Buying a MBP off eBay

Hello

I was on eBay and stumbled across the exact model of the MBP I have been wanting to get for a long while: Apple MacBook Pro 15" Hi Res Glossy - i7- 2.66 Ghz on eBay.ca (item 320630897857 end time 12-Jan-11 23:38:54 EST)

This also comes with Logic Pro 9, and Final Cut Studio 3, Office 2011, and VMWare with Windows 7, which is a real plus.

With shipping, it'll come to about $2600. If I were to buy it from the online Apple store, it'll come to about $2600 after taxes, but doesn't come with the software mentioned above. So the difference is about $800 worth of software, and although I don't necessarily need any of that software, I would find myself using most of those programs frequently.

Is it worth it? Should I take the risk buying from eBay?

GK27V6 said:

Hello

I was on eBay and stumbled across the exact model of the MBP I have been wanting to get for a long while: Apple MacBook Pro 15" Hi Res Glossy - i7- 2.66 Ghz on eBay.ca (item 320630897857 end time 12-Jan-11 23:38:54 EST)

This also comes with Logic Pro 9, and Final Cut Studio 3, Office 2011, and VMWare with Windows 7, which is a real plus.

With shipping, it'll come to about $2600. If I were to buy it from the online Apple store, it'll come to about $2600 after taxes, but doesn't come with the software mentioned above. So the difference is about $800 worth of software, and although I don't necessarily need any of that software, I would find myself using most of those programs frequently.

Is it worth it? Should I take the risk buying from eBay?

Click to expand...

Even if it came with all that software preloaded what happens when you have a HDD failure? I doubt that they are giving you the CDs and keys to these programs, nor do you know how they acquired them. >_>"

Risky business IMHO.

This is true.

My alternatives to the provided software is VirtualBox (and can get win7 free), and get office free from my school, and have iWork anyway. Logic Pro and Final Cut aren't necessary for my program.

If you don't need logic pro or FC why don't you save a chunk of money and downgrade to the i5?

You can get them refurbed from Apple for like $1800, then upgrade the hard drive yourself for $80 to a 500gb+ 7200rpm drive

s2odin said:

If you don't need logic pro or FC why don't you save a chunk of money and downgrade to the i5?

You can get them refurbed from Apple for like $1800, then upgrade the hard drive yourself for $80 to a 500gb+ 7200rpm drive

Click to expand...

I think this would be the best option for you if you don't need the extra programs that come with the eBay Mac Book Pro. Also check out Mac Mall before you order any thing, they sell Macs at a really good price, here is a link.
MacMall - The #1 Mac Warehouse for Apple Computers & Accessories

Thanks for the input guys. As for mentioned above regarding the i5 versus the i7: I want 512MB of VRAM. The only way to get an NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M card with 512 MB on a 15" machine is to get the i7 model (as far as I know).

I am in industrial design, and want to take photoshop work to high levels (that is I will be picking up a Wacom tablet sometime soon), and as well work with 3D software (at the moment practicing SolidWorks), and plan on working with other resource-demanding software over the next couple years. With this, I want just one machine with a sufficient;y-sized screen, that is portable, and also use it as my personal computer for everyday activities, and have it last for years. My current MB I have had for 2.5 years now and I feel like it is limiting me from expanding my skill set especially in relation to 3D experience.

So for what I have stated above, would a Core i5, with 256MB of VRAM really be enough? Or will I find myself buying another machine in two or three years? I want to keep this machine for longer than three years, and figure it would make sense to opt out for some higher specs.

Well the GeFore is more aimed towards gaming and standard things. A Quadro(nVidia) or FirePro(ATI) card is ideal for what you have mentioned. Now MBP's don't come with Quadro or FirePro cards unfortunately. And programs like PS and Solidworks are more RAM dependent than GPU. A workstation GPU will help rendering times in Solidworks, C4D, Maya, etc. The RAM would help in PS on working with large images (RAW, TIF, etc).

And VRAM isn't measured in the way it's advertised. A 1gb DDR3 card and a 1gb DDR5 card both might have 1gb of VRAM but the GDDR5 is by far better.

And honestly, the i5 and i7 are virtually the same as far as processing power goes. They are both dual core, with turbo boost and hyper threading. With CES here and all the new SB CPU's being released, they look to be a big improvement over this current generation of iX series. A workstation PC would be better for you at a cheaper price, but it depends on if you want Windows and Mac.

edit: I wouldn't recommend anything other than a Dell M6500 / M4500 or HP 8740w / 8540w for what you want to do.