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I have an early 2011 macbook pro 13" with the 2.7 HD. I’m looking at upgrading to a SSD and maxing the RAM instead of buying a new macbook. Wondering if I can switch the Logic board to the 2012. From what I’ve found I’d need a heat sink. But there has been nothing clear about how compatible the swap would be. Anyone out there done this swap? Opinions?
Well, your in luck this is a direct drop in! MacBook Pro 13" Unibody (Mid 2012) 2.9 GHz Logic Board and yes you’ll need to replace the heat sink MacBook Pro 13" Unibody (Mid 2012) Heat Sink. Go for it! For the SSD you should replace the HD SATA cable when you put it in. Here’s the cable you’ll want: MacBook Pro 13" Unibody (Mid 2012) Hard Drive Cable. You’ll want to place some eltecticans tape down where it rest on the uppercase as the rough aluminum tends to wear the cable causing read/write errors more so with faster drives. Update (05/07/2020) To fit a 2011 display LVDS cable into a 2012 logic board one needs to make a slight modification to the LVDS cable using a nail file to remove a small amount of the edge of tang.
Hi, just to give everyone a quick update, I am in the middle of doing a logic board swap from a 13” mid-2012 MacBook Pro into an early 2011 body.
I just purchased a early 2011 in perfect physical condition and my mid-2012 has lots of dents and scrapes. I have done 20+ logic board removals for reposting, I have swapped the mid-2012 logic boards into late 2011s with no problems. After reading this post I decided to buy an early 2011 and try it out. Anyway, everything is swappable EXCEPT the display assembly. The LVDS cable from the early 2011 does not fit into the mid-2012. I tried many different positions with quite a bit of force.
It’s not worth it. I have ready some people have squished it in, to have it die later on. Please do not attempt this.
Hello, I want to upgrade my MBP 13” early 2011 to a mid 2012 by replacing the Logic board. I already mount an SSD HD in my current setup (Samsung MZ-76E250B 250GB 2.5 Inch Internal SATA SSD (up to 550 MB / s)), do I need to replace the SSD cable anyway for such upgrade, and if yes why? Shephy
