Are The Core Duo Mac Notebooks “Road Apples?
by Charles W. Moore
Last week, my eldest daughter, who is running OS 10.4.8 on a 450 MHz G3 iMac, emailed to say, “My computer is killing me. It’s just too slow. After the fast PC machines at work it’s unbearable. I want this computer: refurbished MacBook 2.0GHz Intel Core Duo - White.”
However, while I think she really does need a new computer, I talked her out of buying a Core Duo MacBook, even at the current very friendly prices on Apple Certified Refurbished examples. Why?
For the same reason I wouldn’t buy a Core Duo MacBook myself. There have simply been too many issues. The MacBook is a tremendous value in terms of Power and features for the money, but the Revision A models have just been too trouble-prone, and that goes ditto for the Core Duo MacBook Pros.
Everyone I know personally that has bought a Core Duo MacBook has been plagued with bugs and issues that I prefer not to be bothered with. I don’t doubt that many people are happy with the service they’re getting from their Core Duo MacBooks, but the tales of woe are just too typical to discount - excessive heat buildup and fan cycling, strange “mooing” sounds, case discoloration and even cracking on some of the very early white MacBook models, wake up from sleep problems, displays with dark corners and odd colors, power adapter issues, and a “sudden shutdown” issue that would have me tearing my hair. Reportedly, 10 percent of MacBooks have “’squishy’ or unresponsive trackpad buttons.” Nothing that condemned the Core Duo MacBooks and MacBook Pros as machines that should be avoided like the plague, but definitely not the user experience I look for in a workhorse system.
My anecdotal impression has been now backed up with statistical research, namely MacInTouch’s second MacBook/MacBook Pro reliability survey, in which more than 3700 machines were logged. The final results of the survey have not yet been published at press time for this column, but MacInTouch did post some preliminary snippets.
UPDATE: MacInTouch's MacBook/MacBook Pro Reliability survey is now published in full. You can find it here:
http://www.macintouch.com/reliability/macbooks2.html
Also check out the reliability tables here for specific models:
http://www.macintouch.com/reliability/macbooks2_tables.html
Nearly a third of Core Duo-based MacBooks and MacBook Pros logged in the survey have required some sort of repair, and a whopping 9% have required logic board replacements. MacInTouch also noted that many readers reported component replacements in their Core Duo ‘Books’ cooling systems, including fans, heat sensors, and even heat pipes and thermal paste, and comments: “Before the new Intel laptops, we’ve never seen such a dramatic incidence of heat-related repairs.”
Nevertheless, even with this spotty reliability record, satisfaction expressed by respondents was extraordinarily high, with 96% overall saying they were “Very Happy” or “Pleased” with their computers, so it’s not all bad news.
The true also be noted that the MacFixIt survey is not truly scientific, since the respondents are self-selected, and therefore not a random sampling, and it’s highly likely that people who have had problems would be more likely to participate than MacBook/ MacBook Pro owners that did not experience reliability issues.
So are the Core Duo Mac ‘Books “Road Apples?”
In its original colloquial coinage, “road apple” refers to, according to the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, “a piece of horse manure on or at the side of a road.”
However, Low End Mac’s publisher Dan Knight borrowed the term some years back as a category of Mac that Apple didn’t get quite right,,, “Macs you should buy with your eyes wide open - if at all.”
Dan explains further: “These are Apple’s more compromised hardware designs. For the most part, they’re not really bad - simply designs unable to provide all the performance they should have.”
Apple laptops making the dubious honor of appearing in Dan’s top12 Road Apples are:
PowerBook 5300
PowerBook 1400/117
PowerBook 150
PowerBook G3/233 “MainStreet” (no L2 cache and passive matrix display)
Interestingly, I have owned (and liked) the first two of those, and still have them in working condition. I also used a PowerBook G3 MainStreet as mine production machine for two months in late 1998, and also found it a satisfactory machine - indeed more than satisfactory - although when I eventually purchased one for myself, it was the Revision B 233 MHz model which had 512k of L2 cache and an active matrix TFT display.
Three of the four Road Apple laptops are on the list not because of reliability shortcomings, but rather because their performance it relatively mediocre. Indeed, the PowerBook 1400 especially is considered one of the most reliable and rugged laptops Apple ever made.
The poor old PowerBook 5300 suffered from both reliability and performance mediocrity, but even so, many 5300 owners like myself got good service from theirs. Mine was essentially trouble free during the three years I used it as my production workhorse.
Another Apple laptop with a poor reputation for reliability is the 600 MHz to 900 MHz iBook G3, whose logic board problems resulted in an Apple extended service program( now expired), but my 700 MHz example has been pretty much 100 percent reliable over the past four years, with no really significant issues at all.
Consequently, experience has taught me that you can beat the statistical odds, and I suspect that there are plenty of Core Duo Apple notebook users who are not experiencing a whole lot of problems with their machines.
If you’re willing to roll the dice, Apple is offering some pretty impressive deals on certified refurbished Core Duo ‘Books.
MacBook 1.83GHz Intel Core Duo - White Combo drive - $799.00
MacBook 2.0GHz Intel Core Duo - White - SuperDrive - $899.00
MacBook 2.0GHz Intel Core Duo - Black - $1,099.00
MacBook Pro, 15-inch, 2.0GHz Intel Core Duo - $1,349.00
MacBook Pro, 15-inch, 2.16GHz Intel Core Duo - $1,499.00
MacBook Pro, 17-inch, 2.16GHz Intel Core Duo - $1,999.00
Any of those is an awful lot of computer for the money by historical standards. Nonetheless, my assessment is that the Core Duo Mac notebooks our at least borderline Road Apples by reliability criteria, although there’s certainly no flies on them in terms of performance. that’s why I advise my daughter to wait for the Revision B Core 2 Duo MacBooks to enter the Apple Certified Refurbished pipeline.
While the extra speed (roughly 10-40 percent depending on the task) of the Core 2 Duo processor is more than welcome, more ore important, IMHO, is that reportedly the Core 2 Duo ‘Books run 20 to 40 percent cooler than the Core Duo models. The 15-inch MacBook Pro now has FireWire 800 a dual-layer SuperDrive, and hopefully those other first-gen. bugs have been squashed. Revision B MacBooks have seen an even more significant value enhancement - especially the two top models have. The base, $1,099 machine gets a 1.83 GHz Core 2 Duo with 2 MB of L2 cache, but the rest of its (still impressive for the price) specification pretty much remains the same as before - 512 megabytes of RAM, 60 gigabyte hard drive, Combo optical drive, and so forth.
The middle, $1,299 MacBook, on the other hand, has a 2.0 GHz Core 2 Duo processor with twice the amount (4 MB) of level 2 cache as the base MacBook, a gigabyte of RAM, an 80 gigabyte hard drive, and a 6x dual-layer SuperDrive, thus putting more distance between itself and the entry-level model. Well worth the extra $200 I think. The black he top-end MacBook, will lighten your wallet by another 200 dollars for the Darth Vader look, but you do get a 120 gigabyte hard drive as well.
And happily, after a month or so we in the hands of consumers, I’ve seen relatively few complaints about bugs and reliability issues with the Core 2 Duo MacBooks. The same applies to the Core 2 Duo MacBook Pros. I think patience will be rewarded in this instance, and the fact that no Core 2 Duo ‘Books have yet appeared as refurbished units is also a good sign.
Of course the Revision Cs will likely be even better..... :-b
It was ever thus.
Merry Christmas!
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