MacBook innards exposed!

These days you're not a real gadget unless somebody splays you across their workbench for all the world to see. Apple products are especially privy to such treatment, and the MacBook is proving no exception, going from announcement to dissection in roughly 24 hours. The dissasembler over at Kodawarisan responsible for this was quite thorough, and along the way displays a couple of the niceities of the MacBook. First off, the RAM slots are quite convenient. You just remove the screws from the memory door and you have access to the two slots, with little ejector tabs to help you with your efforts. Replacing the hard drive is just as easy (pictured bottom left), which means you can finally replace your own drive without voiding the warranty. Perpendicular storage here we come!

[Via Tuaw, Zatz Not Funny]

[polobunny @ May 18th 2006 2:57AM]

Go to sleep Paul! :P

[tape @ May 18th 2006 3:11AM]

can the new macbooks run final cut pro? and or logic? (decently)

I currently have a macbook pro, but am still in the 2 week limit to return it.

Thanks anyone who responds!

[Intrepid @ May 18th 2006 3:14AM]

Wow, looks like an intel based laptop. Surprise.

[Mei @ May 18th 2006 3:34AM]

YES!!!!!!! I was worried about that when I was ordering the macbook!!!!

[Oliver @ May 18th 2006 3:47AM]

Tape, the first MacBook benchmarks suggest that it performs as well (if not better) than the pro. Really the only differences nowadays are the larger display and alu housing.

[Oliver @ May 18th 2006 3:48AM]

Tape, forgot the links:

http://www.macuser.com/intel-macs/macbook_benchmarks.php

http://www.geekpatrol.ca/blog/118/

[Camperton @ May 18th 2006 6:14AM]

tape -- if you own the ppc version of fcps you might want to consider doing this

http://www.apple.com/universal/crossgrade/

[Jason Bradley @ May 18th 2006 6:25AM]

You mean a memory door and replaceable drive like most manufacturers have done for years? :)

[tape @ May 18th 2006 6:34AM]

well i guess my point was..... is final cut pro that graphic intensive to where it needs a macbook pro and NOT a macbook.

I understand the main differences is just the lit keyboard, the built in dvi, and the GRAPHICS which is what im concerned about when running final cut.

[blarg @ May 18th 2006 6:43AM]

Looks like we're on phase three of the Apple product life cycle. It should only be a day or two before someone finds a "major flaw" (read: minor annoyance) and starts an on-line petition to get it fixed.

[smilespray @ May 18th 2006 7:14AM]

tape, the realtime effects in fcp are afaik driven by the processor, not the gfx card.

the debate about integrated vs dedicated gfx are completely blown out of proportion by ignorant people in just about every forum discussing the macbook.

the integrated graphics are fine. the chip supports core image et al.

it's only relevant to have a dedicated chip if you want to run games and/or motion. i'd check the minimum display resolution requirements, though, but that's a separate issue.

[smilespray @ May 18th 2006 7:21AM]

correction to above post: core image DOES offload certain ops to the gpu.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Core_Image

anyway, the 950 supports it.

[Chris @ May 18th 2006 7:40AM]

> i'd check the minimum display resolution requirements, though, but that's a separate issue.

Resolution shouldn't be a problem, I run FCP on a Powerbook 12'', which has only 1024x768.

[John from Buffalo @ May 18th 2006 8:30AM]

My first comment - the BLACK MacBook has a BLACK motherboard. Now THATS cool. The keys are actually brushed aluminum, which is a difference between the white and black models.

Problems (Dvorak shameless promotion part 2):
There is a video issue that has showed up. The redraw of the Apple application windows and navigation bar have an issue AFTER the MacBook wakes up. I LIKE the video chipset and have NOT had a problem with it in the last couple days until now. Check out the screen shots that show the problem. I'm thinking twice about the video chipset qualities.

http://www.johnwaller.org/apple/macbook/#ISSUES

[josh @ May 18th 2006 8:32AM]

Any chance you can swap out the graphics card on your own to make this thing really sing?

[capwkidd @ May 18th 2006 9:10AM]

Hmm... Anyone know where I can get the 8x DL DVD burner they have in the 17" MBP, perhaps I can buy one, and put it in the base model Macbook?!! I wonder how much that burner would cost? Anyone know who makes it (for the 17" MBP)?

[will chen @ May 18th 2006 9:17AM]

"15. Any chance you can swap out the graphics card on your own to make this thing really sing?"

Negative, you wont be able to upgrade the gfx on the macbook. If you want a macbook with dedicated graphics obviously check out the macbook pro or, if you dont mind XP, check out the Asus offerings.

Since Asus manufactured powerbooks and the like, the quality is top notch or you can get a thinkpad which has even better quality.

Toodles,

Will

[MarixD @ May 18th 2006 9:37AM]

Has Apple been informed about the video card problems?
I plan on buying one soon, and I want to know when they will have this fixed.

[Jason @ May 18th 2006 10:49AM]

Nice to see Apple hasn't done anything about the thermal paste issues on the CPU and GPU -- take a look, it's just gooped on there like a nasty pile of toothpaste, squirting out on all sides of the chips. They really need to fix this!

[Shawn Grimes @ May 18th 2006 11:57AM]

So being that the HD is now easily replaced, where would be the best place to get a bigger drive and what kind of drives can you put into it?

[smilespray @ May 18th 2006 12:04PM]

#16: The faster optical drive won't fit as it's slightly taller. It fits in the 17" because it doesn't have to share vertical space with the keyboard. There will probably be faster drives released soon, but personally I wouldn't try it, keeping in mind that it has to align with the slot in the case et cetera.

You other guys who still won't stop going on about the graphics card: Please shut up and get a life. This is a consumer notebook. Buy a pro model if you want fancy 3D.

[Zombie Flanders @ May 18th 2006 1:19PM]

Maybe this info could be helpful in determining some sort of graphics benchmark...I got a 2 GHz white MacBook yesterday, and installed Windows via Boot Camp. On Call of Duty 1, I can get about 50 FPS (35-51 depending on the level, except for Stalingrad--which is a freaking huge map--gets about 25 FPS) with the settings turned up at 1024x768 resolution. That's with 512 megs of ram. Windows sees 128 megs on the intel 950, whereas OSX sees only 64. I have never used OSX before yesterday and am going to tinker, so maybe there's a way to change the amount of shared RAM in OSX...

[Don @ May 18th 2006 2:10PM]

I wonder if the optical drive they used for the MacBook is the same model as the one they used on their mac minis. If that's the case, I thought I'd save some money by getting the 1.8ghz model and just change the optical drive to a double layer dvd-rw/cd-rw reserved supposedly for my mac mini.

Can someone confirm this?

[josh @ May 18th 2006 3:03PM]

i love how these features are written about as if apple did something groundbreaking: the convienant ram slots are pretty much convienant on any laptop. and the harddrive bay? are you kidding? has anyone taken a look at the dell latitude d6/5* series? you just pull it out! niceties for apple, normalcy for windows.

[tnkgrl @ May 18th 2006 3:30PM]

#22, I own both a Mac mini (Intel) and a MacBook. I have opened my Mac mini to upgrade the HD to a 100 GB 7200 rpm model (and I have fixed many a PowerBook/iBook over the years).

The optical drives in the MacBook and in the 15" MacBook Pro are the newer, thinner ultra-slim slot-load drives (which don't support DL burning yet).

The Mac mini, 17" MacBook Pro, PowerBooks (G4) and iBooks (G4) all use the older, thicker slim slod-load drives (which support DL burning).

[Perrey Z. @ May 18th 2006 5:51PM]

You open it then your warranty is VOID!

[Tom @ May 18th 2006 6:08PM]

When is Leopard out? I think I'd like to wait, depending on how long.

[Trevor @ May 18th 2006 6:32PM]

Leopard is out around the end of 2006 or beginning of 2007 (around the time Microsoft said they'd release Vista)

[Todd Homan-Jones @ May 19th 2006 10:34AM]

And the Million dollar question... How many FPS can the Macbook run for WoW?

I'm thinking the shared video cripples it, but WTF do I know ;)

[Bret @ May 20th 2006 9:46AM]

Finally. I had to replace a failed hard drive in my wife's iBook (out of warranty) and it involved removing no fewer than 30 screws of various diameters and lengths (make sure you keep them sorted) and prying the case apart. Um, it shouldn't be that hard to replace the most-likely-to-fail part of the computer.

Contrast with all the ThinkPads I've ever had -- remove one screw, pull drive, replace, redo screw.