Comments on David Alison's Blog: Replacing a MacBook with a MacBook Pro

David -Yes, you'll notice the current warranty say...

2008-06-19T12:47:00.000-04:00

David -

Yes, you'll notice the current warranty says "post1997" and that's because when Steve returned the draconian warranty was replaced with a more lenient one.

The reason was that Woz among others wanted to still work on their machines, but not lose their warranty. So the joke was within AppleCare was that you could take any Mac apart, down to the last screw, and as long as no damage occurred during that process (or putting it back together) the warranty would not be affected.

For "customer safety more than anything" is the corporate "line" is taking it apart will void the warranty, but in reality, the "legal wording" allows for it, just that no "damage" can occur.

Pre-1997 Apple used colored glue on some components to ensure nobody but themselves worked on the equipment, but the use of glue is long gone, so feel free to add a hard drive, or "whatever", just don't break it :)

OS11

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@OS11: This is very helpful - thanks! Here I am as...

2008-06-19T09:53:00.000-04:00

@OS11: This is very helpful - thanks! Here I am asking people all around to clarify what voids the warranty but I didn't think to just look at the actual warranty! Doh!

david -it's a pure myth that installing "anything"...

2008-06-19T00:37:00.000-04:00

david -

it's a pure myth that installing "anything" into your mac will void the warranty. fact is, you can take apart any mac down to the very last screw and the warranty remains valid... the only caveat is that if you "break something" along the way... then yes, the warranty could come into play.

the specific clause in the warranty is this:

This warranty does not apply: (b) to damage caused by service (including upgrades and expansions) performed by anyone who is not an Apple Authorized Service Provider;

http://store.apple.com/Catalog/US/Images/wty-post1997.html

yes, geniuses and service providers will tell you otherwise just to make an extra buck, (or they simply don't know), but legally, you can install a hard drive or anything into your mac and your warranty remains intact.

installing a HD in a MacBook Pro is fairly straight forward, go to ifixit where they have excellent photos outlining each step for each model:

http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Mac/

and lastly, there is now a 500GB drive for the MacBook Pro's - google for: Spinpoint M6 500GB

enjoy,
OS11

David - thanks for the belkin suggestion. i'm on ...

2008-06-18T13:49:00.000-04:00

David - thanks for the belkin suggestion. i'm on my way to get one...

@josso - the 17" comes in two different display re...

2008-06-17T17:16:00.000-04:00

@josso - the 17" comes in two different display resolutions. The 15" only in one...

@David - I replaced the hard drive in my MacBook Pro, and in my PowerBooks for years before that. Apple will always absolve itself of responsibility, but has never failed to service my computer unless the issue was HD related (makes sense – the HD that is under warranty is no longer in there).

What I have done is purchased one of the OWC FireWire on the go drives (these days I buy the ones with FW 400+800+USB 2.0). They come in a nice carrying case, power supply (rarely needed) etc - I use Carbon Copy Cloner or Disk Utility restore to copy the internal to the external, then using a site like ifixit.com (they have a great walk through for the MacBook Pro to replace the drive) I replace one drive with the other and go – all the while retaining a complete backup of the internal drive in case anything happens. A couple of weeks later when I am sure everything is alright, I erase that drive and use it as bus powered, external, portable storage. I now have 4 of those drives.... (an old 30 IDE, a 60 IDE, a 120 S-ATA and a 160 S-ATA).
Although the instructions may look a little intimidating, the whole operation (the swaps - NOT the cloning) will take under 30 minutes and is really not that bad...
Enjoy your new MBP!

@MaxPug: Thanks - that's helpful. Someone pointed ...

2008-06-17T17:13:00.000-04:00

@MaxPug: Thanks - that's helpful. Someone pointed out that Hitachi will be releasing a 320GB 7200 RPM drive soon. I may end up just sticking with the 200GB drive though; it's plenty fast and with most of my stuff loaded I still have 133GB free. I'll probably put about 10GB of my favorite music on it and get a cut of the photo library in here too. Even then, that will leave a lot of room to spare.

David,Well I stopped at Miro Center today and they...

2008-06-17T15:48:00.000-04:00

David,

Well I stopped at Miro Center today and they said to replace the hard drive it would be $60 bucks and take about 2 hours. I am looking at doing this so I can get my 7200 rpm installed and keep it covered under the warrantee.

David, I've got the first gen MBP, 15" (14 months ...

2008-06-17T10:35:00.000-04:00

David, I've got the first gen MBP, 15" (14 months old) and generally use it on my desk sitting on a Raindesign iLap aluminum stand. The aluminum stand seems to help dissipate the heat, which, fortunately, hasn't been a problem for me. Right now the CPU temp is 124℉. Very infrequently the temp will rise and the fans kick on, but rarely.

When I do want to use the MBP (or my MacBook Air—which is used when I travel) on my lap, I cut to size a piece of particle board—the kind that has holes in it and is used normally to hang tools on in the garage. I glued two rubber tips on one end to give it a bit of elevation, and I find this also works great to set the MBP or MBA on whether on one's lap or on a desk.

As a side note, 14 months ago we were a "Windows family", with four PCs. I then bought the MBP, and now we are an "OS X family" with four Macs. We made the switch and never looked back.

I think you will definitely enjoy the MBP, and I'll keep reading your blog, and reader comments, to see how things develop. An enjoyable blog. Thanks for doing it.... SlimJim

I have a 15" PowerBook from way before the glossy ...

2008-06-17T09:46:00.000-04:00

I have a 15" PowerBook from way before the glossy display was an option. When Apple introduced the MacBook and MacBook Pro, a friend of mine bought a MacBook following my recommendation (his first Macintosh).

He brought it over so I could help him set it up and show him the ropes of Mac OS. This was the first time I saw a glossy screen in the flesh, as it were.

Immediately, I took notice of two things: (a) the MacBook's display was so much brighter, and (b) I'd never ever get a portable with a glossy display. True, the picture did look sharper, but I also noticed some, how shall I put this, grain. The impression was similar to the one you get watching old movies shot on low-grade film stock. As for the glare itself, it was definitely a problem. I kept getting distracted by not just the glare itself, but by the reflection. Don't get me wrong, I do love to see my face from time to time, but only when I want to.

That said, I've always enjoyed matte photographs and preferred them over glossy pictures.

Now have I made you hexed even more? :-P

@Josso: 1440x900 is the max resolution for the MBP...

2008-06-17T07:57:00.000-04:00

@Josso: 1440x900 is the max resolution for the MBP on it's internal screen. If this will be your primary machine however and you'll do the bulk of your work with it on a desk you can get an external monitor that will support much higher resolutions. It can be run either as an additional desktop or as a clone of your existing machine so you can close the lid and use an external mouse, keyboard and display when it's parked on your desk.

Lots of options there, heavily dependent on how mobile you need to be (the 17" MBP is quite large compared to the 15"), your budget and the amount of disk space you'll have to work with.

I have a case from Speck for my 17 in MacBook Pro....

2008-06-17T07:10:00.000-04:00

I have a case from Speck for my 17 in MacBook Pro. It adds some protection from dents, and insulates your lap from the heat. Its vents align with the MacBook and does not appear to impede air flow.

It's a shame you didn't use migration assistant. I...

2008-06-17T02:48:00.000-04:00

It's a shame you didn't use migration assistant. It's beautiful, the kind of thing that Windows users only dream of. Migration Assistant moves over all user data, settings, and applications while leaving behind the old system, and any of its problems.

Anyway, if you ever do end up wanting to clean out the system, an Archive and Install is painless. It does the equivalent of a Windows reformat and reinstall while keeping the user's data, settings, and applications intact.

Mac users rarely have to recreate their machines from scratch, even when they're extremely experimental.

ahh yes... the evil heat problem with MBP's... it'...

2008-06-17T02:12:00.000-04:00

ahh yes... the evil heat problem with MBP's... it's a pain but I don't find it too bad if your just doing 'normal' stuff in anything but summer heat... in summer heat it does become quite a bit problem but the fans deal with it pretty well... i use Fan Control (as charles stated :D) to control the fans on my MBP and make sure they are running fast enough to keep my MBP cool although it does get noisy and you run the danger of killing your fans at a young age, but I'd rather my motherboard and hands/legs last longer than a couple of $30 fans :D Admittedly I never use my MBP on my lap though...

Greg, I to have the first 17" MB Pro. Was interest...

2008-06-16T18:03:00.000-04:00

Greg,

I to have the first 17" MB Pro. Was interested in your selling story. Were you able to buy both those computers from the sale?

Send me an email to let me know. Thanks.

ryanromkema AT gmail DOT com

Thanks for writing about this David. I was wonder...

2008-06-16T17:55:00.000-04:00

Thanks for writing about this David. I was wondering if my 17" MacBook Pro was running hot sometimes. It sounds like it is in line with yours. I've noticed it get up to 62 or 63 degrees Celsius at times. It usually happens when I'm running Fusion or exporting a slide show in PulpMotion. Mine has the same config as yours except I have a 160 Gb hard drive. I bought mine last September. I'm leery of messing with the fans. I'm afraind of it causing some problems like one of the anonymous people posted about. I've thought about putting a faster drive in it but I'm leery about the potential heat increase. Other than the heat issue, I love my MacBook Pro.

Regards,

Sleepydude

@All: With Charles advice in hand I tried out Fan ...

2008-06-16T16:10:00.000-04:00

@All: With Charles advice in hand I tried out Fan Control and set my minimum fan speed to 3100 RPM. At idle my CPU temp is down to 40°C from about 51°C before switching the fan speed.

I can't really hear a difference in the fan's noise with it running a little faster.

@Ast: I compared the glossy and matte displays side by side and the glossy seemed much clearer and it was what I was used to on the MacBook. I haven't really had any glare problems at all though now that you've brought it up I'm probably hexed.

Thanks ;-)

There are actually a few external fans that you ca...

2008-06-16T14:49:00.000-04:00

There are actually a few external fans that you can purchase for the pro that are very effective. Good luck with the new computer!

A glossy display? Ouch.

2008-06-16T14:35:00.000-04:00

A glossy display? Ouch.

A lot of the posts you will find about heat issues...

2008-06-16T14:15:00.000-04:00

A lot of the posts you will find about heat issues probably refer to the first generation MBP. Which were getting crazy hot. Apple really improved the cooling system for the next generations. It still gets warm, but with low CPU load not uncomfortably so.

The mbp gets hot on the bottom left because that i...

2008-06-16T12:55:00.000-04:00

The mbp gets hot on the bottom left because that is the location of the harddrive. The battery will also get a bit warm when it's completely dead and you plug it in and it recharges all the way.

As for the harddrive getting warm, it will get a bit warm if you push it hard, but it shouldn't stay that way.

Dave,In regards to the Tyson Corner store not offe...

2008-06-16T12:02:00.000-04:00

Dave,

In regards to the Tyson Corner store not offering the service of changing out your hard drive, the store in the Pentagon City Mall may be an option.

wcarr3 from MacForums

FanControl-like utilities have previously fried a ...

2008-06-16T11:57:00.000-04:00

FanControl-like utilities have previously fried a number of fans (and subsequently some CPUs) at my company. I would not recommend those.

During first week of using MacBook Pro (which was over a year ago, switch from Dell Latitude D800, which I'm not all that thrilled with), I've purchased a Lapinator (http://www.lapinator.com/). Without it, this little heater would be unusable without a desk nearbuy, more so when running Parallels.

It's a tradeoff for being trendy, I guess ...

Gee, I only have a 160 gig drive in my Macbook, an...

2008-06-16T11:47:00.000-04:00

Gee, I only have a 160 gig drive in my Macbook, and it spends most of it's time on a desk, even out and about.

My wife has a little padded lap desk she like to use while lounging on the couch with her Macbook.

Both of them get a little warm for straight lap usage, but the venting is good and the plastic cases are a tad more insulating than the aluminum one of the MBP.

The storage question is mostly one of management. Any videos (which are arguably the most bloated of the Things That Take Up Space) that have been watched and won't therefore be needed when out and about go onto either the firewire or USB external drives I have sitting here. I can always drag over a movie or TV show if I'm expecting to be out in the World and will need to be entertained while waiting for something (haircut, doctors office, dentist, you know all those professional places where the main thing you do is wait.) Then it's to the Trash to free up space while a copy of it is still on the external drive.

Kids today, and their EXTREEEEEEMME storage requirements! ;)

- walkerj from the Mac Forums

Hey David. :)Is it possible to get another (higher...

2008-06-16T11:34:00.000-04:00

Hey David. :)

Is it possible to get another (higher?) resolution than 1440x900 ?
I'm going to buy a Macbook Pro 15" too, and would love to have a bit bigger resolution. (It'll be my primary computer)

And funny enough, I heard the opposite on a Danish Macforum: That Macbook gets warmer than the MB Pro... :p
I'm just hoping mine don't get hot. :)

Greetings,
- Johan

David: In 2006, I made the jump back to the Mac af...

2008-06-16T11:20:00.000-04:00

David: In 2006, I made the jump back to the Mac after having been on Windows since 1995. My first machine was an Intel Mini, my second and main machine was the first 17" MacBook Pro. This month, I decided I needed to replace my notebook while resale value was still good. I now use a 24" 2.8 iMac as my main machine. I have syncing between the two nailed, so I decided I could go with a lighter, smaller notebook than the 17". Last week I got a black MacBook 2.4/250 and upgraded to 4GB.

My thoughts (nits) between the two are:

- MacBooks run cooler (especially compared with the 1st generation MacBook Pros).
- Going from 1680x1050 to 1280x800 is a big jump.
- I'll miss the Express/34 -- I kept an SDHC reader in it.
- I like the magnetic closure of the lid on the MacBook better than the MacBook Pro latch.
- Battery life on the MacBook is good.
- Having only two USB plugs and both on one side, makes you think about what your USB devices.
- FireWire 800 is useful when you really need to move data on/off - FireWire 400 is surprisingly slow.
- Audio is much better on the 17" (probably the 15 too).
- The light up keyboard is nice, but not key for me.
- I'm so glad to have 4GB now (old MBP 17" max out at 2GB).

I know you'll enjoy your MacBook Pro and will be interested in reading more about your experience.

Greg