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The March 2015 update of Apple's 11" MacBook Air features fifth generation Intel Core i5 and i7 processors, resulting in slightly increased performance and battery life.

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Does MacBook Air 11" 2015 share all parts with 2013/2014?

Aside from logic board, are all parts common between 2015 and 2013/2014 MacBook Air 11"? And if so, does that mean a 2015 logic board will work in a 2013/2014 MBA?

I haven't found many details online but as far as I can tell all the other parts are the same so the boards should be interchangeable.

Update (01/11/2018)

Judging from IFIXIT and some other online sources (same means identical or reported to be compatible):

  • Bottom case: same
  • Top case: same
  • Battery: same
  • I/O board: same
  • I/O board cable: same
  • Display: same
  • SSD: same
  • AirPort card: same
  • Trackpad: same
  • Fan: same
  • Upper case cable: same
  • Speakers: same
  • Screws (for what it matters): same
  • Heat sink: same
  • Camera: same
  • Battery: same
  • Clutch cover: same

I think that is all the parts?

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Well I didn't expect you to go that far ;-} You only needed to worry about what plugged into the logic board.

crwdns2934271:0crwdnd2934271:0crwdne2934271:0

Thats pretty interesting! Good catch!

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I agree that the externals are essentially the same but I would be surprised if the boards were swappable: (1) the later chipset is smaller, presumably entailing some changes in the board itself; (2) the graphics processors integrated with the board are similar but not identical; (3) the later model has a Thunderbolt 2 port while the earlier one is a first-generation Thunderbolt port. I found this info on the Everymac comparison page. Just my opinion but if it were me, I'd probably just look for a larger RAM/memory board from the same model. Macs are notoriously finicky and I wouldn't be surprised if the Thunderbolt mismatch crashed the system even though in theory it shouldn't.

crwdns2934271:0crwdnd2934271:0crwdne2934271:0

I think you've jumped to far ;-}

As long as the connections (keyboard. trackpad, etc...) to the logic board are the same between the logic boards the chipset used on the logic board does not matter.

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Yes I did jump too far, and I am honestly glad to be proven wrong!

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I have tried this and yes it does work. 2015 logic board is 100% compatible with 2014 (and therefore 2013) MacBook Air 11inch. All the parts were identical - aside from upgraded CPU, graphics and Thunderbolt 2! Adds 4k external display support (!), somewhat longer battery life.

I'm very glad I investigated this before going with a 2014 board because this is a much bigger upgrade and prolongs the life of the MacBook by a good amount - this is the same as what they were selling in 2017 (2.2GHz i7).

Many thanks to iFixit for the wonderful instructions w/ clear photos. Could not have done this otherwise - or without the iFixit tools. Pentalobe screwdriver, T5 Torx screwdriver, spudger. I had the tools on hand from a prior SSD upgrade (also thanks to iFixit) and figured they might be useful some day. Also thanks @danj for the advice and giving me the confidence to try something that wasn't well documented.

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Did you find any problems doing this? Has any problems occurred since? I currently have a Macbook Air Mid 2013 11" and was thinking of upgrading the board and the ssd.

crwdns2934271:0crwdnd2934271:0crwdne2934271:0

So do you think the MBA 2013 supports the 2017 MBA logic board?

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Apple often changes things between the series. So you do need to review the part numbers of the part in question is the same across the models. As an example the battery is common between quite a few systems (Mid 1010 thru to Early 2015) whereas the I/O board cable is only between the Mid 2013 to Early 2015.

So if we look at the logic board it mounts to the uppercase which is the same part across Mid 2013 to Early 2015 so it will mechanically fit. The next question does the rest of the parts that connect to the logic board fit? Review the IFIXIT guides as well as review the specs in EveryMac - MacBook Air's to see if they match up.

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Would I be able to use a Apple MacBook Air "Core i7" 2.2 11" (Early 2015) Logic board and using a new SSD in a Apple Macbook Air Mid 2013 11" ?

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