What To Do With a MacBook Pro 1,1?

[SuperPolli]

I have an original MacBook Pro 1,1. It has an 80 GB Hard Drive soon to be replaced by either a 60 GB or 120 GB SSD, with 2 GB of RAM. It's a 15 inch model. Right now all it's doing is running the audio inputs for my Xbox and PS3 to my main speaker system. Is there any cool stuff out there that I could be doing with it?

P.S. I'm putting an SSD in it because it's very slow (Yes I tried a fresh install of the OS) and has problems with overheating.

 

[Intelligent]

I have an original MacBook Pro 1,1. It has an 80 GB Hard Drive soon to be replaced by either a 60 GB or 120 GB SSD, with 2 GB of RAM. It's a 15 inch model. Right now all it's doing is running the audio inputs for my Xbox and PS3 to my main speaker system. Is there any cool stuff out there that I could be doing with it?

P.S. I'm putting an SSD in it because it's very slow (Yes I tried a fresh install of the OS) and has problems with overheating.

What do you mean? what to do with it?, you mean to make it faster? or what to use it for?

 

[brdeveloper]

I have an original MacBook Pro 1,1. It has an 80 GB Hard Drive soon to be replaced by either a 60 GB or 120 GB SSD, with 2 GB of RAM. It's a 15 inch model. Right now all it's doing is running the audio inputs for my Xbox and PS3 to my main speaker system. Is there any cool stuff out there that I could be doing with it?

P.S. I'm putting an SSD in it because it's very slow (Yes I tried a fresh install of the OS) and has problems with overheating.

Install a SSD, Leopard and run heavy software (now abandonware) from that time when this machine was a workhorse. If you like dealing with music composing, install a good firewire adapter and be happy multitracking with your blazing fast storage. I see no other uses than making old apps running faster because of maxed ram and a SSD.

 

[Asuriyan]

The heat problem was due to the vent design; it was changed with the revision later that year in which they added Core 2 Duo CPUs. I had one of those machines until recently, and I still have a Mac mini with the same specs that I use as a home media (Plex) server.

 

[SuperPolli]

What do you mean? what to do with it?, you mean to make it faster? or what to use it for?

What to use it for. I'm looking for something to hold me over until I start a new hardware project.

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The heat problem was due to the vent design; it was changed with the revision later that year in which they added Core 2 Duo CPUs. I had one of those machines until recently, and I still have a Mac mini with the same specs that I use as a home media (Plex) server.

Yeah, I knew about that. The heating on these things is a bitch because it all goes to the back and the bottom. No even distribution whatsoever. I've thought about dumping it and picking up a Core 2 Duo but that's time and money I'm not looking to waste right now.

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Install a SSD, Leopard and run heavy software (now abandonware) from that time when this machine was a workhorse. If you like dealing with music composing, install a good firewire adapter and be happy multitracking with your blazing fast storage. I see no other uses than making old apps running faster because of maxed ram and a SSD.

It's got Snow Leopard running smoothly and the SSD should be here Friday afternoon. I'll install it Saturday. I just don't know what I want to throw at it.

 

[Gav Mack]

Cleaning, tinting and repasting the CPU/GPU heatpipe with AS-5 and cleaning the fans out helps the thermals a hell of a lot. The design is not perfect on the 1,1 but the thermal paste application is usually worse i.e. shocking!

They are usually crumbly and dry like fine white sand after this long!

 

[jessejarvi]

Well, you could install OS X Lion from here:
http://roaringcore.wordpress.com

 

[PBG4 Dude]

Adobe CS2 runs in Snow Leopard, you could run that. At one point this was freely downloadable from Adobe's website. Also, Final Cut Express would probably work too (don't think my copy of FCE 2 even installs in Lion+).

I still run my copy of Office v.X that I bought with my first Mac in 2001 on Snow Leopard Server running in a VM on an external drive.

 

[iamfredrik]

I have a MBP 1.1 with a 90GB ssd and Snow Leopard which was my main computer until December when I bought a late 2013 15" rMBP!

 

[SuperPolli]

Update:

My 120 GB SSD got here yesterday so I'll be installing that either tonight or tomorrow. I'm leaning towards tomorrow as the last time I did one of these it turned in to a two hour long project. I'm also going to do a real good dusting while I'm in there and see if I can't get the SuperDrive to be a bit less noisy. If it doesn't quiet down I might just remove it. I don't really need or want it in there if it's just creating noise and heat.