Hey all, long-time lurker here. Like many others, I speak PC fluently, but am way out of my comfort zone with Macs. Nevertheless, I bought my all-computer-illiterate fiance a refurbed '09 13" MBP 2.2GHz last year due to the overwhelming positive comments on the MBPs I read here and... well, everywhere. She liked it just fine, although she's hardly a power user. Then in August 2010, someone broke in and stole our laptops: the aforementioned MBP and my 5 year old Vaio. I was hardly using the Vaio anymore due to slow components but otherwise it was bulletproof. And it was great for VAG-COM on our VW and Audi (Mac not supported 
) Anyway, I rushed out and bought her another refurb MBP 13, same specs, lower price at the Apple store. After speaking with my insurance agent, apparently I should have been a little more careful about my purchase in order to maximize the insurance payout, but now her MBP is paid for, I paid the deductible, and basically I can buy about $1300 more worth of laptop and have them pick up the bill. (of course, I can get something more than $1300, but I will have to pay the difference.)
Since then, I have slowly been warming up to the little MBP and I'm now using it more than she is. And I'm using it more than I use my customized PC desktop. I'm to the point now where I just like how the MBP works, and the way it feels, and I'm past looking strictly at hardware specs on paper; I mean, just comparing hardware specs from a mid range PC laptop to a MBP from a cost perspective, the PC wins just about every time. But as we know, the cost and specs don't tell the whole story.
I'm not posting another in the endless line of "what computer should I buy?" messages. I'm already relatively sure that I'm jumping the PC ship. For my uses, I don't need the fastest new quad or anything, so a "last gen" 15 inch i7 would fit me well. HD and RAM not a big deal since that's an easy cheap DIY. I haven't checked out the hi-res non-glare yet, but Chicagoland is thick with Apple Stores, so it's pretty easy for me to stop and browse. My concerns would just be maintaining my PC only software (I know, Bootcamp and XP or Win7, but I don't know how well everything runs), and just where to buy. Most likely I would go back to the refurb bin at the Apple store online, but some of these Ebay prices I've been following lately are pretty tempting. I know a lot of you promote the high resale value aspect of MBPs in numerous threads here; of course the flipside of that coin is sorting out the scams online, if shopping on the used mac lot. I mean, are there that many mac folks that sell early on, even with Applecare? I've seen a LOT of "less than 6 months old, Apple care, loaded MBP, I'm downgrading / moving / don't need / etc." deals on Ebay. I will proceed cautiously, but still with an eye toward a good deal.
The one thing I am having a hard time defining though is about mini displayport audio. When exactly was the cutoff for inclusion of audio in the output? I hear early '10, mid '10, late '10, and then see "released April '10", "released October '10", etc. at the online store. Is there an easier way to decode the specs for that issue?
I guess that's all I have for now, although I'm sure I'll be back with more questions. I work due diligence with regard to my questions, but I'm guessing I may ask something that has already been answered before. My apologies in advance.
Anyway, if you made it this far, thanks for reading and sorry for the verbosity. An unfortunate side effect of an education in the language arts...
) Anyway, I rushed out and bought her another refurb MBP 13, same specs, lower price at the Apple store. After speaking with my insurance agent, apparently I should have been a little more careful about my purchase in order to maximize the insurance payout, but now her MBP is paid for, I paid the deductible, and basically I can buy about $1300 more worth of laptop and have them pick up the bill. (of course, I can get something more than $1300, but I will have to pay the difference.) Since then, I have slowly been warming up to the little MBP and I'm now using it more than she is. And I'm using it more than I use my customized PC desktop. I'm to the point now where I just like how the MBP works, and the way it feels, and I'm past looking strictly at hardware specs on paper; I mean, just comparing hardware specs from a mid range PC laptop to a MBP from a cost perspective, the PC wins just about every time. But as we know, the cost and specs don't tell the whole story.
I'm not posting another in the endless line of "what computer should I buy?" messages. I'm already relatively sure that I'm jumping the PC ship. For my uses, I don't need the fastest new quad or anything, so a "last gen" 15 inch i7 would fit me well. HD and RAM not a big deal since that's an easy cheap DIY. I haven't checked out the hi-res non-glare yet, but Chicagoland is thick with Apple Stores, so it's pretty easy for me to stop and browse. My concerns would just be maintaining my PC only software (I know, Bootcamp and XP or Win7, but I don't know how well everything runs), and just where to buy. Most likely I would go back to the refurb bin at the Apple store online, but some of these Ebay prices I've been following lately are pretty tempting. I know a lot of you promote the high resale value aspect of MBPs in numerous threads here; of course the flipside of that coin is sorting out the scams online, if shopping on the used mac lot. I mean, are there that many mac folks that sell early on, even with Applecare? I've seen a LOT of "less than 6 months old, Apple care, loaded MBP, I'm downgrading / moving / don't need / etc." deals on Ebay. I will proceed cautiously, but still with an eye toward a good deal.
The one thing I am having a hard time defining though is about mini displayport audio. When exactly was the cutoff for inclusion of audio in the output? I hear early '10, mid '10, late '10, and then see "released April '10", "released October '10", etc. at the online store. Is there an easier way to decode the specs for that issue?
I guess that's all I have for now, although I'm sure I'll be back with more questions. I work due diligence with regard to my questions, but I'm guessing I may ask something that has already been answered before. My apologies in advance.
Anyway, if you made it this far, thanks for reading and sorry for the verbosity. An unfortunate side effect of an education in the language arts...
Last edited:
