Mike Says Meh The blog of Mike Kauspedas | Hosting by www.gearhost.com

New to me Macbook

Yay, I got a new Macbook, while new to me. I found a used one on craigslist for $599. Its a 1st Generation White Macbook 13". So far I love it.

2GHz Intel Core Duo Yonah
2GB DDR667 (originally 1GB)
120GB SATA (originally 80GB)
SuperDrive (DVDRW)
Intel GMA 950 64MB Video
13" LCD 1280x800
USB, firewire, Wifi, etc

There's a crazy story behind this too. I took a look at the laptop over at the seller's house and everything worked great. He had just installed OS X (10.5) and it was at the registration screen. So I went through the steps, took my picture for the profile , and loaded the desktop. I checked the specs and was happy it wasn't the lowest end (1.8GHz w/ 512MB) so paid and went home.

When I got home the thing wouldn't boot. I got pretty scared because this is craigslist after all and its not like I can return it to a store. Fortunately the seller was awesome. I told him I thought it was just a bad hard drive so he gave me 10.5 DVD and a new hard drive to test with. Sure enough that was it. So I ended up getting a larger hard drive.

I also pulled the RAM I bought or my work laptop and popped it in. The RAM is pretty neat, it slides in behind the battery. You have to remove a thin metal cover and there are two levers which eject the RAM. Then you jus slide in the replacement and put the cover back on. The hard drive works the same way. I tried to put in 4GBs but it didn't like that. I can only put in one 2GB stick as well although I read online there is a 3GB kit you can buy that works. Probably has to do with the number of banks in the RAM or something. 2GBs seems to work great though so I have no plans on upgrading.

Of course I had to try World of Warcraft on it. I can run WoW at 1280x800 on the Intel GMA 950 with everything on low and the graphics at 16bit. I get 30fps if I stand still and no one casts a spell. Frankly its good enough for using the auction house or maybe some farming. I'll stick to my PC or work laptop when I really wanna play.

Besides, I got this for working, learning, writing, aesthetic appeal, and coolness. There's no way I can go to a coffee shop without a Mac. I would surely be laughed at and thrown out.

If you didn't know any better you would think I'm liberal. I ride my bike to work and I own a Mac. I also like open source software. Maybe I should put a GOP sticker on the back of my Mac, but that may get me kicked out of a coffee shop as well.