my computing devices!!!!

be they desktops, laptops, monitors, mobile devices, this is a list of all of my notable computing devices. i have some noname items not listed here. click on these links to scroll to info and pictures of the things. they're mostly old apple products.

super gaming hackintosh

ALL TRACTORS VACATE THE PREMISES. this is my super epic hackintosh. i use it to do a bunch of stuff. u would not believe how happy i was when i found out that my hardware was compatible with macos when i first started getting into hackintoshing. by then i was incredibly fed up with windows, with it's performance and bugginess, even on """good""" hardware. an ssd, 12gb of ram at the time, an rx 580, and an i3-3220. that i3-3220 is totally the bottleneck there. but it probably doesn't excuse the windows user experience. why did this turn into a windows rant. i know im annoying im sorry.

i7-3770k, 16gb DDR3, intel DH77EB motherboard, XFX RX 580, 400gb SSD w/ macOS 12 Monterey, 2tb HDD w/ time machine, shared space between macOS/Windows, Windows

Dell Optiplex 755

i recently (as of writing) got this computer for doing some data recovery from a friend. it only supports legacy boot, and is a headache to service. it's also got a really old buggy bios that i need to update sometime soon, but i'm having trouble getting... well really any version of windows on it. which you need to do a bios update. i wish you could do bios updates from the bios, like my super epictosh 9000 (above), but you can't. at least on this version. i'm also trying to hackintosh it which is going better than i thought it would.

Core 2 Duo E6550, 2gb DDR2, NVIDIA GT 620, 320gb hdd (probably gonna put windows on here), 160gb hdd (stolen from one of my macbooks. using as macos install media.)

Orange

orange is probably the most modified computer on this list. it's a lenovo ideapad with a broken battery, that i was using for various server tasks. i wanted to make the thermals better, because it was getting hotter than i liked. i initially started by taking apart the computer, and on the back of the keyboard, there was a plastic sheet. immediately below the keyboard, of course, was the CPU fan and CPU itself. removing the plastic sheet adhered to the keyboard allowed more air to flow into the fan, and more heat to be expelled from the plate above the CPU through radiation. this caused part of the keyboard to be very warm, and the other part to have significant sucky-force. this was a good improvement, but it wasn't enough. i removed the display from the chassis temporarily, and removed the keyboard permenantly. left with just the chassis, i removed the heatsink. i mounted a heavily modified (with a dremel and a drill) desktop heatsink to the motherboard with zip-ties and springs to apply pressure, and i left out the fan. i then cut holes in the original chassis so the new heatsink and mounting solution could fit. i added wooden stands, to prop up the chassis, and another one to prop up the display. i reattached the display, to the computer, screwed to the wooden boards, so that the screen was effectively sperated and could be manipulated independently. here i was left with essentially just a tiny all-in-one desktop computer with no fan. it stays very cool with it's passive cooling solution. i could take off the display, to save power, since i never use it, but i dont know if it'll boot without it.

i5-U470, 2gb DDR3, integrated graphics, 100GB hdd, w/ Ubuntu Server 22.04.1 LTS

ThinkPad T450s

i asked for this one for christmas in 2021. "hey what do you want for christmas" "oh just this broken 7 year old computer from ebay". that is exactly how it went. it wasn't actually broken, of course. it was just missing a hard drive and it's caddy. i had macos running on it in a couple hours, and it ran great, save for audio and bluetooth issues. i got this computer because of a certain issue with my 2014 mba that we'll mull over later, but this computer's now been demoted to use in sheepit.

i5-5300U, 12gb DDR3 (4gb onboard, 8gb stick), HD 5500??, 80GB hdd, w/ Ubuntu Server 22.04.1 LTS

iPhone SE 2 (2020)

just a normal iphone se 2. recieved for my birthday in 2021. i was gonna say that it had a tiny picture of Tim Sweeney taped to the back of it, beneath the transparent case, but i just checked at the time of writing and it's gone and i have no idea where it is. i live in constant fear.

2014 MacBook Air

this is an 11" model. recieved for my birthday in 2020, i think. i did the majority of my zoom school on this thing, involving many things such has: having multiple browser windows open that are unrestricted (i hate managed chromebooks), and also one time i set up OBS to play looping videos of my face and stream them over a virtual camera. macbook airs are known for having pretty poor cooling solutions. i used macs fan control to keep the internals cool, but this ended up sending the fan speeds to the damn moon. this is actually why i ended up getting the thinkpad, i was just really annoyed at this. but cooling issues begone!!! i have placed thermal pads inbetween the heatpipes and the massive alluminum back cover, giving an extremely large area for heat to radiate off of, and a great volume that can store a lot of heat energy. i still have it on the dont-kill-yourself fan settings, but i rarely hear the fans ramp up. this thermal modification is actually so good its incredible. the screen has also been replaced, because i accidentally severed the bluetooth antenna cable. i'm gonna end up replacing the motherboard eventually with a max-spec 2015 11" motherboard

i5-????, 4gb DDR3, HD 5000, 256GB ssd, w/ macOS Monterey and macOS Mojave

2010 MacBook Pro

this is a 17" model! it's the largest laptop apple's ever made. well, no, it probably isn't. the 2007 17" is probably larger, due to sheer bulkiness. it's also not the newest 17" macbook pro. but i personally think that the 2010 is the BEST 17" macbook pro. they made 17" ones up to 2011, but the 2011 models have overheating gpus, and the 2009 models only have core 2 duos. so that makes the 2010s super epic!!! also, i dont think the 2011's can run snow leopard. so take that. snow leopard is cool. i put final cut studio on my SL volume.

i?-???, 6gb DDR3, NVIDIA GT 330M + HD????, 500GB hdd, w/ Mac OS X Snow Leopard, Mac OS X El Capitan, Windows 7

2007 MacBook Pro

this is a 15" model. this model is from the line that are prone to overheating, so every so often i need to reflow it. also, it has the anti-shock anti-vibration weird feet on the bottom, that have obviously worn down into nothing by now being that they were just little nubs, so i put my own little slippy feet on the thing, that gives it ample space from the surface it's sitting on to ventilate. i also did the thermal pad mod on this one, and i can be a bit more lenient on the fan speeds. i still need to be really careful to keep it under 65c at all times though. when both my thinkpad and macbook air were busted, i used this computer for school, running el capitan. it actually handled pretty well! i was also using it cuz it was funny not just cuz i couldnt use any other computer.

Core 2 Duo, 3gb DDR2, NVIDIA GT 8400m(?), ????? hdd, w/ Mac OS X Tiger, Mac OS X El Capitan

INTRODUCING THE A1181 MACBOOK SETS.

SET ONE

one day i went to goodwill and i saw that they were selling a1181's for $25, and it was a half off day, so they were actually $12.50 each. satisfactory! i bought four, a 2006, a 2007 blackbook, a 2008, and a 2009. i repaired and sold the 2006, and got enough money to cover the cost of all of them. which was so cool. this will not be the only time i do this.

A1181 MacBook set 1 #2009

this was the dirtiest one i got from goodwill. i hestitated to get it, but turns out it was a 2009! these are so cool, because they have firewire 400, and can run el capitan, and have 9400's and stuff and they r so cool and they dont overheat or anything

Core 2 Duo, 0gb DDR?, NVIDIA GT 9400M, 160GB hdd, w/ Mac OS X El Capitan (currently thieved to the optiplex)

A1181 MacBook set 1 #2008

currently has a busted keyboard. otherwise works, i think.

Core 2 Duo, 0gb DDR2, ?, NO hdd

A1181 MacBook set 1 #BB

has a REALLY busted keyboard. outer casing is scratched and severely damaged and the matte coat is peeling, so i can't even reuse the casing and put it on my 2009 or something cool like that. worst condition one. insides were full of dirt. worked until i accidentally ripped off a connector off the board but i think it was busted anyway because it had trouble recalling its own serial

Core 2 Duo, 0gb DDR2, GMA 950, NO hdd

SET TWO

i went back to goodwill and they were selling them for $15, half off again, so $7.50 each. satisfactory! i bought 6, and i labelled each one with a sticky note containing the results of various tests i did. the final test consists of seeing if the laptop boots, and can play bejeweled. this let me troubleshoot laptop aplenty, i.e. seeing if it has a working GPU, working dvd drives, etc.

A1181 MacBook set 2 #1

A1181 MacBook set 2 #2

A1181 MacBook set 2 #3

A1181 MacBook set 2 #4

A1181 MacBook set 2 #5

A1181 MacBook set 2 #6

2007 Mac Mini

computer that made me go "holy crap lois macs r cool" despite the fact it ran an os from 2011. i tried my damndest to get a ton of modern applications to run on the thing, because the user experience was so amazing despite the fact i had a super epic windows pc on the same desk, with way better specifications. i currently use it as a bridge to transfer files between my old computers and my new computers.

Core 2 Duo, ?gb DDR2, GMA 950, ???gb HDD w/ Mac OS X Tiger, Mac OS X Lion, Windows XP

2009 Mac Mini

looks the same as the 2007 mac mini but you can plug multiple monitors into it and you can run el capitan on it. the GPU in this machine is actually natively compatible with macOS high sierra, so i patched high sierra onto it using OCLP instead of the dosdude patcher, so i can have sealed apfs volumes and keep SIP on so i can do various serving junk

Core 2 Duo, 4gb DDR3, NVIDIA 9400, 1tb HDD w/ macOS High Sierra, Mac OS X Lion

iMac G3

the first mac i've ever actually owned. i got it from my 5th grade music teacher, who had it in the back of the class. i always thought it was so cool, so when she retired, i asked if i could have it, and she gave it to me and now i have an imac g3. it was in great condition, with the speakers and cd rollers working perfectly. i've replaced the old, extremely shiny for some reason hard drive with a newer one, because the old one was so slow the machine couldnt even smoothly play the macos tiger intro video. i also moved a resistor on the main board, to increase the clock of the machine from 500mhz to 550mhz, a very small change. it worked for a while, and ran great, but unfortunately, the machine's analog board stopped giving the correct voltages and the machine doesnt start. the board is like a $20 replacement and i dont wanna do that right now cuz the analog board is pretty scary to replace.

550mhz PowerPC G3, 384mb DDR, ATI Rage 128mb, 160gb HDD (120gb visable to machine), w/ Mac OS X Tiger and Mac OS 9.2.1

iMac G5

recieved from a friend. just an imac g5. i've experiemented with putting linux on it a couple times but they never worked out well enough for what i wanted. it's the max spec model that doesn't have an isight camera.

2ghz PowerPC G5, 2gb DDR, ATI ??? ?????, ???gb HDD, w/ Mac OS X Tiger

2011 iMac

minimum spec 2011 27" imac. i have upgraded the GPU to a metal-compatible one, and i dual-boot windows and big sur. it was a big headache to setup, because the bootloader that lets me use BS wants to stay in the ESP, but windows wants to use the ESP, but the bootloader is perfectly fine not being in an ESP, it just needs to be bootable. i have the bootloader inbetween my macos and windows volumes. also i had to do a whole annoying driver dance to get windows to work properly. some of the drivers for the 2011 imac will bluescreen if loaded in efi so u need to disable them.

i5-2???, 32gb DDR3, WX4130, 500gb hdd, w/ macOS Big Sur, Windows 10

Apple Cinema HD Display 30"

fucking massive display from 2004. okay contrast ratio, incredible resolution. probably the highest resolution consumer monitor that existed when it came out. still pretty good today. turns on super quickly, w/ no splash screens or long loading times. why the hell do monitors have splash screens and loading times. i hate monitors. except for this one this one is so cool.

2560x1600, contrast ratio 1:400 (pre-2005 model)

Apple Cinema Display 20"

same as the 30", but 20"

1680x1050, contrast ratio 1:400 (pre-2005 model)