Snow leo saved me from going to the dark side; it works on a late 2011 MBP!

[rabidz7]

I was right at the MSI order button when I thought "maybe I should try to fix my Late 2011 MBP and try a version of OS X that was not ravaged by iCrap".

My first attempt: Get all of my PowerPC macs working great in case I need to use a computer that is actually fast enough to use without worries (no comments please, real macs feel faster than PCs with apple logos, again no comments).

I installed 20GB of ram in my G5 and am working on getting it to be recognized by OpenFirmware. I installed a 7970 in the G5 and am soon to try every linux distro that I can find. Soon I will finish overclocking my 12" G4 powerbook to 1.67GHz for sure or 1.83GHz or even 2GHz, if I can find the vcore regulator.

My second attempt: I totally reapplied my MBP thermal paste with arctic silver V, before this all games were unplayable due to throttling and tamps hovered around 97C, and now I can play CIV V without lag at max settings with all temps staying under 65C even with every part of the system at full load, if this is I could do only one upgrade to a computer thermal paste reapplication would be it.

My third attempt: I installed a 120GB SSD in my MBP and will soon be getting an OptiBay for the old 750GB HDD.

My fourth attempt: I took the SSD and rammed it in to my old white MacBook, shoved an OS X 10.6.0 DVD, installed it, installed the combo 10.6.8 update and stuck the SSD back in my MBP, and to my surprise, as it is a late 2011, it booted, and works perfectly. After using snow leo it feels like a true desktop OS, and not a big fat iPhone. Don't believe me?:

My 5th attempt: I cracked EFI, and am trying to monkey with the CPU speed settings. Does anyone know commands? Don't believe me?:

My sixth attempt: I am trying to flash the GPU to a higher speed, does anyone know how to do this?

I am now going to stay with OSX after doing what apple should have done by default to my MBP.

 

[Edgecrusherr]

Great stuff!

I have a Late 2011 17" MBP. The Early and Late 2011s are basically the same machine, with the Late 2011 having slightly newer versions of the same CPU and GPU family as the Early 2011. The 10.6.0 installer needs the updated Sandy Bridge drivers that were added in 10.6.7. The later 10.6.7 install disk that came with the Early 2011s is only preventing you from installing on the Late 2011 because Apple has a compatibility file on the disk, which I believe you can remove and re-burn to disk (or copy to a USB flash drive).

Please let me know if you're able to mod the CPU and GPU and how you did it, I might want to give this a try on my MBP!! THANKS!!!

 

[hakuin]

Me too for the last year and a half.

https://forums.macrumors.com/search/?searchid=35445817

 

[Krazy Bill]

After using snow leo it feels like a true desktop OS, and not a big fat iPhone.

I barely dodged that SSD "shuffle" because of an early 2011 model. Apple literally discontinued SL before the ink dried on my install disk.

One day our Snow Leopard machines will be put to pasture though. Perhaps iOS on a computer will be a failed experiment by then.

 

[chrono1081]

I don't think any of you tried the new OS's if you think its iOS on a computer.

Seriously give them a shot. Mountain Lion is fantastic. If you don't want the nice features like notification center you can disable them.

 

[hammo123]

I've been running both SL & ML on partitions on my early & late 2011 MBPs for some time & have to admit that Mountain Lion isn't too bad once you tweak it a little & get rid of all the annoying prompts & popups..
I used this little free app.http://tweaksapp.com/app/mountain-tweaks/
Also spent a little time trawling the forums for hints & tweaks to get ML into shape & now use it most of the time except for my Audio Apps that aren't supported on it..
Also the best money I've ever spent was on Little Snitch..http://www.obdev.at/products/littlesnitch/index.html

 

[Krazy Bill]

I don't think any of you tried the new OS's if you think its iOS on a computer.

Uh... yes. I'm sure we have.

I've been testing Mavrix DP's 1-5 on another system. It shows promise now that full screen apps on multiple monitors has been fixed. But it's far from the streamlined elegance and simplicity of Snow Leopard.

All moot though. I just like to piss and moan about it.