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Do You Like This MacBook Pro?

Christopher11

Christopher11

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Feb 10, 2007
707
66
I think you might find an M1 MBA faster than this machine. I still have one of these i9 machines and it is a dog compared to anything with Apple Silicon installed. It also overheats in the blink of an eye. The only reason to buy it would be to run Intel Windows VMs. So unless you must have 4 TB SSD and you need to run Intel Windows VMs I would give this a miss and buy a new 14" M3Pro MacBook Pro for about the same money, or even a well optioned 15" M2 MBA.
 
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Christopher11 said:
It's on Ebay

MacBook Pro 16 inch, 5.0GHZ i9, OPEN BOX, 64GB RAM, 4TB SSD Space Gray. ​


www.ebay.com

EXCELLENT MacBook Pro 16 inch, 5.0GHZ i9, OPEN BOX, 64GB RAM, 4TB SSD Space Gray | eBay

MASSIVE 4TB SSD - MASSIVE STORAGE. MASSIVE 4TB Flash Storage. UPGRADED 64GB RAM. 64GB of 2666MHz DDR4 RAM. 2019-2022 MACBOOK PRO 16". PRISTINE CONDITION - ONLY 186 CYCLE COUNTS - INCLUDES BOX. AMD Radeon Pro 5500M Graphics Card w/8GB of Dedicated Video RAM.
www.ebay.com
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It might seem like a deal, but it is not. They are notorious to overheat, have logic board and SSD failures. I owned a 2019 i9 for less than a year and it was sent back to apple 3 times for these issues. Caveat Emptor!!
 
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rovostrov said:
It might seem like a deal, but it is not. They are notorious to overheat, have logic board and SSD failures. I owned a 2019 i9 for less than a year and it was sent back to apple 3 times for these issues. Caveat Emptor!!
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Thank you. If you had the money, would you ever just go an configure one at the Apple store and buy it new? When I set mine up, with 64 GB RAM and 4 TB hd, it ends up over $5 thousand dollars. I suppose that's okay if I use it for the next seven years without issue. Expensive though.
 
There is no i9 MBP that ever ran at 5GHz. The most was 2.4GHz. Sounds scammy to me. Also they weren't made in 2022 either, so "2019-2022" is incorrect. They stopped making them in late 2021 when the M1 Pro and Max redesigns released. Also, $2000 seems high. I just sold mine, which is similar but 32GB RAM and 2TB SSD for about $1000 on Swappa. No way those upgrades are worth a $1000 premium at this point with Apple Silicon.
 
macduke said:
There is no i9 MBP that ever ran at 5GHz. The most was 2.4GHz. Sounds scammy to me.
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I think they took this straight out of Apple's blurb: "Turbo Boost up to 5.0GHz".
macduke said:
Also they weren't made in 2022 either, so "2019-2022" is incorrect.
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Such a scammy oversight. Absolutely. You'd think that asking price would be worth a little bit more effort.
 
Christopher11 said:
Thank you. If you had the money, would you ever just go an configure one at the Apple store and buy it new? When I set mine up, with 64 GB RAM and 4 TB hd, it ends up over $5 thousand dollars. I suppose that's okay if I use it for the next seven years without issue. Expensive though.
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I dont think I would configure and buy new from Apple. It's just my personal preference as I find their fee to upgrade the RAM & SSD outrageous. I would first look and see if any of their refurbished units would be a good fit. Next, I'd look on eBay for one from a reputable seller that preferably still has AppleCare+. There are some good deals out there but you have to look around a bit to find them.
 
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It's not a bad machine by any means but probably a little overpriced, even with those specs.
 
That's a terrible deal. It's open box. You have no idea what could be wrong with it. Did I also mention it's a terrible deal? That laptop is notorious for randomly failing SSDs, heat issues, and other fun goodies. Apple is also killing Intel and you're only going to get a couple more years of support out of that thing. If you're going to get something used, get an Apple refurb: https://www.apple.com/shop/refurbished

Apple refurbs are painstakingly tested by Apple and you generally have less to worry about when it comes to functionality with a refurb than brand new because Apple makes absolutely sure nothing is wrong with it before selling it at a discount. You also get the same one-year warranty as a new product while also being able to purchase Apple Care on top of it.
 
DMG35 said:
It's not a bad machine by any means but probably a little overpriced, even with those specs.
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A little overpriced? It's a terrible machine and will bring nothing but frustration. An M1 Air will run rings around it outside some very specific niche tasks. I had one of these lemons.
 
whitby said:
I think you might find an M1 MBA faster than this machine. I still have one of these i9 machines and it is a dog compared to anything with Apple Silicon installed. It also overheats in the blink of an eye. The only reason to buy it would be to run Intel Windows VMs. So unless you must have 4 TB SSD and you need to run Intel Windows VMs I would give this a miss and buy a new 14" M3Pro MacBook Pro for about the same money, or even a well optioned 15" M2 MBA.
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Yup. It is a good box for someone forced to do Wintel, but otherwise pass.
 
No way I'd buy any Intel Mac in 2023. At best you'll get 1-2 OS updates (if any...) and also those things are ticking time bombs and bound to fail eventually. Just no.
 
mouthster said:
A little overpriced? It's a terrible machine and will bring nothing but frustration. An M1 Air will run rings around it outside some very specific niche tasks. I had one of these lemons.
Click to expand...

That's a bit hyperbolic. Yes of course an M1 will be faster, that's not what he asked though. Its still a capable MacBook Pro depending on what he wants to use it for. And for its memory and storage, it is overpriced but not massively so.
 
While the specs may seem nice, you are still paying 2k for a dead platform and significantly lower battery life. Buy it if running windows is crucial, else go Mx and buy external storage.
 
Christopher11 said:
Thank you. If you had the money, would you ever just go an configure one at the Apple store and buy it new? When I set mine up, with 64 GB RAM and 4 TB hd, it ends up over $5 thousand dollars. I suppose that's okay if I use it for the next seven years without issue. Expensive though.
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absolutely buy either new or refurbished from apple instead of an older intel machine.

Do you really need 4 TB of onboard storage? Buy an external thunderbolt drive for storage, don't pay Apple for those ridiculous storage prices.

Also what's your use case? Do you really need 64GB of RAM? (again apple's pricing here is ridiculous and this option is also gated to the M3 Max chip which makes things eve more expensive) a 16 inch with M3 Pro and 36 GB of RAM is going to be much cheaper and will run circles around any Intel machine. (unless you really just need that much RAM)
 
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Well perhaps you're right. I run Logic Pro X with tons of plug ins and processing. So 64GB seemed a safer bet. Well I've got a 2 TB HD on this macbook, and it's pretty easy to fill and run into issues with all my samples, VSTs and projects. An external drive would run fast enough that I could run it alongside Logic, for example with a VST of 40GB or more on it, and not have throughput issues? It seemed better to just have it there as the native drive.
 
Christopher11 said:
Well perhaps you're right. I run Logic Pro X with tons of plug ins and processing. So 64GB seemed a safer bet. Well I've got a 2 TB HD on this macbook, and it's pretty easy to fill and run into issues with all my samples, VSTs and projects. An external drive would run fast enough that I could run it alongside Logic, for example with a VST of 40GB or more on it, and not have throughput issues? It seemed better to just have it there as the native drive.
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This is a good option for superfast external storage: https://www.amazon.com/SAMSUNG-Port...prefix=nvme+ssd+external,aps,129&sr=8-15&th=1
 
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As an Amazon Associate, MacRumors earns a commission from qualifying purchases made through links in this post.
Christopher11 said:
Well perhaps you're right. I run Logic Pro X with tons of plug ins and processing. So 64GB seemed a safer bet. Well I've got a 2 TB HD on this macbook, and it's pretty easy to fill and run into issues with all my samples, VSTs and projects. An external drive would run fast enough that I could run it alongside Logic, for example with a VST of 40GB or more on it, and not have throughput issues? It seemed better to just have it there as the native drive.
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Oh fair enough! Perhaps you do need the RAM!

For external drives as long as you're actually getting an external thunderbolt 3/4 one with speedy storage you should be ok and still get at least 3000Mbps speeds. It seems a lot of people recommend getting an Acasis enclosure with a samsung SSD. (980/990 Pro).

edit: note:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Thunderbolt/comments/10g5iv6
 
NO.

If you're going to buy a used MacBook Pro, buy it from the Apple online refurbished store.
That way you KNOW what you're going to get.

My opinion only.
Others will disagree.
Some will disagree vehemently.
 
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rovostrov said:
I dont think I would configure and buy new from Apple. It's just my personal preference as I find their fee to upgrade the RAM & SSD outrageous. I would first look and see if any of their refurbished units would be a good fit. Next, I'd look on eBay for one from a reputable seller that preferably still has AppleCare+. There are some good deals out there but you have to look around a bit to find them.
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My experience suggests that finding a high RAM box from a reputable dealer (reputable being hard for me to determine) is difficult to impossible. And no one seeking info here should be buying low RAM boxes.

So I usually do end up configuring and buy new or refurbished from Apple. Unfortunately refurbs usually have the (not acceptable) lower RAM problem. I have found both Smalldog Electronics and B&H Photo very reputable for decades, and sometimes one of them has a good used/refurb deal with adequate RAM. E.g. right now Smalldog has an M1 Ultra Studio with 64 GB RAM, 1 TB SSD refurb for ~$2800. Those are low spec for an Ultra, but a screaming fast box good price that would be a good choice for a Mini user stepping up. I would buy that box myself if I was not in the midst of a cash new vehicle purchase.
 
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Christopher11 said:
It's on Ebay

MacBook Pro 16 inch, 5.0GHZ i9, OPEN BOX, 64GB RAM, 4TB SSD Space Gray. ​


www.ebay.com

EXCELLENT MacBook Pro 16 inch, 5.0GHZ i9, OPEN BOX, 64GB RAM, 4TB SSD Space Gray | eBay

MASSIVE 4TB SSD - MASSIVE STORAGE. MASSIVE 4TB Flash Storage. UPGRADED 64GB RAM. 64GB of 2666MHz DDR4 RAM. 2019-2022 MACBOOK PRO 16". PRISTINE CONDITION - ONLY 186 CYCLE COUNTS - INCLUDES BOX. AMD Radeon Pro 5500M Graphics Card w/8GB of Dedicated Video RAM.
www.ebay.com
Click to expand...
How long before apple drops support?
How noisy will this be at full load?
and it would come with Zero warranty.

If you need to save a few $$$ buy refurbished from apple, they are basically new devices and come with full apple warranty, along with option to add apple care within 15 days of purchase, I ordered a Studio Display VESA mount from there and couldnt be happier.
 
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