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afgarza

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 1, 2012
9
0
I have the opportunity to buy an Mbp 13" Core i7 2.8, 4gigas Ram, 750 Hard Disk at 1200 dollars (used) but in really good shape and with 9 months of warranty...
What do you recomend me.. buy it or wait till mbp 2012 appear??

I am using a laptop core 2 duo, 2gigas ram, 80 hard disk, without web cam nor speakers (and old old machine that i forgot somewhere and now i found it..)

I have to say, that i sold my mbp 13" mid 2010, few weeks ago, becouse i want to buy a newer one..
 
i forgot to say, that if i wait i will have the same budget.. 1200 this mean that i will be able to buy only the basic mbp 13"...
 
I've recently got a 15" Macbook Pro ( knowing that a new model is most likely really close ) and I am happy with my purchase. Chances are that the new model will not be significantly better... of course, it will have a newer processor and maybe a slightly updated GPU ( although I saw no rumor / news regarding the GPU ), but in the end, it won't be as if the notebook doubles or triples it's performance.

I am a software engineer by trade and although speed is important to me, it does not justify waiting 1-2 months ( or more ) for a "slight improvement" ( I say "slight" because in "real life", 90% of the users will most likely not see a huge difference in speed - if any at all - when comparing Ivy Bridge to Sandy Bridge ). Of course, when people will start running benchmarks then the new model's score will most likely be higher and everyone will be "Woow, so coool!" but as I have already mentioned, most of them will surely not notice a real life difference anyway ( they can brag about having a higher score, but that's kinda it ) because they will never use the notebook to it's full potential ( based on your model choice, I am assuming you are not a professional editor who needs a crap-load of power for rendering / encoding video and such and nor will you be using the notebook to perform other high demanding tasks on the daily basis - I do not mention gaming because any model will run most of the games "decently" but since it's not a notebook designed with gaming in mind, it of course will not start blowing games out of the water - nor will the next model ).

Instead of waiting for the new model ( except if you are in no rush and you really want to see what the new model has to offer before you do anything ), I suggest you pull a tiny bit of money from somewhere and replace the HDD with an SSD. Having an SSD will lead to a visible speed improvement over the HDD ( something that even + or - 0.5 GHz of CPU speed don't always really show ) and I am 100% sure that you'll be extremely happy with the purchase, even if it's not the latest available model on the market.
 
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consider that putting a SSD from apple store by default costs more than getting one by yourself and if you try it yourself you void your warranty

1-2 months might mean to have it shipped by Apple itself at a lower price than now, basically if you make an income with the machine, your income will be repaying the actual overexpense (+ssd), but if you do not make a living, you will just overpay now.

however enjoy your 2011 :)
 
consider that putting a SSD from apple store by default costs more than getting one by yourself and if you try it yourself you void your warranty

1-2 months might mean to have it shipped by Apple itself at a lower price than now, basically if you make an income with the machine, your income will be repaying the actual overexpense (+ssd), but if you do not make a living, you will just overpay now.

however enjoy your 2011 :)
SSD bought directly from Apple is indeed overpriced BUT replacing it WILL NOT void your warranty since on the "Pro models" the HDD / SSD and Memory are user replaceable ( of course, this assuming that you know how to replace such components and won't damage other parts of the system in the process, because your warranty won't cover such damage )! This is clearly stated in official Apple manuals / documents such as the following ( check page 36 ): http://manuals.info.apple.com/en_US/macbook_pro_13inch_early2011.pdf
 
consider that putting a SSD from apple store by default costs more than getting one by yourself and if you try it yourself you void your warranty

1-2 months might mean to have it shipped by Apple itself at a lower price than now, basically if you make an income with the machine, your income will be repaying the actual overexpense (+ssd), but if you do not make a living, you will just overpay now.

however enjoy your 2011 :)

Assuming you're placing it where an ssd is meant to go and not the optical bay, it should not void the warranty. I recall that remaining a user serviceable part. If you do put one in place of the optical drive, switch it back if you ever require warranty service. The same goes for third party ram, which also doesn't void the warranty.
 
Realistically we're 1-2months way (*me thinks 2). If you can wait, wait. If not, buy. Simple.

Yes, there is the speculations of redesign and benefits of new core from intel, but that's not important. What's important is what you need verses what you want.
 
soon

I'm relatively certain we'll get new macbooks/pros in the next 60 days if not sooner.
 
I am kinda new here, but I'm going to say wait. I am waiting for my first Mac when they release new new MacBook Pros. I got an iPad 2 about a month before the iPad 3 (new iPad, whatever), and I'd be lying if I said I didn't regret it just a little bit. They are expensive, and it's a good idea to future proof yourself as much as possible with them. So unless you really need it (for work, school, exact.) before May, I'd wait.
 
Well, actually i love gadgets and so..
so .. i was thinking on buying the mbp and a SSD, or maybe the
Seagate Momentus XT 500GB Solid State Hybrid Drive

If I buy the SSD will be like 64 Gigas ($$) and replace the SuperDrive with it..
If I buy momentus xt ($) maybe i will leave the superdrive 500gigas is good enough but fewer than the origilan 750 gigas :(

I saw reviews and its suppose that the hybrid is near ssd but much better than normal HD...

But well if I wait i will need to see if I will need to buy de new SSD/HDHybrid or not and see if the SSD included in the new models really worth it... 128 gigas is not my idea of space for my stuffs...
 
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hmmm

get a 2011 with 8-16 gigs of ram also if u need a ODD drive and burn dvds n etc get 1 cause the 2012s dnt have 1
 
Realistically we're 1-2months way (*me thinks 2). If you can wait, wait. If not, buy. Simple.

Yes, there is the speculations of redesign and benefits of new core from intel, but that's not important. What's important is what you need verses what you want.

2 months :(
I was hopping to see the new mbp 2012 this april :( I just can´t wait lol
i want baddly my mac .... jajajaja
 
Wich is the maxium ram posible for this machine (mbp 13" 2011 core i7 2.8)??
 
consider that putting a SSD from apple store by default costs more than getting one by yourself and if you try it yourself you void your warranty

1-2 months might mean to have it shipped by Apple itself at a lower price than now, basically if you make an income with the machine, your income will be repaying the actual overexpense (+ssd), but if you do not make a living, you will just overpay now.

however enjoy your 2011 :)

Whether the SSD from Apple costs more than a 3rd party SSD of the same size depends on the size and the country you are in. The 128 GB and sometimes the 256 GB Apple (Toshiba) SSD is cheaper, where as other times 3rd party ones are less. However, the Apple SSD is only SATA2 and its read and write speeds are less than half of the faster SATA3 drives that MBP supports.

Additionally, you will not void your warranty by replacing the hard drive. Apple even has instructions on their websites on how to replace hard drives on some of their machines. The two 'standard' user-replaceable parts on the MBP is the RAM and hard drive. However, the BATTERY is the one that user-replacement WILL void your warranty.
 
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