Upgrading Apple Mac Hardware

Powering on the cheapest 2010 MacBook Pro found on eBay in 2019

 (Sun May 12 2019 00:00:00 GMT+0300 (Eastern European Summer Time)) A couple weeks ago I bought a 15" 2010 MacBook Pro from eBay, the laptop was described as "for parts or repair", it didn't have a disk or battery, and cost only $75 (plus shipping). I am working on refurbishing this computer. In the previous segment, I performed an initial evaluation, installed a disk drive, started to install Mac OS X, the computer overheated, I found dust bunnies in the cooling system, then after cleaning that out the computer would not turn on. In this episode we will get it to turn on.

Replacing the keyboard on the cheapest 2010 MacBook Pro found on eBay in 2019

 (Sun May 12 2019 00:00:00 GMT+0300 (Eastern European Summer Time)) A couple weeks ago I bought a 15" 2010 MacBook Pro from eBay, the laptop was described as "for parts or repair", it didn't have a disk or battery, and cost only $75 (plus shipping). I am working on refurbishing this computer. In this segment, I am replacing the keyboard. And while I'm at it, I fixed the placement of the trackpad.

What does it cost to refurbish the cheapest 2010 MacBook Pro found on eBay in May 2019

 (Fri May 10 2019 00:00:00 GMT+0300 (Eastern European Summer Time)) A couple weeks ago I bought a 15" 2010 MacBook Pro from eBay, the laptop was described as "for parts or repair", it didn't have a disk or battery, and cost only $75 (plus shipping). I am refurbishing the laptop, and am therefore paying for additional parts beyond the laptop. In this post I will list all the costs, and the income from selling it on eBay assuming I will sell it.

Initial evaluation of the cheapest 2010 MacBook Pro found on eBay in May 2019

 (Sun May 05 2019 00:00:00 GMT+0300 (Eastern European Summer Time)) A couple weeks ago I bought a 15" 2010 MacBook Pro from eBay, the laptop was described as "for parts or repair", it didn't have a disk or battery, and cost only $75 (plus shipping). Does this sound like a good deal or a bad deal? A non-working older computer? What tipped me off it was a good risk is that the eBay listing showed the flashing disk icon, meaning the logic board was probably fine, and that the computer just needed a new disk drive.

How to upgrade a cheap (like, $100) MacBook Pro to modern standards in 2019

 (Wed Apr 10 2019 00:00:00 GMT+0300 (Eastern European Summer Time)) Buying an older computer might seem stupid, but you can save a lot of money, and have that warm fuzzy feeling inside of helping the planet. An "old" (2009?) computer in 2019 might seem a rubbish idea, but there are two simple upgrades that are a cheap and easy to give that old computer a new lease on life. For most of us the older computers are still powerful enough, especially with upgraded parts inside. If you really and truly need high end graphics -- like you're editing video all the time -- skip this posting, because it's not for you. But most of us are just browsing the web and writing documents, and will be perfectly served by an old computer at a fraction of the cost. For this posting I'll look at a couple eBay postings for the cheapest MacBook Pro's and evaluate what kind of upgrade can be done.

Upgrade 2012 MacBook Pro to potentially equal later Retina MacBook Pros

 (Tue Nov 27 2018 00:00:00 GMT+0200 (Eastern European Standard Time))

Why spend megabucks for the latest Mac when you can save a lot by buying an older machine? With a few simple upgrades (maxing-out the memory, using SSD) an older machine can perform similarly to the latest models. I am typing this on a 2012 MacBook Pro with 16 GB memory and a 500GB SSD, plus a 750GB HDD, that is satisfying all my needs from writing articles to heavy-duty software development. Just because the manufacturer wants you to buy the latest, doesn't mean you must do so.

Apple's unnecessarily complex SSD upgrade process for Mac Mini 2014/2015

 (Fri Jul 13 2018 00:00:00 GMT+0300 (Eastern European Summer Time))

The 2014/2015 Mac Mini is still, in 2018, the "current" Mac Mini model, and its biggest problem is the great difficulty to upgrade the device. While it is impossible to replace the memory it is possible to replace the hard drive, so long as you bought the upgradeable Mac Mini. Namely the version sold with an HDD. The other, with PCIe SSD, does not support upgrading the disk. You can save some money by purchasing the HDD version and upgrading to SSD on your own, however performance is higher with the PCIe version. The videos attached to this post document the overly unnecessarily difficult process for upgrading such Mac Mini's to have an SSD. You have to remove everything just to swap the disk? And you can't change the memory? The Intel NUC is in the same class of machine, and does not require this kind of over-the-top surgery.