Hardrive gone : replace motherboard?

I knew it was difficult to repair but I thought you did not need to replace entire sections of hardware. As you say, live and learn :(

Are there still repairable MacBooks out there?

@samgta

Hi Sam,

Here's IFIXIT's "Laptop Repairability Scores":

https://www.ifixit.com/laptop-repairabil...

Unfortunately Macs are not really very repairable. Mainly because the parts are proprietary. Look at the breakdown for your model:

Retina MacBook 2016 Teardown

especially step 7 and 8 photos of the main board.

HP EliteBooks win hands down. Some DELL laptops are good as well. For example my HP laptop requires 5 minutes to replace hard drive, RAM and WiFi card in one go and scores full 10 points.

I just stick to facts. I'm not loyal to any one brand of laptop like I am to my football club.

@samgta - Sadly, Apple has lost its way in understanding its customer base.

The eye candy of the looks and the functionality are what our heads like, but later our hearts ache when we need to fix or extend our systems.

From 2015 onwards MacBooks are only serviceable by four expensive module's. Even the 2016 onwards MacBook Pro's are in the same boat!

@aactech And I did a hard drive in a E7440 I got dirt cheap within 5-10 minutes, along with the thermal paste. You even get access to the RAM, WWAN/mSATA SSD and WLAN card. It took longer to remove it from the test machine then it took to install it.

Once you remove the fan, the required repaste is super easy on the E7440 :-). Mine has the i7-4600U and I got it for less then $100 over a boot issue as a 2 machine pair - both came back albeit with one needing a 2nd screen as there was TAB issues with the first one that replaced the blown backlight panel it came with. I tend to like the Dells more for serviceabiliy these days after they sent the buried D series design to die (and fixed the E5 motherboard design with Skylake). Although some of the nice HPs like the Z line give Dell tough service competition. Even some of the newer Haswell-present EliteBooks are up there with Dell. For me, it's easier for me to get Dell parts then HP or Lenovo.

I'm super picky and the only times I've seen the benchmark I put machines against pass are business class. Never seen a consumer class pass - the compromises are a problem for the benchmark I use, especially since I hate plastic and favor metal. Metal laptops are actually built to last, but I also like carbon fiber composite as well - it's raw ABS I hate. Carbon fiber composite metal hybrids are even better if done right. I generally like a metal base, ABS palmrest since it isn't a structural issue and carbon fiber composite LCD assemblies - although magnesium backed aluminum is fine even though it weighs more.

They copy the best on the business side and leave the bad ideas behind for a reason - corporate customer word of mouth. You only ever see non-serviceable garbage on the consumer side for good reason; consumers don't talk but people who own business class hardware do.

@nick

We're a bit off topic here but ya I like my HP Elitebook 8570p Laptop business machine. Slide off bottom panel to service/upgrade and built like a tank. Heavy though.