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MacBook Pro Late 2011: Still worth to buy ? and are all of them will be affected by the GPU Prob ?

1

10-Dee-Q

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
May 10, 2006
511
32
Bandung, West Java, Indonesia & Singapore
Hi, So currently im still using my old Mid 2009 MBP
15"
2.66 C2D,
8GB 1067 MHz DDR3,
NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT 256 MB,
750GB 7200rpm WD scorpion black

I use is everyday, and i for me the perfomance is still okay ish on the latest El Capitan
i use it for downloading torrent, browsing, backing up my iPhones and iPads, do some light photo Editing on Photoshop (lagging quite a bit when i open big RAW files from my DSLR)
I didn't bring it with me a long anymore as i just get the new iPad Pro 9'7" for my works.
so the MBP i just basically left it at home plugged in 24/7 and powered on 24/7

There are already some problems arrises already on my Mid 2009 MBP
-there's a 1 blue vertical lines on the left side of the LCD, it's only 1 pixel wide but run across from top to bottom, it's only noticable when the display is showing colour, on white of light colours , it's quite faint.
-the battery life is already very bad, cycle are 647, status "service battery", health 32%
-the fans are noisy like hell, but i've replaced it myself and so far it's working allright, unless i use it for graphic intensive like video editing and gaming where the temp can goes to 80 C and above then it will start to "whine" again.

anyway i want to get a new macbook, but i've read macrumors that now is not the right time to buy
as the newly redesigned MBP is imminent.

i was tempted to get the new 12" macbook retina, but i'm afraid the screen size is too small for me ( i've owned 13" black macbook before and i feel that the screen is too small for my need)
and since the 12 macbbok retina only uses M proccesors , i'm worry about it's performances.

Yesterday, one of my friends just bought a new iMac, and he's asking me wheter i want to buy his old MBP which is :
MacBook Pro Late 2011
15"
2.4 i7
4GB 1333 Mhz DDR3
AMD Radeon HD 6750M with 512 MB GDDR5
750GB 5400 rpm HDD
for cheap

he's asking for about US$500
the condition is very good, no dent no scratches, as he was using it also as a desktop replacement,
so he seldom bring it out and the battery status is still "Good"

i was thinking to sell off my MBP and get his MBP and use it for about 1-2 years from now untill the 2nd generation of the newly redesigned MBP comes out ( as from my previous experiences, apple like to skims a lot from their first generation products)

so now here's my questions,:

- i know the 2.4 i7 gonna be faster than my 2.66 C2D, but how much faster exactly ? i mean will it be enough to do some basic Raw editing in photoshop ? will it be much faster than the C2D ?
-COmpared to current line of MBP 15" i7s, how slow is the Late 2011 i7 ? cause i thought they are the using i7s and if i upgrade the late 2011 i7 to ssd and add more ram, it wont be very far behind in terms of performace , compared the current line up of i7 MBP ?
- i'm planning to install a SSD on the DVD-rom bay, what kit is reccomended for this ? and i've read that all non apple branded SSD has no "TRIM" support on apple machines, so will it cause me problems ?
-what brand and what size of SSD is the "sweet point" right now ?
-i'm planning to use my 750GB 7200rpm on the main bay , so what SSD size should i get ?
-What size of RAM is the sweet spot for running El Capitan comfortably ? and can i use my old RAM from the mid 2009 MBP on the late 2011 MBP ?
- i've heard about the infamous MBP 2011/2012 GPU replacement program from apple,
but i've asked my friends and he never experiences any of the symthoms before, so my questions is, will all the 2011 unit GPU failed ? or only certain batches ?

so should i get his MBP and sell off my MBP and wait for the second generation of the newly redesigned MBP ?
or should i just use my MBP as his MBP is not that worht of an upgrade to my current MBP ?
or just get the new 12" macbook retina and buy some 21" external LCD ?

please advice, thank you so much.
 
emilioestevez said:
2011s are cursed. Avoid at all costs.
Click to expand...
I'm so glad and happy that my 2011 avoided problems. It did die at one point, but it turned out to just be the charging port (so it had no power and therefore couldn't turn on). It cost me €40 to get that fixed at an Apple store.

Besides that, flawless machine.
 
You mention that you use your current MBP as a desktop machine. Have you considered getting an iMac or similar instead of a MBP?

But to answer some of your questions: Yes, it will be a lot faster. Your current machine scores around 2,700 in multicore score in Geekbench. The newer one scores around 9,500. In comparison the 2.2 GHz current i7 scores around 11,000. If you add an SSD to the newer machine it will run very fast. The size of the SSD depends on how much space you want as well as how much you want to pay. But either a 500GB or 1TB is what I would go with.
 
Agree with the above. Every 2011 will have an issue eventually.
 
10-Dee-Q said:
anyway are all the 2011 MBP will have problems ? or just a fractions of it ?
Click to expand...
- The issue is by design and exists in all machines of that vintage. Different machines will exhibit problems at different times, but all will eventually. Of course, it's possible you'll have stopped using the machine before it has problems or that it succumbs to a different failure first.
 
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JTToft said:
- But at least they aren't currently known to be affected by a widespread GPU related issue (assuming non-Retina version).
Click to expand...

I was talking bout the 2012 retina model, which does have the issues. But yes, if you can get the 2012 non retina model for cheap, sure, go for it.
 
No it`s really sad; 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011 - 2013 All these top tier MacBook Pros have had an official Apple extended quality program the rest who knows. What I do know is that, I for one won't be buying another, am done being suckerd by one of the wealthiest companies in the world.

What`s even better, Apple only refurbishes the same poorly designed Logic Boards, which in general tend to fail in an even shorter period of time. Effectively just a "bandaid" to blow you off until Apple no longer has an legal liability.

My own opinion is that if you need or want a portable Mac with dGPU fine, just be aware that it will likely fail sooner, rather than later. If like myself you can monetarize the hardware who cares, just swap it out in good time, I pass my old systems to family or a good cause. For the average user portable Mac`s with dGPU are simply best avoided.

Many threads like this exist here on MR
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/dgpu-or-not.1974487/

Q-6
 
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