MacBook Pro 2011 vs 2012

[kingmars]

should i buy a Macbook Pro 15' 2011 2.2 Ghz Sandy bridge with 240 GB SSD and a 500 GB HDD + 8 GB of RAM

or a Macbook Pro 15' 2012 2.3 Ghz Ivy Bridge with a 500 GB HDD and 4 GB of ram

2011 is 800
2012 is 900

I NEED HELP its a hard decision

 

[Laco]

should i buy a Macbook Pro 15' 2011 2.2 Ghz Sandy bridge with 240 GB SSD and a 500 GB HDD + 8 GB of RAM

or a Macbook Pro 15' 2012 2.3 Ghz Ivy Bridge with a 500 GB HDD and 4 GB of ram

2011 is 800
2012 is 900

I NEED HELP its a hard decision

2012 has a better processor and better gpu. Personally, I think that is worth $100. Also I would factor in the fact that if you are buying used the 2012 has one less year of use on it than the 2011 model so all else being equal it should last longer.

 

[Barney63]

If you go for the 2012 MBP I would also factor in the cost of an SSD and RAM upgrade.

Barney

 

[hallux]

2012 also has USB 3.0 while the 2011 has USB 2.0...

 

[yjchua95]

should i buy a Macbook Pro 15' 2011 2.2 Ghz Sandy bridge with 240 GB SSD and a 500 GB HDD + 8 GB of RAM

or a Macbook Pro 15' 2012 2.3 Ghz Ivy Bridge with a 500 GB HDD and 4 GB of ram

2011 is 800
2012 is 900

I NEED HELP its a hard decision

Don't buy the 15"/17" 2011 models, those models have been plagued by Radeongate (Radeon GPU failure).

I was one of those affected.

 

[kingmars]

Upgrades

So, If i get the 2012, What are the essential upgrade i should get other than RAM?

 

[Gav Mack]

Don't buy the 15"/17" 2011 models, those models have been plagued by Radeongate (Radeon GPU failure).

I was one of those affected.

The 17 inch model was far, far less affected by this than the 15 by this problem. I just bought a 17 late 2011 very cheaply to replace my mid 2010 17 and shortly will be tearing it down to repaste and tint the CPU/GPU and heatpipe with Artic Silver 5 paste to drop the idle temperatures down typically 15 degrees C. Apple usually apply far too much paste and its much poorer quality thermally than AS-5.

It would probably cost 100-150 bucks for a competent engineer to do it and if they need to be shown how to do it here's a video:

https://forums.macrumors.com/posts/18464571/

May want to show this to the 2011 seller and get a discount

 

[hallux]

So, If i get the 2012, What are the essential upgrade i should get other than RAM?

Not too much more to do besides the RAM and SSD. I've done both to mine, both made a big difference.

 

[NewishMacGuy]

should i buy a Macbook Pro 15' 2011 2.2 Ghz Sandy bridge with 240 GB SSD and a 500 GB HDD + 8 GB of RAM

or a Macbook Pro 15' 2012 2.3 Ghz Ivy Bridge with a 500 GB HDD and 4 GB of ram

2011 is 800
2012 is 900

I NEED HELP its a hard decision

Both seem like decent pricing, and both are excellent computers. Given that a 240GB SSD is both small and slower than its more reasonably sized brethren, I would suggest that both machines will need a hybrid/SSD upgrade. Given that, the 2012 is the way to go. It'll have a better (more reliable) dGPU & USB 3.

>

 

[kingmars]

do you think a SSHD Is good?

 

[TechZeke]

do you think a SSHD Is good?

Yes. Before I switched to 100% SSD, the Seagate 1TB hybrid worked flawlessly. It definitely speeds up boot time and frequently used programs. I recommend it to anyone who needs a speed boost but needs capacity, as it works exactly as advertised. It will take a few boots and a little while to see the full effect of the SSD on board the Hybrid drive, as it needs to learn what you use so don't expect day one results.

With that said, if you are looking at anything lower than 1TB, I'd pay the extra $100-$150 and go for 500GB SSD.

 

[kingmars]

which is better: a dual drive setup with a 250 GB SSD and 500 Gb regular hard drive or a SSHD and a SuperDrive

 

[snaky69]

which is better: a dual drive setup with a 250 GB SSD and 500 Gb regular hard drive or a SSHD and a SuperDrive

Dual drive, no question about it.

 

[TechZeke]

which is better: a dual drive setup with a 250 GB SSD and 500 Gb regular hard drive or a SSHD and a SuperDrive

If you are up for the challenge of removing the optical drive, I would go with dual drives. The SSHD being smart about your usage is a plus, but it only has like 6-8gb of on-board SSD. 250 GB is more than enough to put all your essential programs and files while feeling like a complete SSD experience.

 

[kingmars]

the thought of having no DVD drive on board kind of makes me nervous! Lol but I guess I'll do the Dual drive with an enclosure for the SuperDrive. any advice on file setup guys?

 

[kingmars]

If you are up for the challenge of removing the optical drive, I would go with dual drives. The SSHD being smart about your usage is a plus, but it only has like 6-8gb of on-board SSD. 250 GB is more than enough to put all your essential programs and files while feeling like a complete SSD experience.

And I wonder if you can do a dual drive with a SSD and a SSHD? I wonderrr....

 

[snaky69]

And I wonder if you can do a dual drive with a SSD and a SSHD? I wonderrr....

Why couldn't you? A drive's a drive.

 

[kingmars]

well I don't think it's practical though. that's lot of power consumption.

speaking of power consumption: which would be better as my second drive: a 1tb SSHD or a 7200 rpm 1tb drive

 

[snaky69]

well I don't think it's practical though. that's lot of power consumption.

speaking of power consumption: which would be better as my second drive: a 1tb SSHD or a 7200 rpm 1tb drive

There would be very little if any difference between the two.

 

[kingmars]

how much battery life can I expect?

 

[snaky69]

how much battery life can I expect?

I have a SSD in the main bay and hard drive in place of the optical drive, I'm getting 6-7 hours just browsing the web.

 

[simonsi]

I have an SSD in the Optical and HDD in the main drive bay, when just web browsing and the HDD is spun down I get a genuine 7hrs usage at 50-70% screen brightness.