A1278s were great computers. I had one throughout college, it survived a fair amount of bangs and drops. Ended up replacing the optical drive with an SSD, and then the main hard drive with an SSD.
Cool video! I still see a lot of A1278s out there, they're very popular and generally pretty reliable systems as far as I've been able to see. Many a time I see bad batteries or slow hard drives needing to be replaced, but that's much to be expected when the system's 10+ years old.
I have 2015 Mac Pro 13 and I daily drive the thing for last 9 years. As you said, love the thing. I wish that I could upgrade RAM, CPU and battery wasn't glued on.. Shame that Apple doesn't make these machines no more. Thank you for making videos like this. :)
i've been using the 15.6 inch matte display version with the i7, 16gb ram and ssd with mac os ventura and it works like a treat, only downside would be that its pretty heavy but i'd live with that due to it looking stunning
I used mine every day for course work and creative writing. It really is amazing how they continue to be useful over the years. And Catalina is surprisingly clean on it.
I've been daily driving a mid 2012 with main SSD and hard drive on the caddy, 16 gb ram, for 11 years now! The SD card reader went weirdly out of service somewhere in the El Capitan days, and I've had to change 1 battery. BEWARE of the SATA cable, because it could fail and you'll asume it's the motherboard, though it's generally the thermal sensor. I've got 2 identical machines. I think Open Core opens the possibility to go beyond the OS Catalina limit without using closed source/sketchy tricks. While my Macbook 2012 is working, I feel almost no urge to upgrade. It runs Ableton Live flawlessly and it's perfect for music making.
Nice! I've had 2 of these laying around up until about 6 months ago when I decided to put linux mint on one and it felt like a new computer all over again!
Thanks for subbing. I’m working on better lighting for the future :) good tip on the solder joints. I was in the market for a new logic board so hopefully that’s the issue!
@@Junktown-Tech 100% guarantee that's the issue bud... They came from the factory with the flaw and Apple knew it. Apple tried to fix it as cheaply as possible by adding pressure pads on the bottom case to press down on the ram... That didn't work so they made the pads bigger & thicker later in production... They just didn't use good solder or enough of it and the heat causes the pins to lift up with time. real easy fix just be delicate doing it
Take great care when doing this, I tried a couple times on some systems and it didn't work out too well. Ouch! My recommendation: don't put solder on your iron tip, just try to melt what's already on the board. But after all, it's either that or a new board anyway!
I recently restored and upgraded my late 2011 base model MBP. It's a beast for web browsing and as a kitchen device. If I ever get a mint condition 2012 one I'll definitely do the dosdude CPU swap and maybe have it as my daily driver for another decade, USB 3 makes a big difference and anything that helps performance is greatly appreciated. OCLP keeps on giving these devices new life on the Mac OS side, Linux will support it for a millennia, Windows should be decent as long as it can be unlocked to run on older hardware, bad Microsoft. It's a shame Apple never got around to improving the resolution, the MBA had the same dimensions and a slightly higher resolution they could've used. I wonder if there's someone out there crazy enough to modify the LCD on an MBA and transplant it to a MBP. Dr Frankenstein's laptop.
@@Junktown-Tech If you can get in touch with dosdude he'll do it for you. I doubt gaming will improve much but having a couple extra cores will be great at easing multitasks, I can feel mine bog down when I'm downloading multiple files and playing UA-cam, even with just a couple tabs open, it's taxing on the poor thing.
True - yet also, people made fun of Windows laptops for so long during the same era for all the 1366x768 usage! Granted, that with 15.6" is even worse than 1280x800 on 13.3".
A1278s were great computers. I had one throughout college, it survived a fair amount of bangs and drops. Ended up replacing the optical drive with an SSD, and then the main hard drive with an SSD.
Cool video! I still see a lot of A1278s out there, they're very popular and generally pretty reliable systems as far as I've been able to see. Many a time I see bad batteries or slow hard drives needing to be replaced, but that's much to be expected when the system's 10+ years old.
Confirmed with a new battery and ssd these laptops are pretty sweet.
@@Junktown-Tech For sure!!
I have 2015 Mac Pro 13 and I daily drive the thing for last 9 years. As you said, love the thing. I wish that I could upgrade RAM, CPU and battery wasn't glued on.. Shame that Apple doesn't make these machines no more. Thank you for making videos like this. :)
i've been using the 15.6 inch matte display version with the i7, 16gb ram and ssd with mac os ventura and it works like a treat, only downside would be that its pretty heavy but i'd live with that due to it looking stunning
I still work on this computer with Catalina. It's a great peace of art!
I used mine every day for course work and creative writing. It really is amazing how they continue to be useful over the years. And Catalina is surprisingly clean on it.
I've been daily driving a mid 2012 with main SSD and hard drive on the caddy, 16 gb ram, for 11 years now! The SD card reader went weirdly out of service somewhere in the El Capitan days, and I've had to change 1 battery. BEWARE of the SATA cable, because it could fail and you'll asume it's the motherboard, though it's generally the thermal sensor.
I've got 2 identical machines. I think Open Core opens the possibility to go beyond the OS Catalina limit without using closed source/sketchy tricks.
While my Macbook 2012 is working, I feel almost no urge to upgrade. It runs Ableton Live flawlessly and it's perfect for music making.
Great video! Please be consistent with this style of your content! Subbed!
Hey thanks! I’m working on my next couple ideas but it’s been slow going with the holidays. Hoping to get a video per month in the new year :)
@@Junktown-Tech Nice! Will be expecting your new review vids! Just do it on your own pace! Happy holidays!💪
Nice! I've had 2 of these laying around up until about 6 months ago when I decided to put linux mint on one and it felt like a new computer all over again!
Exactly!
Awesome video... Boy is it dark tho 😂 subbed
time to upgrade to macOS Sonoma with OCLP and have fun :)
RAM issue is because of the solder joints on the slots... common issue, you have to reflow the pins... not too hard to fix
Thanks for subbing. I’m working on better lighting for the future :) good tip on the solder joints. I was in the market for a new logic board so hopefully that’s the issue!
@@Junktown-Tech 100% guarantee that's the issue bud... They came from the factory with the flaw and Apple knew it. Apple tried to fix it as cheaply as possible by adding pressure pads on the bottom case to press down on the ram... That didn't work so they made the pads bigger & thicker later in production... They just didn't use good solder or enough of it and the heat causes the pins to lift up with time. real easy fix just be delicate doing it
Take great care when doing this, I tried a couple times on some systems and it didn't work out too well. Ouch! My recommendation: don't put solder on your iron tip, just try to melt what's already on the board. But after all, it's either that or a new board anyway!
I recently restored and upgraded my late 2011 base model MBP. It's a beast for web browsing and as a kitchen device.
If I ever get a mint condition 2012 one I'll definitely do the dosdude CPU swap and maybe have it as my daily driver for another decade, USB 3 makes a big difference and anything that helps performance is greatly appreciated. OCLP keeps on giving these devices new life on the Mac OS side, Linux will support it for a millennia, Windows should be decent as long as it can be unlocked to run on older hardware, bad Microsoft.
It's a shame Apple never got around to improving the resolution, the MBA had the same dimensions and a slightly higher resolution they could've used. I wonder if there's someone out there crazy enough to modify the LCD on an MBA and transplant it to a MBP. Dr Frankenstein's laptop.
I need to look into this cpu swap. That’s the biggest limitation for me on mine
@@Junktown-Tech If you can get in touch with dosdude he'll do it for you.
I doubt gaming will improve much but having a couple extra cores will be great at easing multitasks, I can feel mine bog down when I'm downloading multiple files and playing UA-cam, even with just a couple tabs open, it's taxing on the poor thing.
Still using a mbp 17 2011😅
nice video :3
Thank you!
The screen resolution was a major letdown. Apple stuck with it too long.
True - yet also, people made fun of Windows laptops for so long during the same era for all the 1366x768 usage! Granted, that with 15.6" is even worse than 1280x800 on 13.3".
lighting?
Best I can do at the moment unfortunately, I plan on getting actual lighting in the future once I’ve been at this awhile.
no problem was still a good watch@@Junktown-Tech
@@tomluptowski Thank you for saying so, thanks for commenting :D