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2011 Refurb high end (feb) VS Brand New low end (oct)

C

Cedthebeast

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 29, 2011
18
0
So I'm still debating on these two, I will buy it regardless next week and I will be getting it through my cousin who works at the apple store. Here's the breakdown.

2011 REFURB HIGH END (FEB)
-Price: 1580 + tax
-2.2 quad core
-4GB (2 x 2GB) of 1333MHz DDR3 SDRAM
-750GB Serial ATA @ 5400 rpm
-Intel HD Graphics 3000 and AMD Radeon HD 6750M w/ 1GB

VS

2011 BRAND NEW LOW END (OCT)
-Price: 1350 + tax
-2.2 quad core
-4GB (2 x 2GB) of 1333MHz DDR3 SDRAM
-500GB Serial ATA @ 5400 rpm
-Intel HD Graphics 3000 and AMD Radeon HD 6750M w/ 512MB

What I will use it for:
-Some Gaming (dota 2, star wars old republic, CS)
-Video editing for youtube..
-Photo shop
-School Crap
-Youtube and daily stuff
-I WILL USE IT EVERYDAY

THINGS I PLAN TO DO TO IT:
-Add SSD
-Add Ram

Now the two big things that bug me are:
-the difference in vram
-refurb vs brand new

So I would like to know what would be the best way to go about my problem?
Exactly how much of a difference will I see in performance? How much will I see in difference between the VRAM? (this one kinda bugs me most) Will I be safe for games today?
 
Cedthebeast said:
So I'm still debating on these two, I will buy it regardless next week and I will be getting it through my cousin who works at the apple store. Here's the breakdown.

2011 REFURB HIGH END (FEB)
-Price: 1580 + tax
-2.2 quad core
-4GB (2 x 2GB) of 1333MHz DDR3 SDRAM
-750GB Serial ATA @ 5400 rpm
-Intel HD Graphics 3000 and AMD Radeon HD 6750M w/ 1GB

VS

2011 BRAND NEW LOW END (OCT)
-Price: 1350 + tax
-2.2 quad core
-4GB (2 x 2GB) of 1333MHz DDR3 SDRAM
-500GB Serial ATA @ 5400 rpm
-Intel HD Graphics 3000 and AMD Radeon HD 6750M w/ 512MB

What I will use it for:
-Some Gaming (dota 2, star wars old republic, CS)
-Video editing for youtube..
-Photo shop
-School Crap
-Youtube and daily stuff
-I WILL USE IT EVERYDAY

THINGS I PLAN TO DO TO IT:
-Add SSD
-Add Ram

Now the two big things that bug me are:
-the difference in vram
-refurb vs brand new

So I would like to know what would be the best way to go about my problem?
Exactly how much of a difference will I see in performance? How much will I see in difference between the VRAM? (this one kinda bugs me most) Will I be safe for games today?
Click to expand...

both refurb and new are *basically* the same, but refurb isn't in original box (most of the time) and the refurb was repaired/returned, then inspected and basically brought back to new condition. As for the VRAM that will not affect performance but in game, and more VRAM only helps at higher resolutions, so if you want the best quality (max res, ect.) get the refurb, if you don't mind turning down the resolution, not all the way but not all the way up, and playing on the same settings you would with the extra VRAM, I Recommend getting the new and putting the extra money twords an SSD and more ram.
 
the CPU is actually different. According to wikipedia:
high end early 2011: 2.2 GHz quad-core (2720QM) Intel Core i7 Sandy Bridge with 6 MB on-chip L3 cache
low end late 2011: 2.2 GHz (2675QM) quad-core Intel Core i7 Sandy Bridge with 6 MB on-chip L3 cache

now, again going to wikipedia, the 2720QM has a higher turbo clock speed (3.3 GHZ vs. 3.1 GHZ) and supports 1600 MHZ DDR3 RAM.

So you have this + more storage + more VRAM. I don't know if there are other differences.


References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacBook_Pro
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandy_Bridge
 
More and more games are starting to want 1gb vram, so that may sway decision. It's why I got the highend earlier.
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A334 Safari/7534.48.3)

The early may restrict you from using a 6G SSD if you might be going that route. Also, is your budget THAT strict that you can't spend the little extra for the Late high/er end model?
 
iMacDragon said:
More and more games are starting to want 1gb vram, so that may sway decision. It's why I got the highend earlier.
Click to expand...

This.

Last year I would have said 512mb would have been enough on a midrange card but that isn't really the case anymore.

Also, the early 2011 model has AES-NI and VT-D support. I have it, I don't have any apps that utilise it so it's mostly useless IMO. I can't think of any apps that actually support those features in OSX but maybe you can.
 
Ant.honey said:
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A334 Safari/7534.48.3)

The early may restrict you from using a 6G SSD if you might be going that route. Also, is your budget THAT strict that you can't spend the little extra for the Late high/er end model?
Click to expand...

hm is 6g ssd the fastest? or what is it?
 
If the 200 dollars is an issue, get the new one and buy a ps3 for 200. If you already have a ps3, get the refurb.
 
Cedthebeast said:
hm is 6g ssd the fastest? or what is it?
Click to expand...
At the moment, it's the fastest. It's up to you if you need it, or will really benefit from it. I sent back two refurbs because of issues with an OWC 6G Extreme. When Apple did it's latest update to the Macbook Pro I went ahead and got the latest. Typing from it now, everything appears to be working well so far.

The EFI 2.2 firmware update helped many peoples early 2011 Macbook Pro Sata III / 6G SSD issues - just didn't for my two machines.
 
Last edited:
Refurb (Feb 2011) vs New (Oct 2011)

I looked at both of these and went the refurb route. In the US there was a $100 saving ($1699 vs $1799) if I went with a refurb. Based on some of the geek bench scores the newer models are a few percent faster. I was more interested in the 1 GB of VRAM in the refurb model and also got the 500GB drive with 7200 RPM. I plan to add more RAM next week and switch to a SSD later using the original HD as an external drive for Time Machine.
 
Ant.honey said:
At the moment, it's the fastest. It's up to you if you need it, or will really benefit from it. I sent back two refurbs because of issues with an OWC 6G Extreme. When Apple did it's latest update to the Macbook Pro I went ahead and got the latest. Typing from it now, everything appears to be working well so far.

The EFI 2.2 firmware update helped many peoples early 2011 Macbook Pro Sata III / 6G SSD issues - just didn't for my two machines.
Click to expand...

aw man that does suck...firmware issues then huh?



JT123 said:
Here only $200 more Australian, I have not idea what currency you are using:

http://www.ebay.com.au/ctg/Apple-Ma...3A2%7C39%3A1%7C72%3A5520&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14

Have a look at this one too:

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/15-Apple...19526516?pt=Apple_Laptops&hash=item45fe51f174

If you can do it, get the high end one because of the fact that the Graphics Card has been updated to a newer one.

I don't think this one should be too much more expensive.
Click to expand...


Well those prices are above the prices I can get them for so my choices are cheaper, thanks though.

----------

now I am currently debating on the high end late october one, BUT for the price, I don't truly feel it's worth the bang for the buck...idk what do you guys think?

I'm still debating on the refurbished one, but Ant.Honey pointed out some firmware issues on the early 2011 mbps..which kinda gets me EHHH.


I'm one of the most indecisive people ever.
 
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