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Im buying this Top spec Macbook Pro today for €600. How do I make sure it isnt banjax

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    #2
    5uspect
    Moderators, Arts Moderators Posts: 10,518 Mod ✭✭✭✭5uspect


    TheStook wrote: »
    http://www.adverts.ie/macbook-pro/macbook-pro-13-top-specs/11601013

    Seems way too good to be true, no?

    It's an old model with outdated components and screen. The price is about right for a machine that old.


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    #3
    TheStook
    Registered Users Posts: 1,071 ✭✭✭TheStook


    He messaged me saying " I can give u a choice between having the 250GB SSD I have installed.. or replace it for the original 750GB HDD if you're up for more storage instead of energy saving!"

    So should I be weary that he might have been tampering with other parts of the Mac or am I being way too skeptical?


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    #4
    TheStook
    Registered Users Posts: 1,071 ✭✭✭TheStook


    5uspect wrote: »
    It's an old model with outdated components and screen. The price is about right for a machine that old.

    Oh really? But lower spec Macbook Pros sell for nearly €1500 so 600 for this is a great deal right?

    Im in first year of Tv and Media Production and my laptop is pretty much useless so Ill be using it for Video editing,mild gaming, general college use maybe some programming down the line.

    Would this serve my purpose for the next 4 years at least?


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    #5
    5uspect
    Moderators, Arts Moderators Posts: 10,518 Mod ✭✭✭✭5uspect


    TheStook wrote: »
    He messaged me saying " I can give u a choice between having the 250GB SSD I have installed.. or replace it for the original 750GB HDD if you're up for more storage instead of energy saving!"

    So should I be weary that he might have been tampering with other parts of the Mac or am I being way too skeptical?

    Changing the storage drive is piss easy. You can do a clean install of the OS onto a blank disk via wifi and UEFI. 2.5" SSDs are also cheap and almost any drive will saturate the SATA III bus in this and most other laptops. Newer Macs use PCIe SSDs which are considerably faster.

    But just so you're aware, this is a model that hasn't been updated since 2012. It's the completely base model with a few cheap bells and whistles.


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    #6
    5uspect
    Moderators, Arts Moderators Posts: 10,518 Mod ✭✭✭✭5uspect


    TheStook wrote: »
    Oh really? But lower spec Macbook Pros sell for nearly €1500 so 600 for this is a great deal right?

    Im in first year of Tv and Media Production and my laptop is pretty much useless so Ill be using it for Video editing,mild gaming, general college use maybe some programming down the line.

    Would this serve my purpose for the next 4 years at least?

    It's about what all it's worth TBH.
    You can probably buy a new pre 2016 model from the education or refurb store for less than €1500.
    Gaming? No. it's got ancient Intel graphics.
    Video editing should be okay unless you're doing 4K or want fast encoding.
    For general use with an SSD it should be absolutely fine.


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    #7
    TheStook
    Registered Users Posts: 1,071 ✭✭✭TheStook


    5uspect wrote: »
    It's about what all it's worth TBH.
    You can probably buy a new pre 2016 model from the education or refurb store for less than €1500.
    Gaming? No. it's got ancient Intel graphics.
    Video editing should be okay unless you're doing 4K or want fast encoding.
    For general use with an SSD it should be absolutely fine.

    Unfortunately I cant afford anything near 1500
    Well gaming would pretty much just be football manager so Im sure that'll be fine
    Would you say €600 is a good deal?


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    #8
    5uspect
    Moderators, Arts Moderators Posts: 10,518 Mod ✭✭✭✭5uspect


    You said lower spec models are selling for nearly €1500, this cannot be true unless people are completely daft. There's 2014 15" models going for that on Adverts that are multiple times faster than this model.

    As I've said this is about the right price for this machine. It'll be mostly fine for your needs, it won't get many of the new features of macOS since it doesn't have support for newer wireless standards. It won't be terribly fast but they're a solid, sturdy machine.


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    #9
    Alanstrainor
    Moderators, Motoring & Transport Moderators Posts: 23,157 Mod ✭✭✭✭Alanstrainor


    TheStook wrote: »
    http://www.adverts.ie/macbook-pro/macbook-pro-13-top-specs/11601013

    Seems way too good to be true, no?

    As others have said. This is definitely not "too good to be true". It's about market value, maybe even expensive for what it is. It's a 4 year old laptop, non-retina model. He says the same model is being sold in Argos etc, which is only half true. They sell a model that is similar but it would have much more up to date internals (processor).

    All in all, I would say this is a really poor purchase for the money. It's laughable that this laptop is still sold by Apple at all, but buying the 4 year old version wouldn't exactly offer good value.


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    #10
    RoyalMarine
    Closed Accounts Posts: 5,824 ✭✭✭RoyalMarine


    Don't just look at cpu speed, ram and hard drive...

    Logic board and the type of cpu are more important..


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    #11
    Sad Professor
    Moderators, Category Moderators, Arts Moderators, Entertainment Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 22,671 CMod ✭✭✭✭Sad Professor


    Apple really was selling this for €1250 until less than week ago. It was actually the lower (2.5GHz i5) spec version as well. It was released in mid 2012 and was the last of the optical drive models. So what the seller says in the ad is correct.


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    #12
    TerrorFirmer
    Closed Accounts Posts: 29,930 ✭✭✭✭TerrorFirmer


    Seems a decent deal to me considering what it is. Not the fastest model going, it is an i7 but it's a dual core i7, not a proper quad core model so it's not really much faster than an i5.

    You would get a faster Windows machine for less money - and a brand new one that would be faster for 600, also.

    However, if you really want a Mac or it needs to be a Mac, to be fair 600 is a good price for this.

    Definitely keep the SSD as well, and not the original hard drive which is pretty slow.


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