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MacBook Internal Photos 63

Posted by CowboyNeal from the fruit-basket dept.
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."
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MacBook Internal Photos More

MacBook Internal Photos

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  • Why not use stock intel chips? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by IIDX ( 873577 ) on Friday February 24, 2006 @06:53AM (#14791525)
    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.
  • Hi-res photo's + Ageing Server + Slashdotting = Comedy Gold!

  • High pitched noise from power supply (Score:3, Interesting)

    by capmilk ( 604826 ) on Friday February 24, 2006 @07:05AM (#14791553)

    So, they are using stock Intel parts and still managed to mess up the power supply unit. As can be read here [apple.com], 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!

    • Anecdotal info: Mine doesn't do it. I got a 15" 2.0 / 7200 100GB yesterday and it makes no noise but the quiet fan whir. I don't get anything close to what a few people have recorded.
    • ...namely, the first generation 17" PB, which is sitting on my desk right now making a soft, irregular crackling noise. It used to be that loading an SSL webpage in Safari would make it squeal/squeak very loudly- people didn't believe me until I demonstrated it. The Apple Store geniuses shrugged and dismissively said, "And?"

      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 s

  • What they forgot to mention (Score:3, Interesting)

    by jurt1235 ( 834677 ) on Friday February 24, 2006 @07:47AM (#14791677) Homepage
    Or I just didn't see it: But did they manage to put together Humpty dumpty again?

  • A quick poll (Score:3, Funny)

    by frostilicus2 ( 889524 ) on Friday February 24, 2006 @07:49AM (#14791684)
    Ok, raise your hands. Who among us here can say that he hasn't disassembled a computer before powering it up?
    • Or, which of us can say they wished they hadn't disassembled a computer before powering it up?
      • I wish I hadn't disassembled my computer during powering it up. Ow, burns..
      • Not necessarily before powering it up, but I've definately regretted disassembling them before. Though it's no doubt helped me out as far as career path and such today, I would often take apart things when I was young to "look inside". Most of the time they went back together fine. Every once in a while I'd put it back together and it wouldn't - and I'd get that God awful feeling in the pit of my stomach like life itself had come to a close.
    • 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.
    • I've assembled computers before powering them up, but seldom disassembled them. Why bother? It's best to switch it on and verify that it works before upgrading it with memory or disk, even.
    • I took apart my Mac mini before turning it on to put more ram in it. This involved the purchase of putty knives.

  • USB == higher batter drain (Score:3, Informative)

    by soboroff ( 91667 ) on Friday February 24, 2006 @10:32AM (#14792362)

    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.
    • > You can save battery by shutting down the iSight and bluetooth when you're not using them.

      no sh*t Sherlock. I can save up to 45 minutes on my G4 PB, simply by switching BT off as well as wireless. the Firewire iSight is not the least consuming component either...

      B.
    • 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

  • Why make the HD so hard to replace? (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    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.
  • 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.
  • 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 s
    • You can swap notebook harddrives. They are standard these days and aren't hard to do.

      As for the rest...well...that's the cost of going so thin and so light.

    • Re:Upgrade? (Score:3, Insightful)

      by arodland ( 127775 )
      Er... what universe are you in? RAM is easy, drives (optical and magnetic) are easy, processors are hit-or-miss, but it's not bad on mine. Video... well, that usually sucks.

      Oh... you were talking about Apple hardware. Well of course it's going to cost more, be less capable, be impossible to upgrade, and break in ways that Apple will refuse to fix.
  • 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
  • Can anyone imagine Steve Jobs giving one of his famous presentation explaining Apple's adoption of Trusted Computing [cam.ac.uk]? Would you be convinced? Why are Apple fans (of which I'm one) so unintested [slashdot.org] in Apple adopting this technology? What features of Trusted Computing [cam.ac.uk] does Apple's MacBookPro chipset support and how could they be utilized in future versions of OSX? Which Trusted Computing features does the current X86 port of OSX already use? This is not about tinfoil hats anymore - TC will be the end of hacking.

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