Using the 2011 MacBook Pro in 2024

[@a3ndre]

I still have the Macbook Pro (13-inch, Early 2011) running the High Sierra. (2.3 GHz Intel Core i5) changed the battery, added an SD of 1TB.

[@a3ndre]

still wonder if i can "update" the MacOS lmao

[@philipslighting8240]

I have the exct same model with high res display. I have permanently disabled the Radeon graphics on mine using dosdudes patcher. I love this machine its great fun. I also have a 2012 15 inch with high res display and 2 Apple silicon machines. I dont think many machines of this era would still be usable today plus it looks modern.

[@garyjene9146]

With my MacBook Pro model from 2011, it has the ear and mike as a combination instead of separate like the one you display in your video. But nice to know anyways

[@ParadoxdesignsOrg]

this is such a negative review, try using a Windows laptop from this same era. Cheers!

[@tabbypears]

Been there done that, people tend to not like when I trash on their favorite operating system.

[@ParadoxdesignsOrg]

@@tabbypears its not the operating system, i have a 2011 MBP with a 1TB SSD and 16GB ram, using OpenCore I can pretty much run any macOS just fine. it does take some tweaking, a lot of the issues are a lack of graphic drivers that actually work. I have to amit i also have a m1 mac air and i absolutely love it! but the old school of a thick boi MBP with a keyboard that actually has some distance to is just something us old folks enjoy! :)

[@thenetworkmystery]

I had a 2011 15" MacBook Pro, and it had the weirdest issue. The Radeon GPU somehow still worked, BUT... BUT... when I used OpenCore, there was no acceleration. Didn't matter whether I disabled the Radeon GPU, installed post-volume patches, etc. Nothing worked. It was the strangest thing. I've since recycled it.

[@ilyasg2108]

when you use these older macbooks there’s a lot of trade offs to make. i really have no clue what apple did with the speakers, i always just thought mine was defective. and it’s funny, when the macbook air 2012-2015 had WAYYY better speakers than these unibodies. i like my macbook air more, but its slower (i assume due to being a dual core cpu, less ram, and thermal throttling).

[@tabbypears]

Seems like these computers are stuck in the 2010’s, from the era they came from. The later model 2nd gen Air’s still felt relatively modern into 2020, but the Pro’s that are supposed to be faster than them just don’t feel modern anymore.

[@oliverkhoo]

How do you all did not suffer from the 2011 graphic recall problem? Mine didn’t last 5 years. I’m still upset about it

[@tabbypears]

I have no idea, this one was used, and I think it’s just lightly used, or somehow unaffected.

[@laaagg]

It would perform better if it's owned by a light user right?, like just basic document editing stuff like what data scientists and analysts do

[@fiiiiiiiiiiiiiiictitious]

I have an old 2008 MacBook Pro I'd like to use more, but it gets way too hot. even doing basic tasks like web browsing it can get up to 70 degrees without using an app to increase fan speeds. Guess I shouldn't expect it to be cold considering it's a 3 Ghz core 2 duo & has 2 nvidia gpus (9400m, 9800m gt)

[@tabbypears]

Is that the 15” unibody model? I had one of those in my collection in 2019, it was a cool machine but it was just so slow. I used that machine to learn how to use patchers, and how to dual boot, etc. I also put an SSD in it, and tried upgrading the RAM, and even made my attempt at replacing the thermal paste. I ended up driving it into the ground with all the times I opened it and messed with it.

[@fiiiiiiiiiiiiiiictitious]

@@tabbypears Yep it's a 15 inch unibody. Planning to dualboot MacOS Catalina (dosdude1's patched version) with debian. Don't know if it's possible but I'm going to try. Also the battery only lasts about 5 mins on a full charge and the wifi doesnt work 💀 Still using the original old 500gb spinner

[@tabbypears]

@fiiiiiiiiiiiiiiictitious I was able to do DosDude’s Catalina, and Yosemite. After I got another project machine, I put like, Lion, Mavericks, Yosemite, and El Cap on it, did a quad boot. It was a cool machine for what it was, I actually made a video on it if you go back to December 2019, I changed my mind on a lot of the things I said back then though.

[@fiiiiiiiiiiiiiiictitious]

@@tabbypears Managed to dualboot MacOS Catalina and Debian 12, albeit not properly considering on a normal boot it would automatically go into grub for debian, and to get into macos id have to use the option key menu

[@tabbypears]

@fiiiiiiiiiiiiiiictitious That’s a nice setup, does it run well?

[@Lori_1992]

I just bought one 2 days ago and it still works great I was so surprised I only paid 40 bucks for it but I thank it’s still worth at least 65 it’s really fast and works better then my hp 2022 has a great picture and the speakers aren’t bad at all

[@mrhamptero]

i have the mbp 2011 15 inch any tips for speeding it up?

[@EvilTurkeySlices]

Just get the 2012, int has USB 3. I'm personally not aa fan of USB-C as it can be pretty fragile. Modern Apple laptops should add 1 or 2 type-A ports in addition to the type-C ports.

[@devnol]

unibody mac are just wayy too old to use today. The screen, trackpad, nic and speakers are probably way too old. A mid 2012 macbook with upgraded ram (up to 16 gigs!) and an ssd is probably the oldest model you could conceivably use today with patched macOS monterey (or even newer perhaps). I'm using the early 2015 13" model with 8 gigs (unfortunately soldered), a 480 gig ssd and a new battery running Sonoma and it's actually fairly tolerable for day-to-day work in Fusion CAD, video editing, software development, movies and web browsing. It's definitely starting to show its age but I can probably hold on to it for a couple more years before I will have to say goodbye.

[@tabbypears]

Which video editor do you use? Maybe it’s just because me and my friend have 2011’s, but we can’t use Final Cut or DaVinci Resolve on Monterey or Sonoma.

[@devnol]

@@tabbypears Well I use imovie, but only for smaller projects like weddings and shitposts. Truth be told I haven't tried it in Sonoma and for all I know it may not work because of the gpu stuff but in Monterey, which was still supported by this 5th gen i5 igpu it worked fine although rendering does require some patience

[@Mbro-dq2do]

I run baremetal linux on a few of hem and its amazingly good. less bloat and they run 30-40 degrees cooler

[@Attakai_The_Kitty]

You should make a video on your 17” to show how terrible they are in 2024

[@tabbypears]

Which one?

[@Attakai_The_Kitty]

@@tabbypears the newest one you have

[@tabbypears]

Oh yeah, the 2009, that thing is pretty slow on Monterey.

[@Attakai_The_Kitty]

@@tabbypears the size and weight is a pretty big factor as well. I think a video on it would be pretty good with how many people still think they are the best computers ever

[@tabbypears]

Definitely going to note that down, I forget I have that computer sometimes even though it’s probably my favorite Intel machine in my collection.

[@Lentrail]

my 2011 macbook is running sonoma lmao its not too bad

[@HeartToFacts17]

How‘d you install it ?

[@Lentrail]

@@HeartToFacts17 oclp

[@tabbypears]

Search for Open Core Legacy Patcher. There are some tutorials online, it’s pretty straight forward if you’ve done OS stuff in the past.

[@Mbro-dq2do]

I have 7 of these. Disabled the AMD GPU and patched Ventura into them all. upgraded ssd and RAM and they work perfectly

[@guaiqueritech]

I recently did a video on a similar MBP: even upgraded (Core i7, 12Gb ram and SATA SSD) it had issues running Sonoma via OPLC; leaving it in High Sierra was a No-No because of the lack of supported apps. Ironically, windows 10 or even trying a cut-down version like Tiny11 should be a better suit for this machine (which I did not test) What I did test was Linux, ZORIN OS 17, to be exact… and it was a dream. Zero compatibility issues, full driver support and no fan noise whatsoever. Using your Linux distribution of choice should transform this laptop into basically a high quality Chromebook, who’s is great to keep these still usable laptops from the landfill

[@philipslighting8240]

Only 12GB ram ? got to be 16GB and twin SSD

[@guaiqueritech]

@@philipslighting8240 True, but it's what I had available...I later settled for 2x 4GB sticks to enable Dual-Channel

[@tguh]

True, I found Windows 10 is less taxing on this machine