New 15-inch Apple MacBook Pro 2011 Disassembly
Filed Under (disassembly, Laptop) by Redapple on 02-03-2011
Tagged Under : 15-inch Apple MacBook Pro 2011 Disassembly, Apple MacBook Pro 2011, Apple MacBook Pro 2011 Disassembly, Apple MacBook Pro Disassembly, MacBook Pro 2011 Disassembly, MacBook Pro Disassembly, New 15-inch Apple MacBook Pro 2011, New 15-inch Apple MacBook Pro 2011 Disassembly, New 15-inch Apple MacBook Pro Disassembly
New 15-inch Apple MacBook 2011 Disassembly
At the same day of Apple MacBook Pro released, famous repair website iFixit has got the Apple MacBook Pro and disassemble it. At this time, Apple MacBook has first equipped with the laptop for the quad-core Intel Core i7 processor.
Step 1
15-inch Apple MacBook has been added a brand new port-Thunderbolt, which has integrated PCI Express and DisplayPort to the same single port.
Thunderbolt support the input and output speed as high as 10 Gbps. The data channel of PCI Express and DisplayPort are mutually exclusive to avoid occupying the bandwidth with the screen and external hard drive.
Up to 6 Thunderbolt devices can be connected in serial to the Apple MacBook Pro. This limitation affects little, because the Thunderbolt compatible devices on the market don’t reach 6.
By contract, FireWire 800 port can support 63 devices, while USB port up to 127 devices.
Step 2
The 15-inch Apple MacBook Pro comes with the model A1286, which Apple has used for this kind of laptop since Oct 2008.
Apple has added the warming mark to forbid users to throw away MacBook Pro as trash. But the Verizon iPhone doesn’t’ have such kind of warming mark.
Step 3
The bottom case of 15-inch new Apple MacBook Pro is fixed by 10 Philips #00 screws instead of specialized wintersweet screws to facilitate users to change memory or hard drive.
The RAM of this New 15-inch MacBook Pro comes with the specification of PC3-10600 as same as the 2010 21.5″ and 27″ iMac, but different form Apple previous 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.
Step 4
15- inch MacBook Pro is equipped with a 77.5 watt-hour battery, the same capacity with the previous one. But the battery life has been reduced form 8-9 hours to 7 hours. Which don’t know it’s the performance decreasing or the apple evaluation becomes more realistic. As same as the previous laptops, the battery of Apple MacBook Pro is fixed by the three-wing screws.
Step 5
Spudger tool can easily disconnect the battery. In this 15-inch MacBook Pro, you can disconnect the battery without remove the battery form the MacBook Pro, which is very convenient for doing repair.
Step 6
The wireless mould of 15-inch MacBook Pro has been changed. The antenna has been increased from three to four. Although Apple doesn’t mention the improvement of wireless performance, it really does improve the internal structure quietly.
Step 7
Prying the sealed EMI screening can, we can see the true feature of wireless connecting module: BCM4331 wireless solution provided by Broadcom. The wireless modular support bracket of 15-inch MacBook Pro has been changed from previous plastic material to the aluminum material. It may serve for the heat dissipation. The pink radiator is used to deliver hot from the circuit board to the aluminum support bracket.
Step 8
As same as most unibody 15-inch laptops, the 15-inch MacBook Pro also comes equipped with two fans. In order to make the whole body cool, there are temperature-detection probes around the body, such as in the area of touchpad, battery, main PCB.
Step 9
After removing the PCB, the radiator is still attached, which is another convenient design to save the trouble of reapplying the thermal grease after removing the main PCB every time.
Step 10
Except two large main radiators inside 15-inch MacBook Pro, there are two smaller radiators.
这散热膏涂的……不知这厚厚的一团会不会导致CPU和GPU过热。
Mid 2010款15英寸一体式机型只配备一个大的散热器，仅用于为CPU和GPU降温。另一处不同在于，第二张图中的图形切换芯片并没有散热片覆盖。
第三张图中散热片下的芯片是新面孔，很可能用于支持新增的Thunderbolt接口。
Step 11
Thunderbolt is placed in the top left corner of the first picture. According the circuit board routing, the chipset may be the Thunderbolt control IC.
The second picture is the AMD Radeon HD 6490M GPU。
The third picture is the quad-core core i7 processor.
Step 12
主板正面
红：英特尔BD82HM65平台控制中心
橙：AMD Radeon HD 6490M GPU
黄：四核英特尔i7-2630QM移动处理器
绿：Broadcom BCM57765B0KMLG整合千兆以太网及内存卡读卡器控制器
蓝：Intel L051NB32 EFL（可能是Thunderbolt端口控制器）
紫色：Parade PS8301 U08FUC
黑：TDK 6T213HF 1045 H
Step 13
主板背面
红：三星K4G10325FE-HC04 1 Gb (128MB) GDDR5 SGRAM显存, 总计2Gb (256 MB)
橙：Cirrus 4206ACNZ音频控制器
黄：SMSC USB25138 USB 2.0 Hub Controller Family
绿：Lattice Semiconductor LFXP2-5E Low-Cost Non-Volatile FPGA (Field-programmable Gate Array)
蓝：ST Microelectronics 6640 N053
紫：Intersil ISL6263 CHRZ and ISL6236 IRZ Single-Phase Synchronous-Buck PWM voltage regulators for GPU core power applications
黑：Cypress CY8C24794-24L
Step 14
Except the difference between the main board, new 15-inch MacBook Pro is the same as previous 15-inch unibody laptop.
The red circled little plastic is used to open and close the screen, fix the screen data cable and antenna cable.
The SuperDrive model number of MacBook Pro is UJ8A8, may be different from the UJ898 drive of Mid 2010 15-inch laptop.
Step 15
我们有些担心新款机型的质量检验是否过关。我们竟然在一台1800美元起售的笔记本电脑发现一个被拆掉的螺丝钉（扬声器旁边），还有用来固定红外感应器的锁紧座竟然是打开着的。
Step 16
Conclusion:
The repair score of new 15-inch MacBook Pro is 7 (the full mark is 10). Because the bottom case is easy to remove, the battery connector is also easy to handle, it’s convenient to fix other components without removing the screws in the battery. Additionally, unibody design allows us to get access most part of components. But the vast thermal grease can cause problem to repair. The three-wing limit users to change battery casually. To replace the LCD screen becomes tough as it’s easy to break the glass panel of the front cover.
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.
