Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

New Apple Macbook Pro RAM is soldered to the motherboard | Ian Chilton

ichilton.co.uk

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

111–120 of 319 posts

Re: New Apple Macbook Pro RAM is soldered to the motherboard | Ian Chilton

#111

Post by jonknee »

gouranga wrote: post #105
biafra wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The battery is easily replaceable. If you know how to use a screwdriver. Is that too much to ask?

Err, it's glued in which is considerably worse: http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/MacBook-Pro-with-Retina-Displ... Actually, looking through the entire teardown, I think the battery being glued in is worse than anything as levering it out is likely to cause the Li-Ion cells to blow up. Also consider how hard it is recycling that machine! Their summary: 1. Proprietary pentalobe screws prevent you from gaining access to a…

> consider how hard it is recycling that machine

Tell Apple and they'll send you a shipping label. Just like any other Mac.

http://www.apple.com/recycling/gift-card/

Re: New Apple Macbook Pro RAM is soldered to the motherboard | Ian Chilton

#112

Post by bradleyland »

I saw the DRAM chips in the WWDC keynote video and my first thought was, "Oh boy, the hackers are going to have an aneurism when they see this." I don't find it all that surprising.

Apple has been slowly migrating all of their devices in the direction of appliances. The mass market doesn't upgrade the device, they replace it. That is where Apple is headed: the mass market.

It's hard to argue that they're wrong when they're selling so many units as everyone else is in decline.

Re: New Apple Macbook Pro RAM is soldered to the motherboard | Ian Chilton

#113

Post by eli »

henrikeh wrote: post #94
gouranga wrote: post #84

Sorry but you have got to be a fucking idiot to buy one to be honest if that is the case. Apple are making an attempt to turn generic computers into disposable appliances with moves like these. I would never accept a compromise like that with a computer that I owned. My rationale is as follows: If I pay £1800 for one of those machines, I expect to be able to repair common problems easily. That's a lot of money sittin…

Kind of off-topic: I've got a T60 with a broken graphics card (Honestly, not sure, but all evidence points in that direction). It still works, there just isn't any image on the internal monitor (and severe problems on external). Can I fix the graphics card? Nope, but I can still install another OS and keep it running until something truly critical fails.

Shine a bright light on the internal monitor -- a much more likely explanation is that the invertor or backlight died. If that's the case you should just barely be able to make out what's on the dark screen if you look closely.

It's relatively easy to replace the invertor. There are service manuals on the Lenovo/IBM site that tell you how to replace all things that are replaceable.

Re: New Apple Macbook Pro RAM is soldered to the motherboard | Ian Chilton

#115

Post by gouranga »

jonknee wrote: post #111
gouranga wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Err, it's glued in which is considerably worse: http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/MacBook-Pro-with-Retina-Displ... Actually, looking through the entire teardown, I think the battery being glued in is worse than anything as levering it out is likely to cause the Li-Ion cells to blow up. Also consider how hard it is recycling that machine! Their summary: 1. Proprietary pentalobe screws prevent you from gaining access to a…

> consider how hard it is recycling that machine Tell Apple and they'll send you a shipping label. Just like any other Mac. http://www.apple.com/recycling/gift-card/

No - that's how hard it is for YOU to initiate the recycling of the machine.

The actual recycling bit is considerably harder.

Re: New Apple Macbook Pro RAM is soldered to the motherboard | Ian Chilton

#116

Post by ctdonath »

gouranga wrote: post #84

Sorry but you have got to be a fucking idiot to buy one to be honest if that is the case. Apple are making an attempt to turn generic computers into disposable appliances with moves like these. I would never accept a compromise like that with a computer that I owned. My rationale is as follows: If I pay £1800 for one of those machines, I expect to be able to repair common problems easily. That's a lot of money sittin…

Making components replaceable increases volume, weight, and cost.

If you want replaceable components, go buy a computer for which that is a feature - and know that you will get a machine which is larger, heavier, and more expensive (all other factors being equal). Swapable components require additional casing, connectors, testing, sales channels, etc. You're not going to get a 3/4" 5-lb 7-hour 256GB-SSD 8GB-RAM MBA Retina for $2200 and be able to swap out darn near everything; something's gonna give.

Some of us DON'T want to replace components, having learned over the years that by the time we're replacing components we'd rather replace the whole computer outright. If I need more RAM, it's best matched with a new CPU. If I need more storage, I'll need more RAM to throw around more data. When the battery dies, all those other components are gettin' obsolete anyway. I also know from experience that upgrading parts doesn't always go as planned, and time wasted upgrading can very quickly add up to the cost of a new machine outright. I'd rather have a notebook which is very thin, very light, very fast - and just replace the whole package when the time comes as I see fit.

You're welcome to a different POV, and there is a market happy to serve our different needs & desires.

However, just because we have a different POV doesn't make me a f*ing idiot.

Re: New Apple Macbook Pro RAM is soldered to the motherboard | Ian Chilton

#117

Post by kamjam »

fauigerzigerk wrote: post #73
brudgers wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"after few years" Apple expects consumers to replace hardware every two to three years. Often this is encouraged by their practice of only supporting a single version of their operating system and their practice of making new versions of their operating systems incompatible with hardware more than a few years old. To put it another way, Apple doesn't want you to keep your Macbook for three years because there's no mo…

Sure, Apple wants to sell as much as possible. But it's unclear to me if this decision has that effect. Not if many people are like me. Knowing that there are upgrade options makes it easier for me to pay up for an expensive machine. But years later I never actually buy an upgrade because it feels like a waste to put money into a machine that is nearing the end of its useful life anyway. I don't even want to know how…

I was gonna but this and install Windoze on it... not sure i'll bother now and save myself around £1000 on a similar spec Dell (albeit without the slimness and super sharp screen)

Re: New Apple Macbook Pro RAM is soldered to the motherboard | Ian Chilton

#118

Post by polshaw »

rangibaby wrote: post #8

The mechanism Apple uses to allow user-replaceable RAM looks like it won't fit in the new case. (pic) [1] Apple have a habit of charging fairly outrageous prices for extra RAM - $375[2] for 16GB in the current Mac Pro, and that's not even for 8GB sticks. With that in mind, $200 for the upgrade to 16GB is not that bad, which is probably on purpose. [1] https://support.apple.com/kb/HT1270#link1 [2] http://store.apple.c…

It's worth noting an 8GB DDR3 module of laptop RAM is $50.

A pretty healthy 300% mark up.

Re: New Apple Macbook Pro RAM is soldered to the motherboard | Ian Chilton

#119

Post by novalis »

If this is the case, that is the same reason why I never bought HP machines since opening one up in the 90's and seeing how someone had soldered the ram to the motherboard. That server test machine went back and I never bought anything from them, and now that short list has one more brand in it.

Re: New Apple Macbook Pro RAM is soldered to the motherboard | Ian Chilton

#120

Post by bonzoesc »

gouranga wrote: post #115
jonknee wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> consider how hard it is recycling that machine Tell Apple and they'll send you a shipping label. Just like any other Mac. http://www.apple.com/recycling/gift-card/

No - that's how hard it is for YOU to initiate the recycling of the machine. The actual recycling bit is considerably harder.

It's also included in the cost of the machine. One of the reasons to buy a Mac (or some other pre-assembled computer) is that the price includes services like assembly, testing, and customer support.
Post reply on HN