so i don't lose an extra tb4 port for my tb4 NVME and have at least 2 screens total. I have an usbc to hdmi but i doubt that works as a 3rd screen.

Anyway too bad that the g2's do not work with a 2013 imac. 2012 mac probably be the same but i think i have read there are firmware updates but not sure if that help things because it's almost a legacy product.

Hope i can get the 3rd screen working then i can sell them as M4/5 docks and get working ones named here instead. But i will try.

And nice dock that Sonnet Echo Express III-D (Thunderbolt 3 Edition) It reminds me of the cheapish tb3/4 Egpu's cases without power supply on aliexpress that i once saw. Anybody know or read people used them with macs? I should dive into it but maybe later.

edit: another crazy idea i had if these g2's were working is to use them also as usb c 20 volt 100 watts power source and other DC power options. Not sure how that 230 watts are distributed but i don't have any laptops that can take an usb c charge so it may be interesting to supply other things with it. Like my Amazon basic tb4 dock but that may be 5 volts, i have to check. I did order the g2's with the seperate cables so that makes it also easier than those with 1 cable and 2 connectors always stuck nex to each other.

 

[Nightphase]

I've finally decided to repaste my Mid-2011 MacBook Air "11 after 14(!) years. I've also decided to downgrade it back to Mavericks because High Sierra ran too "hot" on it.

 

[Madr]

I've finally decided to repaste my Mid-2011 MacBook Air "11 after 14(!) years. I've also decided to downgrade it back to Mavericks because High Sierra ran too "hot" on it.

Did you measure on heavy load before and after? Luke Miani did some tests but made no difference.

I have a weird theory that repasting doesn't work because everything changes once it gets hot. And that it doesn't matter that much how the state of the paste is, once it's cold.

If i remember correctly Luke said Apple uses industrial paste that lasts for years or longer.

Haven't repasted my MBP 2012 or 2012 macmini's. Haven't had real temp problems. Yes the first time you realize a MBP cpu goes to 100 degrees C without any problems.

 

[Madr]

The HP Thunderbolt Dock G2 does work with Thunderbolt 3 Macs. It can work with Thunderbolt 1/2 Macs if there's a Thunderbolt 3 device between the Mac and the dock. Maybe @Madr will be able to confirm.

G2's are in and quick testing on mbp 2015 with tb2 through Apple tb1/2 to 3/4 adapter doesn't work. Don't have pc's with thunderbolt 3 or 4 to run firmware updates. I do have a X99 motherboard and a matched TB2 card + internal cable but haven't tried it. Google AI says i can use the Apple adapter but i doubt it works but i need to test the tb2 card anyway so good motivation to try.

Edit: got 3 screens working though. 1 from main hdmi, 1 through displayport and 1 with cheap usb c from tb3/4 port to hdmi.

 

[Nightphase]

Did you measure on heavy load before and after? Luke Miani did some tests but made no difference.

I have a weird theory that repasting doesn't work because everything changes once it gets hot. And that it doesn't matter that much how the state of the paste is, once it's cold.

If i remember correctly Luke said Apple uses industrial paste that lasts for years or longer.

Haven't repasted my MBP 2012 or 2012 macmini's. Haven't had real temp problems. Yes the first time you realize a MBP cpu goes to 100 degrees C without any problems.

Not really, but the paste on mine was completely dry and flaking apart. One thing i noticed is that the top of the keyboard (the part near the display frame) is a little bit cooler now

 

[occupant]

Well instead of doing anything useful with my early Intel Macs (see sig) I purchased another one. Thought, well, I like the 2015 iMac but it doesn't have an optical drive, and I'd love to have a slightly larger screen, so found this 2009 24 inch iMac 2.93 GHz C2D for forty bucks. No power cord (I am using a regular chunky PC power cord which is fine) and I have my own keyboards and mice, so now it sits here to my right unable to do much. Too old of an OS with Leopard to use any https websites, so now I have to change OS to get anything out of it.

So after watching a few YT videos, I guess I need a Snow Leopard DVD to upgrade to that so the firmware gets updated right, then upgrade through App Store to El Capitan which should also do some firmware updates, then I can break out the OCLP and get Ventura on it. Or maybe there's another step in between there, I may have to watch the videos again. Either way, I'm debating skipping all that and running some flavor of Linux. There's themes and icon packs out there to make it FEEL like MacOS, and honestly that would be fine. I could even play San Andreas on it with Steam that way. So maybe it's time to get minty fresh on the short desk to my right here...

Or I could put XP on it...that didn't sound like a lot of fun either but it would let me use it with auto repair software I've had for many years and haven't used in forever.

Or maybe since it's a 4GB machine with a HDD I should upgrade that hardware first (16GB of RAM is like $23 as long as AI datacenters don't start hoarding DDR3 too, which is sad because that kit was only $15 in October, and I guess I could live with a $30 240-250GB SSD because the 480-512 have gone over $50 again).

I am loving having the C2D MacBook Pro with its SSD and 16GB RAM (before the price jumped, yay) and it's perfect to keep at my stepson's house and I can use flash drives to go back and forth to the shop here.

I don't know, maybe I should buy 2 or 3 more machines before doing things. I need MOAR...

 

[joevt]

Edit: got 3 screens working though. 1 from main hdmi, 1 through displayport and 1 with cheap usb c from tb3/4 port to hdmi.

Need more clear description of all the pieces in this setup. What Mac? Docks? Adapters?