Buying a used macbook

computercontrolled · Post by **computercontrolled** » Mon May 03, 2010 2:25 pm

i have the chance to buy a used black macbook(core2duo 2.16,2gb ram,160gb hard drive) its about 3 yeras old but in very good condition for about 500 dolars(well im in mexico)i currently own a dell studio with almos the same specs but i want to get rid of it.

Is it a good deal?? im planning to get an imac as soon as the 21" with i5 processor come out but meanwhile i wanted to get rid of my dell(dpc latency issues) also i tried to find how much ram this models supports only 2gb or 4gb.

pepezabala · Post by **pepezabala** » Mon May 03, 2010 2:54 pm

get it, it's a classic. and works. I have a white macbook 2Ghz, 4 gb ram installed, but the machine only uses 3 gb of it for some stuid reason. not sure if your macbook would use the full 4 gb.

Hidden Driveways · Post by **Hidden Driveways** » Mon May 03, 2010 3:24 pm

Buy it and don't look back.

Rave · Post by **Rave** » Mon May 03, 2010 4:25 pm

do it

SubFunk · Post by **SubFunk** » Mon May 03, 2010 5:18 pm

buy it, my girlfriend has a black macbook like that since a bit over 3 years, fine maschine... works still like a charm and is still enough for music.

i am actually a little bit in between buying a new super monster MBP or the cheap white macbook...only for gigs and to drag around it's under 1000 euros now... and great for gigging, the missing firewire port i do miss, is probably not much of deal anymore, as i want to move to a audio8dj for gigs and dj-ing...

it's a fine machine for that money, i saw offers around just under 800 euros even...

my MBP 2.16ghz does still fine (and has still all the connex i desire for the studio on a 15" machine) and i might then wait for the next real fat MBP update... decisions, decisions... i don't know yet for sure, but buy it for 500 bucks, great piece of computer.

Rave · Post by **Rave** » Mon May 03, 2010 5:32 pm

SubFunk wrote:buy it, my girlfriend has a black macbook like that since a bit over 3 years, fine maschine... works still like a charm and is still enough for music.

i am actually a little bit in between buying a new super monster MBP or the cheap white macbook...only for gigs and to drag around it's under 1000 euros now... and great for gigging, the missing firewire port i do miss, is probably not much of deal anymore, as i want to move to a audio8dj for gigs and dj-ing...

it's a fine machine for that money, i saw offers around just under 800 euros even...

my MBP 2.16ghz does still fine (and has still all the connex i desire for the studio on a 15" machine) and i might then wait for the next real fat MBP update... decisions, decisions... i don't know yet for sure, but buy it for 500 bucks, great piece of computer.

Assuming you back up your shit then use your existing mbp for gigging. If it gets broken or stolen it wont be such a hit as you have had such good use of it already. If i recall you have dropped it so its resale value many not be worth selling. Whilst you are gigging you can wait for the next upgrade.

Why not get an iMac this time, the i7 is da bomb?

SubFunk · Post by **SubFunk** » Mon May 03, 2010 5:38 pm

Rave wrote:
SubFunk wrote:buy it, my girlfriend has a black macbook like that since a bit over 3 years, fine maschine... works still like a charm and is still enough for music.

i am actually a little bit in between buying a new super monster MBP or the cheap white macbook...only for gigs and to drag around it's under 1000 euros now... and great for gigging, the missing firewire port i do miss, is probably not much of deal anymore, as i want to move to a audio8dj for gigs and dj-ing...

it's a fine machine for that money, i saw offers around just under 800 euros even...

my MBP 2.16ghz does still fine (and has still all the connex i desire for the studio on a 15" machine) and i might then wait for the next real fat MBP update... decisions, decisions... i don't know yet for sure, but buy it for 500 bucks, great piece of computer.

Assuming you back up your shit then use your existing mbp for gigging. If it gets broken or stolen it wont be such a hit as you have had such good use of it already. If i recall you have dropped it so its resale value many not be worth selling. Whilst you are gigging you can wait for the next upgrade.

Why not get an iMac this time, the i7 is da bomb?

i hesitate because the 17" is the only one left with an express card slot, that is vital for my studio setup... and i have high hopes (maybe wrong?) that they bring that back... calling it pro...

i seriously start to consider a hackintosh... fucking apple.

or in a years time, that my old one still gonna make easy peasy... i change my whole system...

i like the idea of a 13" for gigs and a big one for home... (don't want to get an imac or mac pro either, i like it to be always portable)

i don't know, but apples hardware consumer orientated policy is pissing me off lately!

Rave · Post by **Rave** » Mon May 03, 2010 5:40 pm

ah I forgot you had a big mbp. What do u use the express slot for?

SubFunk · Post by **SubFunk** » Mon May 03, 2010 5:48 pm

Rave wrote:ah I forgot you had a big mbp. What do u use the express slot for?

yes i have a 15"

for 2x audio drives (eSATA)... and it is still motherfucking slow... when i have to store audio work files, like from movie / tv recordings for example it's several gigs every day... you go insane with even firewire 800... which if you have a firewire audio card is only manageable via a hub on the new ones... arrgghh!!! time is money, well it gives me more time hanging around here

and anyhow, it is more a lust (a new computer now), the maschine is still doing so fine... now it's maxed out, 4gb ram and a brand new superfast 500gb drive (nearly feels like a new comp) love it, my screen is a bit damaged, well he has been through hell LOL. and i am not doing graphics or video whatsoever, so i don't care about that.

i am still not decided... we will see...

Assuming you back up your shit then use your existing mbp for gigging. If it gets broken or stolen it wont be such a hit as you have had such good use of it already.

well, yes this machine definitely earned it's money!!!

fantastic computer and still going pretty strong.

Atomikat · Post by **Atomikat** » Tue May 04, 2010 12:56 am

Get it, it's a Mac, it just works,

now, seriously, a few years ago I bought a second hand MBP and it's still my do-it-all monster to work with.

davepermen · Post by **davepermen** » Tue May 04, 2010 4:58 am

SubFunk wrote:
Rave wrote:ah I forgot you had a big mbp. What do u use the express slot for?
yes i have a 15"

for 2x audio drives (eSATA)... and it is still motherfucking slow... when i have to store audio work files, like from movie / tv recordings for example it's several gigs every day... you go insane with even firewire 800... which if you have a firewire audio card is only manageable via a hub on the new ones... arrgghh!!! time is money, well it gives me more time hanging around here

and anyhow, it is more a lust (a new computer now), the maschine is still doing so fine... now it's maxed out, 4gb ram and a brand new superfast 500gb drive (nearly feels like a new comp) love it, my screen is a bit damaged, well he has been through hell LOL. and i am not doing graphics or video whatsoever, so i don't care about that.

i am still not decided... we will see...

Assuming you back up your shit then use your existing mbp for gigging. If it gets broken or stolen it wont be such a hit as you have had such good use of it already.
well, yes this machine definitely earned it's money!!!

fantastic computer and still going pretty strong.

why not get your storage over the network? my winhomeserver has 4TB of storage, and serves me over gbitlan with 100MB/s read/write bandwith. will be a while till you can't connect ethernet on a macbook (except the air and ipod-clones i guess

).

that at least would allow you to get rid of the expresscard requirement.

now which nas to be fast or slow, and such, no clue.. but there sure are tests.

actually, time capsule from apple would be exactly that, not? does it work over ethernet or only wlan? as i see on the apple page, only wlan

other than that, personally i'd go for the imac instead. you would get something fresh and new, and would notice the difference in performance compared to your laptop. unlike the old mac wich would not bring you much, except for "having an apple".

freshdrumma · Post by **freshdrumma** » Tue May 04, 2010 8:21 am

the plastic on mine is falling apart, but the performance are like day one and absolutely enough for what i do

SubFunk · Post by **SubFunk** » Tue May 04, 2010 8:26 am

@ daveperman,

is that solution (over a network) as fast or faster then eSATA?, if yes, that would be the solution for all my problems...

thanks.

the rude[est] boy.

davepermen · Post by **davepermen** » Tue May 04, 2010 8:33 am

well, normally, a hdd is the bottleneck at these points anyways. both esata and gbit lan are faster than normal harddrives. it would only matter when you get an external ssd, and you don't want that for cost reasons right now. ssd for system disk, hell yes. ssd for storage only, hell no.

theoretically, esata can be faster. realistically, it's like this: 60-90MB/s from a hdd, 100MB/s gbitlan, 150MB/s or 300MB/s esata.

so no matter which one, the hdd is slower. at least it should be indistinguishable (wtf spelling?!).

but with your big disk now, it's less of a need anyways?

you should add the rudeness to your sig

SubFunk · Post by **SubFunk** » Tue May 04, 2010 8:41 am

it is only important to me to have 2 large external disks, which can move data faster then usb 2.0 (ultra slow) or even firewire 800 (reasonable)...

basically at least like eSATA or faster...

if there is a possibility to achieve that without the need of the express card slot in a laptop (purely speaking laptop, as i will never ever again move to a non laptop computer, i am a gypsy and need the portability)

Buying a used macbook

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