Upgrade logic board MBP 17-inch (late 2011)

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AliSayat Author

Level 1

8 points

Upgrade logic board MBP 17-inch (late 2011)

Hi everyone,

I was thinking of upgrading my MBP 17 inch to the highest possible configuration.

Already installed 2133 mhz HyperX 16 gb RAM and Samsung 850PRO SSD

Now I was planning to change a logic board to the one with 2.5GHz Core i7 with 8mb L3.

Currently I have 2.4GHz Ci7 with 6mb.

Where should i find one, and will i have a higher performance?

Any suggestions on how I can make my old toy faster?

Cheers!

MacBook Pro (17-inch Late 2011), OS X El Capitan (10.11.4)

Posted on Apr 28, 2016 10:24 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

OGELTHORPE

Level 9

57,305 points

Apr 29, 2016 6:11 AM in response to AliSayat

You have made a mistake with the higher frequency RAM. The MBP will support 1600 MHz RAM per OWC but NO MBP today is running RAM with RAM at that speed. If it runs at all, it will be down clocked.

Regarding the logic boards, look at the iFixit.com and Powerbookmedic.com web sites. Ebay is another possibility.

I am probably one of the very few people that has two late 2011 17" MBPs, one with the 2.5 GHz CPU and one with the 2.4 GHz CPU. Both have 16 GB RAM installed and both have Crucial 1 TB SSDs installed. One has Mt. Lion OSX the other has El Capitan. From a practical standpoint, I discern no performance differences between the two. The respective 4 core benchmarks are 10.972 vs 10,350.

If I had a 17" late 2011 MBP with a properly functioning 2.4 GHz CPU, I would not bother to change to the faster CPU for a mere (and mostly theoretical) 5% performance increase.

Ciao.

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Answer 2

AliSayat Author

Level 1

8 points

Apr 29, 2016 6:08 AM in response to OGELTHORPE

I believe you got those scores in geekbench 3 (64-bit) test?

Did u try 32-bit benchmarks? If yes, can u share them too?

Thanks for reply by the way.

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Answer 3

OGELTHORPE

Level 9

57,305 points

Apr 29, 2016 8:00 AM in response to AliSayat

This is my source for bench marks. I am certain that you can find them yourself: 🙂

https://browser.primatelabs.com/mac-benchmarks

Ciao.

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Answer 4

AliSayat Author

Level 1

8 points

Apr 30, 2016 6:06 AM in response to OGELTHORPE

Btw, 2133 is fully supported by MBP 17 late-2011. It is working properly and shows much higher results in geekbench as well.

I read many articles where they even tested 2600MHz DDR3 (on desktops systems) with the same Sandy Bridge architechture.

And they all worked fine for them.

Ok, anyways that's out of this topic.

Thanks for your advice, i guess i will keep my logic board for now. Since prices are very high for an upgraded one.

Best regards!

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Answer 5

Nov 15, 2016 9:25 AM in response to AliSayat

I think you meant 1333 MHz RAM. These Mac support 1600 MHz RAM, which is what I've been running, Other World Computing has confirmed it's compatibility.

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