15" Macbook Pro Mid-2010' need advice on price

[macuser86]

Hi all,

I need some advice from you peeps on here on determining how much my mac is valued at roughly in the used market at the moment.

Here are my mac's specs:

15" Mid 2010' Macbook Pro
Processor 2.66 GHz Intel Core i7
Memory 4 GB 1067 MHz DDR3
Graphics NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M 512 MB
Software Mac OS X Lion 10.7.2 (11C74)
500GB 7200-rpm hard drive

I have the original box, accessories, etc.


Please advise. Thank You in advance to anyone who posts.

Im looking at getting back into a desktop as I really have no use for a laptop. Thinking of getting into one of the 27" iMac's available with the i5 chip, 8GB of RAM, a SSD and the AMD Radeon HD 6770M with 512MB graphics card. Some advice on perhaps comparing my current computer to the one Im thinking about getting into would be appreciated as well!

 

[macuser86]

really? 445 hits on the thread and no replies ?

 

[Vantage Point]

really? 445 hits on the thread and no replies ?

Realistically you can get around $1,200 - $1,250 for this model. Possibly low $1,300's if you're lucky. I know this because I considered selling my 2010 with 8Gb ram and a 750gb 7200 rpm hard drive to pick up a late 2011 15" base model on black friday weekend from Amazon (the price was only $1,599 on black sunday). I did my research on ebay and checked apple refurb prices (which include a years warranty) and realized I could only get about $1,200 or so before another $100 plus on ebay fees so I decided to keep it.

 

[Naimfan]

I agree with Vantage Point. You might get more, but people can get a refurbished 2.0 quad-core from Apple for $1359. I'd probably list it on Craigslist for $1350 or so and take anything over $1200.

Good luck with your sale!

 

[macuser86]

Realistically you can get around $1,200 - $1,250 for this model. Possibly low $1,300's if you're lucky. I know this because I considered selling my 2010 with 8Gb ram and a 750gb 7200 rpm hard drive to pick up a late 2011 15" base model on black friday weekend from Amazon (the price was only $1,599 on black sunday). I did my research on ebay and checked apple refurb prices (which include a years warranty) and realized I could only get about $1,200 or so before another $100 plus on ebay fees so I decided to keep it.

Thanks for the reply Vantage Point. Sounds like you made a wise choice then. Im thinking I will keep mine too then. If it was around $1600-1700 I would have sold it I think.

I agree with Vantage Point. You might get more, but people can get a refurbished 2.0 quad-core from Apple for $1359. I'd probably list it on Craigslist for $1350 or so and take anything over $1200.

Good luck with your sale!

^^^ Yes as you both pointed out the refurbished deals definitely affect what you can get on the used market which I hadn't considered until you both pointed out. Thanks for your reply as well Naimfan, its much appreciated.

I think I will keep my machine then. I currently have it connected to a 24" IPS Panel from Dell with a dedicated keyboard and mouse. So it acts like a desktop anyways and its portable if I ever needed it to be. I just thought since I could do without a laptop perhaps get into a newer desktop. You know that urge to get new things, lol.


I think Im going to keep my current machine and in a few months swap in a SSD and 8GB of RAM and that in itself will be a nice upgrade.

Again thanks to the both of you for replying. I needed a second and third opinion to confirm what I was thinking.

 

[Vantage Point]

I think Im going to keep my current machine and in a few months swap in a SSD and 8GB of RAM and that in itself will be a nice upgrade.

That will certainly breath new life and vitality to your MBP and for 95% of tasks will make it even with newer models.

I do use all my 8GB of RAM when I use Photoshop - see attachment of activity monitor. 16gb (which works with 2011 models) would be better but overall I have no serious performance complaints with only 8gb.

 

[macuser86]

I think Im going to keep my current machine and in a few months swap in a SSD and 8GB of RAM and that in itself will be a nice upgrade.

That will certainly breath new life and vitality to your MBP and for 95% of tasks will make it even with newer models.

I do use all my 8GB of RAM when I use Photoshop - see attachment of activity monitor. 16gb (which works with 2011 models) would be better but overall I have no serious performance complaints with only 8gb.

Yeah, thanks for the further input. I want to upgrade to 16GB of RAM instead but obviously limited by my MBP. I should be fine with 8GB for a couple of years. CS5 and all its programs are real memory hogs for sure.

 

[Vantage Point]

CS5 and all its programs are real memory hogs for sure.

16gb of ram for the 2011 MBP's are only now becoming affordable. One year ago it was a $1,600 upgrade and now it is only about $300 or less. In CS5 you do set the amount of RAM and I have mine set for 70% of total. I do run large files but overall I have no real complaints. A few tips to boost performance is to flatten unnecessary layers as you work and make sure you change the default cache size (Preferences - Performance) from the ridiculous 128k to 1024k. Also the number of history states can affect performance as well but I keep mine at a higher number like 20 states. Keeping many states and layer does suck up more memory.

If Photoshop needs needs or runs low on RAM it then uses the hard drive as a scratch disk. You will find that if you swap to an SSD instead of a hard spinning drive that this will compensate for more RAM almost as well.

To see if you need more RAM look at the Activity Monitor under 'Page Outs'. When it is in the multi-GB range then you are using your drive as scratch and thus need more RAM (or a fast SSD) to improve performance. So the RAM argument is compensated by the SSD. In my case I want the extra storage so I am sticking with my 750GB hard drive - which is much faster than the slower spinning, lower density stock drive it came with - but it is no SSD

 

[macuser86]

Thanks for explaining that. No for sure I have checked my activity monitor and I am definitely maxing out the RAM and the system is using the HDD as a scratch. I also have the 7200 rpm HDD and while it does make a difference is still a LONG ways away from SSD. I have lots of external storage so I can make do with a smaller capacity hard drive on my computer. Hence why Im going go with a smaller capacity SSD.

I do try and flatten any layers that I don't need to go back to but sometimes its just not an option depending on the work I am doing. I didn't know about the cache size setting so thanks for that!

Its unfortunate that the 2010's won't allow 16GB RAM but like you say it is a pricey upgrade even now at around $300.

CS5 and all its programs are real memory hogs for sure.

16gb of ram for the 2011 MBP's are only now becoming affordable. One year ago it was a $1,600 upgrade and now it is only about $300 or less. In CS5 you do set the amount of RAM and I have mine set for 70% of total. I do run large files but overall I have no real complaints. A few tips to boost performance is to flatten unnecessary layers as you work and make sure you change the default cache size (Preferences - Performance) from the ridiculous 128k to 1024k. Also the number of history states can affect performance as well but I keep mine at a higher number like 20 states. Keeping many states and layer does suck up more memory.

If Photoshop needs needs or runs low on RAM it then uses the hard drive as a scratch disk. You will find that if you swap to an SSD instead of a hard spinning drive that this will compensate for more RAM almost as well.

To see if you need more RAM look at the Activity Monitor under 'Page Outs'. When it is in the multi-GB range then you are using your drive as scratch and thus need more RAM (or a fast SSD) to improve performance. So the RAM argument is compensated by the SSD. In my case I want the extra storage so I am sticking with my 750GB hard drive - which is much faster than the slower spinning, lower density stock drive it came with - but it is no SSD