Refurb macbook pro ?

[MarshallBTB]

Anyone have any tips / advice on particularly good companys to get a macbook from? Budget around £800.

[paul_5]

Not specific companies, but get the fastest processor you can afford. Everything else that you need (SSD and oodles of RAM) can be upgraded later; you can’t ‘upgrade’ your processor at a later date. Also I’d check the IO ports on the left hand side, as older models will still support FireWire and newer ones won’t, look at which interface you’ll be using and plan accordingly.

[Moos3h]

They aren't the cheapest but I can recommend Hoxton Macs...bought a few bits from these guys

[Dood]

3 hours ago, paul_5 said:

Not specific companies, but get the fastest processor you can afford. Everything else that you need (SSD and oodles of RAM) can be upgraded later; you can’t ‘upgrade’ your processor at a later date. Also I’d check the IO ports on the left hand side, as older models will still support FireWire and newer ones won’t, look at which interface you’ll be using and plan accordingly.

Ah, be careful! Quick example, I have a late 2013 MBP and the memory (16Gb) can't be upgraded as it is on the motherboard. It is said the SSD card can't be upgraded either but I think it is possible to replace the SSD board. I think pre-2012 models you can slot in standard memory and an SSD, but don't quote me on that, go to somewhere like Crucial Memory or OCW who offer upgrades for various manufacturer's kit. 

 

I do however agree, get the best you can afford. My MBP is a 2.3Ghz Quad Core i7 with 16Gb RAM ..and I kicked myself over going for only 500Gb SSD. Wish I went for the 1TB.. still, 5 years later, those slot in cards are much cheaper now, so it might still happen. I recorded all of the bass to Ostura's "The Room" album on that MBP I think!

Edited March 18, 2019 by Dood

[Dood]

P.s., definitely not the cheapest way, but mine was actually an Apple refurb machine. It was much cheaper than new, so I guess I was lucky that day!

[Bigwan]

 

15 hours ago, paul_5 said:

Not specific companies, but get the fastest processor you can afford. Everything else that you need (SSD and oodles of RAM) can be upgraded later; you can’t ‘upgrade’ your processor at a later date. Also I’d check the IO ports on the left hand side, as older models will still support FireWire and newer ones won’t, look at which interface you’ll be using and plan accordingly.

As @Dood points out, this is unfortunately not the case with many post 2012 Apple laptops (and many models of Mac Mini post 2013 and iMac post 2013 too - some 27" iMacs of the same date CAN be upgraded).

I intentionally went for an older MB Pro so I could make further changes down the line. That meant I had to go for a 2012, non-retina machine. i7, 16Gb RAM, 256Gb SSD and 1Tb drive replacing the DVD drive. It's heavier than I'd like, can't support Mojave (even though Apple say it should), is about as quick as it can possibly get already and it's certainly not as sleek as newer offerings, but it's blisteringly quick for a machine of its age, much quicker than my relatively new i5 windows laptop at similar tasks (i5, 8Gb, 256Gb SSD). That's an apples and oranges comparison, but there's 6 years between them!

I'd echo others in recommending you buy the absolute best spec you can afford.

 

[Fishman]

@Bigwan - I have a 2012 MBP running Mojave perfectly – did your installation fail?

[ambient]

I’ve seen loads of times people say to have as much RAM as possible, I’ve never ever had a problem with the basic 4gb fitted to my 2012 model.

I did have the hard drive replaced with an SSD a couple of years ago, that was after the MacBook got knocked off a table at a gig.

Apple do refurbished MacBooks, you get a 12 month warranty with them.

Edited June 8, 2019 by ambient

[Woodinblack]

32 minutes ago, ambient said:

Apple do refurbished MacBooks, you usually get a 12 month warranty with them.

Not usually, always, its a legal requirement!

My macbooks have always been refurbs. My current one I had to get after getting a work retina macbook and it being hard going back to the old one. 

I would also say contrary to some of this advice, processor really isn't that important. They are all pretty fast and the only time you can see the speed difference is if you have them next to each other.

[Bigwan]

On 08/06/2019 at 13:32, Fishman said:

@Bigwan - I have a 2012 MBP running Mojave perfectly – did your installation fail?

Not sure, but retried install earlier and it worked! 

[Fishman]

Excellent!

[BigRedX]

IME unless you only run one program at a time you should go for 8GB RAM as a minimum. Always choose an SSD over a HD drive as that is probably the biggest speed improvement you can get. Other than that, so long as the Mac you choose will run the OS version you need they are all plenty fast and powerful enough for everyone expect high-res video and 3D graphics professionals.

I'm still running a 2012 MacBook Pro and a 2008 Mac Pro which are fine for all my needs. I am going to be upgrading my Mac Pro, but only because some of the programs I haver to run for my work, require a newer version of Mac OS than El Capitan. If it wasn't for this, the Mac would be more than adequate.