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Cmbp vs RMBP

cMbp 13 2012 for 420USD, worth it?

Hi guys, I manage to find a deal for 2nd hand cMbp 13 2012 2.5Ghz i5, 4Gb and 500Gb HDD (no more warranty) for ~420USD. is it worth it? I would love to buy rMbp of course but the price difference can be doubled or tripled.

Since I am just started using mac OS, do u think I should a cheaper option first? maybe wait until Skylake or future design/physical changes then buy a new one and sell again this cMbp (not sure about the re-sell price in the next 2-3 years, any thoughts?)?

I am currently using laptop just for browsing, watch/streaming movies, play GW2 and Team Fortress 2 (rarely) and maybe trying to edit some gopro footage using GoPro Studio (rarely). I am not sure if this cMbp can fulfill these tasks? I have an iMac mid 2011 (bought 2nd hand also), I think I can use this iMac for gaming and video editing if this cMbp 13 is not powerful enough? Thanks, appreciate your comments and help! :)
 
only reason for the cMBP these days is only if you need ridiculous amounts of internal storage, like me.
 
apoenq said:
Hi guys, I manage to find a deal for 2nd hand cMbp 13 2012 2.5Ghz i5, 4Gb and 500Gb HDD (no more warranty) for ~420USD. is it worth it? I would love to buy rMbp of course but the price difference can be doubled or tripled.

Since I am just started using mac OS, do u think I should a cheaper option first? maybe wait until Skylake or future design/physical changes then buy a new one and sell again this cMbp (not sure about the re-sell price in the next 2-3 years, any thoughts?)?

I am currently using laptop just for browsing, watch/streaming movies, play GW2 and Team Fortress 2 (rarely) and maybe trying to edit some gopro footage using GoPro Studio (rarely). I am not sure if this cMbp can fulfill these tasks? I have an iMac mid 2011 (bought 2nd hand also), I think I can use this iMac for gaming and video editing if this cMbp 13 is not powerful enough? Thanks, appreciate your comments and help! :)
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That's not a bad deal, considering those are still being sold new for twice that. However, I would stick to the iMac for heavier tasks such as gaming and video editing, and at least upgrade the cMBP with an SSD.
 
magbarn said:
Sounds like you may have gotten a bad copy of 8 or something. I have 8.1 on both of my rMBPs (a 2012/2013) via bootcamp. I did have to make an iso image from windows 8.1 DVD first and then I just followed the prompts... Maybe it's a 8.0 vs 8.1 issue?

PS I did have have to use imgburn (a windows app) to make the iso file (on my windows gaming desktop), for some reason disk utility in OS X wasn't doing it correctly.
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I don't want to get into detail because it is tltr, but I purchased win8 and downloaded several iso files from MS. It works fine on my mini, but on the mba it installs through bootcamp, but after the installation when you are supposed to setup your profile, the keyboard and trackpad do not work.

I tried everything: downloaded drivers separately, installed win 7 first, install from different drives, connected an external keyboard and/or usb keyboard and mouse, used different usb ports, called apple, called microsoft and after days of frustration just gave up.

I googled it and it's a common problem.

General advise for OP: There is no guarantee that windows will run on your mac!
 
redheeler said:
That's not a bad deal, considering those are still being sold new for twice that. However, I would stick to the iMac for heavier tasks such as gaming and video editing, and at least upgrade the cMBP with an SSD.
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Hi thanks for your reply. Yap noted will use iMac for gaming and video editing. Yeah thinking to upgrade the RAM and change to SSD. Do you know roughly how much to upgrade RAM to 8GB and SSD 256GB? Is it difficult to do it myself? should I pay someone who is more expert to do the upgrade? thanks!
 
apoenq said:
Hi guys, I manage to find a deal for 2nd hand cMbp 13 2012 2.5Ghz i5, 4Gb and 500Gb HDD (no more warranty) for ~420USD. is it worth it? I would love to buy rMbp of course but the price difference can be doubled or tripled.
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$420 is an awesome deal on that, I got mine for $450. It's capable of some gaming and video editing but I highly recommend you look into upgrading the RAM (especially since the GPU shares RAM with the rest of the system) and maybe an SSD as well.

apoenq said:
Do you know roughly how much to upgrade RAM to 8GB and SSD 256GB? Is it difficult to do it myself? should I pay someone who is more expert to do the upgrade? thanks!
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I paid a little under $50 for an 8 GB upgrade kit, and expect to pay about twice that if you wanna go all the way and upgrade to 16 GB. A good 250 GB SSD will set you back around $100 or so.

Upgrading both the RAM and hard drive are fairly easy, just unscrew the bottom case and you instantly have access to the RAM slots. For the hard drive, you'll need to unscrew a small bracket, carefully unplug the original hard drive (since the SATA cables in these are quite fragile), undo the four posts on the sides of the hard drive and then transfer them to your SSD. After that it's straightforward.
 
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blangst1 said:
Let's beat this dead horse some more. Looking at buying one of these 2 models. I like the idea of upgrades that can be done to regular but I seem like I'm cheating myself out of brand new retina awesomeness. Share your opinions and comments please!

13" retina vs 13" non retina
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13 non-retina: unless you need the built-in (and sometimes legacy) interfaces, there no reason to buy it. If you need them, you'll probably be saving money for not having to buy adapters and peripherals (TB-to-GigabitEthernet, TB-to-Firewire, external DVD drive, audio input). Although you can install a top-notch SATA-III SSD and 16GB of RAM, you'll get just average battery life.

13 retina: faster out of the box, greater battery life, fast but small capacity ssd, lack of corporate-driven ports.

Currently there's no reason to buy a brand new classic Macbook Pro, IMHO. If you get a good deal on a used one, then, yes, it's still a nice laptop to have.
 
ApolloBoy said:
$420 is an awesome deal on that, I got mine for $450. It's capable of some gaming and video editing but I highly recommend you look into upgrading the RAM (especially since the GPU shares RAM with the rest of the system) and maybe an SSD as well.


I paid a little under $50 for an 8 GB upgrade kit, and expect to pay about twice that if you wanna go all the way and upgrade to 16 GB. A good 250 GB SSD will set you back around $100 or so.

Upgrading both the RAM and hard drive are fairly easy, just unscrew the bottom case and you instantly have access to the RAM slots. For the hard drive, you'll need to unscrew a small bracket, carefully unplug the original hard drive (since the SATA cables in these are quite fragile), undo the four posts on the sides of the hard drive and then transfer them to your SSD. After that it's straightforward.
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Hi thanks for your reply. :) oh ic, but is it worth 150-200USD to upgrade the RAM and SSD for this cMbp? cos I can get ~820USD for rMbp 15" 2012.. hmm.. what is your thought on this?
 
apoenq said:
Hi thanks for your reply. :) oh ic, but is it worth 150-200USD to upgrade the RAM and SSD for this cMbp? cos I can get ~820USD for rMbp 15" 2012.. hmm.. what is your thought on this?
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It depends on your needs and portability requirements. A 15" rMBP will have a faster quad core CPU but has a larger footprint than the 13" cMBP. I believe the weight of the two is about the same.
 
apoenq said:
Hi thanks for your reply. :) oh ic, but is it worth 150-200USD to upgrade the RAM and SSD for this cMbp? cos I can get ~820USD for rMbp 15" 2012.. hmm.. what is your thought on this?
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It's absolutely worth it. Even after all is said and done you've spent about $200 or so less than that rMBP and you've got a computer that'll last for several more years. Also keep in mind that the average going rate for used cMBPs is between $600-700 so that's still an amazing deal you got.
 
Meister said:
I recently tried to install windows 8 on a 2013 mba through bootcamp with no success.
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Apple ditched support for Windows 8.0. You now have to install Windows 8.1 from scratch. ...or: just use Parallels or Vmware.
 
ApolloBoy said:
It's absolutely worth it. Even after all is said and done you've spent about $200 or so less than that rMBP and you've got a computer that'll last for several more years. Also keep in mind that the average going rate for used cMBPs is between $600-700 so that's still an amazing deal you got.
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Hi thanks for your reply. I am thinking to buy cMbp now. hopefully, I wont regret this decision. :) anyone else got comments? :)
 
i just upgraded from a cMBP (I upgraded RAM and SSD myself) to MBPr and I'll never go back. Don't do it man. Retina and faster everything is worth the small increase in price
 
If you want to know how the laptop will affect every second of your usage of it, stop asking about the CPU clock speed and SSD interface.

Instead, ask about how much easier that retina display will be on your eyes at the end of the day.

I think even a color-inaccurate retina display is worth the upgrade because it FEELS so much better to use every second you use it. Good luck recognizing the difference in clock speeds in real life usage :p

If I had to pick one upgrade over the 2012 models that I would keep, it would be the retina display, hands down. I don't mind a slower laptop if my eyes don't hurt when I'm looking at it all day.
 
apoenq said:
Hi thanks for your reply. I am thinking to buy cMbp now. hopefully, I wont regret this decision. :) anyone else got comments? :)
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Lol OP are you trolling us? I don't know why anyone would get the cMBP. It's much slower, outdated, with far fewer pixels, and 95% of the price of retina. It's silly Apple still sells it.

Source: I own both.
 
cMBP

I've seen this term mentioned a few times on this site. What does the "c" stand for in cMBP?

thanks in advance
 
Zakzilla said:
Lol OP are you trolling us? I don't know why anyone would get the cMBP. It's much slower, outdated, with far fewer pixels, and 95% of the price of retina. It's silly Apple still sells it.

Source: I own both.
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hi, thanks for your comment. i am not buying a new macbook. 2nd hand cMbp 13" 2012 cost me ~420USD and 2nd hand rMbp 15" 2012 is ~820USD. So it is almost 2x difference. I am new to mac system and am mainly using it for web browsing and streaming movies. regarding portability, i believe both of them are the same weight with rMbp has bigger in size. do u think i should go to rMbp? thanks.
 
apoenq said:
hi, thanks for your comment. i am not buying a new macbook. 2nd hand cMbp 13" 2012 cost me ~420USD and 2nd hand rMbp 15" 2012 is ~820USD. So it is almost 2x difference. I am new to mac system and am mainly using it for web browsing and streaming movies. regarding portability, i believe both of them are the same weight with rMbp has bigger in size. do u think i should go to rMbp? thanks.
Click to expand...

Go for the rMBP, it's a disgrace that Apple is still selling an outdated model from 2012 that only has a mediocre iGPU and no SSD.

The rMBP is lighter, faster (because of the SSD as standard) and also the retina display is totally worth it.
 
b0fh666 said:
only reason for the cMBP these days is only if you need ridiculous amounts of internal storage, like me.
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You can buy a first-gen rMBP for that and swab the SSD with a hard disk. Just look at the instructions at ifixit.
 
mayuka said:
You can buy a first-gen rMBP for that and swab the SSD with a hard disk.
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You can't add a conventional hard drive to an rMBP. An external one yes, but not an internal disk.

yjchua95 said:
Go for the rMBP, it's a disgrace that Apple is still selling an outdated model from 2012 that only has a mediocre iGPU and no SSD.
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But as I pointed out, he could add an SSD and a RAM upgrade to that cMBP and he'd still be getting an excellent deal on a perfectly useable computer. One other thing to keep in mind is that the cMBP has an easily replaceable battery whereas the rMBP has it glued to the case (!) and is a PITA to remove.
 
ApolloBoy said:
You can't add a conventional hard drive to an rMBP. An external one yes, but not an internal disk.


But as I pointed out, he could add an SSD and a RAM upgrade to that cMBP and he'd still be getting an excellent deal on a perfectly useable computer. One other thing to keep in mind is that the cMBP has an easily replaceable battery whereas the rMBP has it glued to the case (!) and is a PITA to remove.
Click to expand...

Speaking of value for money, how about this.

By the time you add an SSD and 8GB of RAM to a brand new cMBP to bring it up to the specs of a similarly-specced rMBP, it's already going to be just about $100-200 below that of the rMBP, and you're still stuck with the horrible non-retina display, mediocre iGPU, thick chassis and a heavier weight.

A spinning disk shouldn't exist inside a portable - it's just asking for it to die faster considering that a laptop is always moved around.
 
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