Hacker News Reader

Comment by nicoburns | Hacker News Reader

You can get a screwdriver (allowing you to replace RAM and SSDs in most laptops, including older macs) for $5. There's really no excuse for them to do this all the while claiming to be environmentally friendly.

View on HN

Depends on the model. My 2012 mbp15r uses glue and solder, not screws. Maxed out the specs when I got it, which is why it's still usable. Would've been delighted for it to have been thicker and heavier to support DIY upgrades and further improve its longevity while reducing its environmental impact, but that wasn't an option. Needed the retina screen for my work, bit the bullet. Someday maybe there will be a bulletproof user-serviceable laptop form factor w a great screen, battery life and decent keyboard, that can legally run macOs... glad to say my client-issued 2019 mbp16r checks most of those boxes. /ramble

Something like ATX standard but for laptop shells would be awesome - imagine being able to replace a motherboard etc, just like you can with a desktop PC.

Intel tried this more than a decade ago. The designs were as horrible as you might imagine, and a few OEMs did come out with a handful of models and parts.

As I recall, consumers didn’t care or wouldn’t live with the awful designs that they initially brought out. I don’t remember. I remember thinking I wouldn’t touch one after seeing a bunch of engineering samples.

Maybe it was too early for this kind of thing. I could imagine today such shell would be much slicker.

Except the RAM is in the M1 now. Pretty good excuse Id'say.

Mmm... it's certainly better than they had before. But really they ought to be designing repairable machines. If that makes them a little slower then so be it.

Is it? I thought only memory controller is in the chip, not the memory itself.

The M1's RAM is integrated into the SoC package. But it's still separate RAM chips, not actually on the same die as the M1.

My 2007 MBP, yes. I don't think that's true of my 2017 MBP, nor my 2012 MBA.

It's been years since Apple did away with this stuff, and nobody expected them to suddenly allow after-market upgrades.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com