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Won a MacBook on Ebay...Are they still ok?

Dos_Box

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Dos_Box

Dos_Box

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I won a MacBook (2008 A1181, black model) last week for £100!

OK, I know it's not the most modern model but was after something for my son to do homework, internet and a little paying around with videos he makes.

It's the early 2008 model and it was a late-night-ending-in-a-few-mins bargain but wonder just what I could do to upgrade it.

Obviously an SSD is in order, it already has 4GB of RAM and apparently you can fit up to 6GB (2+4GB) in there using the correct type which is something I'm going to look at.

If anyone out there is still using one of these please let me know how they hold up today.

If it doesn't deliver the goods I can always put it back on Ebay for more than I paid for it :)

Norphy

Norphy

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I've just given a late 2007 model to my father in law, it's still a perfectly usable machine. You might be limited to which version of OSX you can put on there (the one I had was limited to Lion, 10.7) but other than that...

 

Be careful about buying RAM for it. Mine took PC2-5300 RAM and I tried buying PC2-6400 for it, it didn't like it. If you buy RAM, make sure you buy it from Crucial or Kingston where they offer a guaranteed matching service.

Edited by Norphy
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Dos_Box

Dos_Box

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I've just given a late 2007 model to my father in law, it's still a perfectly usable machine. You might be limited to which version of OSX you can put on there (the one I had was limited to Lion, 10.7) but other than that...

 

Be careful about buying RAM for it. Mine took PC2-5300 RAM and I tried buying PC2-6400 for it, it didn't like it. If you buy RAM, make sure you buy it from Crucial or Kingston where they offer a guaranteed matching service.

 

Yeah, apparently Lion may be as far as this one goes too. Never mind :)

Arthur

Arthur

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Are you sure 6GB RAM is correct?

From the EveryMac link in my post...

 

Apple officially supports a maximum of 4GB of RAM but third-parties have been able to upgrade the system to 6GB of RAM using one 2GB and one 4GB memory module.
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Dos_Box

Dos_Box

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It can also run (32-bit) Windows 7. ;)

 

www.everymac.com/systems/apple/macbook/specs/macbook-core-2-duo-2.4-black-13-early-2008-penryn-specs.html

 

If you want a cheap(ish) Mac that works with El Capitan, a Late 2008 Unibody MacBook Pro (A1286) would be a good choice. When upgraded with an SSD and 8GB DDR3 RAM they are surprisingly quick for their age. :)

 

The thing is I can get an i5 Thinkpad for about £150, but I thought £100 is worth a punt as that is very cheap for a used MacBook, even of that age.

Arthur

Arthur

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I thought £100 is worth a punt as that is very cheap for a used MacBook, even of that age.

It is cheap, but that's probably because more and more Mac apps aren't supporting Lion. For example, the latest versions of iMovie, Pages, Keynote and Microsoft Office only work with 10.10 or newer.

 

From April 2016, Google Chrome will no longer receive updates and security fixes on 10.6, 10.7 and 10.8 either.

 

I suppose you can always sell the MacBook without losing too much money (as long as the case doesn't start cracking).

 

I would have gone with the £150 Thinkpad if OS X wasn't required. I imagine it would have had better specs (DDR3 RAM and SATA 3Gb/s instead of DDR2 and SATA 1.5Gb/s?) and also be able to be upgraded to Windows 10? :confused:

Edited by Arthur
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Dos_Box

Dos_Box

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It is cheap, but that's probably because more and more Mac apps aren't supporting Lion. For example, the latest versions of iMovie, Pages, Keynote and Microsoft Office only work with 10.10 or newer.

 

From April 2016, Google Chrome will no longer receive updates and security fixes on 10.6, 10.7 and 10.8 either.

 

I suppose you can always sell the MacBook without losing too much money (as long as the case doesn't start cracking).

 

I would have gone with the £150 Thinkpad if OS X wasn't required. I imagine it would have had better specs (DDR3 RAM and SATA 3Gb/s instead of DDR2 and SATA 1.5Gb/s?) and also be able to be upgraded to Windows 10? :confused:

 

Wow, that's a horribly short support life for Chrome in OSX! 10.8 was only released just over two years ago yet Windows 7 was in 2009 and is still supported.

Makes you wonder about what the actual product life is with an Apple device these days.

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abillybob

abillybob

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Too bad they don't allow you to use OSX on standard PC hardware. Though I guess understandable from an Apple profit making point of view.

 

I made a successful hackintosh 2 years back on my Alienware 17 although it was a massive pain the the rear to sort! A hackintosh works surprisingly well on my gigabyte nuc though next to no config required and it's got better specs than the mac mini, cost me £200 to build! :)

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Arthur

Arthur

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Wow, that's a horribly short support life for Chrome in OS X! 10.8 was only released just over two years ago yet Windows 7 was in 2009 and is still supported.

With Apple no longer supporting 10.8, I guess Google doesn't see any reason to either.

 

Every Mac that supported 10.8 can run 10.11 so there isn't any reason to stay on an old and obsolete OS like Mountain Lion, especially with OS X upgrades being free.

 

It's a shame your MacBook is stuck with 10.7. :(

 

Makes you wonder about what the actual product life is with an Apple device these days.

3-4 years for OS X and 6-7 years for Apple hardware. Probably less in reality since apps such as those mentioned above only work with 10.10+ (this is 1 year and 4 months old). :eek:

 

On the Mac side of things, Apple usually supports its three newest operating systems. So official support for 10.8 ended when 10.11 El Capitan was released, and 10.6 and 10.7 have long been put to rest by Apple. (Source)

 

Apple supports editions "n", "n-1" and "n-2," where "n" is the current. That means when El Capitan, aka OS X 10.11, launches, likely in October, it will push Mountain Lion down into the "n-3" slot, and thus to retirement.

 

Under the formula, El Capitan will be "n" once it releases, Yosemite "n-1" and Mavericks "n-2." (Source)

Dos_Box

Dos_Box

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With Apple no longer supporting 10.8, I guess Google doesn't see any reason to either.

 

Every Mac that supported 10.8 can run 10.11 so there isn't any reason to stay on an old and obsolete OS like Mountain Lion, especially with OS X upgrades being free.

 

It's a shame your MacBook is stuck with 10.7. :(

 

 

3-4 years for OS X and 6-7 years for Apple hardware. Probably less in reality since apps such as those mentioned above only work with 10.10+ (this is 1 year and 4 months old). :eek:

 

Imagine the complaints if Microsoft tried to impose such short product lifespans!

Dos_Box

Dos_Box

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Well, I've got it now, upgraded it to Lion, stuck a spare 120GB SSD in there (will upgrade this to 240GB next month as well as upping to 6GB RAM if I can find the right type).

Apparently upgrading to Yosemite will take about 45 mins but I suspect this is a '45 Mins if you've done this many times before and now know what you are doing'.

I'll keep you posted to how I get on and how it behaves after the upgrade. It's just a shame it's the version before they started to put Nvidia graphics in them.

 

It also is in excellent condition with several of the plasics replaced by Apple quite recently, so no cracks and very few (light) scratches on the lid :)

Edited by Dos_Box
3s-gtech

3s-gtech

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This model of Macbook has the ICH8-M chipset, which was hamstrung to SATA I speeds in some models just like the ICH7-M before it. It also looks like removing the data connector to the Superdrive overcomes this as the SATA-PATA bridge is what limits it. Won't make much difference if any, but if the Superdrive is broken or not needed it may be worthwhile.
Dos_Box

Dos_Box

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This model of Macbook has the ICH8-M chipset, which was hamstrung to SATA I speeds in some models just like the ICH7-M before it. It also looks like removing the data connector to the Superdrive overcomes this as the SATA-PATA bridge is what limits it. Won't make much difference if any, but if the Superdrive is broken or not needed it may be worthwhile.

 

This one shipped with a 250GB 5400rpm drive. An SSD, even at SATA 1 speeds is far better than what came as stock and has sped it up no end.

3s-gtech

3s-gtech

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Sorry - what I meant was just removing the Superdrive should give a little bit of a boost again. The effect of the SSD alone is pretty impressive even on old machines though! Don't forget the following command in terminal:

 

sudo trimforce enable

 

This should enable TRIM on non-Apple firmware drives (at your own risk, but I have done it to all of our Macs that have been upgraded).

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