I remember my science teacher in 9th grade had one of these machines. Absolute beast for sure. And he’d show it off any chance he had. Rightfully so lol
Had one back in the days, 2011" 17", maxed out with antiglare screen. What a machine, i loved it to death. Only shame was kinda poor heat management and GPU failures because of that. Had it serviced twice. Mine had 16gb of RAM and 2 ssd's, in 2013.
i still have my 15" late 2011, the only problem it has is broken keyboard and dented sides (yeah since it has a broken keyboard i have to short 2 pads to turn it on lol) but other than that it still works pretty good and it has an incredibly good windows 7 support, much more stable and fast than my other pc's
Weirdly it's mostly the cpu that gets hot on both of mine, with the 2.5 surprisingly being better than the 2.2. They get near 100 °C under load, while the gpu only gets to 70-75.
The 16" MacBook is actually 16.2", so what we have now is pretty close. I don't see them upping it to 17" anytime soon. Unless they can shrink down the bezels even more while keeping the same form factor. The 16" is a beast to carry around in a backpack already lol.
it feels so nostalgic when you have a device that you don’t have to worry about getting replacement and upgrades here and there. like a nokia phone 2100 era. 😢
I personally prefer anti reflective to anti glare as it provides better clarity in most lighting situations. Instead of having a fuzz, you just have a tiny light spot in the display that does not interfere with surrounding color accuracy. Sure you might be able to see the glare, but modern coatings are so good that glare is a minimal issue. Just my thoughts. I really do miss the battery indicator without needing to open the laptop.
I think you have a fair point. I suppose it is down to preference mostly, too. I think the glossy screens looked better aesthetically on the unibody line anyway! Thanks for watching!
I have a 2011 13 inch that I upgraded with a 1tb ssd and 16g of ram. Works like a champ! And now that cds and dvd are coming back since a lot are cutting streaming. This set up with a library card…..I’m streaming services worst nightmare 😂
Great video. I installed Sonoma on a 2011 Macbook Pro recently using OpenCore Legacy Patcher and can confirm that the performance is perfectly liveable within realistic expectations, as well as that it not only works but each and every piece of hardware are fully functional without any glitches.
@@RolandTreiberDesign Transparancies on windows glitch out when I'm dragging another window on top of them. E.g. when opening Safari on the default home page and then dragging "about this mac" on top of it, the Safari window will glitch out. Purely cosmetic, but distracting nonetheless. It doesn't really matter if I use the HD3000 or the 6750M. Beta window blur in OCLP helps, but doesn't completely solve it. It does seem to fare a lot better in light mode though. Also, when I'm using the 6750M and I'm clicking on something in the menu bar for the first time, it'll become red for a split second. The same occurs with the HD3000, but it's black, so it's nowhere near as distracting.
3:22 You can actually add that back, it's a plist code I found and once you make it into a plist file you can put it in the certain system folder and the keys will get over written and it will work exactly how it used to be, works great on my m1 air
I took an old 9,2 MacBook Pro put in an ssd and oclp patcher to run Monterey 12.3 and its a like new even with 4 GB memory! Just ordered 16 GB of Ram to Soup It up a Bit ☝️The ram is now in ! Ordered a new battery to complete the renovation 👍
We loved our 17" MBP. They were the first Desktop Replacement laptop for Graphics Professionals. The 2011 models with i7 and an SSD upgrade were awesome...EXCEPT for their flawed dual graphics design and the guaranteed failure. We had all of our Motherboards replaced under warranty extension...and were warned, the problem will return as the replacements were not re engineered...just new not yet failed pieces. And they did. We got 2-3 more years of use before they crapped out. Though, one of my users still has one. Uses it as her personal machine at home. She knows its days are numbered. None of the Mac laptops my company has had since...have been loved, like the 2011 MBP. EVERYONE hates Dongle Hell. Sure, new machines are lighter and faster. But when you weigh everything you need to carry, they are not that much lighter. I still use a 2012 MPB 15". No retina (prone to defect) and all the necessary ports on the side (no dongles). Gets the job done!
We had one of those and my wife retired it for a MacBook Pro 14” with the M1 Max…. Loved the speed but she misses the display and the keyboard. Old Apples had that pegged and screwed it up with attempts to make the Mac slimmer and slimmer. Also… YOU CAN REPLACE THE BATTERY and change memory and hard drives! That was brilliant. I used to work as an apple technician and the 17” was a piece of cake… the newer machines with the only authorised repairs being the expensive large assemblies (display, top case, main logic board) are unfair to the consumer although good for Apple.
I had a Late 2011 MBP 15", CTO model everything maxed out. Used OCLP and it ran on Monterey okay. Amazing machine for making music pretty much on any table I could fit my stuff. I kinda regret selling it
the thunderbolt ports you find on newer devices are basically the new version of that express slot as they are 4 lanes of pcie. although having occulink would be cool too
I was OBSESSED with this MacBook in 15". My crush went into graphic design and she had one which made it even more interesting! I ended up with a retina MacBook Pro that was technically superior but I wanted a matte screen and that silver bezel along with the dual 3.5mm audio plugs and express card slot! I still think about this computer occasionally despite having collected a ton of other computers over the years that are better. Nostalgia is a powerful drug but this machine was sooo impressive.
Great video and so thru. I upgraded mine with OLCP to MacOS Big Sur. One step further than Catalina. I noticed so issues with DosDude’s Catalina Patcher. It is such a great machine an I use it still Daily, next to my M1 Mac’s. The screen is fabulous.
Is yours a 2010 as well? I suppose graphics switching doesn't work in Big Sur? It suddenly started to work fine again when I put Sonoma on my 2011. Not sure if Ventura works, as it's the only one I haven't tried
I have a MBP17 2009. Never tried Sonoma in this machine. I run Sonoma on 2012 Mac Mini s. Works great also. Graphic switching works on the 2009 with Big Sur.
@@frankgeldhof Graphics switching works quite differently on a 2009 though, so I’m not too surprised that it works. The 2011 and I think the 2010 have automatic graphics switching. You don’t have to log off and back in to switch either.
Subscribed. Sweet. I have an early 2011 MacBook 13, that I run Linux Mint on, so everything is up to date, and I can get really good use out of it. Very nice to know mine is one of the more reliable models. Also, the battery still works fantastically well.
Just for the future, its usually best to spread thermal pasts when applying to an exposed die. It's more important you get full coverage than when normally applying to a cpu, as you don't have a heat spreader. You'll probably be okay in this case since you put so much on, but that in itself can be problematic if the paste is conductive. Great video though!
Thank you, for this excellent post. This model along with its 15-inch version as far as, I am concerned were the last Apple laptops worth buying. They had everything, I wanted in an Apple laptop as you stated: one Fire-wire 800 port, three USB "A" ports, audio-in, audio-out, expansion card slot, and DVD super-drive. Plus they also could be controlled with Apple's white remote control and when open the Apple logo on the top "lights" up. Today, Apple's M-1/M-2/and M-3 laptops are, just so boring (smile...smile).
@@montaguebarnabasltd Thank you, for replying to my post. Yes, I agree they have character, can be upgraded and are also, just a lot more "fun". Everything works so well when using iLife, iWorks, and other software titles. In my collection from the 2000's, I own a 12-inch G4 Powerbook and a 15-inch Intel MacBook Pro (smile...smile).
Do like I did, put linux on it. Runs much faster then Mac OS. Pop OS all works out of the box on older mac laptops. I had graphic card switching issues on my 2010 laptop tried the legacy patcher, that didn't solve the gpu problems, but switching to Pop OS solved it. Keyboard with all function keys, trackpad, wifi, Bluetooth everything works. Only 1.8 gig off memory is used for the OS. It saved my Mac from becoming E-wasted.
I still use a 2010 mbp 15 inch model with upgraded ram and ssd and it's ok.😍
4 місяці тому
It's really nice! But I'm very happy to work on a 14" M1 MBP... The quality of the diplay, keyboard, speakers and battery is unbeatable! Not to mention the multiple thunderbolt ports on both sides.
i daily a 2010 15inch that i bought for $35. upgraded it with a new battery, ssd, 2011 wireless card and 2011anti-glare display. and thanks to open core running bigsur
The 2010 17-inch GPU power supply never dies as it is completely different to a 2010 15-inch one (with that flawed capacitor). So in essence the 2010 17-inch is the only one that is bullet proof. There are some other issues on those machines, like a failing gMUX chip (can be reflowed) and a failing RAM slot (which cannot be repaired, but you can max out just one slot)
Bought a 2009 for my son a year or so back - still good for Office / UA-cam. I had a 2011 which of course died. I've a graveyard of dead 2011 15"s too. Finally, got a 2010 like yours, which is great. One of the speakers blown, but other than that, it's lovely.
My 2008 eventually fail dude to graphics in logic board . I did bake the board and it worked for a little bit but yeah haha fun little machines…now I have the m1 16 and it’s just amazing how far we have come
Great video! I love the 17" MBP (and PowerBook G4). Still sad Apple didn't update it in 2012 with the rest of the Unibody lineup and left it on a bad note. I've got a 2008 pre-Unibody and a 2011, basically the most infamous models but they still work perfectly! Both with the anti-glare screen options and they look amazing! I'm currently using the 2008 as my main computer. The 2011 I don't use as I'm afraid of the GPU dying and I def agree with you that just the Intel HD 3000 won't cut it for such a high end machine. The 2010 you have is probably the best model you can get as it's the fastest one that doesn't suffer from GPU failures
Very very nice video, I wish there was more 17 inch content being uploaded almost as much as I wish the 17 inchers made it to the 2012 models and even Retinas. I am actually on the hunt for a 2010 model myself, but before I spend the money there's something I need to find out: How's the performance using Parsec to stream the screen from another (modern) mac or even a gaming PC to play games on it? There's a video idea for you, and I'll subscribe just in case you decide to make it happen. I hope you can read this, I am really interested in that. Cheers mate.
Yeah the 2012 is the only 15" unibody model that's truly reliable, as well as being the only one with Metal support. If only Apple made a 17" version of that one...
I love upgradeablity of these types of apple I have a 2007 black apple mac in mint condition I upgraded it so this model would be something I'd look out for getting
I had the last of the 17 inch models. I loved that thing but the GPU had known problems. Had to cook the motherboard in the oven more than once but it kept working for years. Cracking bit of kit.
I still use a 2012 MacBook Pro 13 inch but I removed the disk drive and put a solid state drive in addition to its 500gb disc drive. Still going strong today. I mean obviously it’s nothing compared to modern Mac’s but it does the job.
i have a 17 inch also from 2010, mine is in a fairly good condition. Its a great machine, for better performance i reasoned to go away from mac os and instead to use a light linux distrobution so i can watch videos and text on discord with my friends. Its sad that they dont have that much of a punch anymore, since this laptop is perfect in every single way, its big, the screen feels empty and gives one alot of room for pictures or videos, aswell as movies, i love it. Maybe in the future someone can Frankenstein it to become even better and lead everyone to have a very usuable machine, for the future
3:34 Luke Miani did a review of 17” macbookpro, doesn't understand why they have PCIMCA \ Express card 34 slot. That slot allow the user to connect Tempo SATA pro 6GB, PCI -E 16x riser for laptops externalgpu,, connect usb 3.0 and more. He stated he wanted a SD slot instead
I have this one and three 2011 17" Macs. All running Sonoma flalwessly. One is baremetal Linux Debian and it runs it perfectly. Use them everyday. My M1 Max 16" barely gets used
I have only used Macbook products for 2 years. I have started with 8 years old Macbook pro. It is still working well and I feel it trendy ie metal feel casing etc. Using Apple products id not only religion, it's value for money
I just threw one of those away, I did boot it up and check it out and it was painfully slow and video so-so. I have a Macbook Pro M1 Max and it's great for everything including working in audio which is my main thing.
I've been SysAdmin and worked with computers a long time and have tossed out quite few over the years. You'd think other people would want them, but no they want newer stuff.
i believe the gpu failures on the 2011's are the same issue as the xbox 360's gpu, it's due to the inadequate underfill between the silicon die and the interposer of the gpu itself over many heat cycles more and more of the connections break until it fails, it's a shame that no compatible revised chips were made for those laptops like they were for the 360
i wish i could somehow put the internals of the m1 macbooks in that body, i own a new mac now but if it performed just a little better i would prefer it over this
i have a macbook pro 17" late 2011 im perfect condition like new and matte display :), I upgraded it with 500GB ssd and 16GB RAM. After so many years i don't have the graphics issue, im using it with macOs high sierra, just in case...
Bro Me Too Same 2011 17inch Joint (2.6ghz, 16gigs Of Ram, Matte Screen) Never Had Any Problems I Currently Took It Back To Mavericks And Dumped All My Music On It Just To Save The GPU And As Backup. I Just Got The 2019 8-Core Joint Because It Was Time To Update But Other Than That This Was My Daily Driver MacBook. Heavy Use On FL With High Sierra With Also The Editing Of My Roller Skating Videos And Heavy Streaming
I must say I have a 2.66 ghz i7 dual core with the gt330m 512mb and a 2.5ghz i7 quadcore with the gpu disabled so only the HD 3000 gpu but the 2011 version is much more usable than the 2010 version for me. The dual-core just does not cut it anymore these days even with the slightly more powerful Nvidia GPU. Still love the heck out of both machines!
The # is where the £ is on UK layout - the 3 key. I know this intimately as being a programmer you use the # a lot in C/C++/C#/Python and to get it on a UK Apple layout keyboard you have to press the second alt key and the 3/£ key In the UK layout the # is not even labelled.
I got a 2011 maxed out 17” from the recycle pile at work. Quad core i7 can run Ventura fine and just fine not great. Had to disable the gpu but it works great
Can we bring back these anti glare screens on the new machines. I have a matte anti glare screen protector on my 14 inch M1 Pro and it makes the world of a difference
I alwways thought the design peaked on the 17" PowerBook G4 aluminum version/first MacBook Pro. The keyboard looked and felt great in my memory. Wish I could get one of those today.
Updated my 2011 15 inch to sonoma, works fine once you let it warm up for easy tasks such as using ms office and browsing the web. I barely use it now tho
Well, I have a top of the line MacBook from 2013 xD and yesterday I was editing 4K video and music in Logic and it's a champ. The battery lasts 2 hours :P But 99% of the time I use it as if it's a Mac mini, connected to the (2013?) Thunderbolt Display, at 2k. And they go for like 300 used.
From what you said in parts here, it seems you might enjoy the book Essentialism by Greg McKeown to work out how you want to focus on certain things. It'll give you a great mental framework that goes beyond just planning things.
It’s weird how we defend what we love isn’t it. Like my M1 MacBook Air, to me it’s perfect even lack of i/o and being a base model. But if I’m being honest i like how the M2 and beyond have MagSafe and FaceID. I can easily live without both just fine. But, i tend to leave it plugged in 24/7 because I don’t want any port-fatigue. I keep my laptops til they are absolutely unusable. Like this MacBook replaced a 12 year old Dell Latitude E6420.. which had the worst display and speakers on any computer I’ve had. Cool video! I don’t think I’m ever buying another system with a fan though.. the lower powered SoC based machines check all my boxes… which for the most part is web browsing and light writing.
Thanks for watching! Yeah I try to give a mixture of objective facts and… just my opinion in my videos. It’s objectively good to use your computers till they’re unusable :,)
Imagine Tim Cook's Apple releasing a Mac with not only upgradeable RAM and storage, but a SLOT that lets you add new capabilities with third-party addons. (Yes, I've heard of the Mac Pro, but it's a $6,000 joke.)
I've been using a 2011 17" as my primary laptop since 2015. Had the gpu replaced under Apple's support program on my first one (a 2.2 GHz), used that until 2022 when I decided it was time to get a 2.5 GHz. Obviously its gpu died as soon as I put it to some real use, so I had its gpu replaced as well, but I'm still not stopping to use them! I'm currently still running High Sierra, but with software support becoming worse I'll probably upgrade to Sonoma this summer. The 2.2 has already been running Sonoma for a few months. It's not bad, though due to the lack of Metal support the UI gets a bit glitchy. Graphics switching surprisingly works fine on Sonoma though.
@@montaguebarnabasltd Tbf, I can't fault the original 6770M for failing after over ten years. And I didn't get the 2.5 just to throw it away after two weeks or so! The rest of it is still near mint and I really enjoyed the 2.2, so I decided it was worth fixing.
I use my 2009 17" for daily light tasks it dual boots with Windows 10 which is partly the reason I got it the second reason being the optical drive for ripping and burning CDs. I have very rarely seen a 17" with the UK keyboard layout even when I bought this macbook from the UK it came with the US layout keyboard. I think if Apple was going to do this size in the M series the screen would be 18" based on how the screen sizes of their M series models went up an inch with the bezelless design. I often think how revolutionary these 17" Unibody MacBooks must have been back then because it's much thinner than the laptops of 2008-2011 and it's screen resolution still stands up to today's standards especially with Windows 10/11 laptops.
That’s an odd thing now I think about it. They do seem to have a disproportionate amount of US layouts here in that size. Yep, the display must have been ahead of the curve for a good few years. I think you’re right about the newer bezeless displays. 18in would be crazy.
DosDude GPU terminal trick. All three of my 2011 17' Macs I got not working. I did some terminal code tricks and disabled the Discrete graphiocs and they all are just fine. NO issues whatsoever.
@@Mbro-dq2do cool! As I said in the video, I’d rather not have an impeded version of an already not super strong machine, hence my choosing the 2010. Those are lovely computers though.
I have a 2011 17” which I bought as untested sold as seen, and the GPU still works perfectly! I have put that aside for now to disable the GPU to preserve it. The 2010 and 2011 MacBooks have quad core i5, i7 cpus. @dosdude1 upgraded a MBP17” 2011 to mid-2012 CPU, so it has Intel HD4000 GPU (nearly as good as the 2011 ATI discrete GPU) I have a 2009 17” (I replaced that tantalum capacitor on the motherboard and it worked again), with 8gb RAM, 2TB SSD, and 2TB HDD 😃The 2009 with matte screen is the best of the Unibody 17” in terms of reliability (except for dosdude’s one of course, which also has a PCIE connector hidden in the optical bay for eGPU)
Why disable a perfectly functional gpu? You might as well enjoy it while it lasts ;). I've seen Dosdude's 2012 17" as well and while I think it's a cool idea, it currently still comes across as extremely hacky. While he claims the HD4000 is faster than the original AMD graphics were, I'm pretty sure it's just been a long time since he saw a working AMD gpu ;). In my experience it's closer in performance to the later 650M than to the HD4000, though sadly it lacks the Metal support of either of them
I have a macbook pro 2011/2012 and boy oh boy does that puppy get hotter than hell. its never used anymore but man, back in the day I loved the fuck out of that machine
I had a M1 and it was ok but it didn’t had enough ports for me so I sold it and bought a very cheap MacBook Pro 2015 and i upgraded the SSD to one TB and it has been great and it’s still fast and plenty of ports.
I remember my science teacher in 9th grade had one of these machines. Absolute beast for sure. And he’d show it off any chance he had. Rightfully so lol
Once the 15 inch Retina Mac books dropped my Science Teacher did the same.. iconic 2012
Had one back in the days, 2011" 17", maxed out with antiglare screen. What a machine, i loved it to death. Only shame was kinda poor heat management and GPU failures because of that. Had it serviced twice. Mine had 16gb of RAM and 2 ssd's, in 2013.
For its time the spec was truly impressive. True about the heat though.
Still have mine, but obviously no longer supported.
i still have my 15" late 2011, the only problem it has is broken keyboard and dented sides (yeah since it has a broken keyboard i have to short 2 pads to turn it on lol) but other than that it still works pretty good and it has an incredibly good windows 7 support, much more stable and fast than my other pc's
Weirdly it's mostly the cpu that gets hot on both of mine, with the 2.5 surprisingly being better than the 2.2. They get near 100 °C under load, while the gpu only gets to 70-75.
imagine how the public would react if apple were to release a new 17 MacBook in 2024. That may cause a huge ripple effect on their current lineup.
That’s probably true. I can’t get enough of the screen size. Would definitely buy one
@@montaguebarnabasltd That would be sick! And like you said, its like a portable desktop.
With the old 15" having been upsized now to 16" I doubt a release of a 17" would change much.
@@meislit921718" with no bevel 🤔
The 16" MacBook is actually 16.2", so what we have now is pretty close. I don't see them upping it to 17" anytime soon. Unless they can shrink down the bezels even more while keeping the same form factor. The 16" is a beast to carry around in a backpack already lol.
it feels so nostalgic when you have a device that you don’t have to worry about getting replacement and upgrades here and there. like a nokia phone 2100 era. 😢
I personally prefer anti reflective to anti glare as it provides better clarity in most lighting situations. Instead of having a fuzz, you just have a tiny light spot in the display that does not interfere with surrounding color accuracy. Sure you might be able to see the glare, but modern coatings are so good that glare is a minimal issue.
Just my thoughts.
I really do miss the battery indicator without needing to open the laptop.
I think you have a fair point. I suppose it is down to preference mostly, too. I think the glossy screens looked better aesthetically on the unibody line anyway!
Thanks for watching!
Rocked this bad boy for about 10 years until it died. The best of the best
the bass is actualy good
Not terrible…
I have a 2011 13 inch that I upgraded with a 1tb ssd and 16g of ram. Works like a champ! And now that cds and dvd are coming back since a lot are cutting streaming.
This set up with a library card…..I’m streaming services worst nightmare 😂
Great video. I installed Sonoma on a 2011 Macbook Pro recently using OpenCore Legacy Patcher and can confirm that the performance is perfectly liveable within realistic expectations, as well as that it not only works but each and every piece of hardware are fully functional without any glitches.
Thanks! And that’s insightful. Thank you.
So far the only think that don't is maps, I'm thinking to a eGPU for my model
Really? Sonoma is glitchy as hell on my 2011
@@SterkeYerke5555 what fails on yours? I can check if it's ok or not on mine
@@RolandTreiberDesign Transparancies on windows glitch out when I'm dragging another window on top of them. E.g. when opening Safari on the default home page and then dragging "about this mac" on top of it, the Safari window will glitch out. Purely cosmetic, but distracting nonetheless. It doesn't really matter if I use the HD3000 or the 6750M. Beta window blur in OCLP helps, but doesn't completely solve it. It does seem to fare a lot better in light mode though.
Also, when I'm using the 6750M and I'm clicking on something in the menu bar for the first time, it'll become red for a split second. The same occurs with the HD3000, but it's black, so it's nowhere near as distracting.
it looks absolutely phenomenal. underrated.
3:22 You can actually add that back, it's a plist code I found and once you make it into a plist file you can put it in the certain system folder and the keys will get over written and it will work exactly how it used to be, works great on my m1 air
I took an old 9,2 MacBook Pro put in an ssd and oclp patcher to run Monterey 12.3 and its a like new even with 4 GB memory! Just ordered 16 GB of
Ram to
Soup
It up a
Bit ☝️The ram is now in ! Ordered a new battery to complete the renovation 👍
Yipppeee!!
Sounds like a keeper as long as it is. And you could use it as a boat anchor still.
We loved our 17" MBP. They were the first Desktop Replacement laptop for Graphics Professionals. The 2011 models with i7 and an SSD upgrade were awesome...EXCEPT for their flawed dual graphics design and the guaranteed failure. We had all of our Motherboards replaced under warranty extension...and were warned, the problem will return as the replacements were not re engineered...just new not yet failed pieces. And they did. We got 2-3 more years of use before they crapped out. Though, one of my users still has one. Uses it as her personal machine at home. She knows its days are numbered. None of the Mac laptops my company has had since...have been loved, like the 2011 MBP. EVERYONE hates Dongle Hell. Sure, new machines are lighter and faster. But when you weigh everything you need to carry, they are not that much lighter. I still use a 2012 MPB 15". No retina (prone to defect) and all the necessary ports on the side (no dongles). Gets the job done!
Still better speakers than most modern day laptops except later Apple models.
this is my favorite video “What’s on your screen” video!
Hell yeah man I’m really happy to hear
2:24 a man of culture watching Ahoy
I still have a late 2012 13" MacBook pro and love everything about it. Yes is not fast/strong/modern but works well for what I use it for.
Sonoma through OCLP runs very well on my 2010 17” I’ve got no complaints.
one of the best Mac channels.
We had one of those and my wife retired it for a MacBook Pro 14” with the M1 Max…. Loved the speed but she misses the display and the keyboard. Old Apples had that pegged and screwed it up with attempts to make the Mac slimmer and slimmer. Also… YOU CAN REPLACE THE BATTERY and change memory and hard drives! That was brilliant. I used to work as an apple technician and the 17” was a piece of cake… the newer machines with the only authorised repairs being the expensive large assemblies (display, top case, main logic board) are unfair to the consumer although good for Apple.
I had a Late 2011 MBP 15", CTO model everything maxed out. Used OCLP and it ran on Monterey okay. Amazing machine for making music pretty much on any table I could fit my stuff. I kinda regret selling it
the thunderbolt ports you find on newer devices are basically the new version of that express slot as they are 4 lanes of pcie. although having occulink would be cool too
watching this video i thought you had at least 10k subs, surprised that you only have 4.58k... let me add another one :)
Oh that’s so sweet man thank you! Appreciate it
75$ for a 14 years old laptop screen is absolutely bonkers
It’s gone up because of scarcity tbh. It’s still a great display anyway
I was OBSESSED with this MacBook in 15". My crush went into graphic design and she had one which made it even more interesting! I ended up with a retina MacBook Pro that was technically superior but I wanted a matte screen and that silver bezel along with the dual 3.5mm audio plugs and express card slot! I still think about this computer occasionally despite having collected a ton of other computers over the years that are better. Nostalgia is a powerful drug but this machine was sooo impressive.
I love this comment. I know exactly the feeling!
Nice video! I’ve got the G4 17”, 2006 17”, 2010 17” and 2011 17” with matte high res. Love this lot
Great video and so thru. I upgraded mine with OLCP to MacOS Big Sur. One step further than Catalina. I noticed so issues with DosDude’s Catalina Patcher. It is such a great machine an I use it still Daily, next to my M1 Mac’s. The screen is fabulous.
Is yours a 2010 as well? I suppose graphics switching doesn't work in Big Sur? It suddenly started to work fine again when I put Sonoma on my 2011. Not sure if Ventura works, as it's the only one I haven't tried
I have a MBP17 2009. Never tried Sonoma in this machine. I run Sonoma on 2012 Mac Mini s. Works great also. Graphic switching works on the 2009 with Big Sur.
@@frankgeldhof Graphics switching works quite differently on a 2009 though, so I’m not too surprised that it works. The 2011 and I think the 2010 have automatic graphics switching. You don’t have to log off and back in to switch either.
Subscribed.
Sweet. I have an early 2011 MacBook 13, that I run Linux Mint on, so everything is up to date, and I can get really good use out of it. Very nice to know mine is one of the more reliable models. Also, the battery still works fantastically well.
Thanks! Yes they should last until they’re not usable
Just for the future, its usually best to spread thermal pasts when applying to an exposed die. It's more important you get full coverage than when normally applying to a cpu, as you don't have a heat spreader.
You'll probably be okay in this case since you put so much on, but that in itself can be problematic if the paste is conductive.
Great video though!
Thanks! Yeah not my proudest application. I’ll keep that in mind for future👍
I stopped using paste and switched over to using PTM7950.
paste is not conductive, too much acts as insulation however, so less is more
Thank you, for this excellent post. This model along with its 15-inch version as far as, I am concerned were the last Apple laptops worth buying. They had everything, I wanted in an Apple laptop as you stated: one Fire-wire 800 port, three USB "A" ports, audio-in, audio-out, expansion card slot, and DVD super-drive. Plus they also could be controlled with Apple's white remote control and when open the Apple logo on the top "lights" up. Today, Apple's M-1/M-2/and M-3 laptops are, just so boring (smile...smile).
Thank you for a glowing comment!
Despite the speed of the M1 and newer chips, these certainly have more character and repairability…
@@montaguebarnabasltd Thank you, for replying to my post. Yes, I agree they have character, can be upgraded and are also, just a lot more "fun". Everything works so well when using iLife, iWorks, and other software titles. In my collection from the 2000's, I own a 12-inch G4 Powerbook and a 15-inch Intel MacBook Pro (smile...smile).
Do like I did, put linux on it. Runs much faster then Mac OS. Pop OS all works out of the box on older mac laptops. I had graphic card switching issues on my 2010 laptop tried the legacy patcher, that didn't solve the gpu problems, but switching to Pop OS solved it. Keyboard with all function keys, trackpad, wifi, Bluetooth everything works. Only 1.8 gig off memory is used for the OS. It saved my Mac from becoming E-wasted.
I still use a 2010 mbp 15 inch model with upgraded ram and ssd and it's ok.😍
It's really nice! But I'm very happy to work on a 14" M1 MBP... The quality of the diplay, keyboard, speakers and battery is unbeatable! Not to mention the multiple thunderbolt ports on both sides.
I have one. I didn’t know about the patch. I may try that. Mine was never used. Cycle count is 7.
Mint condition ones are going for a few hundred bucks at the moment if you want to sell. Otherwise I’d recommend trying the patch!
i daily a 2010 15inch that i bought for $35. upgraded it with a new battery, ssd, 2011 wireless card and 2011anti-glare display. and thanks to open core running bigsur
Hell yeah
If a 2011 card works, you can probably get a 2012 card in there as well for Bluetooth 4.0 support (including Handoff). Works fine on my 2011
Still using mine, so simple to upgrade the drives.
The 2010 17-inch GPU power supply never dies as it is completely different to a 2010 15-inch one (with that flawed capacitor). So in essence the 2010 17-inch is the only one that is bullet proof. There are some other issues on those machines, like a failing gMUX chip (can be reflowed) and a failing RAM slot (which cannot be repaired, but you can max out just one slot)
Wow, cool! Thanks for letting me know. Some good insight there
Bought a 2009 for my son a year or so back - still good for Office / UA-cam. I had a 2011 which of course died. I've a graveyard of dead 2011 15"s too. Finally, got a 2010 like yours, which is great. One of the speakers blown, but other than that, it's lovely.
My 2008 eventually fail dude to graphics in logic board . I did bake the board and it worked for a little bit but yeah haha fun little machines…now I have the m1 16 and it’s just amazing how far we have come
upgradability and macbook are two words i never thought i'd hear in the same sentence 😅
Great video! I love the 17" MBP (and PowerBook G4). Still sad Apple didn't update it in 2012 with the rest of the Unibody lineup and left it on a bad note. I've got a 2008 pre-Unibody and a 2011, basically the most infamous models but they still work perfectly! Both with the anti-glare screen options and they look amazing! I'm currently using the 2008 as my main computer. The 2011 I don't use as I'm afraid of the GPU dying and I def agree with you that just the Intel HD 3000 won't cut it for such a high end machine. The 2010 you have is probably the best model you can get as it's the fastest one that doesn't suffer from GPU failures
all i wish for is a thinkpad that has this same macbook design, is that that much to ask for? (it probably is)
my dad refuses to upgrade from this laptop, hes still working on it to this day, he downloaded windows on it and added ssd and it works like charm :P
Very very nice video, I wish there was more 17 inch content being uploaded almost as much as I wish the 17 inchers made it to the 2012 models and even Retinas.
I am actually on the hunt for a 2010 model myself, but before I spend the money there's something I need to find out: How's the performance using Parsec to stream the screen from another (modern) mac or even a gaming PC to play games on it?
There's a video idea for you, and I'll subscribe just in case you decide to make it happen. I hope you can read this, I am really interested in that. Cheers mate.
Yeah the 2012 is the only 15" unibody model that's truly reliable, as well as being the only one with Metal support. If only Apple made a 17" version of that one...
I love upgradeablity of these types of apple I have a 2007 black apple mac in mint condition I upgraded it so this model would be something I'd look out for getting
I had the last of the 17 inch models. I loved that thing but the GPU had known problems. Had to cook the motherboard in the oven more than once but it kept working for years. Cracking bit of kit.
opencore legacy patcher is a great option, as long as the harddrive is not a mechanical one
Tbf, regular laptop hard drives were terribly slow on Mac OS even in the Yosemite days
I still use a 2012 MacBook Pro 13 inch but I removed the disk drive and put a solid state drive in addition to its 500gb disc drive. Still going strong today. I mean obviously it’s nothing compared to modern Mac’s but it does the job.
I still use the same model with El Capitan OSX not very fast. But works very good with final cut pro. It’s my work horse,.. strong Macbook Pro ! 👍
Nice Laptop. Thats a beast. Ive got the 15 inch with 500 ssd and 8Gb. Its gone white screen on me, so not sure what to do yet. Great channel. Thanks.
i have a 17 inch also from 2010, mine is in a fairly good condition. Its a great machine, for better performance i reasoned to go away from mac os and instead to use a light linux distrobution so i can watch videos and text on discord with my friends. Its sad that they dont have that much of a punch anymore, since this laptop is perfect in every single way, its big, the screen feels empty and gives one alot of room for pictures or videos, aswell as movies, i love it. Maybe in the future someone can Frankenstein it to become even better and lead everyone to have a very usuable machine, for the future
A fellow Ahoy enjoyer :), I immediately recognized the Four Byte Burger video
You’re the second person so far :,)
Top 10 UA-camrs out there for me. Maybe top 5!
3:34 Luke Miani did a review of 17” macbookpro, doesn't understand why they have PCIMCA \ Express card 34 slot. That slot allow the user to connect Tempo SATA pro 6GB, PCI -E 16x riser for laptops externalgpu,, connect usb 3.0 and more. He stated he wanted a SD slot instead
I have this one and three 2011 17" Macs. All running Sonoma flalwessly. One is baremetal Linux Debian and it runs it perfectly. Use them everyday. My M1 Max 16" barely gets used
Its plenty fine using open core. I own 14 old Macs. All perfect running sonoma or ventura
I have only used Macbook products for 2 years. I have started with 8 years old Macbook pro. It is still working well and I feel it trendy ie metal feel casing etc. Using Apple products id not only religion, it's value for money
I just threw one of those away, I did boot it up and check it out and it was painfully slow and video so-so. I have a Macbook Pro M1 Max and it's great for everything including working in audio which is my main thing.
you just threw it away?
I've been SysAdmin and worked with computers a long time and have tossed out quite few over the years. You'd think other people would want them, but no they want newer stuff.
@@DojoOfCool ah, i would take any old technoligy and get it working
I had one of these and it was the shortest lifespan Mac I've ever owned. Didn't even make it 4 years.
i believe the gpu failures on the 2011's are the same issue as the xbox 360's gpu, it's due to the inadequate underfill between the silicon die and the interposer of the gpu itself over many heat cycles more and more of the connections break until it fails, it's a shame that no compatible revised chips were made for those laptops like they were for the 360
i wish i could somehow put the internals of the m1 macbooks in that body, i own a new mac now but if it performed just a little better i would prefer it over this
i have a macbook pro 17" late 2011 im perfect condition like new and matte display :), I upgraded it with 500GB ssd and 16GB RAM.
After so many years i don't have the graphics issue, im using it with macOs high sierra, just in case...
Bro Me Too Same 2011 17inch Joint (2.6ghz, 16gigs Of Ram, Matte Screen) Never Had Any Problems I Currently Took It Back To Mavericks And Dumped All My Music On It Just To Save The GPU And As Backup. I Just Got The 2019 8-Core Joint Because It Was Time To Update But Other Than That This Was My Daily Driver MacBook. Heavy Use On FL With High Sierra With Also The Editing Of My Roller Skating Videos And Heavy Streaming
@@Larro256 wou bro, definitely a nice machine, im glad that you still keep it :)
I must say I have a 2.66 ghz i7 dual core with the gt330m 512mb and a 2.5ghz i7 quadcore with the gpu disabled so only the HD 3000 gpu but the 2011 version is much more usable than the 2010 version for me. The dual-core just does not cut it anymore these days even with the slightly more powerful Nvidia GPU. Still love the heck out of both machines!
The # is where the £ is on UK layout - the 3 key. I know this intimately as being a programmer you use the # a lot in C/C++/C#/Python and to get it on a UK Apple layout keyboard you have to press the second alt key and the 3/£ key
In the UK layout the # is not even labelled.
You’re absolutely right yeah. Didn’t think about that!
I got a 2011 maxed out 17” from the recycle pile at work. Quad core i7 can run Ventura fine and just fine not great. Had to disable the gpu but it works great
Cor you lucky thing
Can we bring back these anti glare screens on the new machines. I have a matte anti glare screen protector on my 14 inch M1 Pro and it makes the world of a difference
I alwways thought the design peaked on the 17" PowerBook G4 aluminum version/first MacBook Pro. The keyboard looked and felt great in my memory. Wish I could get one of those today.
Yeah those keyboards I believe to be Apple’s best on all laptops.
could u add a sim card for hot spot on the express card slot??
Updated my 2011 15 inch to sonoma, works fine once you let it warm up for easy tasks such as using ms office and browsing the web. I barely use it now tho
I had the second to the last “17 model. Early 2011. Mid or late 2011 was the last. The screen was great. Had a faulty GPU that overheated though.
catalina patcher has a lot of bugs!! Better install big sur with open core
OCLP... I have a 2012 13,2 iMac running Sonoma. I have a few graphics issues but other than that it's fine. Might be worth a go.
I talked about why I didn’t give it a go in the video.
Thanks though
I used to love the 17" Pros - even though the graphics never lived very long. I still use a remote w a USB sensor.
I'd love a 20in M4-Ultra MBP if money were no object.
There’s a lot of things I’d like if money were no object :,)
You could add the m1 MacBook air’s inside into the older macbook for better preformance, I’ve seen these kind of transformations on UA-cam before
I would absolutely love to do that, but normally the parts have to be from the same generation (retina, touchbar, ETC.) in order to fit.
Can you please link me to a video of this conversion? Really interested in that.
I'm trying to find one for myself just for the fun of having this BIG screen on my desktop.
Exactly! Took me months of looking but I got it for the same reason
Future video title : This 14 years newer m1/m2/m3 macbook has some features intel mac could only dream of 😂
Ingenious
Well, I have a top of the line MacBook from 2013 xD and yesterday I was editing 4K video and music in Logic and it's a champ. The battery lasts 2 hours :P But 99% of the time I use it as if it's a Mac mini, connected to the (2013?) Thunderbolt Display, at 2k. And they go for like 300 used.
From what you said in parts here, it seems you might enjoy the book Essentialism by Greg McKeown to work out how you want to focus on certain things. It'll give you a great mental framework that goes beyond just planning things.
That’s a really interesting recommendation. Thank you, I will check it out.
It’s weird how we defend what we love isn’t it. Like my M1 MacBook Air, to me it’s perfect even lack of i/o and being a base model.
But if I’m being honest i like how the M2 and beyond have MagSafe and FaceID. I can easily live without both just fine. But, i tend to leave it plugged in 24/7 because I don’t want any port-fatigue. I keep my laptops til they are absolutely unusable. Like this MacBook replaced a 12 year old Dell Latitude E6420.. which had the worst display and speakers on any computer I’ve had.
Cool video! I don’t think I’m ever buying another system with a fan though.. the lower powered SoC based machines check all my boxes… which for the most part is web browsing and light writing.
Thanks for watching!
Yeah I try to give a mixture of objective facts and… just my opinion in my videos. It’s objectively good to use your computers till they’re unusable :,)
I just bought this same laptop for $80 . Upgraded ram for $30 and switched to a SSD. I have it running Ventura and it’s a beaut
Bargain!
Any Macbook Pro will be quite good for upgrade on OCLP Big Sur since it is better for the aluminum type models mac..👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻
monterey is a better choice
Imagine Tim Cook's Apple releasing a Mac with not only upgradeable RAM and storage, but a SLOT that lets you add new capabilities with third-party addons. (Yes, I've heard of the Mac Pro, but it's a $6,000 joke.)
I primary the i7 variant of the 2010 MBP 17 w/Matte screen
I have the 15 inch 2015 MacBook Pro but I’m confused why this looks more modern.
DVD drive! Apple, Bring this back! You have the space for it on the Modern Pro!
Never gonna happen. It’s 2024
@@Dsole1217 ...Or maybe it's because Tim Cook is a *******.
That MacBook age had the best keyboard Apple has ever made.
Almost agree with you there
I've been using a 2011 17" as my primary laptop since 2015. Had the gpu replaced under Apple's support program on my first one (a 2.2 GHz), used that until 2022 when I decided it was time to get a 2.5 GHz. Obviously its gpu died as soon as I put it to some real use, so I had its gpu replaced as well, but I'm still not stopping to use them! I'm currently still running High Sierra, but with software support becoming worse I'll probably upgrade to Sonoma this summer. The 2.2 has already been running Sonoma for a few months. It's not bad, though due to the lack of Metal support the UI gets a bit glitchy. Graphics switching surprisingly works fine on Sonoma though.
Fair enough! You like what you like. I would have let it go after the second GPU failure lol
@@montaguebarnabasltd Tbf, I can't fault the original 6770M for failing after over ten years. And I didn't get the 2.5 just to throw it away after two weeks or so! The rest of it is still near mint and I really enjoyed the 2.2, so I decided it was worth fixing.
I use my 2009 17" for daily light tasks it dual boots with Windows 10 which is partly the reason I got it the second reason being the optical drive for ripping and burning CDs. I have very rarely seen a 17" with the UK keyboard layout even when I bought this macbook from the UK it came with the US layout keyboard. I think if Apple was going to do this size in the M series the screen would be 18" based on how the screen sizes of their M series models went up an inch with the bezelless design. I often think how revolutionary these 17" Unibody MacBooks must have been back then because it's much thinner than the laptops of 2008-2011 and it's screen resolution still stands up to today's standards especially with Windows 10/11 laptops.
That’s an odd thing now I think about it. They do seem to have a disproportionate amount of US layouts here in that size.
Yep, the display must have been ahead of the curve for a good few years. I think you’re right about the newer bezeless displays. 18in would be crazy.
I love that Ahoy video
YES YES YES
I didn’t expect anyone to know it from sight…
I was also going to comment on this but you beat me too it!!
DosDude GPU terminal trick. All three of my 2011 17' Macs I got not working. I did some terminal code tricks and disabled the Discrete graphiocs and they all are just fine. NO issues whatsoever.
@@Mbro-dq2do cool! As I said in the video, I’d rather not have an impeded version of an already not super strong machine, hence my choosing the 2010. Those are lovely computers though.
I have a 2011 17” which I bought as untested sold as seen, and the GPU still works perfectly! I have put that aside for now to disable the GPU to preserve it. The 2010 and 2011 MacBooks have quad core i5, i7 cpus.
@dosdude1 upgraded a MBP17” 2011 to mid-2012 CPU, so it has Intel HD4000 GPU (nearly as good as the 2011 ATI discrete GPU)
I have a 2009 17” (I replaced that tantalum capacitor on the motherboard and it worked again), with 8gb RAM, 2TB SSD, and 2TB HDD 😃The 2009 with matte screen is the best of the Unibody 17” in terms of reliability (except for dosdude’s one of course, which also has a PCIE connector hidden in the optical bay for eGPU)
Why disable a perfectly functional gpu? You might as well enjoy it while it lasts ;).
I've seen Dosdude's 2012 17" as well and while I think it's a cool idea, it currently still comes across as extremely hacky. While he claims the HD4000 is faster than the original AMD graphics were, I'm pretty sure it's just been a long time since he saw a working AMD gpu ;). In my experience it's closer in performance to the later 650M than to the HD4000, though sadly it lacks the Metal support of either of them
Excellent content
Much appreciated, thanks.
i still use a 2012 MBP 15" though the fan is fuckin' annoying compared. to my silent 2020 M1
this would be dope in a 2024 version
its nice...however it can't even render modern videos bc of the lack of codecs in the CPU.
Yes. I’m fairly sure my video covers what this machine can and can’t do. An apple silicon beating CPU, this machine does not have.
Ive alwyas wondered why apple NEVER put a touchscreen on a laptop. Even of it doesnt fold back to be a tablet, i just love touchscreen laptops
I have a macbook pro 2011/2012 and boy oh boy does that puppy get hotter than hell. its never used anymore but man, back in the day I loved the fuck out of that machine
U know u can put eGPU to it directly by PC Card,if u could to it it’s will be super useful,because not many speak about/testing this upgrade on UA-cam
True! Unfortunately I don’t own one or have space for one right now. Sorry
@@montaguebarnabasltd
Sry for what?!, ur videos are excellent for who’s want to buy or know about theses old macs,so thx u for ur work
I had a M1 and it was ok but it didn’t had enough ports for me so I sold it and bought a very cheap MacBook Pro 2015 and i upgraded the SSD to one TB and it has been great and it’s still fast and plenty of ports.
You should get an M1 Pro or the M2 or M3 variants then.