Reply to: Which Macbook Pro?

[bogeyman]

Anyone else looking at the refurbs - just spoke to a pleasant chap at Apple and he assured me that 99 out of every 100 of these refurbs are absolutely mint and basically as-new.

They are very good. Lots of Hoxton-based 'design' houses gone out of business lately so they have plenty of barely-used refurbs. There is also a glut of Aeron office chairs apparently!

Seriously though - have used the refurb store in the past and 100% satisfied.

[Durbs]

Anyone else looking at the refurbs - just spoke to a pleasant chap at Apple and he assured me that 99 out of every 100 of these refurbs are absolutely mint and basically as-new.

[Durbs]

Does it need to be a laptop? You could get a 13" and use an external display when not on the move, or get an Apple desktop. Even a Mac mini perhaps.

Got an older gen Mini at the moment and that's what i'm currently developing iPhone stuff on, works totally fine and is a great bit of kit but is also used by the kids so i need to book slots to use my own computer.

Need something so i can go and develop somewhere and not get mithered by various ankle biters.

[Durbs]

Sigh indeed! Although part of my post had a touch of insouciance. Part of it (the bit about doing your apple based dev in a VM) was perfectly reasonable. Several people I have worked with in the past have done so. True its a bit more of a faff, but you don't have to purchase over-priced equipment off the bat.

I am always amused at peoples bravery when they post on bulleting boards, comment areas etc. Its almost certain that if I was stood in front of you, you wouldn't have the balls to talk like that.

It was the bit where you suggested that I actually use public transport that did it!

As far as i'm aware, OSX desktop version within a VM is not permitted under the license? Altough i may be totally wrong and this has changed?

[d000hg]

The other one only comes in 13" AFAIK , not big enough to develop on really.

Does it need to be a laptop? You could get a 13" and use an external display when not on the move, or get an Apple desktop. Even a Mac mini perhaps.

[StopTheEarthIwantToGetOff]

Sigh, yup, that'd be it. Now f uck off back to General.

Sigh indeed! Although part of my post had a touch of insouciance. Part of it (the bit about doing your apple based dev in a VM) was perfectly reasonable. Several people I have worked with in the past have done so. True its a bit more of a faff, but you don't have to purchase over-priced equipment off the bat.

I am always amused at peoples bravery when they post on bulleting boards, comment areas etc. Its almost certain that if I was stood in front of you, you wouldn't have the balls to talk like that.

[Sysman]

I'm still using my A1260 macbook pro I bought almost 5 years ago and upgraded the hard drive since for a cost of around £100

I've never had a windows machine last that long, in fact two XP laptops are lying about in the office in bits.

My 8.5 year old iBook is still going strong. OK, the keyboard is well iffy, the internal disk went ages ago, the battery lasts all of 30 seconds, it's still running Tiger (10.4) and updates have stopped coming (it did get a recent security update though).

It still boots faster than any other system I have access to What it cost back then makes the top of the range stuff available today look cheap, but it was no more expensive than the Vaios and Thinkpads of the day. A mate bought a Compaq for about 2/3 the price at the time and it was dead 2 years later.

[scooterscot]

I'm still using my A1260 macbook pro I bought almost 5 years ago and upgraded the hard drive since for a cost of around £100

I've never had a windows machine last that long, in fact two XP laptops are lying about in the office in bits.

[Durbs]

What sort of dev are you doing Durbs and what software do you want to use on it?

If it's plain coding-type development, then a) or b) should do it easily.

I would avoid d) unless you've seen and handled one. Too big and unwieldy (and flexy) for me.

I must admit, for any serious and lengthy development projects, I prefer not to use a laptop at all if I have a desk to go to. The iMac 27 i7 is my current platform and I use your option a) for work on the move (but take iPad instead when I don't have to code).

It'll be for dual boot between Windows 7 & OSX, going to sell my current Core2 Win laptop and use the new one for XCode on Mac and VS2010/SQL on Windows.

So after looking around, decided on a refurb Option a) or b) but with the higher res screen and 500Gig drive.

[eek]

Go for the cheapest 15" i5 core but max the memory and max the screen resolution.

Unless you are encoding video you don't need the i7 cores and would you really notice the difference between 2.4 and 2.53GHz.

If you can go for an imac as personally screen resolution is everything.

[bogeyman]

As much as it upsets me to pay the kind of silly prices they charge, i need to buy a Macbook Pro for dev purposes. Been looking at used ones on eBay but they are still stupid money for the spec and it seems from reading around that the newer i5/i7's are much better performers anyway.

therefore gotta grit my teeth and go for one of the below:

a: 15-inch: 2.4GHz, Intel Core i5, 4-GB Memory, 320-GB hard drive, NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M 256MB £1,499.00

b: 15-inch: 2.53GHz, Intel Core i5, 4-GB Memory, 500-GB hard drive, NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M 256MB £1,649.00

c: 15-inch: 2.66GHz, Intel Core i7, 4-GB Memory, 500-GB hard drive, NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M 512MB £1,799.00

d: 17-inch: 2.53GHz, Intel Core i5, 4-GB Memory, 500-GB hard drive, NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M 512MB £1,899.00


Given the specs, what is my best bet? Obviously want to spend as little as possible but get the best bang per buck. Discounted the 17", would be nice but too expensive.

Will i really notice the difference between an i5 running 0.13GHz faster and is the gap between the i7 and i5 noticable useability-wise (outside of benchmarks)?

Also, when speccing it, i'm given the following upgrade options:

MacBook Pro 15-inch Hi-Res Glossy Widescreen Display [+ £80.01]
MacBook Pro 15-inch Hi-Res Antiglare Widescreen Display [+ £120.00]

Are either of these upgrades worth getting? Is '320GB + Hi-Res' better than '500GB + Normal Res'?

Ta

What sort of dev are you doing Durbs and what software do you want to use on it?

If it's plain coding-type development, then a) or b) should do it easily.

I would avoid d) unless you've seen and handled one. Too big and unwieldy (and flexy) for me.

I must admit, for any serious and lengthy development projects, I prefer not to use a laptop at all if I have a desk to go to. The iMac 27 i7 is my current platform and I use your option a) for work on the move (but take iPad instead when I don't have to code).

[Spacecadet]

option c

get the best one your budget can stretch to, applications always get more resource hungry and the difference might let you get another year or two out of it.
Only other recommendation I'd make is to get a 15" over a 17"

All this assumes that you're buying a tool to do a job and not a fashion statement.
If you just want an apple cause they look nice then chances are you'll be upgrading before it's reached the end of it's useful life, in which case save yourself some money and get the cheaper one.

[Durbs]

What are you developing that a regular MacBook isn't good enough?

The other one only comes in 13" AFAIK , not big enough to develop on really.

Indeed! I smell an apple fanboy!

One can imagine him taking out his shiny Macbook Pro on the train and discreetly observing the occupiers of the nearby seats; noting and liking their covetous and Magpie like glances.

I say Magpie like cos only a bird brain would actually want one.

Use a VM to develop your next killer I-Tat application.

Sigh, yup, that'd be it. Now f uck off back to General.

[StopTheEarthIwantToGetOff]

What are you developing that a regular MacBook isn't good enough?

Indeed! I smell an apple fanboy!

One can imagine him taking out his shiny Macbook Pro on the train and discreetly observing the occupiers of the nearby seats; noting and liking their covetous and Magpie like glances.

I say Magpie like cos only a bird brain would actually want one.

Use a VM to develop your next killer I-Tat application.

[d000hg]

What are you developing that a regular MacBook isn't good enough?