Good deal? New to Macs

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calebvt9

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jun 21, 2013
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I am looking at getting this macbook pro. I need one for live music and recording. And it needs to run the program omnisphere (minimum 2.4 ghz processor and recommended 8gb RAM).

Mid 2010 Macbook Pro 15" / i7 2.8Ghz /8GB RAM/500 GB SSD $1200

It is obviously used and has applecare until Oct of this year. I will eventually need 8gb of ram and an SSD, which this already has. What do you guys think of this deal? I don't know much about Macs so I want to make sure I am not getting screwed. Thanks.
 
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NewishMacGuy

NewishMacGuy

macrumors 6502a
Aug 2, 2007
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Nope, not a particularly good deal. It's fully priced.

The 8GB upgrade is worth about $40 or so. While the 500GB SSD is nice, you'd have to figure it's value at about $250 or possibly less (depending on how used it is). So at $1200 that leaves the price for the base 2010 uMBP-15 at around $900, which is too much.

It's a nice machine, but anything older than Sandy Bridge (2011) at this point deserves a steep drop off in value IMO.


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calebvt9

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jun 21, 2013
8
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NewishMacGuy said:
Nope, not a particularly good deal. It's fully priced.

The 8GB upgrade is worth about $40 or so. While the 500GB SSD is nice, you'd have to figure it's value at about $250 or possibly less (depending on how used it is). So at $1200 that leaves the price for the base 2010 uMBP-15 at around $900, which is too much.

It's a nice machine, but anything older than Sandy Bridge (2011) at this point deserves a steep drop off in value IMO.


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Hmm...

Does a Sandy Bridge make a big performance difference? Would buying an Apple refurbished 2.53ghz i5 from June 2012 be better than this 2.8ghz i7 from mid 2010? Remember, being able to run Omishpere (at the same time as Ableton Live) is important to me. Omnisphere is the only reason I am looking for so much power.

Thanks for the help btw
 
dusk007

dusk007

macrumors 68040
Dec 5, 2009
3,386
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Not if you compare the dual cores. between those mentioned there isn't a big difference. Barely any at all.
I assume with 2.53Ghz i5 you are talking about a 13".

Sandybridge has faster memory access and integrated GPU. On a 15" with dGPU the Arrendale GPU is still fine for just saving battery life and the memory access latency difference doesn't make a huge difference. The cores are otherwise not too far apart.
A 15" Sandybridge comes as a Quad Core which is a lot faster than the 2010 15" dual cores.
 
dusk007

dusk007

macrumors 68040
Dec 5, 2009
3,386
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Honestly I got one but I wouldn't either.
You get a big 15" notebook which in performance doesn't do significantly better than some modern Ultrabook in Speed. Macs have a way too high resale value because some people just want the brand more than a good notebook. I think it isn't worth the money and a 3 year old battery isn't great. 2011 15" is a different story.

1200 I think is just too much unless that is your budget limit and you have to have a Mac in 15" and you really only care about normal use stuff (office, media). It won't be a bad notebook but 1200 bucks for something this old and slow just seems weird. It is still a good screen, touchpad and so on.

For 1200 bucks you can have mine and that one has an AG 1680x1050 display, 8GB, SSD+HDD and is in great condition. I would then get a ultrabook or Samsung 770Z5E as a replacement for myself.
It is by no means bad or insufficient for anything other than gaming but it seems way too much money. It is really only Macs that are this expensive when this old. You effectively get the performance of a current Macbook Air. With Turbo the CPUs aren't that far apart and the HD 5000 is about the same as a 330M. It is just a bigger nicer screen (the panel is much better than in the Air) but no USB 3.0, no Thunderbolt (though I wouldn't miss that one).
 
ecschwarz

ecschwarz

macrumors 65816
Jun 28, 2010
1,239
229
calebvt9 said:
And why is that?
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In addition to AirPlay mirroring (if you get or have an Apple TV, it's a handy extra feature), it also has a Thunderbolt port (prior models only have a Mini DisplayPort). Thunderbolt offers some more flexibility for future expansion, too (although that really depends on how much you want to spend on peripherals).
 
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calebvt9

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jun 21, 2013
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johnnnw said:
Way overpriced.

I wouldn't buy a 2010 for $1200
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Yea, the thing is I am going to need the SSD and 8gb ram upgrades, which are about $400 themselves.

I think I am going to go new and the the 2.5 ghz i5. However, I am a little worried about running a program with a min requirement of 2.4 ghz on a 2.5 ghz machine.
 

smithrh

smithrh

macrumors 68020
Feb 28, 2009
2,471
853
I looked at Omnisphere - there's no demo, which I would have suggested trying before buying.

I'm not sure if you've already bought Omnisphere or not. If not, since Omnisphere is pretty spendy and there's no demo, I'd call them up, ask for Sales and ask them straight out if that Mac will handle it.

If they say "no" then that's a good, honest answer, and you'll know you need a better computer.

If they say "sure" then one of two things:

1) it works as advertised and you're happy

2) it doesn't work well - now you can ask for a refund as you were told it would work on that computer and it doesn't.

Key here is to actually talk to someone in Sales and get them to commit. Take down their name and when you talked.

Now, if you already have Omnisphere, I'd contact Support for a technical answer.
 
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calebvt9

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jun 21, 2013
8
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smithrh said:
I looked at Omnisphere - there's no demo, which I would have suggested trying before buying.

I'm not sure if you've already bought Omnisphere or not. If not, since Omnisphere is pretty spendy and there's no demo, I'd call them up, ask for Sales and ask them straight out if that Mac will handle it.

If they say "no" then that's a good, honest answer, and you'll know you need a better computer.

If they say "sure" then one of two things:

1) it works as advertised and you're happy

2) it doesn't work well - now you can ask for a refund as you were told it would work on that computer and it doesn't.

Key here is to actually talk to someone in Sales and get them to commit. Take down their name and when you talked.

Now, if you already have Omnisphere, I'd contact Support for a technical answer.
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This is good advice. I really appreciate it.

But no I don't have neither the program nor the Mac yet. Starting from scratch here (and trying to stay affordable)
 
smithrh

smithrh

macrumors 68020
Feb 28, 2009
2,471
853
calebvt9 said:
This is good advice. I really appreciate it.

But no I don't have neither the program nor the Mac yet. Starting from scratch here (and trying to stay affordable)
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Then I highly recommend asking Sales about your specific Mac's specs and if that's going to work with their software.

I also noticed you opened a different thread on CPU differences, you might consider just posting one thread with all of your related questions the next time around. I think you got the answer you needed in that thread - the CPUs, even at lower frequencies, are actually more powerful.

I suspect you'll be fine with that app and a new Mac - but definitely check first!
 
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calebvt9

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jun 21, 2013
8
0
smithrh said:
Then I highly recommend asking Sales about your specific Mac's specs and if that's going to work with their software.

I also noticed you opened a different thread on CPU differences, you might consider just posting one thread with all of your related questions the next time around. I think you got the answer you needed in that thread - the CPUs, even at lower frequencies, are actually more powerful.

I suspect you'll be fine with that app and a new Mac - but definitely check first!
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yea sorry. This thread seemed to had taken a different direction than I wanted. And also seemed to have died so I posted the other one. However then someone commented and brought this one back.

Thanks again for the help.
 

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