What to buy?

Hi All, Nice to meet you

As you can tell by my username I have no idea what I am doing! I am looking for a Mac laptop that is able to be upgraded when/if they are available. A newish refurbished item would be fine. It will primarily be used for typical office work and intense internet use. It should not be used for downloading music or video but will be required to store a largish number of photos and graphics. I have used an iMac for a long time but it was given to me so I did not need to look at specs, operating systems etc, I only worked with what I had. When it officially died I bought a laptop running Windows 10 (the Mac was on 10.6 whatever that was called) and did not like it at all. I need to get another Mac before I go crazy but what to get? Can someone please point me in the right direction? Many, many thanks.

Marie

Greetings, Marie, and welcome.

What I can tell you is that the MacBook Air is -not- upgradeable. They are available as refurbished, but you'd want to get one that has the hardware you need for the long haul. I bought a mid-2012 model in early 2014 (refurbished) with 8G RAM and a 500G SSD. It's been a great machine for me to do a whole host of different things including running some heavier workloads on it.

A MacBook Pro would have a bit more "kick" under the hood, but the extra memory and large SSD on this help it keep pace pretty well.

If you're considering the MBA, make sure you get all that power that you'd ever want right in the beginning.

Ember1205 said:

Greetings, Marie, and welcome.

What I can tell you is that the MacBook Air is -not- upgradeable. They are available as refurbished, but you'd want to get one that has the hardware you need for the long haul. I bought a mid-2012 model in early 2014 (refurbished) with 8G RAM and a 500G SSD. It's been a great machine for me to do a whole host of different things including running some heavier workloads on it.

A MacBook Pro would have a bit more "kick" under the hood, but the extra memory and large SSD on this help it keep pace pretty well.

If you're considering the MBA, make sure you get all that power that you'd ever want right in the beginning.

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Thank you so much Ember 1205. I will be shopping around this weekend as I need one asap although I am a bit wary of buying something that cannot be upgraded. This is probably unjustified but I am very cautious by nature and doubt that will ever change :Blushing: Given that I will using it for basic tasks I assume the specs you have would be enough for me. Can you tell me what in your opinion would be the least power I would need? I appreciate you don't know what my usage will be but to be honest, neither do I I imagine that the internet would be used almost constantly with office work taking a close second. Anything else would be used infrequently. You have been very helpful so far and I would be most grateful if you could help again.

The reason that so many Mac's are no longer upgradeable is because Apple apparently assessed the various users and machines and found that statistically, "no one" upgraded their machines - they used them how they bought them.

Honestly, if you have a good understanding of the types of use that the machine will get, and you're able to stick to that kind of use, your machine should run fine for a long time. I purposefully bought mine maxed out on memory and hard drive and haven't had a single regret. Three years of essentially trouble-free use so far.

I bought a used one off of Craigslist for my wife, too. Wiped it clean, re-installed the base OS, and hers has been great too. Hers is about 18 months old, and I did get a really good deal. The woman I bought it off of only had it about six months and really wasn't using it at all. The battery showed something ridiculous like three charge cycles! Mine currently shows 603 battery cycles, and that's largely because I keep it plugged in most of the time.

If you need something quickly, and aren't really sure what you'll need, just buy a Windows laptop. They're disposable. lol

I bought a used macbook pro and so far it has been perfect. I bought it listed as parts or repair so expected to have to do some work on it to make it in perfect shape but now that i did it is totally awesome. i would suggest a refurb macbook pro with a decent size hd or ssd, and the most amount of ram you can afford

"Upgrade it" Maybe less than 2% of laptop owners ever...EVER upgrade anything. Ever. There is just no need to. And if you ever need to get a new SSD, you can very well do that on the MacBook Pro. But seldom does anyone change ram or a CPU.

dudefromthebay said:

But seldom does anyone change ram or a CPU.

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Since the OP is concerned about portable computers...I'll stick with portable computer info. To the best of my knowledge...the only Apple laptop/notebook computer that ever had an upgradeable CPU was a Powerbook 1400 from the late 1990's. I had one...and did upgrade the CPU. Thus basically no CPU upgrading on Apple portable computers...since it's just not possible.

As far as RAM. RAM on Apple computers for about the last 3-4 years has been soldered onto the logic board. Thus no RAM upgrading on Apple portable computers released in the last 3-4 years. Purchaser must purchase the computer with all the RAM it will ever need at the time of purchase.

I do agree with you. When someone does (or did have in the past) a computer that is/was upgradeable...very very few owners actually upgraded the computer. Usually they purchased a new computer rather than upgrading the one they owned.

- Nick

pigoo3 said:

Since the OP is concerned about portable computers...I'll stick with portable computer info. To the best of my knowledge...the only Apple laptop/notebook computer that ever had an upgradeable CPU was a Powerbook 1400 from the late 1990's. I had one...and did upgrade the CPU. Thus basically no CPU upgrading on Apple portable computers...since it's just not possible.

As far as RAM. RAM on Apple computers for about the last 3-4 years has been soldered onto the logic board. Thus no RAM upgrading on Apple portable computers released in the last 3-4 years. Purchaser must purchase the computer with all the RAM it will ever need at the time of purchase.

I do agree with you. When someone does (or did have in the past) a computer that is/was upgradeable...very very few owners actually upgraded the computer. Usually they purchased a new computer rather than upgrading the one they owned.

- Nick

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Much agreed. But I mean, if you're good with your hands, you can always take out the ram...But there goes your warranty.

dudefromthebay said:

Much agreed. But I mean, if you're good with your hands, you can always take out the ram...But there goes your warranty.

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Wrong.

The memory is soldered to the main board. The only way to upgrade the RAM in a MacBook Air is to swap the entire logic board for one that has the additional memory soldered to it.

Ember1205 said:

Wrong.

The memory is soldered to the main board. The only way to upgrade the RAM in a MacBook Air is to swap the entire logic board for one that has the additional memory soldered to it.

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I mean, you're not wrong, but neither am I. You can change the logic board if you have access to one with more gigs. Chances of it happening successfully? Maybe 20%

Thank you all for your replies and apologies for taking so long to post this! I have found a 7 month old Mac Pro at a very, very reasonable price. I was in hospital and one of the nurses was emigrating and basically giving her things away!! Every cloud and all that. Anyway I really do appreciate the help and advice you all gave.

Sounds like you found a machine that should work nicely for you. Good luck with it, and don't hesitate to ask if there are questions. Lots of folks here that are happy to help with the pieces they know about.

Thank you all for your replies and apologies for taking so long to post this! I have found a 7 month old Mac Pro at a very, very reasonable price.

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That sounds like you got a nice Mac at a very good price — but I must say it's a long way from being a portable Mac laptop that you were originally seemingly wanting. :Blushing:

And I hope your hospital visit was successful.




- Patrick
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No doubt this is a MacBOOK Pro!

Who would want a trash can.

harryb2448 said:

No doubt this is a MacBOOK Pro!

Who would want a trash can.

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Hopefully that's the case and the black Mac Pro garbage can sure wasn't one of Jony Ive's better designs IMHO!!

But it does meet the OP's request for an upgradeable Mac I understand. For a good expensive price!!!




- Patrick
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Thanks for your input everyone. I know this was not my ideal choice but at £100 and a bottle of brandy, I can happily live with it

Hmmm...??
Was the bottle of brandy for you and to help you rationalize your new Mac decision?




- Patrick
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pm-r said:

Hmmm...??
Was the bottle of brandy for you and to help you rationalize your new Mac decision?




- Patrick
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Click to expand...

;D No, I don't like brandy. I "celebrated" with a very large dark rum!

NotAClue said:

;D No, I don't like brandy. I "celebrated" with a very large dark rum!

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Sounds good and I hope you hospital visit was as well.




- Patrick
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