<story><title>New Apple Macbook Pro RAM is soldered to the motherboard | Ian Chilton</title><url>http://www.ichilton.co.uk/blog/apple/new-apple-macbook-pro-ram-is-soldered-to-the-motherboard-513.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>gouranga</author><text>Sorry but you have got to be a fucking idiot to buy one to be honest if that is the case.&lt;p&gt;Apple are making an attempt to turn generic computers into disposable appliances with moves like these. I would never accept a compromise like that with a computer that I owned.&lt;p&gt;My rationale is as follows: If I pay £1800 for one of those machines, I expect to be able to repair common problems easily. That&apos;s a lot of money sitting in one component waiting to fail and considering the warranty is a year (or 3 if you are extorted for even more cash by Apple for their expensive AppleCare service).&lt;p&gt;First it was the batteries - now no longer replaceable by mere mortals, then the SSDs were brought in with proprietary interfaces, now the RAM is soldered on the board.&lt;p&gt;In the average 5 year life span of a computer, I have found that you will need to replace the battery between 1-2 times, the memory will need to be upgraded at least once and the disk will need to be upgraded. These are observations but rational ones.&lt;p&gt;I&apos;m now sitting on a Lenovo T61 which is 5 years old. EVERY component in this machine can be replaced for literally nothing and very rapidly.&lt;p&gt;Sorry but stuff like this is just pandering to consumerism if it is disposable by design.&lt;p&gt;The design is retarded.&lt;p&gt;EDIT: It appears the battery is GLUED in so that&apos;s not replaceable any more either, even with the aid of a screwdriver.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>ctdonath</author><text>Making components replaceable increases volume, weight, and cost.&lt;p&gt;If you want replaceable components, go buy a computer for which that is a feature - and know that you will get a machine which is larger, heavier, and more expensive (all other factors being equal). Swapable components require additional casing, connectors, testing, sales channels, etc. You&apos;re not going to get a 3/4&quot; 5-lb 7-hour 256GB-SSD 8GB-RAM MBA Retina for $2200 &lt;i&gt;and&lt;/i&gt; be able to swap out darn near everything; something&apos;s gonna give.&lt;p&gt;Some of us DON&apos;T want to replace components, having learned over the years that by the time we&apos;re replacing components we&apos;d rather replace the whole computer outright. If I need more RAM, it&apos;s best matched with a new CPU. If I need more storage, I&apos;ll need more RAM to throw around more data. When the battery dies, all those other components are gettin&apos; obsolete anyway. I also know from experience that upgrading parts doesn&apos;t always go as planned, and time wasted upgrading can very quickly add up to the cost of a new machine outright. I&apos;d rather have a notebook which is very thin, very light, very fast - and just replace the whole package when the time comes as I see fit.&lt;p&gt;You&apos;re welcome to a different POV, and there is a market happy to serve our different needs &amp;#38; desires.&lt;p&gt;However, just because we have a different POV doesn&apos;t make me a f&lt;i&gt;&lt;/i&gt;*ing idiot.</text></comment>
<story><title>New Apple Macbook Pro RAM is soldered to the motherboard | Ian Chilton</title><url>http://www.ichilton.co.uk/blog/apple/new-apple-macbook-pro-ram-is-soldered-to-the-motherboard-513.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>gouranga</author><text>Sorry but you have got to be a fucking idiot to buy one to be honest if that is the case.&lt;p&gt;Apple are making an attempt to turn generic computers into disposable appliances with moves like these. I would never accept a compromise like that with a computer that I owned.&lt;p&gt;My rationale is as follows: If I pay £1800 for one of those machines, I expect to be able to repair common problems easily. That&apos;s a lot of money sitting in one component waiting to fail and considering the warranty is a year (or 3 if you are extorted for even more cash by Apple for their expensive AppleCare service).&lt;p&gt;First it was the batteries - now no longer replaceable by mere mortals, then the SSDs were brought in with proprietary interfaces, now the RAM is soldered on the board.&lt;p&gt;In the average 5 year life span of a computer, I have found that you will need to replace the battery between 1-2 times, the memory will need to be upgraded at least once and the disk will need to be upgraded. These are observations but rational ones.&lt;p&gt;I&apos;m now sitting on a Lenovo T61 which is 5 years old. EVERY component in this machine can be replaced for literally nothing and very rapidly.&lt;p&gt;Sorry but stuff like this is just pandering to consumerism if it is disposable by design.&lt;p&gt;The design is retarded.&lt;p&gt;EDIT: It appears the battery is GLUED in so that&apos;s not replaceable any more either, even with the aid of a screwdriver.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>jwr</author><text>No need for profanity. Why the strong emotions?&lt;p&gt;To make a laptop this small and thin with this much stuff inside, you have to get rid of certain elements. Before calling people names I&apos;d suggest you check if it is at all possible to fit two (you&apos;d want TWO, right?) SODIMM slots in the space available.&lt;p&gt;Same goes for the battery — when I saw the first pictures of the internals, I said &quot;well, they finally got rid of the integrated battery pack&quot;: you have to, if you want to get that much mAh into that little space.&lt;p&gt;It&apos;s a natural progression — an externally replaceable battery takes the most space, an internal (but still a single one) battery pack takes less, and a bunch of cells glued all over the place take even less.&lt;p&gt;I think it&apos;s a good compromise. I&apos;d order a laptop with the amount of RAM and storage that I&apos;ll need over the next 2 years, which is the time I amortize the purchase over.&lt;p&gt;And — if you don&apos;t like it, just don&apos;t buy it.</text></comment>