Apple 15-inch MacBook Pro 2011 Disassembly

New Apple MacBook Pro 2011 has been released with powerful processor update and amazing Thunderbolt port. Today we will have a look at the inside structure of new Apple MacBook Pro laptop.

15-inch Apple MacBook Pro 2011 features  a brand new port-Thunderbolt, which has integrated PCI Express and DisplayPort to the same single port. Thunderbolt supports as high as 10 Gbps transfer speed for both input and output. The data channel of PCI Express and DisplayPort are mutually exclusive to avoid the screen competing with the external hard drive for bandwidth .

Up to 6 Thunderbolt devices can be chained up to the Apple MacBook Pro. This limitation affects little, because the number of Thunderbolt compatible devices on the market even doesn’t reach 6. On the contrary, FireWire 800 port can support up to 63 devices in a daisy-chain, while USB does not support daisy-chain.

The 15-inch Apple MacBook Pro 2011 still comes with the model A1286, which Apple has used for this kind of laptops since Oct 2008.

Apple has added the warning to forbid users to throw away MacBook Pro as trash. But the Verizon iPhone doesn’t have such a warning.

The bottom case of 15-inch new Apple MacBook Pro is fixed by 10 Philips #00 screws instead of specialized pentalobe screws, which allows users to replace the RAM or hard drive by themselves.

The New 15-inch MacBook Pro is also equipped with the  PC3-10600 RAM as same as the one in the 2010 21.5″ and 27″ iMac, but different form previous Apple laptops. the PC3-10600 RAM of 15-inch MacBook Pro is compatible with the PC3-8500 RAM of the old version Unibody MacBook Pro, but the PC3-8500 RAM can not be used in this MacBook Pro 2011.

15- inch MacBook Pro packs a 77.5 WH battery with the same capacity as the previous one. But the battery life has been reduced form 8-9 hours to 7 hours. Has the performance decreased, or does Apple evaluation become more realistic?

As same as the previous Apple laptops, the battery of Apple MacBook Pro is fixed by the tri-wing screws.

A Spudger tool can easily disconnect the battery.

In this 15-inch MacBook Pro, you can disconnect the battery without removing it form the MacBook Pro, which is very convenient as users need to disconnect the battery before repair.

The wireless card of 15-inch MacBook Pro has been changed. The antenna has been increased from three to four. The three antennas work for 802.11n while the last one seems to be a dedicated antenna for Bluetooth 3.0. Although Apple doesn’t mention the improvement of wireless performance, Apple really does make the internal structure better quietly.

Prying the sealed EMI shield, we can see the true face of wireless connectivity: BCM4331 single-chip 802.11n Dual-Band 3X3  wireless solution provided by Broadcom. Bluetooth 3.0 support is handled by a BCM2070 in a separate, shielded section of the board.

The wireless card bracket of 15-inch MacBook Pro has been changed from previous plastic material to the aluminum, which may serve for the heat dissipation. The pink thermal pad is used to deliver heat from the circuit board to the aluminum bracket.

As same as most 15-inch Unibody laptops, the 15-inch MacBook Pro also comes equipped with two fans. In order to make the whole body cool, there are many temperature sensors scattered around the body of 15-inch MacBook Pro, including trackpad, battery, and the logic board.

After removing the main board, the heat sink is still attached. It is another convenient design to save the trouble of reapplying the thermal paste  every time after removing the main board.

Except two large main heat sinks inside 15-inch MacBook Pro, there are two smaller heat sinks. The previous 15-inch MacBook Pro 2010 was equipped with only one large heat sinks to cool just the CPU and GPU.

Will the thick thermal paste applied to the CPU and GPU cause overheating issues? Also different from 2010 version,  the graphics switching chip of MacBook Pro 2011 comes without a heat sink together.

The chip under the heat sink is a new chip that is most likely the Thunderbolt controller.

Thunderbolt port is placed in the top left corner. According the circuit board traces, the chipset may be the Thunderbolt control IC.

The AMD Radeon HD 6490M GPU of Apple MacBook Pro 2011

The quad-core core i7 processor of Apple MacBook Pro

Front side of the logic board of Apple MacBook Pro 2011

Back side of Logic board of Apple MacBook Pro 2011

Except the difference between the main board, new 15-inch MacBook Pro is the same as previous 15-inch unibody laptops.

The red circled little plastic plates seem to be used to keep the screen data cable and antenna bundle stationary while the screen is opened and closed.

The SuperDrive of new MacBook Pro has the model number of  UJ8A8, which may be different from the UJ898 drive of 15-inch MacBook Pro 2010.

New Apple MacBook Pro 2011 Disassembly Conclusion

The new 15-inch MacBook Pro is easy to repair. Because the bottom case is easily removed, and the battery connector is also easily access, which makes the repair of most components have no need to touch the battery screws. But the vast thermal paste applied may cause problems to repair.  The  tri-wing screws provides a certain degree of difficulty for users to change battery. To replace the LCD screen becomes tough as it’s easy to shatter the front glass panel of new MacBook Pro 2011.