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Who has the 1st gen Uni-body MBP? (Late 2008)
- Thread starter BJB Productions
- Start date
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I've got the Aluminium unibody MacBook (which is the 13" MBP equivalent of that time) and it's been faultless so far. Better built and more reliable than the original revision (2006) 15" MacBook Pro that preceded it.
I had bought a Late 2008 15" Unibody 2.4GHZ 2GB 250GB in late 2008. The only problems I had were with the Superdrive...I went to the Apple store three times for the Superdrive, and a month ago they just decided to give me a brand new Macbook Pro. I loved my old one though. It was super reliable and swayed me over from PC.
No Problems
I have the first 13" unibody and it still works perfectly. I put a 1 TB drive in it. I bought it as an addition to my Mac Pro, but since I found myself using it exclusively, I sold the Mac Pro for $2000. I plan on buying either a 13" or 15" when the new ones come out and sell this one while Apple Care is still current.
I have the first 13" unibody and it still works perfectly. I put a 1 TB drive in it. I bought it as an addition to my Mac Pro, but since I found myself using it exclusively, I sold the Mac Pro for $2000. I plan on buying either a 13" or 15" when the new ones come out and sell this one while Apple Care is still current.
i have the 15" 2.8ghz from late '08. considering how heavily i use it for motion graphics work, the hardware issues have been relatively minor and the repairs were quick and easy:
-after about a year the optical drive stopped being able to burn disks. took it in and they replaced it while i went for coffee.
-after 2 years, the battery started to bulge, took it in and they swapped me a new battery on the spot.
-the 9400m always had the screen flickering issues others have described, but i only use it occassionally and the 9600 has been perfect, so it never really bugged me at all.
i've had several larger headaches, but i'm quite certain they were software issues specifically related to snow leopard:
-after upgrading to snow leopard, wifi dropouts were frequent for about 6-8 months, even across several fresh reformats. but the issue resolved itself around 10.6.4
-after upgrading to snow leopard, ram management became a huge issue. the computer would regularly completely eat through the 4gb and slow to an absolute crawl. recently i bumped ram up to the unofficially supported limit of 6gb, and it's partially mitigated the problem. yet it was still annoying that 4gb never created slowdowns with similar usage patterns under leopard.
-after about a year the optical drive stopped being able to burn disks. took it in and they replaced it while i went for coffee.
-after 2 years, the battery started to bulge, took it in and they swapped me a new battery on the spot.
-the 9400m always had the screen flickering issues others have described, but i only use it occassionally and the 9600 has been perfect, so it never really bugged me at all.
i've had several larger headaches, but i'm quite certain they were software issues specifically related to snow leopard:
-after upgrading to snow leopard, wifi dropouts were frequent for about 6-8 months, even across several fresh reformats. but the issue resolved itself around 10.6.4
-after upgrading to snow leopard, ram management became a huge issue. the computer would regularly completely eat through the 4gb and slow to an absolute crawl. recently i bumped ram up to the unofficially supported limit of 6gb, and it's partially mitigated the problem. yet it was still annoying that 4gb never created slowdowns with similar usage patterns under leopard.
My wife has one that we bought as a BestBuy demo unit....the poor thing had the snot beat out of it at that place. It has scratches all over the back of the monitor from the stupid security cage they had around it. It is hands down the best Macbook we have ever owned. It sat in storage for over a year before we got our hands on it and to this day it still has 97% battery life after 300 load cycles. Best damn computer we have ever owned.
Yeah I've also had the superdrive replaced. Here's a complete history of repairs.
5 HDD replacements
New Logic Board
New Super Drive
MagSafe adapter
New Computer
Yes-finally after like 4 repairs they gave me a new computer. This one has been better, but still has had issues which include two new HDDs and superdrive.
5 HDD replacements
New Logic Board
New Super Drive
MagSafe adapter
New Computer
Yes-finally after like 4 repairs they gave me a new computer. This one has been better, but still has had issues which include two new HDDs and superdrive.
I received my 2.4 model as a replacement for another problematic MBP. My only problem was with the hard drive which was replaced 7/09. It has been a very good computer and I will keep it until the next major update.
I baby my 5.1 macbook pro to the upmost extreme.
Has received a 320 WD scorpio black HD, 6GB OWC Ram upgrade, and a significant amount of money invested in software.
My battery has over 1200 cycles but the full charge capacity according to system profiler is still 3745. This equates to a little under 2hour battery time, plan to replace it within the coming weeks.
I do notice the occasional screen flicker from time to time. The only blemish my laptop has is where my arm rest on the right side, the aluminum edge has chipped away a good amount.
All in all unless I just got very lucky with my machine I feel this was one of the greatest investments I have ever made.
Has received a 320 WD scorpio black HD, 6GB OWC Ram upgrade, and a significant amount of money invested in software.
My battery has over 1200 cycles but the full charge capacity according to system profiler is still 3745. This equates to a little under 2hour battery time, plan to replace it within the coming weeks.
I do notice the occasional screen flicker from time to time. The only blemish my laptop has is where my arm rest on the right side, the aluminum edge has chipped away a good amount.
All in all unless I just got very lucky with my machine I feel this was one of the greatest investments I have ever made.