AIuBook Has Upgradeable Graphic Chipset?

Posted:
in Current Mac Hardware edited January 2014
Hmmm....



Now that Apple is offering a choice of video/graphic chipset with Powerbooks, I'm wondering: Is the Alubook's video upgradeable? It must be, no? I can't believe that Apple would go to the trouble of offering to separate (and BTO!) soldered boards, can you?



I have the 15" Alubook 1.25 GHZ with 64MB of video memory. Your thoughts?



By the way, I understand that previous 'books were not upgradeable.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 4
    moazammoazam Posts: 136member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by SDW2001

    Hmmm....



    Now that Apple is offering a choice of video/graphic chipset with Powerbooks, I'm wondering: Is the Alubook's video upgradeable? It must be, no? I can't believe that Apple would go to the trouble of offering to separate (and BTO!) soldered boards, can you?



    I have the 15" Alubook 1.25 GHZ with 64MB of video memory. Your thoughts?



    By the way, I understand that previous 'books were not upgradeable.




    No. The video controller is soldered to the motherboard, and cannot be upgraded. This is the case with almost all laptops, Apple, Dell, IBM, etc., unless the laptop is sold with an explicit feature of graphics upgradability.



    -M
  • Reply 2 of 4
    sunilramansunilraman Posts: 8,133member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by SDW2001

    Hmmm....



    Now that Apple is offering a choice of video/graphic chipset with Powerbooks, I'm wondering: Is the Alubook's video upgradeable? It must be, no? I can't believe that Apple would go to the trouble of offering to separate (and BTO!) soldered boards, can you?



    I have the 15" Alubook 1.25 GHZ with 64MB of video memory. Your thoughts?



    By the way, I understand that previous 'books were not upgradeable.




    only if you buy the 15" superdrive 1.5ghz or 17" superdrive model, then you have the option of BTO 128mb ram of graphics instead of 64mb. this seems to be the only upgradability
  • Reply 3 of 4
    sunilramansunilraman Posts: 8,133member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by SDW2001

    Hmmm....



    Now that Apple is offering a choice of video/graphic chipset with Powerbooks, I'm wondering: Is the Alubook's video upgradeable? It must be, no? I can't believe that Apple would go to the trouble of offering to separate (and BTO!) soldered boards, can you?



    I have the 15" Alubook 1.25 GHZ with 64MB of video memory. Your thoughts?



    By the way, I understand that previous 'books were not upgradeable.




    apparently if you don't need a superdrive, the 15" powerbook is very popular in this BTO configuration, faster with more graphics memory, 512mb, 1.5ghz and 5400 faster harddisk...



    ? 1.5GHz PowerPC G4 with 128MB Graphics Memory

    ? 512MB DDR333 SDRAM - 2x256 SO-DIMMs

    ? 80GB Ultra ATA drive @ 5400 rpm

    ? Combo Drive (DVD-ROM/CD-RW)

    ? AirPort Extreme Card

    ? Backlit Keyboard/Mac OS - U.S. English

    ? 15.2-inch TFT Display



    Estimated Ship:

    7-10 business days

    Free Shipping

    Subtotal $2,449.00



    ...
  • Reply 4 of 4
    sdw2001sdw2001 Posts: 18,016member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by moazam

    No. The video controller is soldered to the motherboard, and cannot be upgraded. This is the case with almost all laptops, Apple, Dell, IBM, etc., unless the laptop is sold with an explicit feature of graphics upgradability.



    -M






    But this one might not be. Either that or Apple is actually offering two machines with soldered boards. That doesn't make sense from the standpoint of cost effectiveness, does it?



    Further evidence that Apple doesn't do the above: The PowerBook is the only machine other than the PowerMac G5 to have upgradeable video. I'm wondering if I shouldn't take the bitch apart to have a look.
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