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15" 2012 cMBP - 802.11ac AirPort Upgrade Available?

keysofanxiety

keysofanxiety

macrumors G3
Original poster
Nov 23, 2011
9,539
25,302
Hi all,

Hope you're keeping in good spirits. Does anybody know of a tried & tested aftermarket 802.11ac upgrade available for my 15" 2012 non-Retina MacBook Pro? Preferably from a UK seller for cheaper shipping. I enquired with iFixit though they advised that they don't do one.

Pretty disappointing seeing as you can get a PCI-e Intel 802.11ac card for £15, which'll fit any cheap Windows laptop :(

Thank you for any advice you can provide, I'd be massively indebted if this is an upgrade I can do!

Best wishes.
 
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Samuelsan2001 said:
You can get a retina rMBP card on eBay for about £13-15 wether that will go in a non retina I have no idea but you can bet your bottom dollar someone has tried it and posted about it online somewhere.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Apple-Mac...853976?hash=item1a11078058:g:mFsAAOSwbwlW~l7o
Click to expand...
- It won't. Even an adaptor for the PCIe connector isn't enough as the antenna connectors are also much smaller on the Retina card. So you would need entirely new antennae as well.
 
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Samuelsan2001 said:
You can get a retina rMBP card on eBay for about £13-15 wether that will go in a non retina I have no idea but you can bet your bottom dollar someone has tried it and posted about it online somewhere.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Apple-Mac...853976?hash=item1a11078058:g:mFsAAOSwbwlW~l7o
Click to expand...

Hey Sams, thanks for the response. Hurmm, for £15 it's a no brainer, though I remember some people saying that the rMBP ones don't fit.

Having a look at the AirPort cards for my model, they're completely different -- not even PCI-e, but blooming ribbon cable or something: https://www.amazon.co.uk/MacBook-Un...8535&sr=8-2&keywords=2012+macbook+pro+airport

No wonder there isn't an aftermarket solution :( Talk about proprietary.
 
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keysofanxiety said:
Hey Sams, thanks for the response. Hurmm, for £15 it's a no brainer, though I remember some people saying that the rMBP ones don't fit.

Having a look at the AirPort cards for my model, they're completely different -- not even PCI-e, but blooming ribbon cable or something: https://www.amazon.co.uk/MacBook-Un...8535&sr=8-2&keywords=2012+macbook+pro+airport

No wonder there isn't an aftermarket solution :( Talk about proprietary.
Click to expand...

Yeah I had a look about it seems like it's just not going to happen, a pity that's pretty damn cheap. Well if you have a USB slot free there are a couple of USB adapters that'll do i.
 
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JTToft said:
- It won't. Even an adaptor for the PCIe connector isn't enough as the antenna connectors are also much smaller on the Retina card. So you would need entirely new antennae as well.
Click to expand...

Crikey. I don't suppose it's possible to get a PCIe adapter and antennae adapters?!

This AirPort card is getting worse all the time ...

maxresdefault.jpg
 
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keysofanxiety said:
Hi all,

So I've continued to look into this upgrade, and found the following: http://www.quickertek.com/products/Ucard.html

Has anybody had experience of this company or product? So so tempted to make the plunge!
Click to expand...
- Already knew about it, but it falls far outside your criteria of "tried and tested". I've heard of no one having successful communication with the company, much less receiving any products. A few folks on here ordered but had to cancel after no product was delivered and enquiries went unanswered for weeks.
You can probably search them up. I think I'm in at least two of the threads on it.
 
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JTToft said:
- Already knew about it, but it falls far outside your criteria of "tried and tested". I've heard of no one having successful communication with the company, much less receiving any products. A few folks on here ordered but had to cancel after no product was delivered and enquiries went unanswered for weeks.
You can probably search them up. I think I'm in at least two of the threads on it.
Click to expand...

Thank you for responding. I will definitely steer clear!
 
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