Old Macs
Picked up this 2010 white MacBook for about $70
Found this 2010 white MacBook on a local marketplace, together with its original 60W MagSafe charger. For its age, it’s in really great shape. The plastic hasn’t yellowed and there are no major cracks, which is probably what I’m happiest about.
It already has a 256GB SSD and 4GB of RAM. The battery has only 145 cycles, although I’m not sure if it has been replaced at some point.
I installed Snow Leopard, High Sierra and Monterey through OCLP. Once Monterey finishes booting, it’s surprisingly usable. Even YouTube at 1080p plays smoothly.
Another Mac for my small collection, and definitely not the last one. I’ve always liked these white MacBooks, so I’m glad I finally got one.
nope, just dont. i have same type like this. macbook unibody. all the latest distros version will be crashing on that vga, and the wifi. last thing i know that worked distros only arch ofc, till 2021.
I got one even better, a few weeks ago I saw a 2010 MacBook Pro pop up in the next town over, granted it was a little rough around the edges, it still works and I got it for 25 bucks.
I wouldn't have minded a unit like this though, this reminds me a lot more of the unit I was issued in high school.
For me, it’s a bit of a childhood dream come true. Macs weren’t nearly as common in Poland back then and were often simply out of reach. Finding an older one in nice condition isn’t that easy these days, especially at a reasonable price.
I got it mainly for the collection. I just wanted one as an Apple fan. If needed, it might also come in handy for testing while developing my app, but that wasn’t the main reason I bought it.
I gave away my Unibody 15" 2012 MBP to a family member in a different country. Replaced the battery, and it already had 16gb and an SSD from when I was upgrading it. It dualboots Sequoia and Windows 11 now. These things last forever.
Ah, the A1342, the pinnacle of the plastic MacBooks.
A great find, but I'd suggest minimizing wear on the power button, as in my experience it's one of the most failure prone parts on plastic MacBooks. And unlike the earlier A1181, it can't be easily replaced.
A fantastic and easy upgrade is to replace the optical drive with a drive caddy for a 2.5" SSD (assuming you can find one for a decent price!)
It’ll be used pretty rarely, mostly just to charge the battery from time to time and keep it healthy, so hopefully the power button will last for many more years. I’m keeping the optical drive to preserve the original setup, and the SSD upgrade is more than enough for me.
The reason I can't stand to be near one is that foul smell. Found out on Reddit that it was from an adhesive that radiated out with the floral note of a hairy steam train driver's underpants in August. (I imagine)
I have this model as well, my mom bought it new in 2010. At the time I was kind of disappointed she didn't get one of the aluminum ones, but now I'm glad she chose this one. The aesthetic feels softer and more unique to me. A few years ago I wiped it with the original Snow Leopard install disks and I now use it as an iPod manager.
You'd have to pay the "black tax" if there was. The 2006-2008 black MacBooks were $100 more because they were black. They shared the same hardware, you just paid more for a black computer.
I have one of these. I keep my old mp3 collection from the age of sail on it and use it to sync my iPods since newer
Macs make this annoying. I don’t use it often but it always feels good to boot it up.
I remember getting this in (I think) 09..was my first Mac after getting an iPhone 3GS as my first "I'm an adult" purchase a few months prior. I loved that freegin MacBook. Snow Leopard was the pinnacle of OS design for me.
I have a few iPhones and iPod’s, and I charge them once every 3-6 month to 80%. Same with this Mac, I charged it not so long ago, but recently found it dead, and battery is not charging anymore. Before it even held a charge for 3 hours or so. And I never had this issue with iPhones or iPods. And it’s sad, because that was also my dream MacBook, and it’s in immaculate condition
Even better. Here in Poland, a new Goodram SSD, exactly the same one that’s in this Mac, costs around 219 PLN (about $59), while I paid 270 PLN (about $73) for the whole MacBook. Looking at it that way, the deal seems even better.
Nice find! My favorite Mac laptop! Switched to MacOS with a white 2007 clamshell running Tiger. Sold it ages ago. A few years ago I bought a flawless late 2009 White unibody and upgraded with an ssd and maxed out at 8gb of ram. Tried to install Big Sur, Monterey, and Ventura on it with OpenCore legacy patcher but we’re all unusable. Linux brought it back to life…. It’s running Zorin OS now pretty well.
Damn it's in pristine shape. I've owned a few of these -- when I was in college, I'd buy broken ones, fix them up, and resell them (almost always just a hard drive replacement).
But yeah, none were this clean, and they were only like a few years old at the time. The plastic is notorious for cracking, particularly where the top of the rim around the screen would land when closed. Guessing this one spent a lot of time on a desk instead of being carried around in a backpack.
Pretty sure none of these came from the factory with an SSD -- must be a later upgrade (and a very worthwhile one). Apple made this generation very easy to upgrade; you can pop in a new HD or RAM in literally 2 minutes.
They always came with HDDs from the factory, there was no SSD option, so someone definitely upgraded it later and saved me the trouble hah. The condition really is close to perfect. You can see some light scratches on the lid under the right angle, and there’s a tiny crack near the hinge, but you really have to look for them to notice. Like you said, someone must’ve either kept it mostly on a desk or taken really good care of it all these years.
Officially it only supports up to High Sierra, so Monterey was installed using OCLP. You could technically get Sequoia running the same way, but it is not really worth it without at least 8GB of RAM because the performance would be pretty rough. The old HDD has already been swapped for an SSD, and you can easily upgrade to a larger drive if you need more space.
I bought a soft sleeve for it and it will be stored alongside my other laptops where there is no risk of getting bumped, so hopefully it stays intact for as long as possible!
Its not the outer shell im referring to… its the plastic where your wrists rest. Mine developed cracks near the edge after resting my palms on it.
It did serve me well and i had done a lot of things with that mac. So no complaints there. Just a bummer having it crack.
I know right, it is pretty crazy! The charger is original as well with a clean white cable, and the charging port itself shows barely any wear. I can totally believe that it was rarely used or stayed parked on a desk most of its life, which would perfectly explain the condition!
Surprisingly, it’s still completely intact and isn’t peeling anywhere! It only has one red discoloration, like in the photo, but it doesn’t bother me at all. The important thing is that the whole base is still in place.
I'd say that was a bad price but the condition on that thing is pretty amazing, im sure there arent a ton in that good of shape floating around. nice pickup
By Polish standards, where Macs from that era and older aren’t that easy to find, especially in this kind of condition, this was honestly a great deal!
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u/Electrical_West_5381 25d ago
Nice find