WTB MacBook pro or IMAC. Help needed

Danny1969 · April 2020

darcym said:

May have a 2014 macbook pro i7 16GB ram 512SSD (think it's PCI interface storage).

It is, slightly different format and cutout to stand PCIe but removable and replaceable should it fail which is a good thing

Cookiemonster · April 2020

darcym said:

May have a 2014 macbook pro i7 16GB ram 512SSD (think it's PCI interface storage).

I would be interested in this, what price were you looking for

Cookiemonster · April 2020

Danny1969 said:

Cookiemonster said:

I will have another look. I have looked at the refurbished ones but they always seem to mention something negative, I thought refurbished meant they had worked on them, not just bought cheap and sold on

Maybe the Amazon and specialist refurbished sites are better, some on eBay seem shocking

I used to run a company that was the biggest supplier of laptop spares in the south and we actually did refurb laptops. We replaced marked plastics and worn keyboards, cleaned the heat exchangers and put new fans and harddrives in as well as a new battery. The laptops we sold were effectively as good as new but we had the advantage of having the parts to do that.

Your adverage laptop refurbisher buys ex corporate lease laptops and wipes the harddrive, loads a new OS, cleans the laptop and it's sold as a refurb. There's very little margin for the seller so they don't spend any money on them. Amazon sellers are often just people working from home or small companies buying ex lease laptops same as Ebay. Anyone can sell on Amazon, we used to sell 35K of Dell, HP and IBM parts a fortnight before the market became a wash with cheap fakes and we couldn't compete pricewise as our genuine parts cost more to start with. If you buy from Amazon themselves then that's different but most of Amazon is just re-sellers like I used to be

I would be happy with one of I could find a good refurb but price tends to be higher, which is ok if they have been fixed up. Not so much if they are just selling on. But yes totally see people need to earn a living and happy to support this

Kittyfrisk · April 2020

I know that @stonevibe mentioned this company in another Mac based thread
https://shopoverair.com/collections/mac/products/13-macbook-pro-2012-superfast?variant=33389530775597
I have had no dealings with them, but they look to be pretty fairly priced, you get to choose specs on several models & you get a warranty too.

Cookiemonster · April 2020

Kittyfrisk said:

I know that @stonevibe mentioned this company in another Mac based thread
https://shopoverair.com/collections/mac/products/13-macbook-pro-2012-superfast?variant=33389530775597
I have had no dealings with them, but they look to be pretty fairly priced, you get to choose specs on several models & you get a warranty too.

Thank you I will have a look

Cookiemonster · April 2020

Still searching in case anyone has one to sell

smoore · April 2020

I may have found something suitable, remembered an older MacBook that was just sitting in a drawer, let me get it charged up and I'll see what the specs are.

Cookiemonster · April 2020

smoore said:

I may have found something suitable, remembered an older MacBook that was just sitting in a drawer, let me get it charged up and I'll see what the specs are.

Great thank you

Danny1969 · April 2020

Just posted

https://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/178065/fs-tech-clearout-macbooks-laptops-and-ipad#latest

smoore · April 2020

Cookiemonster said:

smoore said:

I may have found something suitable, remembered an older MacBook that was just sitting in a drawer, let me get it charged up and I'll see what the specs are.

Great thank you

OK, just doing a full disk erase and reinstalling High Sierra, it's a 2010 model with 4GB of memory, and 256GB storage, so may not be what you are after?

smoore · April 2020

Macbook reinstalled, running very nicely actually!

Spec from the 'about this Mac' is:

MacBook Pro (13-inch, Mid 2010)
Processor - 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
Memory - 4 GB 1067 MHz DDR3
Graphics - NVIDIA GeForce 320M 256 MB

According to crucial.com it can be upgrade to 8MB and there a whole host up SSD upgrade options.

It's actually a nice machine, I can't see any dead pixels anywhere, the screen is bright and sharp, and importantly the battery is fully working and holding charge perfectly.

Ok, it's not as snappy as my 2019 model, but I'd say it has aged better than I have over the past 10 years!

Cookiemonster · April 2020

Thanks everyone, I think I would like a 14/15 model, I have been looking at Mac king on eBay, anybody know them ?

Tempted to go with an iMac, I don't think I would use the MacBook out of the house so might be good to have a larger screen

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/233546756686

smoore · April 2020

That iMac looks like a good buy

Cookiemonster · April 2020

smoore said:

That iMac looks like a good buy

Right now I think I've looked too much, the warranty is something that seems good to have considering the prices of fixing the things.

Only concern I have is the company has a few bad reviews online. But it has good ones as well

Kittyfrisk · April 2020

@Cookiemonster ; Are you aware that the Retina MacBook Pro's from 2013 onwards have non upgradeable RAM (it is soldered to the motherboard).
Whatever you buy, it is fixed at that amount (really, really bad practice Apple

).

Perversely, the 2012 models are actually far more upgradeable.
Just to let you know

Modellista · April 2020

iMacs are great for music production, ideally you'd want a 27" model with an SSD. If you're feeling confident they can be opened up and the horrible 500GB drive upgraded to an SSD. You need to buy the special tool to prise it open and the new sticky stuff to put it back together but it doesn't look particularly difficult if you work methodically.

Danny1969 · April 2020

Modellista said:

iMacs are great for music production, ideally you'd want a 27" model with an SSD. If you're feeling confident they can be opened up and the horrible 500GB drive upgraded to an SSD. You need to buy the special tool to prise it open and the new sticky stuff to put it back together but it doesn't look particularly difficult if you work methodically.

All the iMacs with 500Gb drives were the older design where you removed the outer cover on it's magnetic clips, then the LCD to access the drives .. all were just screwed in with torx bolts. A reasonably easy job. The late 2012 onwards thinner machines all had 1Tb upwards or smaller SSD's and as you say the screens are bonded on. Have to say though, it's not a job for anyone who hasn't had experience with hot air guns and knowing how much heat to use.

Personally I never saw the point because they take up no less room than the older design, being as the stand dictates the footprint not the depth of the chassis

Jez6345789 · April 2020

If you look around you can pickup earlier iMacs and Mac mini pretty cheap that you can then drop fast SSD, memory and some even drop in an i7 quad core processor. You end up with performance not too far off current macs for around your budget.

if you like tinkering that’s what I would do as the best bang for buck if I did not get my mac from work.

Cookiemonster · April 2020

I got that iMac. I would like to upgrade but wouldn't know where to start. If anyone is based around Leicester and can do it let me know. It's in good condition and seems pretty fast, and has a year warranty. So happy with it.

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WTB MacBook pro or IMAC. Help needed

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