What to do with an old, redundant, unsellable white MacBook?

[rikadik]

I have a knackered old MacBook which has serious issues but somehow still works - see this thread for details!

I'm trying to decide what to do with it, other than throw it in the bin and run away before it explodes.

I saw one guy online who turned his MacBook into a wall mounted display in a picture frame. I love this idea, and am thinking about using it as a controller for music in my flat (via Airport Express perhaps) and as an alarm clock (set up in bedroom). It'd also be a nice digital photo frame but I particularly like the idea of having the iTunes artwork screensaver running when not in use just for prettiness.

Any other interesting ideas of what to do with this pile of junk?

 

[TheStu]

Give it to your pal TheStu?

The picture frame idea isn't too bad, you might be able to, depending on your knowhow, rig it up as a tablet.

 

[timswim78]

My idea - I would like to make an old Mac into a jukebox. Maybe find an older console stereo and gut the old stereo contents. Put in a decent amplifier and speakers and hook the mac up to it. With some good fit and finish work, it could look pretty slick.

 

[Kaido]

nm

 

[aleckz]

Dang that MacBook is tore up from the floor up.

 

[Newfie]

Originally posted by: rikadik
I saw one guy online who turned his MacBook into a wall mounted display in a picture frame.

Would you replace the screen if you decided to go through with it?

 

[scootermaster]

I may have a similar sitch...

-Spent $2200 in October 2005 (I believe) on a shiny new G4 15" Powerbook. Custom built with upgrades (i.e. non-returnable)
-18 days later, they come out with the last generation G4, and more importantly, drop the price (i.e. all the upgrades I do are standard, for $500 cheaper).
-Manage to sell my "old" one on Craigslist and buy the "new" one. So at least I get the upgrades, and it still "only" costs me $2200 (i.e. I sell my old one for just about what the new one cost)
-Three months later, Intel Macbook Pros come out (January). Oh well.
-Year later, drop it, breaks the front latch. Oops.
-Power supply lights itself on fire. Oops.
-Buy new power supply on ebay.
-Falls off bed, straight on to power supply. Still works, but dents power plug and warps inner ring of power supply. Now needs to be "twisted" around to find proper contact point instead of just plugged in
-Screen "wobbles" back and forth...not sure what's up with that. Screw loose?
-Most importantly: Tried to breath some new life into the machine (512megs of ram) with new ram kit...find out, in Nov 2008 that the first ram slot on this model is fucking toast. Further found out that Apple would replace it...up to JULY 2008. OOPS. So, now I've got a machine that's stuck with 512k ram or something. For whatever reason it won't boot with the ram I bought (luckily it only cost me like $25 or something).

So, I went from a machine that cost $2200 to one that I could sell for $1200 (pre latch broken) to one I could sell for $500 (post latch broken, pre-power plug issues) to one that's maybe worth $300ish, given how slow and banged up it is.

Wondering what I'm going to do with it....

 

[rikadik]

Originally posted by: Newfie

Originally posted by: rikadik
I saw one guy online who turned his MacBook into a wall mounted display in a picture frame.

Would you replace the screen if you decided to go through with it?

Yeah that would be the plan.

 

[mmntech]

So the screen on it is done, the trackpad is broken, but the system itself and the USB ports still work. Seems like a no-brainer to me. Turn it into a server! I have my old iBook G4 set up as a media server in my basement. Just buy a big external HDD and you can throw all your media onto it, or use it as a NAS system. If you have another Mac, you can remotely control it using Remote Desktop. Since laptops are usually more energy efficient than desktop systems, old ones make ideal servers in a pinch.

 

[MovingTarget]

Yeah, turning it into a server is a good idea. If it were me, I would just disconnect the screen and mount the remaining portion in a permanent location. Heck, head on over to the distributed computing forum if you can't find anything to do with it.

 

[rikadik]

Server sounds like a decent idea, and I like the idea of being able to access it via remote desktop.

Thanks for the suggestions!