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Any way at all to upgrade the CPU in a MacBook Pro?

W

wickedking94

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Apr 27, 2010
271
4
Mine is a mid 2010 13" MacBook Pro, and its just an awful piece of junk lately. And I know the cause is the Core 2 Duo CPU. Its to old and slow to do anything processor intensive. I can't render in Maya or adobe after effects, I can barely play certain games because the physics engines are to CPU dependant.

I know the CPU is soldered to the logic board, but is there a way to put a logic board with say a core i5 or core i7 on it into mine? Or there was a company that you could send old iMac G3 logic boards to and they would de-solder the CPU and put a faster one on, is there something like that for MacBook Pro's?

I really don't think I should have to buy a whole new computer when this ones only 2 years old. Apple is so stupid when it comes to designing computers. Who cares if its thin if I can't upgrade anything on it? Honestly I might not ever buy another apple computer if they keep making them less upgradable. They're all about the environment then they should make it more upgradable so theres less waste.
 
wickedking94 said:
Mine is a mid 2010 13" MacBook Pro, and its just an awful piece of junk lately. And I know the cause is the Core 2 Duo CPU. Its to old and slow to do anything processor intensive. I can't render in Maya or adobe after effects, I can barely play certain games because the physics engines are to CPU dependant.

I know the CPU is soldered to the logic board, but is there a way to put a logic board with say a core i5 or core i7 on it into mine? Or there was a company that you could send old iMac G3 logic boards to and they would de-solder the CPU and put a faster one on, is there something like that for MacBook Pro's?

I really don't think I should have to buy a whole new computer when this ones only 2 years old. Apple is so stupid when it comes to designing computers. Who cares if its thin if I can't upgrade anything on it? Honestly I might not ever buy another apple computer if they keep making them less upgradable. They're all about the environment then they should make it more upgradable so theres less waste.
Click to expand...

Short answer: No.
 
wickedking94 said:
I really don't think I should have to buy a whole new computer when this ones only 2 years old. Apple is so stupid when it comes to designing computers. Who cares if its thin if I can't upgrade anything on it? Honestly I might not ever buy another apple computer if they keep making them less upgradable. They're all about the environment then they should make it more upgradable so theres less waste.
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You "know the cause"?

You bought a small form factor machine that didn't have space for both a discrete GPU and a core i series CPU.

If you had bought a 13" PC laptop you would have gotten a useless integrated GPU and would have similar issues.

You wouldn't be able to upgrade CPU on that, either.
 
wickedking94 said:
Apple is so stupid when it comes to designing computers. Who cares if its thin if I can't upgrade anything on it? Honestly I might not ever buy another apple computer if they keep making them less upgradable.
Click to expand...

Good luck finding a laptop from another brand that is more upgradable than your MBP.
 
Well see if I had bought a of I could probably gotten a 15 inch with a decent CPU and gpu. A 15 inch MBP is a lot more than a 13 inch. And yeah both my brothers PC laptops, a 13 inch and a 17 inch have upgradable CPUs and GPUs. And my brothers 13 inch PC laptop has a core i series CPU and a separate gpu. Your telling me apple with all its designing couldn't find a way to make it work?

----------

It doesn't matter now anyways because I shoved the piece of junk off my desk and onto the floor and I'm just going to use my phone until apple figures out that nobody actually cares how thin their laptop is.
 
Most laptops dont have a way to upgrade the CPU and certainly not the GPU.
 
What brand PC's do they own that have upgradable CPU's and GPU's?


wickedking94 said:
Well see if I had bought a of I could probably gotten a 15 inch with a decent CPU and gpu. A 15 inch MBP is a lot more than a 13 inch. And yeah both my brothers PC laptops, a 13 inch and a 17 inch have upgradable CPUs and GPUs. And my brothers 13 inch PC laptop has a core i series CPU and a separate gpu. Your telling me apple with all its designing couldn't find a way to make it work?

----------

It doesn't matter now anyways because I shoved the piece of junk off my desk and onto the floor and I'm just going to use my phone until apple figures out that nobody actually cares how thin their laptop is.
Click to expand...
 
wickedking94 said:
Well see if I had bought a of I could probably gotten a 15 inch with a decent CPU and gpu. A 15 inch MBP is a lot more than a 13 inch. And yeah both my brothers PC laptops, a 13 inch and a 17 inch have upgradable CPUs and GPUs. And my brothers 13 inch PC laptop has a core i series CPU and a separate gpu. Your telling me apple with all its designing couldn't find a way to make it work?
Click to expand...

What brand laptops are those anyway? From what I can tell, Apple puts a huge battery in their laptops which severely limits the amount of space for more components. Most users find this a fair trade off.

It doesn't matter now anyways because I shoved the piece of junk off my desk and onto the floor and I'm just going to use my phone until apple figures out that nobody actually cares how thin their laptop is.
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LOL! Apple isn't going to figure out that "nobody cares" if they keep selling the way they do.
 
wickedking94 said:
It doesn't matter now anyways because I shoved the piece of junk off my desk and onto the floor and I'm just going to use my phone until apple figures out that nobody actually cares how thin their laptop is.
Click to expand...

Wow.

Couldn't you have done research beforehand instead of realizing this now and acting like a spoiled child?

I'm pretty sure you would ask any Apple store employee what computer to buy for Maya, After effects and gaming and he wouldn't recommend you a 13" MBP. He would also tell you you can't upgrade the CPU/GPU.

There are much worse things in life man. Just buy a new one if you're not happy or accept that your computer is not the fastest. This is a first world problem.
 
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wickedking94 said:
It doesn't matter now anyways because I shoved the piece of junk off my desk and onto the floor and I'm just going to use my phone until apple figures out that nobody actually cares how thin their laptop is.
Click to expand...
You sure showed them a thing or two now didn't you?

That'll teach those bastards at Apple.

LOL!
 
wickedking94 said:
It doesn't matter now anyways because I shoved the piece of junk off my desk and onto the floor and I'm just going to use my phone until apple figures out that nobody actually cares how thin their laptop is.
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Let me know when you find a comparable 13" laptop that has a socketed CPU that you can upgrade yourself.
 
Krazy Bill said:
You sure showed them a thing or two now didn't you?

That'll teach those bastards at Apple.
Click to expand...

Reminds me of my son when he was about 5 getting into a tantrum and throwing the bedroom door open so hard that it bounced back and the doorknob hit him in the mouth. Lost 2 front teeth in the process.
 
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pgiguere1 said:
Wow.

Couldn't you have done research beforehand
instead of realizing this now and acting like a spoiled child?

I'm pretty sure you would ask any Apple store employee what computer to buy for Maya, After effects and gaming and he wouldn't recommend you a 13" MBP. He would also tell you you can't upgrade the CPU/GPU.

There are much worse things in life man. Just buy a new one if you're not happy or accept that your computer is not the fastest. This is a first world problem.
Click to expand...

Well first i got the stupid thing 2 years ago which was well before I started doing animation and video. And no i shouldn't have to buy a whole new computer to replace one that's a mere 2 years old.

And yes you can totally replace the CPU in plenty of laptops out there. My brothers old acer had an upgradable CPU, my other brothers old dell had an upgradable CPU, my brothers current Asus has an upgradable CPU, and amazingly enough my other brothers 13 inch Lenovo has an upgradable CPU. So 4/4 clearly it's not uncommon and these aren't expensive high end laptops there everyday 500$ ones. My brothers Lenovo is almost identical size and thickness as my MacBook Pro so if Lenovo can fit an upgradable CPU into it I'm sure apple could have done it with the MacBook Pro.

And yeah this is a first world problem. But I live in the first world so i don't care about the second or third world.
 
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Yeah but at most I might get 600-800$ for this thing. That's not even enough to buy a quad core i7 Mac mini, and I still need a laptop for school next year.
 
wickedking94 said:
Yeah but at most I might get 600-800$ for this thing. That's not even enough to buy a quad core i7 Mac mini, and I still need a laptop for school next year.
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Sell it for $600-$800 and get a $500, everyday laptop. why are you getting an apple branded machine again? this way you'll actually make some money AND you'll get what you need: an upgradable laptop.
 
wickedking94 said:
Well first i got the stupid thing 2 years ago which was well before I started doing animation and video. And no i shouldn't have to buy a whole new computer to replace one that's a mere 2 years old.

And yes you can totally replace the CPU in plenty of laptops out there. My brothers old acer had an upgradable CPU, my other brothers old dell had an upgradable CPU, my brothers current Asus has an upgradable CPU, and amazingly enough my other brothers 13 inch Lenovo has an upgradable CPU. So 4/4 clearly it's not uncommon and these aren't expensive high end laptops there everyday 500$ ones. My brothers Lenovo is almost identical size and thickness as my MacBook Pro so if Lenovo can fit an upgradable CPU into it I'm sure apple could have done it with the MacBook Pro.

And yeah this is a first world problem. But I live in the first world so i don't care about the second or third world.
Click to expand...

Think about what you're asking. You want to upgrade from a c2d to a sandy bridge CPU. Not only are they different sockets, you probably need new RAM. Sorry if you can't afford a new computer, too bad. As you say, we are in a first world country, you should be able to make enough money to purchase a new laptop.
 
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Different sockets. You cant upgrade from any socket that intel released for its notebooks to a new series, for example, the 1st core i series to the 2nd core i series. You can do the backwards process with the 3rd gen chipset to a 2nd gen cpu.

Thing is, I was actually wondering why you couldnt just change the logic board on the mbp and get a boost right there, the design is the same and everything looks the same, it might not be. Better check with some ifixit guides.

Another thing, stop the show.
 
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