HELP: Buying a second hand Macbook Pro

[prestondj]

Hey I had an older macbook pro 15 inch for about 5years and I am now looking at buying a second hand Macbook Pro.

I am thinking the 13 Inch will be better for travel and portability and my plan is to use a cord to make use of a larger screen when I am at home. I may need to use the computer obviously for ableton 8.0 / later 9.0 and i would like to have use it for live performance with a controller also.

My options at the local cash converters are as follows:

$799 13 inch Pro
2.3 GHZ intel core i5
4gb Ram early 2011

Or

$899
500 GB Harddrive mid 2012

or

$999
Pro 2013
RETINA display

There was also a Macbook Air but if they have a lower Processing speeds not even going to consider that one.

THOUGHTS?

[mike_o]

I recently bought a used macbook pro and am very happy with it, mid 2012 2.3ghz quad core i7 with 8gb of ram, but double check about the 2013 model, the newer macbooks are dual core only and I'm not sure what the last generation of quad cores are, the newest ones are literally half of the cpu cores of some of the older ones, so I wouldn't buy anything too new, and double check on the number of cores in the processor before buying.

[fishmonkey]

rather than going the Cash Converters route, i would seriously consider saving up a few more bucks and getting a machine from the Apple Refurb store. amongst other things this gives you about 2 years of warranty:

http://www.apple.com/au/shop/browse/hom ... acbook_pro

compare the specs of non-Retina versus Retina models before you buy. consider what stuff you want to be able to connect, as the available ports are very different. also 2011 models only have slow USB 2.0 ports. if you choose a Retina machine, note that the RAM is not upgradeable, and aftermarket flash drives are only available for some models.

note also that the 13" machines all have dual-core processors, the 15" have quad-core...

[muthafunka]

Fishmonkey man he speak truth!

[prestondj]

Woah so glad I asked I knew there was something about the newer models to avoid.

So go for the older 2012 model then? I can upgrade the 4GB of ram later? I thought the new one with retina would be way to go easy? I am having a look at refurbished ones now, warranty seems like a go and they break down the specs exactly, nice!

Thanks for the responses guys looking for more communities , to share knowledge and network

EDIT: although going over your notes if I do get one from cashies the mid 2012 one looks like the best

[prestondj]

rather than going the Cash Converters route, i would seriously consider saving up a few more bucks and getting a machine from the Apple Refurb store. amongst other things this gives you about 2 years of warranty:

http://www.apple.com/au/shop/browse/hom ... acbook_pro

compare the specs of non-Retina versus Retina models before you buy. consider what stuff you want to be able to connect, as the available ports are very different. also 2011 models only have slow USB 2.0 ports. if you choose a Retina machine, note that the RAM is not upgradeable, and aftermarket flash drives are only available for some models.

note also that the 13" machines all have dual-core processors, the 15" have quad-core...

Wish I could walk in and physically buy/shop the refurb ones rather then rely on shipping.

Argh this is frustrating me now.. lol

[prestondj]

Whats a quick way to check the ram?

[jlgrimes]

Hey I had an older macbook pro 15 inch for about 5years and I am now looking at buying a second hand Macbook Pro.

I am thinking the 13 Inch will be better for travel and portability and my plan is to use a cord to make use of a larger screen when I am at home. I may need to use the computer obviously for ableton 8.0 / later 9.0 and i would like to have use it for live performance with a controller also.

My options at the local cash converters are as follows:

$799 13 inch Pro
2.3 GHZ intel core i5
4gb Ram early 2011

Or

$899
500 GB Harddrive mid 2012

or

$999
Pro 2013
RETINA display

There was also a Macbook Air but if they have a lower Processing speeds not even going to consider that one.

THOUGHTS?

I have a Macbook Air and it does have a lower processing speed than the normal MBAs. I think the biggest issue is not really the speed but that it is only Dual Core.

That said it depends on what you plan on using it for. For recording and mixing of audio, it will work fine.

For most softsynths even, it will work fine, but I wouldn't try to run Diva or anything with it. Even Sylenth gives me about 5% CPU use and some Live Racks with Operator in it might give me about 10%. By strategically Freezing though you can eliminate most CPU woes, and one plus is that the MBAs are very light and because they are on Flash/SSD drives they load up samples very fast and don't make noise.

[prestondj]

Had a look at the Mac website if you got the cash you can really overkill the speeds lol, so its possible to buy a laptop as powerful as any desktop?

[fishmonkey]

so its possible to buy a laptop as powerful as any desktop?

nope. you can get some pretty powerful laptops these days but the faster desktop machines still cream them. the mobile versions of the CPUs and GPUs have much lower power and heat limits. note that Mac Minis and iMacs also use mobile-level stuff.

[prestondj]

Whats your home set up then fishmonkey

[fishmonkey]

my main machine is a top spec 15" Retina MBP. i move around too much to have a desktop-only system, and although it would be nice to have a stonking Mac Pro in the corner, i have zero interest in having two main machines and having to worry about syncing files between them...

[prestondj]

my main machine is a top spec 15" Retina MBP. i move around too much to have a desktop-only system, and although it would be nice to have a stonking Mac Pro in the corner, i have zero interest in having two main machines and having to worry about syncing files between them...

Fair call so when you say top spec, exactly what is that? lol How much it cost you?

[login]

I have a Macbook Air and it does have a lower processing speed than the normal MBAs. I think the biggest issue is not really the speed but that it is only Dual Core.

That said it depends on what you plan on using it for. For recording and mixing of audio, it will work fine.

For most softsynths even, it will work fine, but I wouldn't try to run Diva or anything with it. Even Sylenth gives me about 5% CPU use and some Live Racks with Operator in it might give me about 10%. By strategically Freezing though you can eliminate most CPU woes, and one plus is that the MBAs are very light and because they are on Flash/SSD drives they load up samples very fast and don't make noise.

I have projects on a Macbook air with 3 and even 4 instances of Diva on draft mode. Freezing is slow on it nevertheless.

And well only the 15" macbook pro has a quad core processor.

[prestondj]

I ended up getting a Macbook Pro 2010 270GB 4GB RAM, Judging by the small writing on the back i had originally thought it might of been 2012 when i clicked about this mac. Got it for $745, turns out the battery is supposed to be replaced after 500 cycles on further analysis the battery has had 583.

One usb was having issues , but i dusted it a little and seemed to work. The battery will still last for a decent 3 hours, which is just enough for me flying around Australia to produce. However thats not as good as i was getting out of my old one. My dad seems to think he can replace the battery himself changing the standard 4200 battery to a 6200 one.

I heard rumours that the later ones are hard to upgrade the RAM and I am hoping i can upgrade it to 16GB ram also. Or i might just save up for a brand new one, the best one you can get at 13inch. I would love to have the latest version of Mac Os X 10.7.5. Was lucky enough to get it with Microsoft word package inclusive.

I feel a little upset the battery is due for a replacement , however i got the laptop in the package deal and was able to pick up a DJM 800 for a modest $250.