New MacBook Pro

[Wyvernspirit]

So I just got my first laptop

Decided to go with a 15" MacBook Pro (Late 2011 Unibody)

Specs as purchased:
2.4Ghz i7, 8GB RAM, 1TB Hard Drive, Hi-Res Antireflective display (1680x1050)

Upgrades I have already made to make this my beast:
Dual HD With a SSD in a Caddy
Battery Replacement
Airport Card upgrade with Continuity activation

The SSD alone makes this thing so fast. It boots in seconds (faster than my iPad) and apps launch effortlessly. Just need to get the RAM to 16GB now.

Was really feeling the crawl on my iMac so am so excited for my new workhorse.

Oh and I bought this MacBook at UsedMacs.us, and when the battery showed as being in need of service the owner refunded money to purchase a new battery. So I can recommend them for used macs.

Wow I put in a lot of links

 

[brdeveloper]

So I just got my first laptop

Decided to go with a 15" MacBook Pro (Late 2011 Unibody)

Specs as purchased:
2.4Ghz i7, 8GB RAM, 1TB Hard Drive, Hi-Res Antireflective display (1680x1050)

Upgrades I have already made to make this my beast:
Dual HD With a SSD in a Caddy
Battery Replacement
Airport Card upgrade with Continuity activation

The SSD alone makes this thing so fast. It boots in seconds (faster than my iPad) and apps launch effortlessly. Just need to get the RAM to 16GB now.

Was really feeling the crawl on my iMac so am so excited for my new workhorse.

Oh and I bought this MacBook at UsedMacs.us, and when the battery showed as being in need of service the owner refunded money to purchase a new battery. So I can recommend them for used macs.

Wow I put in a lot of links

You're a fearless guy for buying a 2011 15" Macbook Pro. Hopefully it will fail (if so) before Feb/2016, so you can have it repaired for free by Apple.

 

[Wyvernspirit]

So far no issues (other than the battery). Hoping it stays that way.

 

[fastasleep]

You're a fearless guy for buying a 2011 15" Macbook Pro. Hopefully it will fail (if so) before Feb/2016, so you can have it repaired for free by Apple.

Yeah, the 2011's are risky due to the GPU issue. Also with the 2011's, your optical bay may be SATA3 (6Gbps) but you will only be able to use a SATA2 (3Gbps) reliably in it. I found out the hard way after buying a second 1TB SSD. Instead, I'm installing the old SATA2 spinner drive I had in this before I put the SSD in the main HD bay. You'll want to be sure to do a SATA2 drive (or one that can be forced to operate at SATA2) in the optical bay.

I updated my WIFI card but haven't enabled Continuity yet.

You could've avoided both of these issues with just buying a 2012 model, just FYI (otherwise, it's a great machine! My Early 2011 is still cruising along... though it did have the motherboard replaced once...)

 

[maflynn]

So far no issues (other than the battery). Hoping it stays that way.

Good luck, hopefully you don't run into any GPU issues. Brave man, personally, would have avoided but if you're happy with the purchase that's all that counts.

 

[Wyvernspirit]

Yeah, the 2011's are risky due to the GPU issue. Also with the 2011's, your optical bay may be SATA3 (6Gbps) but you will only be able to use a SATA2 (3Gbps) reliably in it. I found out the hard way after buying a second 1TB SSD. Instead, I'm installing the old SATA2 spinner drive I had in this before I put the SSD in the main HD bay. You'll want to be sure to do a SATA2 drive (or one that can be forced to operate at SATA2) in the optical bay.

I updated my WIFI card but haven't enabled Continuity yet.

You could've avoided both of these issues with just buying a 2012 model, just FYI (otherwise, it's a great machine! My Early 2011 is still cruising along... though it did have the motherboard replaced once...)

My optical bay indicates SATA III (6Gbps) and shows that as the negotiated connection speed. I have had n issues with it as that is where I installed my SSD and it has been a huge speed bump in performance.

 

[fastasleep]

My optical bay indicates SATA III (6Gbps) and shows that as the negotiated connection speed. I have had n issues with it as that is where I installed my SSD and it has been a huge speed bump in performance.

Awesome! Mine didn't work (I think I was able to write but then got an error right away when trying to read), but the spinner is working fine at sataII and it was just for my giant iTunes Library, so I'll stick with it. I read of some instances where it worked fine for some people with both early/late 2011 machines, so guess you were one of the lucky ones.

 

[Wyvernspirit]

Black magic Speed test results

The manufacturer states the following for its speed:
Sequential reads/writes up to 535 / 450 MB/s on all file types

so getting pretty close to its estimate

 

[Wyvernspirit]

For comparison, heres the original HD