Final pics: Gold Macbook Pro w/ diamonds

Qtip42

[H]is Modness
Joined
Mar 16, 2000
Messages
6,726
So...I think my warranty is now void. :D On a more serious note, I need to do another Apple mod, probably an imac.

newmbp1.jpg

goldmacbookpro1.jpg

goldmacbookpro2.jpg
 
It may be sold already but I may just do another in black nickel. Not sure yet.

As far as the iphone goes, I stay far away from modding phones.
 
Nice work. I hope your packin, if you plan on using it in a coffee house.
 
I am tempted just to take it out once to see what the reaction is. In the right part of town, I could get quite a bit of business :D And I could also get mugged or worse, have a latte spilled on it.
 
That looks awesome. You could do pretty well for yourself if you opened a little home modding business. I know I'd send you my powerbook to do.
 
That looks awesome. You could do pretty well for yourself if you opened a little home modding business. I know I'd send you my powerbook to do.


It appears to me that you already HAVE the business going. EXCELSIOR!!!
 
Nice (in a velvet Elvis kinda way).

Everything on it works? Touchpad, ports, etc?

Ya, the ports got a once over depending on what material they were made of. Metal = auto paint pen. Plastic = dye.

Touchpad is slightly textured bc/cc. I didn't want to make it too smooth because your finger would stick to it if your hands were slightly warm.

I'm still talking with a place about thin film coatings in the future. They have some anti reflective/low gloss/textured clear that is amazing.
 
Gizmodo just called this morning. Cross my fingers engadget does too :D
 
See what happens when you cross your fingers, magical things!
 
Gold plate any Apple product, and one rarely has to cross fingers to get it on Giz/Engadget :)

Beautiful work, but I'm curious as to whether or not it impedes heat dissipation.
 
Gold plate any Apple product, and one rarely has to cross fingers to get it on Giz/Engadget :)

Beautiful work, but I'm curious as to whether or not it impedes heat dissipation.

gold is one of the best heat conductors you can get, it's just not used a lot due to cost.
 
Looks cool, but maybe next time use rubies for the logo?

Heh, if I had the money I would make a bunch of designs using different stones. Then again, I'd completely remove the Apple as well and put in my own logo :D
 
That is an amazing job!!!

I used to live in China, and man that thing could fetch a mint there!
 
That is beautiful work. I hate to ask stupid questions, but since it hasn't been stated explicitly: Is that real gold and are those real diamonds? If the gold is real, how do you electroplate non-ferrous materials? Or did you apply gold leaf and then seal it somehow?
 
Ya I've been getting lots of broken english requests. I need a translating service :D

It's aluminum that is 24kt gold. Yes it is real gold. 24kt is usually between 99.3 and 99.7% pure. It's soft so yes it can scratch if not handled properly.

The diamonds are real. I have both the CZ version and a diamond version. Both look relatively the same but are vastly different in cost. They both have a silver base, gold is entirely too expensive to set stones in right now.
 
sweet mod, even tho i hate mac.. as for gold, i'd be afraid to use the thing, gold is so soft and dentable :eek:
 
Awesome, I knew Engadget would go apeshit over this, over 60 comments so far.
 
I am tempted just to take it out once to see what the reaction is. In the right part of town, I could get quite a bit of business :D And I could also get mugged or worse, have a latte spilled on it.
\

A die hard mac fan would try to kill you and then dipose of it so no one sees it.
 
why a mac but not a pc? mac always is more pretty.:(

I don't mean to go on a rant here but you bring up a good point...

The Macbook Pro is the closest thing to a "luxury" good in the computer world. HP, Dell, and Lenovo have done a splendid job creating a market where laptops are throw-away items that don't last more than a year. They have no value among customers and lose value worse than a new car leaving the sales lot. I could go on about this forever. It's sickening to see such poor quality craftsmanship put into these computers and laptops. This is why I think HP's plunge into the gaming market with the Blackbird is nothing more than a joke. The instant you put an HP badge on the case, you've lost a good number of people. An HP logo on anything, to me, says "stay away"...You need to create a valuable brand first, not buy a company (Voodoo) and hope to leech off their work. The HP logo dooms the poor bird from the beginning. The same goes for Dell and the others with their high-end lines.

Apple on the other hand has created a brand that people like and don't mind paying extra for. Hence the "closest thing to a luxury good" comment above. They care about the design of their computers, the experience, and everything involved. And it rubs off on customers. I'd put money on the idea that people see more value in something with an Apple logo on it than any other computer company today.

As far as I see it, Apple is the only computer company in the world right now who could create a luxury line of laptops (with gold, platinum, diamonds, whatever), charge an hefty price only few could afford, and still sell out every last one of them. Doing this + adding tech like HDDVD/Blueray drives, solid state drives, etc. a year before they hit the mass market would make the laptop a dream for most and a must have for the rich.

So picking the Macbook Pro for customizing was the best choice I could make. It also fills that void in the luxury laptop market between high spec'ed laptops and the next step up: a Tulip Ego for $300,000 or the Luvaglio $1,000,000. Both very underwhelming laptops with little desirability.

/rant

Wow that all came out of my mouth? :D
 
Thanks. Like I said above, I doubt I could get near the same reaction with any other aluminum laptop on the market.
 
I don't mean to go on a rant here but you bring up a good point...

The Macbook Pro is the closest thing to a "luxury" good in the computer world. HP, Dell, and Lenovo have done a splendid job creating a market where laptops are throw-away items that don't last more than a year. They have no value among customers and lose value worse than a new car leaving the sales lot. I could go on about this forever. It's sickening to see such poor quality craftsmanship put into these computers and laptops. This is why I think HP's plunge into the gaming market with the Blackbird is nothing more than a joke. The instant you put an HP badge on the case, you've lost a good number of people. An HP logo on anything, to me, says "stay away"...You need to create a valuable brand first, not buy a company (Voodoo) and hope to leech off their work. The HP logo dooms the poor bird from the beginning. The same goes for Dell and the others with their high-end lines.

Apple on the other hand has created a brand that people like and don't mind paying extra for. Hence the "closest thing to a luxury good" comment above. They care about the design of their computers, the experience, and everything involved. And it rubs off on customers. I'd put money on the idea that people see more value in something with an Apple logo on it than any other computer company today.

As far as I see it, Apple is the only computer company in the world right now who could create a luxury line of laptops (with gold, platinum, diamonds, whatever), charge an hefty price only few could afford, and still sell out every last one of them. Doing this + adding tech like HDDVD/Blueray drives, solid state drives, etc. a year before they hit the mass market would make the laptop a dream for most and a must have for the rich.

So picking the Macbook Pro for customizing was the best choice I could make. It also fills that void in the luxury laptop market between high spec'ed laptops and the next step up: a Tulip Ego for $300,000 or the Luvaglio $1,000,000. Both very underwhelming laptops with little desirability.

/rant

Wow that all came out of my mouth? :D
And thats why I own one :D

That thing looks sweet. I would have picked something other than the diamonds, but it looks good anyway ;)

oh yea, does the backlit keyboard still work?
 
you know while i typically would agree that hp and other companies have gone the road of 'disposable' laptops..

making the case build quality better than others does not prolong the life of the internal components being outdated... to say that is so ignorant it hurt me to have to read that.

I was tempted to buy a mac book pro myself for on the go work and novel writing but.. I also thought back.. Yeah sure, they look nice, but you are also paying a ton more for it.. and what do you get out of it? nothing but heartache the second something scratches it or some idiot bumps into you and you drop it and chip the case.. etc.

I guess I shouldn't be shocked that all that really exists anymore is fan boys.. people nowadays rely on the crap that other people tell them for 100% truth rather than find things out on their own.

As per them being luxury? Hardly, they look nice and people generally like the fact that the existence of viruses hasn't been around.. and with the x86 platform thats going to go right out the window.

Don't lie to yourself.. say you like macs because you prefer the os or something like that, that I can respect. Saying they put more time into their craftsmanship and it makes them a luxury laptop is completely tripe. Look at iPods.. how many people actually got reasonable battery life? (not saying I could make it better.. well. with flash memory from the word go.. as I said when the 2nd and 3rd gens still used hdds) Don't advertise something you can't produce. It's happened with the iPhone (i know, i have one.) And yes I have an iPod too.. you'd think after 3 iterations they'd stop putting chrome on the back that looks nice for a week before it turns to shit...

Not busting you.. just saying don't act like alot of people do and say how Apple does such great things.. they just have a different business model. They are about money, not making nice things, they simply ride their name.
 
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