Creating the World's First Quad Core Mid-2012 13-inch MacBook Pro

[@PCJesus0]

You shoud sell some boards or sell a upgrade service, quite a few people would pay to keep their 2012 pro

[@dosdude1]

I definitely would perform this upgrade for anybody who would want it. Would probably be able to do it for around $200 - $250, plus the return shipping cost. The CPU itself costs around $100.

[@PCJesus0]

@@dosdude1 Awesome!

[@dosdude1]

@NRGY I got this CPU off AliExpress. It's really not likely you'll get ripped off, I buy stuff from places like that all the time and have never had an issue.

[@boogiedownbronx73]

I would love to see my mb pro 2015 13 inch be upgrade with a i7 or i9 i got i3 now...can you solder ram?

[@dosdude1]

@@boogiedownbronx73 13" 2015 MBP can only support dual-core CPUs, the best of which is an i7-5557U. You can solder on up to 16GB of RAM on that model.

[@cmiksche]

For most tech KZbinrs, BGA soldering is magic, you are a Wizard who understands how to do it... Thank you for your hard work, I used your patchers with all my old Macs and cannot describe how much you helped me using my old hardware.

[@uio86a]

Can I also upgrade the 2009 MacBook Pro 1278 model i5 dual core model to quad core, so can I increase my max RAM from 8GB to 16GB?

[@thiagooliveira-ti]

@@uio86a y

[@thiagooliveira-ti]

@@uio86a Y

[@markjames1497]

DosDude completed this mod as well as adding the iBoff NVMe board install. The speed that it runs at is amazing!!!!! Before you ask “why would you spend the money for this?”, it has special meaning to me and I am not ready to give up my MacBook Pro. DosDude your a legend!!! Thank you again!!!

[@SalemTechsperts]

Absolutely brilliant. The Mid-2012 13" is, in my opinion, one of the best laptops ever made. Seeing it upgraded even further 11 years after it's initial release is amazing.

[@blankname8553]

The only downside is the terrible screen resolution. I wish he would make a retrofit of a non-crap resolution screen.

[@Alex-yj9xl]

@@blankname8553 tbh I don’t think it’s that bad.

[@Windows7UltimateTheVyonder]

The best techican that's ever lived!

[@dreamybull1509]

​@@Windows7UltimateTheVyonder*greatest

[@caydenkush3512]

@@Windows7UltimateTheVyonder Indeed

[@Lydelll]

This just proves how good the mid 2012 MBP is. I’ve been wanting a cpu upgrade for the longest and I would pay to have it upgraded to a QC i7 to breathe some more life into it. Amazing job and skill set.

[@dosdude1]

Send me an email, I can definitely do it for you!

[@tnoinetwork]

@@dosdude1bro can you please upgrade my 2012 like this?

[@taylorperry7082]

Email kind sir?

[@OdessitOn]

Congratulate me! I got a new i7-3615QE installed on my 2012 MacBook Pro today. Instead of the Intel i5. The emotions of using the laptop are unspeakable.

[@dosdude1]

Awesome!

[@jackgerberuae]

Where did you get the CPU chip from?

[@OdessitOn]

@@jackgerberuae AliExpress

[@andylove4231]

please tell! I want to keep my mbp so badly

[@OdessitOn]

@@andylove4231 it's ok, you will keep motherboard. Only change a chip.I got a fighter jet, maximized my MBP 2012.

[@robinrai4973]

you're incredible man, we recently got a bga rework station at work with fancy IR camera footprint aligning stuff while you're out here just being an absolute legend doing it by eye

[@ikemkrueger]

Louis Rossmann uses a metal tweezer to make some scratches on the corners to outline the chip position.

[@andresd270]

Would be really interesting to see how it manages thermals, as the 15” model with 2 fans struggled to stay bellow 95°C when underload

[@thegeforce6625]

i did this upgrade to my Thinkpad X230, gave it a pretty big performance jump in multicore scenarios, but it runs alot hotter at low load/idle compared to the origional dual core CPU

[@brookemels]

45W part vs 35W

[@adamanny1234]

Same deal so I just picked out the best dual-core and called it a day. You could also lock the quad core to its base frequency

[@oldskoolkrazy]

I would try to use higher quality thermal paste if you didn't. Unless I was desperate I would try to use liquid metal but otherwise I do not like messing with that stuff, just some good ol' silicone based compound or something.

[@Destructor8031]

time for a heatsink/cooling mod and maybe some liquid metal ;)

[@pingtime]

​@NRGY thinkpad EC is weird when controlling it's thermal system, still happened until T480

[@nicknorthcutt7680]

Wow! Back when I had this computer in 2012, I searched around to see if I could swap out the cpu for a quad core and it was said to be, at the time "impossible" to do. Seeing this done is really cool and quite impressive!

[@Bushidounohana]

Watching with envy and admiration on my late 2013 13” MacBook Pro. So awesome to see a decade old machine still getting so much love!

[@R4monLP]

Can we talk about how fast this guy swaps a cpu, the geekbench times are 76 minutes apart.

[@arranmc182]

This is why people like him can charge good amount for his work as he's proper clean, hje should think about starting a copmy that takes old Mac's like this and upgrades them to the Max and sells them on, old Mac's are still amazing computers and make excellent Linux systems better than any PC of the same age I tend to find.

[@ikemkrueger]

@@arranmc182 I second that.

[@OdessitOn]

Thank you! You have inspired me to make such an upgrade. I ordered the same i7-3615QE processor for my MacBook Pro Mid 2012. Waiting for it from China to be installed on my laptop.

[@jerbear7952]

How did it go

[@OdessitOn]

@@jerbear7952 more powerful computing. It didn't affect the battery performance, just a slightly higher temp. The performance is pleasing, I don't want to change my MacBook for a modern one. I put a fast SSD, RAM 16 Gb 1600MHr, replaced my power chip (I wanted to).

[@eduar2tc904]

Where did you order the modified plate? I am interested in purchasing a modified one.

[@griparian]

Well-Done on researching the compatibility of the CPUs for the 13" Mid-2012 MBP upgrade and for the seamless execution of solder. I'm pretty sure that if Steve Jobs was still alive, he would have given you the thimbs-up for 'Pimping the Unibody'... His vision for the ultimate upgradeable laptop lives on...cheers.

[@Ben79k]

Ive watched so many of your rework upgrades over the years and i have no idea why they are so relaxing to watch but they just are. Thank you for the continued entertainment

[@Epicgamer_Mac]

Wow what a video, you’re a legend. This is the kinda stuff I aspire to do as I become more and more fluent with all things Apple and computers.

[@MajestyofMayhem]

Same, I'm teaching myself now to upgrade now that my mid 2012 is officially "obsolete" to Apple. Steve Jobs is rolling in his grave over the new MacBook I'm sure lol

[@vim2871]

I confirm it works! MacBook Pro Mid 2012, i7- 3612QE (GB5, S-645, M-2560). Bravo bravo bravo dosdude1

[@jonas-fr]

This is awesome and you make this looks like it's easy! A small caveat though, there isn't any temperature readings so it's hard to replicate what you're doing, even though you're going out of your way to detail every last bit of the process. You may want to put sensors or telling about your tools settings in a future video. Anyway, this is a damn impressive achievement, so congrats!

[@lacmcasares8755]

I love it. Thanks to you I could upgrade my old 2008 Mac from El capitan to Catalina via your patch

[@yukitakahashi5739]

Your work is always so satisfying! Thanks for sharing what you do :)

I was mesmerized by this. Nice work! I can't believe it's possible to use a Quad-Core i7 with Hyper-Threading on this machine. I mean, I have the exact same model, with the 2.3Ghz i5. As soon as I get my tools, I'll try this, I have to. Awesome. Congrats!

[@myoneblackfriend3151]

I appreciate people like yourself that have the know how to make things better. Keep up the good work. I have been contemplating putting a solid state drive in my 2012 MacBook Pro.

[@juanmacias5922]

You made that look too easy! Great job!

[@IceShotTV]

I want that too on my mac! I waited for this video for so long! Finally its possible!

[@djbelly4968]

I wish I had your knowledge and skillz, best tech KZbinr so far.

[@dancjr2]

Your work is amazing, thank you for doing this project and sharing it!

[@Collinormous]

That feeling when it just works with no firmware mods!

[@LPgmxDan]

How does one do those custom bios?

[@prestonferry]

@@LPgmxDan you flash the BIOS IC…

[@LPgmxDan]

@@prestonferry so basically the same process that you would do if you messed up the bios update for example? And isn't there a system on apple to prevent it? Sep or something like that

[@prestonferry]

@@LPgmxDan you don’t have to go through the system, you can force it… You have to either desolder the BIOS IC and connect through a breadboard/USB or hook jumpers to it… They generally use a program such as flashrom to do it…

[@chriscalderon1337]

Amazing upgrade, yet again!

[@skip741x3]

Blown away that you attempted this! way beyond what I'd dare to try! only concernes are the increase in cpu temps after the mod... there is Not as good a hetsink and cooling solution in the 13" case, nor is there the sheer internal space inside the chassis compred to a 15"... thats probably why they limited it to a dual core... interested to hear how the thermals are after this mod

[@nothin1456]

I hear ya. Take into account the 15” inch cools a whole dedicated video card as well. And even if it throttles a bit will still be faster than the dual core.

[@flipkibblez]

I wanted to do something like this earlier this year but I am not experience enough to do bga sadly. Cool that you did it and proved it working though! always nice to see your projects.

[@chrism869]

this was entertaining to watch, never tought that this would be possible

[@Lmca69]

Your a genius holy shit bro you don’t know how many Mac lives you have saved

[@MrKillswitch88]

When it has been done for some Thinkpads from the era then anyone saying "its not possible" is full of crap lol. Nice work as always.

[@michaelsilverman341]

You are a beast. Thank you for all your patchwork and tutorials. I would love to know what your background is, I mean I could believe you could be a hobbyist but i'm sure you have school/pro training with all of this

[@Josh.Davidson]

You're going hard! I love it! Keep up the great work.

[@brmarko]

This is unbelieavable, great work! :)

[@dsfdfssqdfsqfdfqsd4235]

Nice, was waiting for a need to flash a different bios, but apparently no, nice ! GG ! Will definitely wait 10y to upgrade my 1260P to a 1280P or more if possible :))

[@Miden1437]

Your videos are fantastic. Thanks for contributing.

[@eileenlucynakurosawa7421]

Excellent work as always, thank you for sharing 😊

[@megadamien8230]

Hello, Ces gars sont de vrais magicien!! je les ai sollicité depuis l'étranger pour faire la mise a niveau et ils l'ont faite! Ce commentaire est posté depuis un mid 2012 qui a une seconde jeunesse grâce à vous. Merci pour votre bon travail.

[@alexisdesplanques6865]

salut tu as payé combien pour l upgrade ?

[@eduar2tc904]

How much did it cost you with shipping?

[@megadamien8230]

Bonjour à toi, Avec les frais de ports compris(aller et retour) et la douane (20% sur le retour en France) 325€. Ça me semblait toujours plus interessant que changer de Mac… Je fait actuellement tourner Ventura sans aucun problème ni baisse de performances. Et puis franchement le MBP 2012 est tellement mieux fourni en terme de ports… j’aimais trop ma machine pour en changer.

[@alexisdesplanques6865]

@@megadamien8230 ça va encore le prix il me semble que quelques sociétés font la même chose en france perso j'ai payé mon macbook 2012 en parfait état 50 euros alors si je met 325 euros dans la modif ça restera toujours moin chére qu'une merde chez darty qui va claquer dans deux ans

[@djentisnotagenre]

Excellent work as ever! Inspirational stuff.

[@definfected]

Very impressive!! Love your work!!

[@vaskarrozario2643]

Legendary upgrade, man.💗

[@thiagooliveira-ti]

Really incredible!!! I would like to know if it would also be possible to modify the battery and include an extra battery in place of the DVD drive.

[@MajestyofMayhem]

I was wondering the same! Even when you upgrade to a modern SSD it leaves more room by the battery, therefore maybe a newer better and slightly bigger battery could be put there? I don't know which parts could fit it exactly

[@elliotwallett5079]

Very cool video , very proud owner of my 2012 13” unibody MBP and would love to have this upgrade someday.

[@boyankiuranov5104]

Amazing stuff dude!

[@Piipperi800]

Could you do an MBA 11" quad-core CPU upgrade like this? This CPU does seem to share the same socket with the Mid '12's CPU according to Intel's spec sheet, but the TDP is way higher. Guessing the power delivery might not be able to handle that, or would cooling become a problem first?

[@dosdude1]

In theory it should work, but will run hot of course. I still want to try it, though.

[@Piipperi800]

@@dosdude1 that certainly would be interesting, it could be history's first 11" quad-core MacBook. Too bad it doesn't look like any of the newer generations share CPU sockets with quad-core models though.

[@Evie0133]

this is just plain AWESOME, I respect all of your work so much, really well done :D

[@Lux11711]

Where do you buy the chipset from, I was looking where to buy it hard to find anything place that sells them. Is there a way to buy from Apple, I looked on there website could not find where I could buy newer chipsets at? Is there a place, with out buy parts that where ripped out of other computers. Where I can buy just the chipsets from a manufacture, for the upgrade of my PC? Thanks

[@arthurdebacker4797]

I always wondered in 2012 why Apple didn't put at least a quad core into the 13 inch Pro even without a dedicated gpu, super cool to see it can be done somehow

[@blankname8553]

Cost and thermals. Also power users probably didn't want a terrible screen resolution to work with.

[@EpicLPer]

Do you by any chance know what could be wrong with a Macbook Air 2015 when the power button just refuses to do anything and the only thing I could find is the big cap to the left next to the WiFi card being shorted? Don't have enough skills at all with this kind of stuff, mentioning in my video I uploaded about this too.

[@stevesloan6775]

Amazing work!

[@marcelopatron4361]

A true MacBook Wizard

[@manliogebbia3596]

spettacolare è dire poco complimenti e non solo per questo video ma per tutto il tuo materiale in rete che ci aiuta moltissimo con i mac

[@W4rH4wkXX]

Your videos never disappoint!!! 💪💪💪💪💯💯💯💯

[@radiofan98]

I want to try this myself. How long do you preheat the board and at which temperature? And which temperature has your hot air and how long do you expose the hot air to the CPU? I tried to preheat at 180 C for 5 minutes and, after applying a bunch of flux around the chip, expose 280 C of hot air at maximum air flow of my Int 866 station for 1 minute but the CPU does not come off. It does not even move a little bit. But no worries, this is a defective board for such experiments so it does not matter if something gots damaged because of the heat.

[@DavidStahlOLDHAPPyMACs]

Great job Collin

[@userick4411]

Amazing job, keep going with this videos, and remember ...Have a nice day!

[@khanklatt7261]

@Collin, your password is visible in the screen reflection at about 18 minutes: If it’s a volume you don’t typically boot into and you don’t use the password anywhere probably not a big deal but FYI. Impressive skills, appreciate your videos!

[@dosdude1]

It’s a testing drive LOL. The password is password.

[@khanklatt7261]

@@dosdude1 Ok, just make sure you don’t use it anywhere else then! 😄

[@jozsefizsak]

@@khanklatt7261 Good one!

[@amdintelxsniperx]

grab some noctua paste this chip is 45 watt vs 35 . and will turbo down based on temps :) good paste is needed such an awesome upgrade im assuming all the sandy and ivy have the same firmware . obviously modified for there archetecture so that is why this just works :) so cool

[@Whistlindieselfan1000]

This man has the balls to upgrade MacBook CPUs

[@jerbear7952]

No he melted the balls off right before he soldered it. Easy to miss

[@montaguebarnabasltd]

Our hero

[@clickpond7825]

This is an incredible upgrade, great work as always. Out of curiosity, how much would it cost to have this done?

[@RetroGamerBB]

BGA CPUs are still standarized for their generation. Most laptops have various options for cpus in their product line and share some of the bios data & that will allow for a swap... if you are capable.

[@johnross8939]

Awesome Colin

[@cyronader]

this is awesome. question though, is that stock heat sink capable of removing heat from that quad core? The bigger mid 2012 15 inch with quad cores had dual fans and dual heat pipes. Curious if you plan to design a better heat sink?

[@MGB0NE]

Awesome man!

[@NebukadV]

Imagine being able to offer this upgrade back in 2012 - you could be rich right now ;)

[@paulb4uk]

Superb work well worth doing .

[@damienlamy60]

We need more of this

[@Doyle69]

If dosdude1 has a new video, im here for it :)

[@NeverGiveUpYo]

Cool video dude

[@JSnakeRepair]

Wowza! Will definitely be coming to you for this upgrade at least a couple times in the future. 1 of the 2 remaining achilles heels of this spectacular model has been conquered! ...Now...ONLY THE SCREEN REMAINS! (Don't think we can do much for the GPU) Which, in theory shouldn't be that much to ask to at least get to FHD? I will have to look at what screens would fit this spec: 13.3" 16x10 1080p at 60Hz IPS (AHVA, or similar) 30 pin LVDS connector From there it would just be a matter of making it fit in the upper aluminum clamshell would it not?

[@user-ui4fn6fj3p]

The stock screens are actually quite nice due to the fact that you can generally run them 120hz. A higher resolution screen isn't really worth it on such a shite igpu.

[@SalemTechsperts]

@@user-ui4fn6fj3p Hold on, you can run these panels at 120Hz??? Please elaborate!

[@SalemTechsperts]

We are on the same mission! I thought after I swapped in the dual-core i7 logic board I was fully upgraded, and only a screen upgrade was left (which I hit a dead end on). Now I need this quad-core upgrade and to hope a FHD screen eventually becomes available!

[@user-ui4fn6fj3p]

@@SalemTechsperts Depends on if you got lucky or not, some can do 120 or higher, some top out at around 110. Unfortunately it is possible for there to be mild 'distortion' depending on the panel so it's not for everyone. You don't have to do anything special, it's as simple as creating a custom resolution or EDID entry same as you would to run any monitor at a custom refresh rate.

[@starsk13]

Excellent !!! thanks for sharing.

[@garrysingh4484]

Hey Bro How to bypass the defaults and use MacBook at full Power as we running without a battery. I Have a few MacBook they are running ok but their performance is reduced because of they have no battery instead i have a huge Inverter That gives them all the power they need but performance is very slow 🦥🦥 Any Trick To make the System think that its using the battery or Just by forcing it ""Will be a great help"" ???

[@Gearsandco]

that would be awesome if you can recreate this with the Haswell quad core in the early 2015 13inch MacBook pro model A1502.

[@no-vo1em]

Istg it just keeps getting better and better

[@manlioyllades]

You rock man!

[@dantepaperinosky25]

Well done !! God Work !!

[@mishahendriks3020]

I never understand how the smd components around the perimeter of the CPU stay in their place. They also get their load of flux, they do get blasted with heat, how come they stay where they should…?! Cool work, I’d be interested in a upgrade!

[@benNdaKen]

how are the thermals? i bet would run abit hotter

[@Fallen608]

Very cool I have a soft spot for 2012 unibody MBPs. Even today those computers are totally usable with OCLP but 2011 and older are noticably janky in the same configuration.

[@corymarcotte5853]

Wow!!! My friend. U have made me a happy man. My only question is. Heat output. Will there need to be a cooling mod?

[@EmanCosgrove-yr3vi]

is there a website where you found the BGA footprint and pinout for that machine? i'd like to do something similar with my late 2013 (a1502) MacBook pro but I can't find any info on the cpu, let alone upgrades that would be compatible with it. same issue with the ram

[@idgafijwtmitg]

I want one whet the price to make it happen?

[@MRSTU1210]

Amazing subbed

[@goodman9076]

I have a mint 13 in 2012 pro and would totally buy a new board with the ability to keep it longer with OCLP

[@flix2774]

Could you benchmark this with an eGPU?

[@thechannelwithnoname7921]

Is it possible to change the display on this unibody’s?

[@starx2212]

There were some QM CPUs sold as BGA, I've got a Sony VAIO SVS15 with an i7 3632qm that is BGA

[@ggkameleon1]

Amazing 🤩. I have the same MacBook pro 2012 i5 !!! I use it for playing music with Serato 2 and the best for using it's Catalina and MacBook. I have changed the thermique and upgrade to 16Go & SSD but this upgrade is very nice but just very difficult !!! A noob question ? When you change the Cpu the Gpu remains the same ???

[@dosdude1]

In this case, yes, as this CPU has the same integrated Intel HD Graphics 4000 as the original.

[@ggkameleon1]

@@dosdude1 Ok thank you for responding 🙏

[@tonal.states]

Brooo thats awesome, definitely will consider upgrading with you

[@tg4896]

Hi, even if it's not necessary i do not find what kind of glue is on corners of the cpu. Is that a special silicone glue?

[@David_Phantom]

Makes me wonder if the same sort of thing can be done with chromebooks.

[@achishukuteki941]

Don't see why not. A few years ago someone made the claim they switched out the Celeron chip for an i7 on an Acer C710. But never showed proof and disappeared. Meanwhile, just when I thought I was done modding my MBP, dosdude drops another hot mixtape! Lmao!

[@David_Phantom]

@@achishukuteki941 For my chromebook I'd just like a storage increase. Maybe more RAM but really the onboard storage is the big issue. For whatever reason, even with modded firmware, booting from an sd card or usb as your main drive seems to be flakey at best.

[@achishukuteki941]

@@David_Phantom Ah, I see. I have a C740 with 4gb. 8 or 16gb would be lovely. The emmc storage mod would be top-tier.

[@markdjdeenix6846]

brilliant idea

[@Dr.videofrankenstein]

God bless you mate 🙏🏻, and thank you

[@mjenkinson]

Nice work. Saw your "password" in the reflection. LOL.

[@TUBEYOUTHETUBE]

Hey DosDude, I got the last proper 13" intel MacBook Pro before the touch bar models came around (early 2015). It runs an i5 5257U @2.7Ghz, any chance upgrading to a quadcore here?

[@roylrasmussen]

would a 2019 logic board implanted into a 2017 boot? i know it may not fit. just wondering. 🤔 i think 2019 was quadcore for the 13” retina.

[@henrykjarosz3350]

Vy jste větší kouzelník, než Photoshop!!! You are a bigger magician than Photoshop!!!