Getting an i7 motherboard for a MacBook pro 2009, Getting an i7 motherboard for a MacBook pro 2009

Love the fact that EWW was getting really annoyed with Luke. Now it looks like persistance may pay off. How did you get on, did you manage to get this to work or do you have a £1200 paperweight?

I see no reason why this wouldn't work. If this does work do you think that means you would be able to increase the max memory from 4GB?

And EWW, instead of becoming annoyed when people ask questions, remember that in the grand scheme of things, you know nothing and berating someone for asking questions shows your ignorance not your intelligence.

Minki San wrote:

Love the fact that EWW was getting really annoyed with Luke. Now it looks like persistance may pay off. How did you get on, did you manage to get this to work or do you have a £1200 paperweight?

I see no reason why this wouldn't work. If this does work do you think that means you would be able to increase the max memory from 4GB?

And EWW, instead of becoming annoyed when people ask questions, remember that in the grand scheme of things, you know nothing and berating someone for asking questions shows your ignorance not your intelligence.

Thanks for resurrecting and contirbuting to a topic that was asked and answerd more than 14 months ago. I'm sure the OP has moved on by now.

Which makes the original question and my question more relevant now than at the time of asking as I have a late 2009 MacBook and want to upgrade rather than buy a new Mac and it is 14 months older than at the time of asking. Also, knowing that after 14 months of innovation someone may have solved this issue I think it was extremely prudent to resurrect the post.

Unfortunately Templeton, your attempt to belittle me has given me an opportunity to make you look foolish. This was not my intention when I asked the question but that is what has happened.

Your comment has made you look foolish, I would like you to know that this was your doing and not mine as your response was not well thought out and you didn't contemplate my reason for asking.

You quite incorrectly thought your reply was witty and as I am an astute judge of character I can assume that you have told at least one other person about your comment, they may have realised you were being foolish however, as they were your friend and knowing that birds of a feather etc, they may not have worked that out, you must remember in all of this that it was your choice to comment without thinking and this has ultimately been your foolish demise.

You may also note that the matter wasn't fully concluded as no follow up was posted.

You really didn't think about your reply did you? This really has made you look like a stupid person.

Message was edited by: Minki San

I would say that you hit the nail right on the head and had figured me out...if I had any clue as to what you were rambling on and on about...

nice try though.... you get an A+ for effort.

You are well aware what I am talking about and you know that you were made to look foolish. Succinct enough for you?

You crack me up, dude!!!! 😁

I'm going to necropost as well, because this subject is extremely relevant to me, since my 2009 MBP 17" is aging pretty poorly.

The reason I'm enthusiastic about doing a board swap is because it does *seem* possible, since the case ID is the same, and the boards appear to be the same physical size and shape. Money is the driving factor, though: my logic board is worth roughly $500 on eBay, and a quad-core i7 2.2GHz board is $800. For $300, I could have a "new" laptop. BOOM.

So, has anyone tried this, and had success or failure? I've done board swaps before, but the boards were always identical, not just the same shape/size. Any feedback other than "It's not possible. No. Read previous posts. How dare you necropost, rather than opening a new thread for no reason" is greatly appreciated. Of course, a detailed explation as to WHY NOT would be cool as well.

Thank you, Apple community.

There is one chance to get a better CPU.

First of all you have to be able handling with brazing!
Otherways you are going to smash it.

Better you practise this some times with damged logic boards.

The anwer on your Question

You can unsolder you CPU and braze a new one, a better one on your motherboard.

Sry for my bad English i'm an austrian 😝

Ps. the properties must be the same

That's...not even remotely pertaining to my question. I think you're suggesting that I can solder in a new CPU, while leaving the stock board intact. That seems extremely unlikely to work, and various people have already dismissed this as an option.

My question was: Will a 2012 MBP 17" board fit in a 2009 MBP 17" chassis, and will my built-in perhiperals connect without retrofitting? I see no reason why they wouldn't; they seem to be the same (save for the HD vs VGA webcams).

I don't know if it's fits into you can ask the apple support

But you can't change it
it won't work

because you can't change the motherboard so easy i think the fan, ports and everthing has been changed
if you want a better performance and you don't like to do some brazing?

BUY A NEW MAC OR PC!

Imagine: You want a better liver
Then you can't say: ''Oh i'll buy the next one in stock"
You have to look if the blood group the same is and you also have to know if your organism
agree's other Gens

I won't answer any questions
Its anwered already plenty of times 🙂

What exactly do you mean when you say "Brazing?" That's not a word that pertains to technology in this language or country. And the fans and ports are all the same sizes, and in the same places. I was mainly curious if things like standoff holes had moved.

You...don't seem to know any more than me, if as much at all. I've actually done board swaps already, as I'd mentioned prior. I might just take the plunge soon, and I'll document it here if it's successful.

The only way this is ever going to work is if the actual MBP is of the same generation as the 2 motherboards you're trying to interchange (of course, this is taking into account that between generation gaps on the 2010+ model years the cases are slighly different in terms of mount points, port openings, etc.)

For example, it should be fairly easy to take a MBP 2012 i5 system and swap in an i7 logic board from the same model year. I don't think that the mount points on the screws or any other connections are different between the two, but I cannot say that for sure. Chances are good however that they are not, otherwise it would take far too much work for Apple to make certain customized changes to the laptops as they're built.

Now, if (for argument sake only) the cases are all the same between 2010-2012 for the MBPs of the same size, then all parts from one will go into another. Small variations of connectors like for the screen or fans, etc. may be slightly different between years, so that may require those additional parts as well. When it's all said and done, it probably would have been the same or cheaper to just buy a new MBP and even have warranty on it.

If however, you've got money and feel like making a project out of something like this, feel free to try, but don't expect the same upgradability as say a desktop PC with swappable CPUs, etc. It's not like that. Definitely not in the Mac world where everything that can is soldered to the system board so that the least amount of space is wasted. Why do you think logic boards cost so much? Because every main component that makes up the brains of the MBP is on it. It no longer componetized. (yes, I just made up that word 😉 )

EXCELLENT! Thank you for a coherent reply! That last line about everything being soldered down into the logic board is why I'm so interested...since my 2009 is the same body style as the 2012, it seems to my uneducated eyes that the parts would be interchangeable, since the port layout (and from pictures, the internal layout) seem the same. I never expected upgradeability rivaling a desktop; it just seems like I've found a hole in the system. My 2009 C2D board is worth $550 on eBay, and a 2012 board is $800. So, $250 for an upgrade. The resulting "2012" MBP could be sold for almost as much as a legit factory 2012, if the swap looked factory-fresh, resulting in $200-ish profit from the effort.

Not trying to fight anyone here, it just seems relatively easy and lucrative. I'm still holding out hope that someone who's intimately familiar with both boards/chassis will chime in.

Like I said, as long as all the screw holes line up from the board to the case and all the small component boards like WIFI/Bluetooth, etc. are all the same interface between 2009 and 2012, and the cables for power/screen/etc. are identical, I see no reason why it wouldn't work. I mean, think about it. Do you honestly thing the chassis is different between an i5 and an i7 based 2012 MBP? Umm, nope. It's all the same, just the logic board is different. It would certainly be an interesting project to undertake if you have the money sitting around. The best thing you can do ahead of time is to make sure you get some good photos of the new logic board and compare it to your stock ones first. If all the stuff looks in the same place, no problem. Biggest issue would come when moving from proc family generation to the next. You can obviously expect layout changes to the logic board in that case... screw location changes? Who knows... that's the real gotcha here.

Hmm. It certainly seems worth a look...over to Google Images and iFixIt I go.

Thanks for not being byatchy or asinine!