Macbook Pro & Macbook Disassembled

**Cody Overcash** · 10-16-2008, 08:11 PM

iFixit has taken apart both the Macbook Pro and the Macbook and put together a couple great disassembly guides and pointed out some interesting observations.

Macbook Pro Disassembly

The keyboard is now more similar to the old MacBook than the previous MacBook Pro. While the unibody case is very cool, this is going to make keyboard repair difficult (read 56 screws to replace the keyboard).
Replacing the hard drive is significantly easier on this machine than the previous MacBook Pro.
The interior is cleaner and flows together better than the previous Pro.
The Montevina chipset appears to support up to 8GB ram even though Apple says 4.
Two Nvidia chips! GeForce 9400M, which only runs 16 processor cores and 54 Gigaflops and GeForce 9600M GT, which has 32 processor cores and is capable of 120 Gigaflops.
Airport and Bluetooth both in display assembly. Airport serviceable, bluetooth not.

Macbook Disassembly

12 percent thinner than its predecessor (0.95 in vs. 1.08 in) and 10 percent lighter (4.5 pounds vs. 5 pounds).
There's a new Mini DisplayPort and a complete lack of a FireWire port.
Replacing the hard drive is easy (one screw).
Seven screws to get to RAM
The Montevina chipset appears to support up to 8GB ram although Apple says 4
High quality on par with the Macbook Pro.

KelvinalF · 10-16-2008, 08:24 PM

nice!! thanks

**jesse33125** · 10-16-2008, 08:26 PM

thats nasty...

**lillewis51** · 10-16-2008, 08:38 PM

sweet the pro looks kick ***

**SamHyde** · 10-16-2008, 11:41 PM

8gb of ram? Hmm.. that would be cool.

**b3nny** · 10-17-2008, 01:12 AM

yeah, 8gb of ram is hot. so is this unsupported, but a complete go, with no hassle? or is there something that needs to be done to make it work? or any precautionary measures that need to be taken? anyone know? anyone got a guinea pig they're willing to throw 8gb at? i would love to see the performance tests with 4 vs. 8.

oh and btw, ifixit.com kicks ***!! thanks to everyone over there.

**sziklassy** · 10-17-2008, 07:45 AM

Everyone is getting excited over 8GB of RAM... I have never even seen anything that uses up my 4 gigs (on PC anyway)... what would we need 8 gigs of RAM for? LOL

**zurie** · 10-17-2008, 10:04 AM

Originally Posted by sziklassy

Everyone is getting excited over 8GB of RAM... I have never even seen anything that uses up my 4 gigs (on PC anyway)... what would we need 8 gigs of RAM for? LOL

photoshop? premiere? Logic Studio 8? indesign? how about running photoshop and another program simultaneously?

basically everything the mac excels at works better with more ram.

**sziklassy** · 10-17-2008, 10:36 AM

Originally Posted by zurie

photoshop? premiere? Logic Studio 8? indesign? how about running photoshop and another program simultaneously?

basically everything the mac excels at works better with more ram.

Are those programs seriously going to east up all 4 gigs of your ram?

**oliverhart77** · 10-17-2008, 06:52 PM

more is not always better

**reallynotnick** · 10-17-2008, 10:34 PM

Originally Posted by sziklassy

Are those programs seriously going to east up all 4 gigs of your ram?

Running them all at once.

Though personally I see as 4GB as more then enough as I am running on 2GB but am a little squeezed, I wouldn't mind the ability to go all the way up to 8GB especially if you wanted to run OS X and Vista side by side.

**WillyDavidK** · 10-19-2008, 04:50 PM

Originally Posted by sziklassy

Are those programs seriously going to east up all 4 gigs of your ram?

Absolutely.

You've never seen your computer use up all of your 4GB, because your computer knows better than to eat it all up. I do a lot of audio recording and mixing, and regularly have to run cubase/logic pro and reason simultaneously, and it's amazing how quickly they can take up memory. And imagine trying to compile an HDR shot with 5 different light levels at 12 MP of camera RAW format in photoshop. That extra memory would really speed things up, and greatly reduce the chance of a crash or lock-up. What about trying to perform any kind of editing/rendering/compositing on 1080p footage?

I do agree that for an average consumer, 4 GB would be more than adequate, but if you plan on doing anything professional, particularly with the macbook pro, 8GB would be a welcome addition. It's really more of a question of the chipset than the processor architecture though.

**Melloout** · 10-22-2008, 01:52 AM

Hello, I was just wondering if anyone knew if you could swap out a Backlit keyboard from the new Macbook or Air, to an "old" Macbook. I know it would have to be, one key at a time to remove and assemble, but was wondering if it would be "Plug and Play"? Thanks

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Thread: Macbook Pro & Macbook Disassembled

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iFixit has taken apart both the Macbook Pro and the Macbook and put together a couple great disassembly guides and pointed out some interesting observations. Macbook Pro Disassembly The keyboard