Macbook Pro buying advice

[theskyisfree]

Hi! I'll be a freshman in college in the fall and plan on buying a Macbook pro to start off my journey with!

I will be using my laptop for some HD video and photo editing. I will be using Final Cut Pro, Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign. I'll also be using it for homework, research, and the like.

I am seeking your advice since I'm such a new Mac buyer.

I'm planning on buying a refurbished Mac, because I've heard such great things about them.

The one I'm looking at is an Oct. 2011 released 15" Macbook Pro model. It has 2.2 GHz and quad-core Intel i7.

Based on those specifications, do you think this refurbished Macbook Pro meets my requirements to run smoothly and effectively with what I want to do with on it?

I'm mainly concerned about the 2.2 GHz and if it'll be fast enough. Can I upgrade it myself if it isn't fast enough to run the programs I want it to in a few years?

I really appreciate any and all feedback!

 

[miles01110]

Based on those specifications, do you think this refurbished Macbook Pro meets my requirements to run smoothly and effectively with what I want to do with on it?

Should be fine.

I'm mainly concerned about the 2.2 GHz and if it'll be fast enough. Can I upgrade it myself if it isn't fast enough to run the programs I want it to in a few years?

No, you'll need to buy a new one.

 

[that1guyy]

Hi! I'll be a freshman in college in the fall and plan on buying a Macbook pro to start off my journey with!

I will be using my laptop for some HD video and photo editing. I will be using Final Cut Pro, Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign. I'll also be using it for homework, research, and the like.

I am seeking your advice since I'm such a new Mac buyer.

I'm planning on buying a refurbished Mac, because I've heard such great things about them.

The one I'm looking at is an Oct. 2011 released 15" Macbook Pro model. It has 2.2 GHz and quad-core Intel i7.

Based on those specifications, do you think this refurbished Macbook Pro meets my requirements to run smoothly and effectively with what I want to do with on it?

I'm mainly concerned about the 2.2 GHz and if it'll be fast enough. Can I upgrade it myself if it isn't fast enough to run the programs I want it to in a few years?

I really appreciate any and all feedback!

Yeah it should be good. The clock speeds don't matter much anyway. With that spec refurbished, you should be good to go. Just buy some RAM and install it yourself. Newegg.com is a trusted site.

And no, you can't upgrade the processor yourself.

 

[\-V-/]

A quad core i7 with integrated graphics should be more than enough to handle your editing needs over the next several years.

I would recommend putting as much RAM as you can afford in your laptop and you shouldn't have any worries.

Check out the RAM here: http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/memory/Apple_MacBook_MacBook_Pro/Upgrade/DDR3_1333MHz_SDRAM

 

[theskyisfree]

Thanks for everyone's help! I definitely feel more confident about the specs now.

I've heard of buying RAM and planned on doing that at some point.

Does anybody have any "must have" advice on any of the other specs or what you can't live without about your mac?

 

[PAPO]

my must have advice would be; if you don't need it 'till the fall, wait for the new one, you'll get more for the same money, or you'll be able to buy the lower end model and save some $$$

 

[abhinav7333]

Hi! I'll be a freshman in college in the fall and plan on buying a Macbook pro to start off my journey with!

I will be using my laptop for some HD video and photo editing. I will be using Final Cut Pro, Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign. I'll also be using it for homework, research, and the like.

I am seeking your advice since I'm such a new Mac buyer.

I'm planning on buying a refurbished Mac, because I've heard such great things about them.

The one I'm looking at is an Oct. 2011 released 15" Macbook Pro model. It has 2.2 GHz and quad-core Intel i7.

Based on those specifications, do you think this refurbished Macbook Pro meets my requirements to run smoothly and effectively with what I want to do with on it?

I'm mainly concerned about the 2.2 GHz and if it'll be fast enough. Can I upgrade it myself if it isn't fast enough to run the programs I want it to in a few years?

I really appreciate any and all feedback!

Wait until you start. You get a discount with your edu account. Get a 15 inch, top tier. That should last you 4-5 years.

 

[heisenberg123]

will be plenty fast and power remember a 2.2 Quadcore is much fater thant a dual core with a higher number

 

[alphaod]

Intel processors of this generation have something called "Turbo Boost"; so even you're computer is running, it will normally boost the clock.

So even though it's advertised as a 2.2GHz model, in most cases it will be running at a lot faster than that, with the boosted ratios of 6/6/8/9, for running in quad, triple, dual, and single core modes.

So even when 4 cores are running at load, the clock will still be 6x boosted to 2.8GHz, and most times (since most applications do are not very threaded), you'll expect up to 3.1GHz. That is not slow by any standard.

Only in extreme cases, where your processor is overloaded (more than 4 threads), and it's getting hot, will it slow down.