Thoughts on used MacBook

I'm a long-time Windows developer and have never used a Mac. I have interest in buying a Mac for development purposes. I found an older 15" MacBook pro for $450. It has an Intel 2.2GHz Core Duo processor and 2GB RAM. Both of my Windows machines have 2nd gen i7s and 8GB RAM, so I know the performance won't be near the same; however, I'm looking for advice on whether the used MacBook's specs would be adequate to get an accurate indication of what it's like to develop on and for a Mac. Will it suffice or will I be incredibly frustrated by the performance?

If I enjoy it, I'd likely purchase a new (or newer) one, but am reluctant to invest in a new one until I can feel it out.

Thanks.

The performance should be fine. The only concern I would have is whether that's a Core Duo or a Core 2 Duo, the latter would be a 64-bit chip and would be capable of being upgraded to the latest version of OS X. The former would be limited to 10.6.

cwa107 said:

The only concern I would have is whether that's a Core Duo or a Core 2 Duo, the latter would be a 64-bit chip and would be capable of being upgraded to the latest version of OS X. The former would be limited to 10.6.

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Thanks for that; I'll check with the seller. Based on your comment, my suspicion is that it's a Core Duo as he notes that it's running OS X 10.6.8. Even if that were the case, it sounds like it would still give adequate performance.

If you said that you were going to be using it for video editing, rendering or other CPU intensive tasks, I'd say you might want to looks elsewhere. But for your relatively modest requirements I think it should be fine.

For your purposes you DO NOT WANT a Core Duo machine. Avoid like the plague. A Core2Duo or later is what you want.

Thanks for the feedback guys. I'm not getting any feedback from the seller, so I might have to rethink my strategy anyway.

especially if you are looking into developing for the Mac, I completely agree with the guys above. C2D or later. Lion is soon going to be the standard, and you cant run it on a core duo.

Well, it looks like that opportunity has passed. Before I try my hand at locating another used machine, what do y'all think of me just going for a new Mac Mini instead? For just about $100 more, I'll get an i5, warranty, guaranteed Lion support, etc. I've already got all of the needed peripherals, so I won't have to invest beyond the machine itself. The lack of an optical drive is a bit of a concern, but honestly, I think it's more of a psychological thing.

I say go for it. The new Mac Mini is only "mini" in size not capability.

Well, I'm happy to say I'm posting this note from my new Mac Mini. Thanks for the input.

All I can really say right now is that now I get it. I've been a jaded computer user for a long time - not unhappy, but not excited; when I messed around with the in store demo unit, I was truly impressed for the first time in a long, long time. I thought I'd just be fiddling with Xcode, but I can definitely envision moving off of my Windows machines at home.

Congratulations!

Bwahahaha! Our plan for world domination claims another victim! Master Steve will be pleased!

Oops ... did I just type that out loud?

msturek said:

Well, I'm happy to say I'm posting this note from my new Mac Mini. Thanks for the input.

I've been a jaded computer user for a long time - not unhappy, but not excited; when I messed around with the in store demo unit, I was truly impressed for the first time in a long, long time.

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Congrats on the purchase...and it REALLY sounds awesome that this computer purchase has got you excited again about computing!

- Nick