Here's you 34843rd "What can I upgrade?" post

[Jukeboxhero]

Whats up all!

So i have a early 2011 MacBook Pro 15" (MacBookPro8,2, 2.2 GHz Intel Core i7, A1286). I've done the ram upgrade to 16GB, removed the DVD drive and put a 1TB SSD and also replaced my HD with a 1TB SSD.

I'm wondering if there any other possible (official or unofficial) upgrades I can do or am I maxed out?

I read some where i can replace the motherboard (as long as its the exact one) with a higher GHz and it'll be fine.

 

[Raz0rEdge]

Don't waste your money, a replacement logicboard (assuming its in functioning order) will easily run you north of $500, if not higher. That will STILL yield a "legacy" machine that is 9+ years old. You should take any thoughts of upgrades and put it against a new machine.

 

[RadDave]

Don't waste your money, a replacement logicboard (assuming its in functioning order) will easily run you north of $500, if not higher. That will STILL yield a "legacy" machine that is 9+ years old. You should take any thoughts of upgrades and put it against a new machine.

@ Jukeboxhero - well, I'd have to agree w/ Ashwin's expert advice, i.e. much has changed in the nearly 9 years of the machine's release; also, checking EveryMac, your model is fixed at macOS 10.13 (see below from the website), believe the first using the new APFS; and if you do upgrade and advance to 10.15.x, remember that 32-bit apps will not work w/ that macOS - good luck! Dave
.

 

[Jukeboxhero]

@ Jukeboxhero - well, I'd have to agree w/ Ashwin's expert advice, i.e. much has changed in the nearly 9 years of the machine's release; also, checking EveryMac, your model is fixed at macOS 10.13 (see below from the website), believe the first using the new APFS; and if you do upgrade and advance to 10.15.x, remember that 32-bit apps will not work w/ that macOS - good luck! Dave
.
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Don't waste your money, a replacement logicboard (assuming its in functioning order) will easily run you north of $500, if not higher. That will STILL yield a "legacy" machine that is 9+ years old. You should take any thoughts of upgrades and put it against a new machine.

Yeah a goal in mind for me is getting a new iMac so i can split DJing and production on to two instead of all in one. I still have a small attachment to my laptop so i figured i asked and look at the options

 

[pigoo3]

I read some where i can replace the motherboard (as long as its the exact one) with a higher GHz and it'll be fine.

This would probably be possible...as long as it was a faster motherboard/CPU from the 2011 series. Problem is...the fastest motherboard upgrade option possible would only increase CPU perfomance about 10%...and as mentioned above...it would cost quite a bit to purchase the faster motherboard.

MUCH better to take the hundreds of dollars a faster-compatible motherboard might cost...and invest it in a newer used/new MacBook Pro.

- Nick

 

[ferrarr]

It the 2011 MacBook Pro a "Late" or "Early" model year version? It makes a difference, because the Early model year version did not come with Lion pre-installed, so Internet Recovery is not an option.

 

[Randy B. Singer]

So i have a early 2011 MacBook Pro 15" ... am I maxed out?

If you want to get a decent performance upgrade, for the least amount of money, the thing to do is to sell your old MBP, and then purchase a used or refurbished MBP that is newer. Make sure that whichever one you choose offers a significant performance boost over what you had. You can compare here:
Mac Benchmarks
- Geekbench Browser

You didn't say where you are located, so I hope that this is helpful, but I recently purchased an older refurbished (A-grade) MBP from GroupOn because I hated the keyboards on all the new MBP's. The refurbished MBP showed up like new, and it was only just over a few hundred dollars. I feel like I stole it, it was such a great deal!

GroupOn's regular prices aren't anything special, but they have regular sales where the prices ARE special. So the thing to do is to monitor their Web site for sales until you see just what you want at the price you want.

Groupon Status Page