Who still has the white Macbook 2,1 late 2006??

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Who still has the white Macbook 2,1 late 2006??

Hi all,

If you still have the white plastic Macbook 2,1 late 2006.....in working order........I am curious to know a few things, as I am in the process of doing a massive (for me) upgrade.

My specific model is the 2.0ghz 13" Core2Duo.

RAM has been upgraded to 4GB (though technically 3GB). I will be changing the HD to a bigger 7200rpm drive. Also, making the jump from Tiger to Snow Leopard (or maybe even Lion).

My Macbook is still in really good shape, so I would rather just spend $245 and upgrade a few things than junk it for a new one. Plus I don't have THAT kind of money right now.

My questions are:

Those who went with Lion, how did it work out? (what kind of work load are you putting it through?)

Anyone switch back to SL from Lion cause they hated it?? or too many problems??

Anyone love SL so much they wont touch Lion?

Those who have a 7200rpm hard drive, how is it?

And other bits you would like to add, that is specific to this model PLEASE DO!!

Thanks!

MacBook, Mac OS X (10.5.8), Macbook 2,1 Core2Duo 3GB RAM 2.0ghz

Posted on Apr 30, 2012 1:23 PM

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Answer 1

Apr 30, 2012 2:12 PM in response to AHMuse11

Hi, AHMuse11

I have the 2,1 although it's 1.87MHz. The only question I can directly

respond to regards a 7200rpm drive, which gave a def. snappier feel.

There's a smal amount of vibration but not unpleasant, and no noise.

The drive came with a five yr. warranty. I haven't checked to see if they

are available right now but the monsoon damage in Indonesia - or was

it Malasia - interrupted the supply of 2.5" HDs. Today I'd look at 1TB

but they might be prohibitivly expensive.

I've perfectly happy with my MacBook. I will upgrade only because

Mountain Lion will not run on the 2,1 and there are certain streaming

features in ML I'd like to have - but no hurry.

I also installed this WD drive along with Lion on a client's MacBook,

that was a new machine in 2011 and not the Pro. She's never had

a whiff of trouble with Lion and I'd expect you to have none either.

Dud to laziness I'm still coasting along on SL and loving it - but I'd

never go back from Lion as Lion is req'd to install Mountain Lion.

Good luck and all the best, Tom

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Answer 2

AHMuse11 Author

Level 1

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Apr 30, 2012 2:25 PM in response to Tom Meade1

Nice! I have the WD Scorpio Black 320GB on its way in the mail. Good to hear, seems to be hit or miss with the vibration issue. Some have a lot, some a little, others none. Thanks!

As for Lion on the Macbook 2,1 I know Apple states the min for RAM is 2GB. But I have seen repeatedly that people think 4GB is more beneficial. Of course that all depends on how much stuff you are running all at once.....

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Answer 3

AHMuse11 Author

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10 points

Apr 30, 2012 3:20 PM in response to AHMuse11

Maybe I am being misunderstood.....I'm interested to hear from anyone with a Macbook 2,1

or maybe there aren't many of us left....bummer.

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Answer 4

Apr 30, 2012 4:59 PM in response to AHMuse11

The problem might be that users don't necessarily think of

the terminology 2,1.

Thanks for commenting of the Lion memory required - I

actually hadn't noticed that. Never having had the

slightest hint of slowdown moving from Leeopard to SL

(.5 to 1.0G req.) I'm leery of starting now. As things are

I often find 8 or 9 apps open, however no slowness.

Spoiled as I am I may just hold off until the new hardware

is available. My System Profiler shows 4 but I'm persuaded

by more tech types that 2,1 can only address 3GB. ML

will narrow the margin . . .

Tom

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Answer 5

Mini-Mac

Level 3

818 points

Apr 30, 2012 5:27 PM in response to Tom Meade1

I have the Black MacBook model same as yours (2,1) and I just upgaded it.........WOW what a major diference. Here's what I did.

1. Ohter Work Computing (OWC) 4 GB's RAM $61.79

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other%20World%20Computing/5300DDR2S4GP/

2. Crutial M4 SSD 128GB (Amazon) $124.99

http://www.amazon.com/Crucial-2-5-Inch-Solid-State-CT128M4SSD2/dp/B004W2JKZI/ref =sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1335831087&sr=8-1

3. Fresh install of Lion 10.7.3 $29.99

(If your going to use iCloud or upgrade to a SSD drive I'd say upgrade to Lion for sure)

BTW I enabled TRIM for the SSD drive. Instructions here I think for Lion only.

http://www.storagereview.com/how_enable_trim_nonapple_ssd

I also have a MacBook Air which I also love but increasing the RAM to 4 GB's and installing a SSD drive (highly recommend the one I installed) on my Black MacBook really notice a huge speed difference.

Boot time is about 19-22 seconds....everything is really much more enjoyable.

Any question I'd be glad to answer! Good Luck!

BTW, tried a 7,200 RPM drive and really didn't see a performance increase that was worth the cost.....the SSD drive is worth the cost...trust me.

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Answer 6

Apr 30, 2012 5:33 PM in response to Mini-Mac

I like Mini-Mac's upgrade a lot - but the days of living in 128GB of storage

are long gone. Who was it who said "Give me 500GB or give me death?"

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Answer 7

AHMuse11 Author

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10 points

Apr 30, 2012 9:06 PM in response to Tom Meade1

Yea with the 2,1 I guess I was trying to avoid those who say "old macbook". I also find it funny people who have the same model say Macbook Pro, haha, different animal.

My system profiler does say 4GB or RAM, however I noticed under Activity Monitor (under System Memory) it says only 3GB of RAM. I read it in amillon places, but that verified it for me. Though I read somewhere it is more like 3.something GB.

I think I will be doing the same since Mtn Lion comes out this summer. As far as I know that is NOT able to run on the late 2006 at all. Plus there are a lot of gesture features on Lion now with touch mouse-s and the track pad. I have heard there are ways around it, but why pay for it if you cant utalize everything??

Thanks for your insight!

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Answer 8

AHMuse11 Author

Level 1

10 points

Apr 30, 2012 9:17 PM in response to Mini-Mac

SSD? Nice! Dont have the money for that right now. I bought a new internal and a HD for external back up. That was really important. Tiger does not have Time Machine, so I have gone all these years (since 2006) with nothing bad happening. Probly got lucky. I guess with the SSD I figure they have made such a change with Lion (all the gestures, mission control, and launch pad) I would do something to tie me over, cause I thought I read somewhere that Mtn Lion wont even work on our Macbook version. Have no idea how true it is though.

So even with the max of 3GB of RAM (with 4GB installed) yours is going like a champ with Lion??

Is there anything not working with Lion? How did you work around the gesture features?

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Answer 9

AHMuse11 Author

Level 1

10 points

Apr 30, 2012 9:30 PM in response to AHMuse11

Found it, we are out of luck for Mtn Lion:

"Among those Macs currently compatible with OS X Lion, those with lower-end Intel GMA X3100 or GMA 950 integrated graphics will not be able to upgrade to Mountain Lion"

The GMA 950 is us.....so Mtn Lion is a no go.

Here's the article from MacRumors.

http://www.macrumors.com/2012/02/16/os-x-mountain-lion-drops-support-for-many-20 06-2008-macs-with-integrated-graphics/

Kinda sad really, maybe I will give Lion a go just to hold out longer. Once I get everything backed up.....we will see what happens.

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Answer 10

Apr 30, 2012 9:31 PM in response to AHMuse11

"Mtn Lion wont even work on our Macbook version"

True.  published this.

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Answer 11

Mini-Mac

Level 3

818 points

May 1, 2012 4:09 AM in response to Tom Meade1

Tom Meade1 wrote:

I like Mini-Mac's upgrade a lot - but the days of living in 128GB of storage

are long gone. Who was it who said "Give me 500GB or give me death?"

I thought the same thing when I got my MacBook Air (Late 2011) with a 256GB's SSD. I have nearly 500GB's of media that I put on a external 1TB HD, and connected to my Time Capsule (2GB HD) that I can access anywhere as long as I have internet access. Cloud computing is the future, not huge internal laptop hard drives. "Put that in you pipe and smoke it."

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Answer 12

Mini-Mac

Level 3

818 points

May 1, 2012 4:53 AM in response to AHMuse11

AHMuse11 wrote:

SSD? Nice! Dont have the money for that right now. I bought a new internal and a HD for external back up. That was really important. Tiger does not have Time Machine, so I have gone all these years (since 2006) with nothing bad happening. Probly got lucky. I guess with the SSD I figure they have made such a change with Lion (all the gestures, mission control, and launch pad) I would do something to tie me over, cause I thought I read somewhere that Mtn Lion wont even work on our Macbook version. Have no idea how true it is though.

So even with the max of 3GB of RAM (with 4GB installed) yours is going like a champ with Lion??

Is there anything not working with Lion? How did you work around the gesture features?

Lion is running fine....no issues. There is a possibilitily our 2.1 MacBook's will work with Mountain Lion, we simply won't know until it's released by Apple.

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Answer 13

AHMuse11 Author

Level 1

10 points

May 1, 2012 6:49 AM in response to Mini-Mac

From what I have seen so far they are saying ours will not be compatable. But, I do hope that is not their final descion.

Did you get the track pad for the gesture features in Lion? Also I am curious about the dedicated buttons on the current key boards: one for launch pad, and one for mission control.

Do you know if it is possible to change some of our F keys to handle those functions?

Thanks.

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Answer 14

AHMuse11 Author

Level 1

10 points

May 1, 2012 6:54 AM in response to Tom Meade1

Tom Meade1 wrote:

Who was it who said "Give me 500GB or give me death?"

Seriously. I was still living off my stock 80GB, onyl becuase I was REALLY carefull with music, photos and large programs. It will be nice to have some room.

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Answer 15

May 1, 2012 8:51 AM in response to AHMuse11

I also have that machine and still is very good, including for Lion (late 2006, which was manufactured in 2007 too, supports and has 4 GB active RAM, 3 GB is for the mid-2006 series). Go for the upgrade, just note that the 7,200 rpm disk is a little bit noisier than the 5,400 disk.

Download the database called Mactracker, identify your model, and will know a lot of details regarding your machine. You need a S-ATA 2.5 inch disk not thicker than 9.5 mm (take care: some newer 1 TB models may be 12 mm thick, they will not have enough space there).

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