MacBook Pro Unibody > External Hard Drives and SSDs

The MacBook Pro Unibody, released in late 2008, was where the MacBook Pro range really hit its stride. Featuring faster drive controllers, and the ability to run more and faster RAM, these machines were excellent when they came out, and the ability to upgrade to 8GB or 16GB using cheap DDR3 RAM, and run an SSD at useful speed, has prolonged the useful life of many of these machines well into their second decade.

These Macs were released in 13", 15" and 17" configurations. The 13" models are generally of a bit lower spec and have integrated graphics cards while the 15" and 17" models are similar apart from the screen size and have dedicated graphics cards. Maximum RAM is 16GB on the 2011 and later models (and, strangely, the 13" 2010), and 8GB on others (the 15" Late 2008/Early 2009 models have a firmware requirement but this is normally met in all machines that have been upgraded to at least OS X 10.7 Lion). Drive controllers are SATA 600 on the 2011 and later, and SATA 300 on earlier models.

The 2009 models can run up to OSX 10.11 El Capitan, 2010 and 2011 models up to macOS 10.13 High Sierra, and 2012 and later macOS 10.15 Catalina.

We have a full range of upgrades available for these machines and provide fitting services if required. Despite their age, they can be upgraded easily and cheaply to a useful amount of RAM and a fast SSD, making them surprisingly capable machines for lighter tasks.

We have extensive experience in repairing all MacBook Pro Unibodies. We can replace drives, RAM, screens, internal and case components, as well as having a great deal of experience with component level logic board repair and offer discounted services for some of the known logic board issues suffered by some models, for example a permanent graphics card bypass for 2011 15" and 17" models, and replacement of the frequently faulty C9560 capacitor on the 2010 15".