Looking at a used MBP 15" w/anti

[pjcforpres2020]

I am looking at picking up a used MBP 15" w/anti screen, and was wondering what I should look out for, as well some performance questions regarding my specific usage needs.

My main usage is front end web development. I use CS6 photoshop to edit images and get them web-ready (other tools as well for extra compression). When I do this, I am often editing a very large image, then down sizing. I also use photoshop a lot for wire framing and design mock-ups. Nothing too crazy there.

I do use DreamWeaver for the coding (on Windows right now, probably switch to something else on the MBP that is more robust and less bloated with crap I don't use, ever.)

I also do some business card/flyer design work, logo development, etc. so I do use InDesign as well, sometimes fireworks (never really gotten on board with it).

My heaviest files I deal with are print ready posters, very rarely, and more often print ready post card sized flyers.

I have no plans of setting up a testing server on the machine, I just test off my hosting account when it comes to php and other server languages (used to off a test server on my machine, but then you run into some dumb issue on the actual hosting account that can be a nightmare to then trouble shoot).

I am looking at getting an early 2011 MBP, anti-glare screen, 8gb ram, and the2.66 i7... in good shape they seem to fall in my desired price point of 1K. They also still have about 1 year of apple care left, which is nice.

Any issues from that vintage I should be vigilant about? I would assume performance wise, a setup like that should eat it up no problems, especially given what I have right now is lower specs and does alright (power adapeter is going out, and pretty sure my motherboard is on the way out since getting 'OS not found' every couple days.)

 

[simsaladimbamba]

You are looking at a mid 2010 MBP model, it is a dual core MBP with the capability of two threads per core, thus you have four virtual cores.

Performance wise it should handle your workload quite fine and it can handle 8 GB of RAM (though 2010 models are known to support 16 GB, MRoogle might help you with that) and you can get an SSD or two (Optibay route) to get a snappy computer.

Since the AG version also has more pixels to work with, you have probably enough space for all the windows and palettes you might need.

To see, how your own Mac compares to the 2010 MBP CPU-wise: CPU orientated Mac Benchmarks by Geekbench

 

[B...]

http://forum.notebookreview.com/apple-mac-os-x/616990-2011-mbp-issues-print.html

Heat is the main issue, but also look out for dead pixels.

 

[pjcforpres2020]

You are looking at a mid 2010 MBP model, it is a dual core MBP with the capability of two threads per core, thus you have four virtual cores.

Performance wise it should handle your workload quite fine and it can handle 8 GB of RAM (though 2010 models are known to support 16 GB, MRoogle might help you with that) and you can get an SSD or two (Optibay route) to get a snappy computer.

Since the AG version also has more pixels to work with, you have probably enough space for all the windows and palettes you might need.

To see, how your own Mac compares to the 2010 MBP CPU-wise: CPU orientated Mac Benchmarks by Geekbench

For some reason I was thinking all the i7's were quad core, thank you for making mention of that. Guess I will have to keep looking, not that the one I am looking at couldn't handle what I want to do (and it already has an SSD too)... but I would prefer at the least the 2011 update, with quad core. Just figure if I am spending 1K on a used MBP, it should be comparable to what I could get with 1K on a windows in those regards.

So ready to be back to a mac though, been painful since my MBP got killed by water. Couldn't even get mad at my buddy over it, total freak accident.

 

[Asuriyan]

For some reason I was thinking all the i7's were quad core, thank you for making mention of that. Guess I will have to keep looking, not that the one I am looking at couldn't handle what I want to do (and it already has an SSD too)... but I would prefer at the least the 2011 update, with quad core. Just figure if I am spending 1K on a used MBP, it should be comparable to what I could get with 1K on a windows in those regards.

So ready to be back to a mac though, been painful since my MBP got killed by water. Couldn't even get mad at my buddy over it, total freak accident.

Definitely worth watching out for a 2011 or newer model. The first-gen Arrandale Core i-series were much worse on heat output than the Sandy Bridge and Ivy Bridge, plus Thunderbolt is a nice bonus on the newer ones.