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MacBook Pro 15" (Early 2011)

A1286 · MacBookPro8,2 · 2011–2011 · laptop

Specifications

Cpu: Intel Core i7 quad-core 2.0–2.2 GHz (2.3 GHz BTO)
Ram: max: 16 GB DDR3-1333 (2×8 GB; Apple claimed 8 GB) · base: 4 GB
Ports: MagSafe · USB 2.0 ×2 · FireWire 800 · Thunderbolt · SDXC card slot · Gigabit Ethernet · Audio in/out
Battery: 77.5 Wh sealed
Display: 15.4" 1440×900 (1680×1050 hi-res BTO)
Storage: base: 500 GB HDD · options: 750 GB HDD · 128 GB SSD · 256 GB SSD · 512 GB SSD
Weight: 2.54 kg
Os Support: latest: macOS 10.13 High Sierra · shipped: Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard
Release Price: $1,799

Upgrade paths

RAM

16 GB DDR3-1333 (2×8 GB) · Two SO-DIMM slots under the bottom panel. Apple's official max is 8 GB; 16 GB works and is well documented.

~$40

EASY

storage

2.5" SATA III SSD · Bottom panel off, one bracket. Note: this model's Radeon HD 6490M/6750M dGPU is a notorious failure point, a common community mod disables it in favor of the Intel iGPU.

~$40

EASY

storage

2nd 2.5" SATA drive via optical-bay caddy · Replace the SuperDrive with a data-doubler caddy.

~$15

MODERATE

battery

77.5 Wh replacement pack (A1382) · Screwed in with tri-wing screws, not glued.

MODERATE