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For starters:
- MacBook Pro (17-inch, Mid 2010) will take no more than 8 GB memory
- MacBook Pro (17-inch, Early 2011) will take 16 GB.
Mactracker may help you to make a choice.
Be aware of the MacBook Pro Repair Extension Program for Video Issues – free of charge, but the service provider may charge a reasonable fee for diagnosis.
My thoughts also. But, I would narrow it down and say that if your budget allows go with the 2012 and 2011 units. These have SATA 6 drive interfaces for higher performance with a modern SSD. My 2011 13 MB Pro shows about 550 MB/sec read speed. My 2010 13 MB Pro showed about 330 MB/sec. Both are much faster than the 50-60 MB/sec of the rotation driver, but you can somewhat feel the difference. The 2011 unit is a step or two faster, and at this point the price difference is small.
And when you do get an SSD, get one that is at least 256 GB. The way they layout memory arrays on the SSD the high capacity drives use more modules that can be driven in parallel so the performance increases as the size increases up to around 512 GB - 1TB, depending upon manufacturer. I find the Samsung EVO 850 offers great performance for the money.
Add a 256 SSD and 16 GB of memory to a 2011 13 macbook and they are very fast!
Hi all,
Thanks for your feedback! I'm going to take a look at the mid 2012 MBPs. Does anyone have any experience of the 15-inch MBP with 2.7GHz quad-core Intel Core i7?
Thanks for your feedback! I'm going to take a look at the mid 2012 MBPs. Does anyone have any experience of the 15-inch MBP with 2.7GHz quad-core Intel Core i7?
I do. Mine is the 2012 15" non-retina MBP, 2.7GHz i7, 16GB Memory, 500GB 850 Evo SSD, and High Resolution (1680x1050) anti-glare screen. It's a beast performance-wise (13300 Geekbench score). A bit on the heavy side, but very much worth having for my needs.
You want the 2012 non-retina MacBook Pro.
It has USB3. Anything earlier will have only USB2.
It has USB3. Anything earlier will have only USB2.
Sorry for my ignorance. I have only owned 13" macbooks.
Should the OP avoid the discrete GPU on the 2012 15 inch macbook. Or is that only an issue for the early retina models?
Should the OP avoid the discrete GPU on the 2012 15 inch macbook. Or is that only an issue for the early retina models?
The only models affected are:
- 15-inch and 17-inch MacBook Pro models manufactured in 2011
- 15-inch MacBook Pro with Retina models manufactured from Mid 2012 to Early 2013
Yes, you should have no problem with that.
One tip I have learned the hard way to eliminate some problems when moving the OS disk drive from one Mac to another, is to reset SMC/PRAM, and to boot at least once to safe mode (by holding SHIFT while booting).
Maybe this is obvious, but I'd do a price check of the 2012 MBP + the price of upgrades versus just getting a used/refurbished rMBP that has the same specs as what you're upgrading the 2012 to. The rMBP will still probably be more expensive, but it does have advantages that might be worth a little extra money. Just something to consider.
This is the MacBook http://www.everymac.com/systems/app...re-i7-2.7-15-mid-2012-unibody-usb3-specs.html
...but it now has 16GB RAM and 1TB SSD. The whole thing (inc. upgrades) cost me around £1,250 ($1,500). I might be wrong, but I don't think Apple has ever sold a MacBook with these specs, and the 2012 MBPs are the last models that you could upgrade (I think).