[greenamp]

Originally Posted by iJeff

If you look at the benchmark test below, theMacBook with its integrated GMA950 video chip set does not perform too badly:

http://arstechnica.com/reviews/hardware/macbook.ars/5

Yeah I was actually pretty impressed by those numbers. Also, we should keep in mind that Apple probably has a lot of work ahead of them in the future for optimizing the drivers for the GMA chip.

10.4.7 is slated to deliver some serious OpenGL improvements as well. As per this line in the patch notes in WoW:

Macs
.
.
.
Conditional support for future OpenGL performance enhancements in OS X.

[Gee4orce]

Here's a hint to anyone with a MacBook (and maybe the Pro too) - calibrate the screen !! The best way to do this is to set the screen at the angle you'll want to be working at, and at the angle where you are in the middle of the frame of the iSight. With the default calibration at this angle, the screen is very washed out.

Now, keeping the screen at this angle, run apple's calibration tool (from the displays CP), or better yet use SuperCal (that's what I did). I now have a screen that looks properly saturated at the angle that's correct for using the iSight - it's a huge improvement, and well worth the 10 mintues it takes to do.

[Eug Wanker]

Originally Posted by Star-Fire

I got 2 gigs of Patriot ram for 151 + tax from Fry's electronics and it's working great, it's also listed on outpost.com since they are related.

Wow that's cheap. I'm in Canada though and I don't think Fry's ships here. Anyways, I got Samsung RAM. Nothing special but it makes me feel comfortable that Apple uses Samsung RAM too. Patriot should be fine though, just like KingMAX RAM from around here.

Originally Posted by Gee4orce

So, I think it's safe to say that the CPU/GPU combinations, as far as playing back 1080p h.264 HD video are concerned, are something like this, from best to worst:

G5/Radeon x800XT == CoreDuo/Radeon x1600
CoreDuo/Intel Integrated
G5/Radeon 9600

...that's not too shabby. I hope this puts to bed the 'poor' performance of the integrated graphics.

The integrated graphics is not really relevant here. Quicktime H.264 decoding is all CPU. Basically 1 GHz of a G5 is roughly similar to 1 GHz of a Core CPU. So, it's no surprise that a 2.0 GHz MacBook Core Duo is roughly as fast as a Dual G5 2.0 Power Mac.

I'm still finding it hard to believe that in early 2006 I have a dual-core 2.0 GHz CPU in my consumer laptop, when in 2005 I had the POS G4 1.33.

Originally Posted by greenamp

Eventually somebody is gonna write an application that lets you allocate more memory to the GPU, which will help the GMA950 a bit.

Yeah, that'd be nice. I note that one guy with a 2 GB Mac mini says that under Windows he gets 256 MB allocated to the GPU. So, it's not a hardware issue. It's an OS implementation thing.

[slugslugslug]

Originally Posted by Eug Wanker

Yeah, that'd be nice. I note that one guy with a 2 GB Mac mini says that under Windows he gets 256 MB allocated to the GPU. So, it's not a hardware issue. It's an OS implementation thing.

That's so silly. Truly deserving of the "Why, Apple, why?" that gets thrown around so often with new product introductions.

[Eug Wanker]

Below are my first impressions. No, I haven't received mine yet. Mine's sitting in a FedEx depot in Toronto (Mississauga actually), but it's a long weekend here, and it still hasn't gone thru customs, so I expect mine mid-week.

--

1) When I first looked at that MacBook on display, for a split-second I was confused as to why the OS looked so strange. Then I realized it was running Windows XP. For basic usage, Windows XP is very fast on the stock MacBook with 512 MB RAM, but Mac OS X often is not. With the additional RAM needed for the GPU and for Rosetta, Tiger is starved for memory. After loading several applications to memory, the MacBook needs to page out to disk, slowing the whole system down. While I consider 512 MB memory to be the minimum for a usable PowerPC Mac, I'd say the minimum for an Intel Mac with GMA 950 is significantly higher. 768 MB would probably be OK for basic usage, but unfortunately for video performance reasons, the MacBook needs paired RAM, and thus the minimum memory effectively becomes 1 GB.
2) The MacBook uses the Intel 945GM chipset.
3) Microsoft Word speed seems acceptable. It is not fast on the MacBook, but it is fast enough enough for everyday usage.
4) The glossy screen is very irritating to use under certain lighting conditions. In the store there was relatively bright overhead lighting and I had to keep moving the screen and/or my body position slightly to eliminate glare while still maintaining a good viewing angle. The glossy screen in my opinion is probably the MacBook's worst "feature", because of the glare. I do admit that the contrast is somewhat better than the old 12" iBook's screen, but that doesn't make up for the glare. Viewing angle on both screens are similarly poor.
5) The look of the black MacBook is quite nice. The matte black finish is very pleasing... until you see the fingerprints. The surface of the black MacBook looked like somebody had smeared grease all over it. And actually that's true... The grease from our human fingers was painfully and disgustingly obvious on the black MacBook. It was still there on the white MacBook of course, but it's much, much harder to see. For this reason, and along with the fact that the black MacBook costs significantly more, I think most people would be better off purchasing the white MacBook. The good news is that I did not see any flaking of the black finish, but I did not try to scratch the finish.
6) The MacBook does seem heavier and bulkier than the 12" iBook and 12" PowerBook, but that's not surprising since the MacBook is heavier and much wider. However, despite the greater weight, the 13" MacBook is actually smaller than the 12" iBook. Because the MacBook is much thinner (and sleeker looking) than the 12" iBook, it takes up less overall volume (2029 cubic cm) than the iBook (2242 cubic cm). However, it still takes up more volume than the 12" PowerBook (1820 cubic cm).
7) "Right-clicking" on the new MacBook: Sticking two fingers on the trackpad and then clicking the button brings up the contextual menu. This the best thing since sliced bread... Well, not quite, but it's certainly the best thing since two-finger scrolling (which was introduced on recent iBooks and PowerBooks). It's very intuitive, and it eliminates the requirement for an annoying second button, or use of a CTRL key.
8) The built-in iSight seems of reasonable quality. The camera is barely noticeable, but it is surprisingly effective despite its small size.
9) Contrary to popular belief, the keyboard spacing/sizing is normal, despite the different design and shape of the keys. The feel is a slight improvement overall, but nothing special in my opinion. It's mainly just different. It does look like it may not touch the screen though when the screen is closed. If true, that's is an improvement.
10) The SuperDrive in the MacBook I tested was the Matsushita UJ-857. It is the same 4X DVD-R 9.5 mm tall drive found in 15" MacBook Pros, and it does not support dual-layer burning.

[Mac Hammer Fan]

Thanks for this interesting info. Your review is really helpful. No heat or noise problem?

[Escobar]

I'm falling in love with this thing!!! No whine / excessive noise so far (i can only hear something if i place my ear against the keyboard, and barely hear anything at all!). The two finger right click is an amazing feature as well. I'm currently calibrating the battery, so i've set my brightness to the lowest so that it'll fill up faster. I can sorta see myself in the reflection if I don't concentrate on what i'm typing, but rather looking for myself. However, when the screen is set to a brighter setting, the reflectivity decreases immensely. THe keyboard is really easy to get used to, and has a satisfying feel when you press down on it. There were some moments where teh computer would hang for a second when I was download all of those updates, but I was expecting that. I've got my 2GB sticks of RAM right next to me...waiting to be installed. I can't wait

[masugu]

[QUOTE=Escobar] THe keyboard is really easy to get used to, and has a satisfying feel when you press down on it.

escobar....

Do you agree the space bar seems a little loose / clackity???

[Escobar]

After you asked me that question, then i started to notice it. Damn You!

I can see where people can get that notion, but it doesn't affect me at all.

[Eug Wanker]

Originally Posted by Mac Hammer Fan

Thanks for this interesting info. Your review is really helpful. No heat or noise problem?

Hard to say.

The store wasn't exactly quiet, so I couldn't assess for whine very easily. I don't know what the whine sounds like anyway, since I've never owned a MacBook Pro.

Also, while both the black and white machines were very cool, it's hard to know for sure what the truth about heat is, because the laptops had no batteries (and battery charging is often a source of heat), and the MacBooks were raised up on a laptop stands which would increase air flow underneath them.

[ecking01]

Originally Posted by Eug Wanker

Below are my first impressions. No, I haven't received mine yet. Mine's sitting in a FedEx depot in Toronto (Mississauga actually), but it's a long weekend here, and it still hasn't gone thru customs, so I expect mine mid-week.

I live in Mississauga and actually worked at that very depot one summer I sent a lot of G5s on their way. lol Small world.

[Eug Wanker]

Originally Posted by ecking01

I live in Mississauga and actually worked at that very depot one summer I sent a lot of G5s on their way. lol Small world.

Cool. Small world.

So what happens exactly? Tuesday early am it will get sorted, and then sometime Tuesday morning it will go to customs, back late Tuesday for delivery on Wednesday? (I'm in Toronto, and my info says Wed. delivery.)

I'm just impressed that these courier companies can get stuff across the world, sorted, thru customs, and then delivered so quickly.

[icruise]

I was finally able to see a MacBook in a store today. They only had the black model. I'd say the screen is great and not nearly as bad as some people were making it out to be. Of course some of this does depend on the lighting, but there was very little glare and it looked bright and sharp. The casing does have a bit of a "rubberized" feel to it (and I did try and scratch it a bit and there was no flaking). It's actually a very different feeling from the Pismo. Better, probably. The keyboard was the only disappointing thing. It's definitely not as good as the keyboard on my 12" PowerBook (of course these things are very subjective, but that's definitely my opinion). It did feel a lot better than the ones on the older iBooks. I never used an iBook G4, so I can't really compare that. But it's not terrible or anything. Very serviceable. Just not as nice as the PowerBook's, which I love. All in all, a very nice machine.

[amazing]

The noisy spacebar was what really bothered me about the MB keyboards at the Apple Store--I had no problems adjusting to the keyboard otherwise. The shift and return keys were also noisy.

[AC Rempt]

I have neither heat nor noise problems in my BlacBook so far. I certainly don't have a whine, even with brightness on full and the processors chugging.

As for the keyboard, yeah, not as nice as my old PB 12 inch, but still a good keyboard, I think. It's responsive and solid. Is the space bar clacky? A bit, but I like the sound, and I like to know that I've actually hit the thing.

I've also had to get used the track pad button. It's not as tight as my old PB's, but being able to use two fingers for control-clicking and scrolling makes up for it.

Overall, this is a solid machine. The bright screen and good battery life certainly make up for some of the other minor gripes., and the more I use it, the more I like it. I can't wait for my gig of RAM to get here, so I can really start working.

[megasad]

I love my new machine (2GHz white) in pretty much all the respects people have listed on the last many pages, so I'll just make a couple of comments about the two things that bother me:

1 - Charging Whine. Only when the power cable is plugged in do I get a whining noise. When I run off battery, I do not. However, I've found a solution; when plugged in, simply open Photo Booth. The whine disappears, and if you don't want to randomly catch glimpses of yourself, simply select a previously taken picture. The whine is still gone. Hoo-hah,

2 - The screen resolution of about 113ppi is far too high for me. I strain to read the menu bar / system texts, have fonts in Safari never allowed smaller than 18, similar in Mail. I knew that things would look smaller, having used a 90ppi eMac for the last two years. I just didn't expect it to be this much of a problem for me.

I was considering returning the MacBook because of the second issue, but then I realised this was silly; it's only a problem when I use it on my desk, with an external keyboard and mouse. When I use it as a laptop, closer to myself, I can read it fine. So, I hope that 10.5 will include the fabled vector-based UI (or, hell, just allow me to increase the system font size).

Um, sorry if that sounded sour. The keyboard is magnificent, as are the dimensions and weight of the machine itself. My last laptop notebook was a 2001 iBook, so it's nice to have my main machine be a portable again. I'm going to work in a little while, where 2GB RAM should be waiting fo me. Once I stick that in, I'm sure it'll destroy my eMac as well.

[Eug Wanker]

[greenamp]

Originally Posted by Eug Wanker

Looks like shat!

[Eug Wanker]

13" MacBook Core Duo 2.0:

Code:
CINEBENCH 9.5
****************************************************

Tester           : Eug

Processor        : Intel Core Duo
MHz              : 2.0 GHz
Number of CPUs   : 2
Operating System : Mac OS X Tiger 10.4.6

Graphics Card    : Intel GMA 950
Resolution       : 1280x800
Color Depth      : Millions

****************************************************

Rendering (Single   CPU): 307 CB-CPU 
Rendering (Multiple CPU): 578 CB-CPU 

Multiprocessor Speedup: 1.88

Shading (CINEMA 4D)                : 347 CB-GFX 
Shading (OpenGL Software Lighting) : 1187 CB-GFX 
Shading (OpenGL Hardware Lighting) : 1088 CB-GFX 

OpenGL Speedup: 3.42

****************************************************

20" iMac G5 2.0:

Code:
CINEBENCH 9.5
****************************************************

Tester           : Eug

Processor        : G5 970FX
MHz              : 2.0 GHz
Number of CPUs   : 1
Operating System : Mac OS X Tiger 10.4.6

Graphics Card    : ATI Radeon 9600
Resolution       : 1680x1050
Color Depth      : Millions

****************************************************

Rendering (Single   CPU): 262 CB-CPU 
Rendering (Multiple CPU): --- CB-CPU 


Shading (CINEMA 4D)                : 275 CB-GFX 
Shading (OpenGL Software Lighting) : 859 CB-GFX 
Shading (OpenGL Hardware Lighting) : 1825 CB-GFX 

OpenGL Speedup: 6.64

****************************************************

[jbleisure]

I went to check out the new MacBook at the Apple store in London. WOW I thought they were great - very slick finish. The screen would be problematic and I don't know I'd buy one for that reason....However one of the sales guys told me that a glossy screen was available as an option for a MBP if ordered on line, although he didn't know if they were offeringa matt screen for the MB on line.

[Yakov]

jbleisure: the screen option is only available for MBP. your sales guy is an idiot, he should know instantly that the macbook is only available in one screen style

[Mastrap]

The glossy screen bothers me a lot less than I thought it would. You really have to be in a very bright environment for it to be any problem.

[azt33]

Originally Posted by Mastrap

The glossy screen bothers me a lot less than I thought it would. You really have to be in a very bright environment for it to be any problem.

Same here, I actually compared it to the MBP's matte screen, and it looked much better than the MBP's screen. Even if I get an MBP, I think I am going to get the glossy screen.

Did anyone compare the glossy screen with a matte screen, when it comes to games/movies?

[Eug Wanker]

The glossy screen has better contrast and colours than the old 12-incher's matte screen.

However, the glossy screen is very annoying in harsh lighting, because of the glare. It's OK at my place though, since I keep the lights dim and there aren't too many direct sources of light facing the screen.

[Socially Awkward Solo]

To be honest my iBooks screen is 95% unviewable outside even under shade.

[amazing]

Eug: Thanks for the benchmark comparison! Though I am very, very disappointed that Cinebench doesn't lidentify it as a BlackBook. Surely that's as important as the benchmarks?

The glossy screen worries me more in terms of the cumulative effect of eye strain and eye fatigue. I saw in another thread that there's a glossy film you can put on matte screens--wonder if there's a matte film to tone down glossy screens? And if anyone ever does that keyboard, it'll sure never get ripped off--but it'll be the equivalent of a backlit keyboard in dim light.

When you've had a chance to play with it, please give us your take on the heat and the wireless range and portability.

[amazing]

David Pogue has a really cute video review of the MacBook on the front page of the NY Times. Also, check out the review in his blog at nytimes.com. In the video, he seems to prefer the StealthBook! Though you do see the reflections in the glossy screen...

http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/

[Eug Wanker]

Originally Posted by amazing

Eug: Thanks for the benchmark comparison! Though I am very, very disappointed that Cinebench doesn't lidentify it as a BlackBook. Surely that's as important as the benchmarks?

I have the WhiteBook. Anyways, some of the identifier info is entered by the tester, so you can call it whatever you want.

The glossy screen worries me more in terms of the cumulative effect of eye strain and eye fatigue.

In low flat light, the screen doesn't bother me at all. In fact, in that kind of lighting it's an improvement over the old screen, because the contrast and colours are better. It's only in harsh lighting where it's a problem. However it can be a serious problem in those conditions.

Fortunately, I use my computer 90% of the time at home, where I can set my lighting to my choosing.

[AC Rempt]

I'm using my BlacBook at home under a reading lamp, and the glossy screen is fine. It seems to me if the screen image is bright enough, the gloss isn't an issue. YMMV.

[megasad]

Dagnammit!

Today, just six days after buying my MacBook, it has died.

I press the power button, nothing happens. I try with power adaptor only / battery only / both at the same time, and still nothing happens.

Oh, well. I called the Apple Store, they say they will replace it for me tomorrow. I asked about the 2GB RAM I fitted and they say they'll swap that over for me too.

I've only got a week's worth of email, a few Adium chats, some Photo Booth pictures that I haven't got backed up. I hope they'll let me put my current MacBook hard drive in one of their machines, copy that stuff on to my shuffle. If not, no real loss, though I'd like to wipe the drive, obviously.

Anyway, hopefully all shall be well tomorrow.

Still sad that it died though.

[Eug Wanker]

Ouch, mega

--

I'm using my MacBook right now at work. The glare is much worse here. I can work around it, but even with the screen at max brightness, it's still an annoyance.

Also, since someone elsewhere asked: Yes, two finger tapping works as well, for right clicking. I prefer the two-finger on trackpad and click button method though. You can't have both at the same time.

[Heavy]

I'm a new Mac user. What do you use right clicking for on Macs? I can't get it to do anything.

[harrisjamieh]

Has anyone noticed that the left side of the keyboard has more movement than the right? I don't mean how far the keys move, but when I press keys on the left side, the whole key - board on the left will move a little, whereas no such thing happens on the right. This also gives typing a different sound on the left/right. I think this is because on the right you have the heatsink and stuff, that probably support the keyboard, whereas on the left there is basically just logic board, with the hard drive under the palm rest

[Eug Wanker]

Originally Posted by Heavy

I'm a new Mac user. What do you use right clicking for on Macs? I can't get it to do anything.

It does the same thing as on other OSes. It brings up the contextual menu.

You have to turn it on in the System Preferences though.

Originally Posted by harrisjamieh

Has anyone noticed that the left side of the keyboard has more movement than the right? I don't mean how far the keys move, but when I press keys on the left side, the whole key - board on the left will move a little, whereas no such thing happens on the right. This also gives typing a different sound on the left/right.

I have not noticed this. There is slight movement on mine on both sides.

[icruise]

Originally Posted by Eug Wanker

It does the same thing as on other OSes. It brings up the contextual menu.

You have to turn it on in the System Preferences though.

Yes, but there are very few cases (if any) where you actually have to right click on a Mac. On Windows, you are often forced to right click just to perform a common task, but on the Mac it should be possible to do everything using a menu item or a shortcut. Of course, there are some cases where right clicking might be more convenient, but it isn't required.

Eug, what do you mean about turning right clicking on in the prefs? It should work by default.

[megasad]

Originally Posted by Eug Wanker

Ouch, mega

Now for the extra ouch; when I installed the RAM I apparently damaged the logic board (not on purpose, obviously! I simply followed the diagram beneath the battery...)

So, Apple won't exchange the machine for a new one (it is classed as Accidental Damage now, rather than DOA) and to repair it will cost £524.05.

I have until tomorrow to decide what I want to do and I still mull it over.

On the one hand, I followed the diagram to change the RAM as best as I could, something I have done on innumerable other machines without incident. In my opinion, after the fact, that diagram was woefully inadequate; it just shows the levers being moved to the left, nothing more. That's what I did, and that's what broke them, and they can only be repaired by replacing the entire logic board.

On the other hand, they (Apple Store, Regent Street) are accountable to Apple proper for all their repairs, and obviously I don't expect them to somehow overlook that just for me.

Oh, well. £525 extra on a machine that originally cost me £845 is pretty sad for me (£1370? That's £70 more than I paid for this 600MHz G3 iBook I bought back in 2001!)... but not for any of you. Just make sure you do what I didn't; read Apple's own support site thoroughly before even thinking of changing the RAM in your MacBook. My own eagerness has turned out pretty fecking expensive.

[megasad]

Originally Posted by Icruise

Eug, what do you mean about turning right clicking on in the prefs? It should work by default.

I'm guessing Eug means that for you to get Right-Click by just using two-finger-tap on the trackpad, you need to enable the option in System Preferences. Obviously, Control-Click always works, no further muddling required.

[harrisjamieh]

Ouch megasad!!!!! If I were you I would have re-instaleld the original RAM before I took it back to the Apple Store, then you could have claimed that you never riddled with it at all, and that it just stopped working.

[megasad]

Originally Posted by harrisjamieh

Ouch megasad!!!!! If I were you I would have re-instaleld the original RAM before I took it back to the Apple Store, then you could have claimed that you never riddled with it at all, and that it just stopped working.

Yup, but unfortunately the RAM was stuck in the slots. Of course, £150 for the RAM is a whole lot less than £525 repairs, but it's too late now; they log everything, so I couldn't try that even if I wanted to. I still don't know whether to pay that £525 though; that's a whole load of money to me, especially as I just bought the new machine. But if I don't fix it, it's just a paper weight. Bah.

[icruise]

Originally Posted by megasad

On the one hand, I followed the diagram to change the RAM as best as I could, something I have done on innumerable other machines without incident. In my opinion, after the fact, that diagram was woefully inadequate; it just shows the levers being moved to the left, nothing more. That's what I did, and that's what broke them, and they can only be repaired by replacing the entire logic board.

That really does suck, but isn't possible that the damage occurred when you tried to pry out the original RAM with a screwdriver instead of when installing the new RAM?

[Eug Wanker]

Originally Posted by megasad

I'm guessing Eug means that for you to get Right-Click by just using two-finger-tap on the trackpad, you need to enable the option in System Preferences. Obviously, Control-Click always works, no further muddling required.

Correct.

Originally Posted by megasad

Now for the extra ouch; when I installed the RAM I apparently damaged the logic board (not on purpose, obviously! I simply followed the diagram beneath the battery...)

So, Apple won't exchange the machine for a new one (it is classed as Accidental Damage now, rather than DOA) and to repair it will cost £524.05.

I have until tomorrow to decide what I want to do and I still mull it over.

On the one hand, I followed the diagram to change the RAM as best as I could, something I have done on innumerable other machines without incident. In my opinion, after the fact, that diagram was woefully inadequate; it just shows the levers being moved to the left, nothing more. That's what I did, and that's what broke them, and they can only be repaired by replacing the entire logic board.

Originally Posted by megasad

Yup, but unfortunately the RAM was stuck in the slots. Of course, £150 for the RAM is a whole lot less than £525 repairs, but it's too late now; they log everything, so I couldn't try that even if I wanted to. I still don't know whether to pay that £525 though; that's a whole load of money to me, especially as I just bought the new machine. But if I don't fix it, it's just a paper weight. Bah.

Originally Posted by Icruise

That really does suck, but isn't possible that the damage occurred when you tried to pry out the original RAM with a screwdriver instead of when installing the new RAM?

Hmmm... Megasad, I feel your pain but I'm afraid I'm gonna have to side with Apple on this one, considering the instructions specifically said to use the levers.

[Maflynn]

Originally Posted by megasad

Yup, but unfortunately the RAM was stuck in the slots. Of course, £150 for the RAM is a whole lot less than £525 repairs, but it's too late now; they log everything, so I couldn't try that even if I wanted to. I still don't know whether to pay that £525 though; that's a whole load of money to me, especially as I just bought the new machine. But if I don't fix it, it's just a paper weight. Bah.

Why didn't you use the levers. I just upgraded my ram yesterday and saw the picture of what to do in the battery bay. the ram was really in there but the levers were sufficient to get them out.

Additionally I needed to really push the new modules into the slots with a fair amonut of force. At first I didn't and the mac didn't boot, but once I saw what I did, it was any easy fix. too bad you damaged your mac I feel for ya.

[megasad]

Originally Posted by Icruise

That really does suck, but isn't possible that the damage occurred when you tried to pry out the original RAM with a screwdriver instead of when installing the new RAM?

I don't think so, no. I didn't describe it too well in that post, but when I say I tried to pry it out, all I lent against was the metal of the case itself and that bit of solder on the 256MB chip. So, the bit of solder broke off the chip but the machine was none the worse for wear from that. Once the solder fell off, I stopped with the prying.

What went wrong was that I thought you were meant to move the lever to the left to release the RAM. So I did so. Really fecking hard.

(For those who don't yet know; you're meant to move it to the right)

So, I got the original RAM out, but it must have killed the lever and somehow messed up the logic board at the same time. Which is why I couldn't get the 1GB chips out again and why they consider the whole logic board needs replacing.

Originally Posted by Eug Wanker

Hmmm... Megasad, I feel your pain but I'm afraid I'm gonna have to side with Apple on this one, considering the instructions specifically said to use the levers.

Mm-hmm. My only mistake was thinking from the diagram that you were meant to move the levers to the left rather than the right.

Originally Posted by Maflynn

Additionally I needed to really push the new modules into the slots with a fair amonut of force. At first I didn't and the mac didn't boot, but once I saw what I did, it was any easy fix. too bad you damaged your mac I feel for ya.

That was the problem I didn't have; I pushed the RAM in firmly and it worked fine for a couple of days. Then it died. I am poor with levers.

[Eug Wanker]

My GF used my MacBook for the first time today:

"Your new computer is very fast. Much faster than the old laptop. Much faster than your iMac too."

She was just surfing, but I totally agree. The boost in performance is astounding, even just for general usage like surfing. Even window resizing is finally fast.

[icruise]

My sister's MacBook (the low-end configuration) arrived yesterday and so I got to use to for a bit while I set it up for her.

We ran into a problem with the Migration Assistant. It stopped with an error (file not found for some cache file on her old computer) after only copying a few megabytes of files from her old machine. This left her with a partially installed user -- most of her files were not transferred. I decided to use the disk utility on her old computer to try and repair the disk and reinstalled Tiger on the new one, just to make sure that I got everything transferred, but that didn't help. I eventually had to do most of the copying manually, which worked OK but I'm always worried that I'll forget something. It turns out that there was a file on her old computer's hard disk that is apparently corrupt in some way. If you try and delete it, the finder just stalls at "emptying the trash" and if you click on it in the finder, it seems to disappear, but restarting the finder brings it back. This was apparently the cause of the problems with the migration assistant. It was too bad, since it made the entire process take much longer than it should have.

But the MacBook itself worked well. There was no whine that I could hear, and while it did get sort of hot, it wasn't excessive (admittedly, we weren't pushing it in terms of performance). I just love the new screens. The glare is not a problem at all. They do seem to exhibit some obvious shifts in color when viewed off-axis, but when see from the front it looks great. We had her old iBook G3 next to it to transfer files, and was almost comical how dim and dingy the screen looked. The sun was starting to set while we were transferring things over, so there was sunlight shining down onto the two computers, and you could see the MacBook's screen much more easily than the iBook's.

The keyboard is a bit better than I thought from trying it in the store. It's still a notch below the Aluminum PowerBook/MacBook Pro keyboards, but it's MUCH better than the old iBook keyboards (particularly the early ones).

I was able to install her 1GB of RAM with no problems at all, and I popped out the hard disk just to see what it was like -- what a fantastic design!

It seemed nice and fast, and I'm sure it will be a great upgrade coming from a 800Mhz iBook G3 with 384MB of RAM.

[Hi I'm Ben]

Originally Posted by megasad

That was the problem I didn't have; I pushed the RAM in firmly and it worked fine for a couple of days. Then it died. I am poor with levers.

Since you're out of Warranty I'd take the machine apart and remove the ram manually. It's truly not that bad. Look up for a guide online to take off the front plate (where the keyboard is). I think it's a total of... 28 screws, 20 of which are inside the batter bay. You will be able to access the dimms and the tabs that hold it in directly by removing the keyboard cover.


This is by far your best bet, since you have nothing to lose.