I’m looking to take up a new project well it was more of a bet between me and a friend watching a video of someone on YouTube build an iPhone from scratch, £300 is on the line, I’ve started off doing some basic research into seeing this is possible and looking at price points for the parts needed, anyone that can offer any advice, or help with this little project in regards to helping to source components and parts as cheap as possible?
I’ve had a good look around on the web and YouTube and can’t seem to find someone who has done this yet and I’m really looking to document this if it is plausible
Many thanks and just to let you know I’m based in a the uk so if you are able to help with sourcing parts if recommendations could be made in the Uk if possible
Technically I think it’s possible to do but Mac computer parts are much much harder to find because the market for them in China is very limited, compared to the iPhone one. Maybe if you find the right generation that’s more available on the used market you could try to piece a functioning Mac from different non-functioning ones. The biggest problem I see with going for newer generations is the T2 chip and the proprietary SSD.
Not that he assembles macbooks from parts but more repairs existing ones, but Louis Rossman’s channel would have pretty much all you need to know about how.they go together and pitfalls along the way. The harder part will be finding the parts and a high potential for it to cost more to take parts and put them together than to just buy an existing one so be prepared for it to be not worth the £300 you would win.
Yeah this is what I’m trying to decide on I want something that I can actually use for a while I’ve been looking around at 2018 MacBooks but it is still slightly expensive, I really want the Touch Bar feature but do you know anywhere I can start trying to find some parts?
Thanks for that I checked out his channel really gave me an insight into how shit macs really are but for the purpose I am going to use it for it will be fine aha
It’s going to be difficult to build one for less than a second hand complete one, prices of screen assemblies and motherboards is ridiculous, remember all motherboard components are soldered on new Macbooks. Best of luck though.
Ok, the Channel with the IPhone you are reffering to is StrangeParts.
The massive benefit he had was, that he was based in Shenzhen. Like, he lived there at that point. That’s a place where reselling those parts (new or refurb) is not a huge Problem.
In any other part of the world, you can easily be put out of business for unauthrized selling of any part that even has the Apple Logo on it.
With that said, most parts should be obtainable. The Problem will be, getting those part by part. I assume the hardest parts will be Mainboard and Case. Both are rarely pulled from working mashines and resold. Cooler, RAM, HDD etc are all reusable more or less.
If the Mainboard works, most resellers will replace all other parts and sell it as a macBook. Similar for the case. And both aren’t provided as replacements by Apple.
I’d highly advise going with a pre-new-keyboard MacBook. Going with something current means the keyboard is part of the chasis, making it much harder to get it. Plus, the rate of failed keyboards is pretty high. Since Apple replaces all of those under waranty, you won’t find many used parts around. That and the whole “soldered RAM and HDD” Part…
So, unless you plan to go to Shenzhen, you’ll have a hard time. Have a look if you can find an empty aluminum Chassis for a 2015 MacBook Pro first. Without that, you don’t have to start this endeavour and i’d guess it’s the hardest to find.
Unlike the iphone though, assembly shouldn’t be a major hassle. Sourcing the Parts will be the bulk of the work. Putting a Laptop (even a MacBook) together is much easier than a Smartphone.
Does Apple do hardware checks on MacBooks like they do on iPhones? Because if they do, even if you assemble a proper MacBook from scratch, you may not have a functioning one because it doesnt have signed genuine components. Something to keep an eye on.
but for the purpose I am going to use it for it will be fine aha