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When I see this I do think there would be a market for a drop-in motherboard replacement for macbooks. Not necessarily to upgrade them to run macOS, but to tak

When I see this I do think there would be a market for a drop-in motherboard replacement for macbooks. Not necessarily to upgrade them to run macOS, but to take a (say) 2015 macbook which has an excellent keyboard, mouse and screen, and have an upgraded motherboard that is a drop-in replacement. It would mean a lot less equipment going in landfills, and from my experience of earlier (pre-2014) models, they tend to follow the same form factor for a few years, so there would be a reasonable market for it? I'm writing this on a 2011 MBP which is running Monterey because of OpenCore Patcher, and it's a bit slow, but everything about it physically is better than most laptops I would get for under £500. This with a faster processor, graphics and RAM would do me for another 5 years for 'general' duties.

radomir_cernoch 4y ago
There is a market for upgraded ThinkPads: https://www.facebook.com/lcdfans/ https://www.facebook.com/lcdfans/ http://www.cnmod.cn/ http://www.cnmod.cn/ The "e-shop" makes it quite hard to order, but... it exists. :-)
- TwoFerMaggie 4y ago
  > Because the COVID-19 in China, we can not work ,and we was blocked in home ,we can not go anywhere . > Please wait some days ,I think the COVID-19 will go away in 3-2020 . :( this makes me really sad... hope they're still doing okay now
  - Squarex 4y ago
    it looks so, in december they posted: > We are free now . So, we will ship some laptop now .
- mcbuilder 4y ago
  Sometimes I wonder why I keep a boxes full of a good dozen late IBM era Thinkpads, and I remember thinks like this exist and hopefully will continue into the future with modern tech like OLED, power efficient chips. Maybe if I even just use the chassis, I just love the feel of the T42 - T63, 4:3 aspect ratio is perfect, arguably the best laptop keyboard of all time, trackpoint, tracklight, dat Mg case, beautiful 90s business aesthetics.
- Lammy 4y ago
  Words can't adequately describe how much I love my X2100
gedy 4y ago
Agreed, I have a 2011 17in MacBook Pro in the cabinet waiting for a project like this. Still a beautiful large screen and keyboard.
ravagat 4y ago
Ha! This has been an on/off idea in the back of my mind. I realized that an opportunity to do this would attract customers but not enough to turn into a viable business. On one hand, I wish someone at Apple has the imperative to try this at scale. I don't think it'd be a profit generating scheme but I do think there would be some revenue. I have a couple of 2015 rMBP to maybe try this out one day
ali7388 4y ago
MBP are not really friendly to this. For example keyboard is rivetted, so replacing requires drilling and threading 50 tiny screws...
- monetus 4y ago
  Think there is some sort of advantage they had by doing that rather than say, four screws at the ends of the PCB? Damage resistance? - Trying not to believe planned obsolescence was the priority.
  - chis 4y ago
    Would guess that it helps with keyboard flex. And rivets are cheaper than screws.
  - ali7388 4y ago
    It is lighter and more robust. Screws may come loose.
    - toast0 4y ago
      Rivets come loose too; but they're a lot harder to retighten.
    - Brian_K_White 4y ago
      When I spilled a drink on my Framework and ordered a new keyboard, I discovered it had 3 mis-aligned screws in the keyboard from the factory. Like either a hole was punched wrong or a screw was rammed in off center. The holes and threads are all messed up and impossible to tighen those screws. 3 out of 60 or more. Never knew there was anything wrong from the outside but I can't imagine wouldn't have worked loose over more time if I hadn't happened to have a reason to uncover them in the first year. I love that I was able to replace a keyboard, but 3 out of 60 is a pretty bad rate.
    - djaychela 4y ago
      The 2012 era ones are screwed in place (I didn't know this until this weekend when I took one apart to that level). I've never known one come loose, and a properly torqued screw will never be a problem in this situation.
TMWNN 4y ago
>I'm writing this on a 2011 MBP which is running Monterey because of OpenCore Patcher, and it's a bit slow, but everything about it physically is better than most laptops I would get for under £500. This with a faster processor, graphics and RAM would do me for another 5 years for 'general' duties. I just replaced a 2012 with a 2021 M1. Yes, it's faster. Not having to use a pad to shield my lap from the computer's heat is nice. But I would have continued to use the 2012 had the hinge not loosened to the point where the screen would not stay upright. My computer environment is almost unchanged; Monterey with OpenCore Legacy Patcher to Monterey, 16GB RAM to 16GB, 1TB SSD to 1TB, 15" to 14". The battery life is much better,^1 but I don't take the computer out of the home so it doesn't make a difference in practice. ^1 But not as good as I'd expected. I don't do anything heavy on the computer—browser, Excel, and ssh—and the M1's battery only lasts for about six hours. Can using Chrome as the browser and not Safari make that much of a difference?
- 2143 4y ago
  > I don't do anything heavy on the computer—browser, Excel, and ssh—and the M1's battery only lasts for about six hours. Can using Chrome as the browser and not Safari make that much of a difference? On an Intel Mac from 2020 I'll get nearly 8 hours of battery if I'm not running a VM. My browser is Firefox. I would expect M1 macs to run substantially longer on battery even if using Chrome (is that even supposed to be a factor?).

radomir_cernoch 4y ago

There is a market for upgraded ThinkPads: https://www.facebook.com/lcdfans/ https://www.facebook.com/lcdfans/ http://www.cnmod.cn/ http://www.cnmod.cn/ The "e-shop" makes it quite hard to order, but... it exists. :-)

TwoFerMaggie 4y ago
> Because the COVID-19 in China, we can not work ,and we was blocked in home ,we can not go anywhere . > Please wait some days ,I think the COVID-19 will go away in 3-2020 . :( this makes me really sad... hope they're still doing okay now
- Squarex 4y ago
  it looks so, in december they posted: > We are free now . So, we will ship some laptop now .
mcbuilder 4y ago
Sometimes I wonder why I keep a boxes full of a good dozen late IBM era Thinkpads, and I remember thinks like this exist and hopefully will continue into the future with modern tech like OLED, power efficient chips. Maybe if I even just use the chassis, I just love the feel of the T42 - T63, 4:3 aspect ratio is perfect, arguably the best laptop keyboard of all time, trackpoint, tracklight, dat Mg case, beautiful 90s business aesthetics.
Lammy 4y ago
Words can't adequately describe how much I love my X2100

gedy 4y ago

Agreed, I have a 2011 17in MacBook Pro in the cabinet waiting for a project like this. Still a beautiful large screen and keyboard.

ravagat 4y ago

Ha! This has been an on/off idea in the back of my mind. I realized that an opportunity to do this would attract customers but not enough to turn into a viable business. On one hand, I wish someone at Apple has the imperative to try this at scale. I don't think it'd be a profit generating scheme but I do think there would be some revenue. I have a couple of 2015 rMBP to maybe try this out one day

ali7388 4y ago

MBP are not really friendly to this. For example keyboard is rivetted, so replacing requires drilling and threading 50 tiny screws...

monetus 4y ago
Think there is some sort of advantage they had by doing that rather than say, four screws at the ends of the PCB? Damage resistance? - Trying not to believe planned obsolescence was the priority.
- chis 4y ago
  Would guess that it helps with keyboard flex. And rivets are cheaper than screws.
- ali7388 4y ago
  It is lighter and more robust. Screws may come loose.
  - toast0 4y ago
    Rivets come loose too; but they're a lot harder to retighten.
  - Brian_K_White 4y ago
    When I spilled a drink on my Framework and ordered a new keyboard, I discovered it had 3 mis-aligned screws in the keyboard from the factory. Like either a hole was punched wrong or a screw was rammed in off center. The holes and threads are all messed up and impossible to tighen those screws. 3 out of 60 or more. Never knew there was anything wrong from the outside but I can't imagine wouldn't have worked loose over more time if I hadn't happened to have a reason to uncover them in the first year. I love that I was able to replace a keyboard, but 3 out of 60 is a pretty bad rate.
  - djaychela 4y ago
    The 2012 era ones are screwed in place (I didn't know this until this weekend when I took one apart to that level). I've never known one come loose, and a properly torqued screw will never be a problem in this situation.

TMWNN 4y ago

>I'm writing this on a 2011 MBP which is running Monterey because of OpenCore Patcher, and it's a bit slow, but everything about it physically is better than most laptops I would get for under £500. This with a faster processor, graphics and RAM would do me for another 5 years for 'general' duties. I just replaced a 2012 with a 2021 M1. Yes, it's faster. Not having to use a pad to shield my lap from the computer's heat is nice. But I would have continued to use the 2012 had the hinge not loosened to the point where the screen would not stay upright. My computer environment is almost unchanged; Monterey with OpenCore Legacy Patcher to Monterey, 16GB RAM to 16GB, 1TB SSD to 1TB, 15" to 14". The battery life is much better,^1 but I don't take the computer out of the home so it doesn't make a difference in practice. ^1 But not as good as I'd expected. I don't do anything heavy on the computer—browser, Excel, and ssh—and the M1's battery only lasts for about six hours. Can using Chrome as the browser and not Safari make that much of a difference?

2143 4y ago
> I don't do anything heavy on the computer—browser, Excel, and ssh—and the M1's battery only lasts for about six hours. Can using Chrome as the browser and not Safari make that much of a difference? On an Intel Mac from 2020 I'll get nearly 8 hours of battery if I'm not running a VM. My browser is Firefox. I would expect M1 macs to run substantially longer on battery even if using Chrome (is that even supposed to be a factor?).