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MacBook Internal Photos
kwiens writes "We just took apart a MacBook and posted some disassembly instructions and hi-res logic board photos. It looks like Apple's saving a bunch of R&D by using stock Intel chips in the MacBook Pro. Interestingly, the built-in iSight and Bluetooth connectors are USB 2.0. Apple also downgraded some features from the Powerbook: half the DVD-R write speed and no Firewire 800."
Reduced costs, shorter design cycles, excellent compatibility and good vendor support.
No need to get all fancy with custom ASICs to replace ones that do the job just fine.
Will the CPU be able to be (easily) upgraded?
Do they sell them with 2-button touchpads?
g
http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/85/images_large/05.jp
Hi-res photo's + Ageing Server + Slashdotting = Comedy Gold!
I'll subscribe to Slashdot when I see a month without a dupe, a typo, or an article the "editors" didn't read.
So, they are using stock Intel parts and still managed to mess up the power supply unit. As can be read here, more than a few users report a whining noise from the psu when the cpus are idling.
Quick fix: leave PhotoBooth running in the background. D'oh!
Or at least this works if you are using iScroll. I don't know if the usual scrolling trackpad prefs have this option or not.
"Empathise with stupidity, and you're halfway to thinking like an idiot." - Iain M. Banks
Offtopic? Come on! MacBook Internal Photos == porn what's so offtopic about it.. ok nevermind.
You just got troll'd!
from that photo that laptop looks VERY similar to my Dell Inspiron 9300. i don't have any apples, never have, but i remember the beautiful laptops they were putting out back when they started remaking themselves after Jobs came back. the nice colors and good looking design. that was the closest i ever came to wanting to own a mac.
Or I just didn't see it: But did they manage to put together Humpty dumpty again?
My wife's sketchblog Blob[p]: Gastrono-me
Ok, raise your hands. Who among us here can say that he hasn't disassembled a computer before powering it up?
Nothing sucks like a Vax, nothing blows like a PowerMac G4
I know that, but it appears that some PC notebook users have trouble pushing two buttons so far apart at the same time, so I thought I'd point out a way of getting a right click without leaving the immediate track-pad area.
"Empathise with stupidity, and you're halfway to thinking like an idiot." - Iain M. Banks
Comparing my PB G4 to my previous Windoze laptop, in the case of normal touchpad usage I think the one button touchpad is a lot easier to use.
Pair it with SideTrack where I can use ctrl-click in the place of a normal right click button and I love it.
If I'm typing and I want to click on something, I just have one of my hands drop down to the touchpad. For right click my left hand can hit Ctrl without moving.
Better than the previous arrangement of having to move just a bit more to choose between left and right (the right button on my Acer TravelMate is notorious for requiring more force,too), its much more productive.
The CPU in the MacBook the CPU will be completely UNupgradeable as it is soldered onto the logic board. The new Imac, on the other hand, has a CPU which is housed in a socket and should be capable of taking faster pin-compatable chips as and when they are available.
Hey, can I bum a sig?
Well, a she applies for some of us. ;)
But, I've never taken apart a laptop before using it. Desktops I have qualms with, but I leave laptop internals alone unless I need to put memory or something in.
Dude, he misspelled pr0n...
Note that by having internal components connected to USB, they have a higher battery drain (simply because of how USB works) than they would if connected some other way. You can save battery by shutting down the iSight and bluetooth when you're not using them.
It's the processor sleep/cycling; if I force it into "slow" CPU mode, the noise goes away. Very short bursts of heavy CPU will make it squeal and squeek; constant load over 30% or so makes it go away. It is pretty annoying- it's louder than the near-silent seagate 100GB drive I installed a year or so ago. Oh, and the variable speed fans? They're not variable speed, despite what every website, and the Apple "developer documentation" say. They're one speed- "on".
My MacBook is on order, and news of this noise issue pisses me off. I've never heard PC laptop make these kinds of noises. Ever.
Please help metamoderate.
I've owned one in each major generation of powerbooks/ibooks (no macbok yet) since the 520c and the ONLY thing that has bugged me generation to generation is how hard it is to remove/replace the HD.
Um, duh, yeah, that is why Apple patnered with Intel, to use off the shelf PC components instead of more costly proprietary and customized solutions.
If you want to see the insides of a MacBook, but don't want to buy one, then look inside a PC notebook.
What I don't get is why everyone is getting their panties in a wad over this? They didn't put FireWire 800 in there so that they could free the bus and let you decide what you want to occupy the PCI-E slot. I'd rather have a choice of FW/800, a SATA drive, or a second video card rather than having FW 800 soldered into the board. They didn't put the faster drive in there because it was too big, an d because it didn't actually write at 8x when benchmarked, so they went with the proven drive. Don't even get me started on the internal modem.
Sig: I stole this sig.
Is anyone else out there dying for one? I just need to save... I hear Rosetta sucks but otherwise they're great - not to mention that eventually (hopefully) most apps should be native for the intel arch so Rosetta wouldn't be used anyway.
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I am kind of sad to see that Pro notebooks are becoming increasingly unupgradeable. I remember the Pismo Powerbook could be easily upgraded with an new processor, hard drive, DVD, ram, and had a PC Card slot for extra ports. Nowadays, you really only can up the ram without doing major surgery. What happen to upgradeable mobile GPU touted by ATI and socketed mobile processors. At least, allow me to replace the hard drive after a few years when factory one becomes unbearably loud! Nowadays, I am force to spend top dollar and load the Powerbook up and in 3 years replace it with a completely new one. I don't like that situation at all because it is too expensive.
You don't have to be smart to use a Mac, you just have to be smart enough to buy one
Cue tons of people saying "OMG! No firewire means firewire is DEAD!" Alright, well, for one thing, USB takes less PCB space then firewire. Firewire will NOT die, as it is THE way to transfer digital video, and it is incredible for harddrives. For another, since most people don't need firewire, (it's a niche now, and apple is aiming more and more mainstream), apple doesn't include it. It's extra cost. Now, people who DO use firewire, IE, not you if you even question firewire's lifetime, can get adaptors for it. Everyone is happy. Basically, the lesson learned is: If you think firewire is dead, you're not part of the secret clan of berret-wearing video-editting super mac latte-drinkers. Therefore, don't say something you don't know about.
This new Mac Intel computer comes with FireWire 400. Just like every other shipping Macintosh computer comes with FireWire 400.
Since you seem to believe you know a lot about FireWire, it is mystifying why you did not include this. You know, FireWire is not niche. I know that most people connect their DVD player to their television using S-video or the single RCA video connector. That does not make people who use component video "niche." It just means we who enjoy quality at a slight premium in cost are willing to make that investment.
Fortunately, in the last year or so, PC component manufactures have been able to make parts that overcome some of the limitations of USB. So, Apple is migrating some parts to USB to save cost. This also frees up bandwidth on the FireWire port for maximum performance from your peripherals that matter more.
For the new MacBook Pro, Apple also wanted to create a market for the ExpressCard/34 slot. You can add a FireWire 800 card to your new laptop, if you need that much performance on the go.
PS: This submission to /. was rejected so I'm posting it here - f*ck them and f'u if you think it's 'off-topic'...
Sincerely - Ransu, Finland
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