Opinions on buying refurb Retina MBP

[pigoo3]

I got it for $1599 (temporary price drop). Refurb from Apple would have cost me $1449 + $115.92 tax = $1564.92. So for ~$35 more I'm getting a brand new rather than refurb MBP.

Why did I choose thus one over the retina version?

1) Saved almost $1000
2) Not a throwaway product
3) Has FireWire and Ethernet ports for those of us who still use them
4) With the saved cash I can setup a second hi-res (Thunderbolt possibly) display to use when I do photo editing.
5) Geekbench scores close to what Retina model has

All great sound reasons!!!

- Nick

p.s. $1000 for that Thunderbolt display does put a "lump" in ones throat though! But it does have some really nice convenience features versus other non-Apple displays. But you sure pay for it!

 

[cwa107]

I got it for $1599 (temporary price drop). Refurb from Apple would have cost me $1449 + $115.92 tax = $1564.92. So for ~$35 more I'm getting a brand new rather than refurb MBP.

Why did I choose thus one over the retina version?

1) Saved almost $1000
2) Not a throwaway product
3) Has FireWire and Ethernet ports for those of us who still use them
4) With the saved cash I can setup a second hi-res (Thunderbolt possibly) display to use when I do photo editing.
5) Geekbench scores close to what Retina model has

If I were you, I'd skip the Thunderbolt display and drop in one of these babies:

Amazon.com: Crucial M500 960GB SATA 2.5-Inch 7mm (with 9.5mm adapter/spacer) Internal Solid State Drive CT960M500SSD1: Computers & Accessories

 

[RavingMac]

If I were you, I'd skip the Thunderbolt display and drop in one of these babies:

Amazon.com: Crucial M500 960GB SATA 2.5-Inch 7mm (with 9.5mm adapter/spacer) Internal Solid State Drive CT960M500SSD1: Computers & Accessories

Wow!
A little over $500 for an almost 1TB SSD . . . prices are starting to get reasonable at last.

 

[PLUMMER]

Could someone point me to a link about what macs are non upgrade able and those that can. I just read a few comments in this thread about MBP that can't. Very interesting that bigger CPU doesn't always mean faster. Sorry for the newb ? Also what's this flash memory, any MBP or just newer

 

[RavingMac]

Could someone point me to a link about what macs are non upgrade able and those that can. I just read a few comments in this thread about MBP that can't. Very interesting that bigger CPU doesn't always mean faster. Sorry for the newb ? Also what's this flash memory, any MBP or just newer

Need a little more info on just what you are looking for, laptop, desktop, iMac etc.

As far as laptops go, any of the Macs with an optical drive will be easier to upgrade than the ones without.
For iMacs the 27in model is easier to upgrade.
And Mac Minis are a snap to add more RAM. Upgrading the HD is doable, but takes more work.

 

[RavingMac]

New MBP is here and I am setting it up. This time going for from scratch setup rather than cloning from my old MBP.

 

[pigoo3]

New MBP is here and I am setting it up. This time going for from scratch setup rather than cloning from my old MBP.

Wow...very exciting. I bet that your eyes are swimming with delight! Like a 5 year-old on Christmas morning!!!

- Nick

 

[RavingMac]

Wow...very exciting. I bet that your eyes are swimming with delight! Like a 5 year-old on Christmas morning!!!

- Nick

 

[pigoo3]

After your 2007 MBP...quite an upgrade!

Portable POWER!!!

- Nick

 

[RavingMac]

Not done with setup (couldn't spend much time last night) but some interesting observations.

1) I have always cloned (or used Migration Assistant) from old to new before this
2) Despite a lot of effort, I constantly struggle to keep disk space used under 300GB

This time, even after installing Photoshop CC and LR 5 I still am under 30Gb used, leaving me with 470GB disk free space. Still have some more software to install and data to transfer, but I doubt the total will exceed 120GB, which would put me way under 300GB.