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Macbook pro feb2011 vs oct2011

F

fryrice

macrumors member
Original poster
Apr 20, 2012
55
10
Boston, MA
Hi everyone, I am a first time macbook pro user but I have a deciding factor that just came up.

A friend of mine is selling a 15in mbp feb 2011 version for $1200 (like new) while the new mbp are around $2000 for the one i want to get (hi-res screen + AG, better GPU, a bit faster cpu).

What I will be doing on the mbp is some photoshop, running VMware fusion, some gaming (Diablo 3), and basic tasks like web browsing and music. The only huge difference i notice is the GPU, 256MB for feb 2011 and 512MB or 1GB (i7 2.4ghz) for oct 2011.

Do you guys/gals think it worth getting the early last year model for that price?
 
fryrice said:
Hi everyone, I am a first time macbook pro user but I have a deciding factor that just came up.

A friend of mine is selling a 15in mbp feb 2011 version for $1200 (like new) while the new mbp are around $2000 for the one i want to get (hi-res screen + AG, better GPU, a bit faster cpu).

What I will be doing on the mbp is some photoshop, running VMware fusion, some gaming (Diablo 3), and basic tasks like web browsing and music. The only huge difference i notice is the GPU, 256MB for feb 2011 and 512MB or 1GB (i7 2.4ghz) for oct 2011.

Do you guys/gals think it worth getting the early last year model for that price?
Click to expand...

yes that price is great i have the 2.0 early 2011 and its great i have vmware and it runs flawless, i dont use photoshot but i still do minor photo editing with GIMP and a few other photo editing apps
 
I believe that some of the early 2011 machines were still using SATA II, which may not matter but if you plan on upgrading it could make a difference to you. Just an FYI. Still is a steal at that price!
 
fryrice said:
Hi everyone, I am a first time macbook pro user but I have a deciding factor that just came up.

A friend of mine is selling a 15in mbp feb 2011 version for $1200 (like new) while the new mbp are around $2000 for the one i want to get (hi-res screen + AG, better GPU, a bit faster cpu).

What I will be doing on the mbp is some photoshop, running VMware fusion, some gaming (Diablo 3), and basic tasks like web browsing and music. The only huge difference i notice is the GPU, 256MB for feb 2011 and 512MB or 1GB (i7 2.4ghz) for oct 2011.

Do you guys/gals think it worth getting the early last year model for that price?
Click to expand...

Depends on which gpu. The 256 one was relatively slow compared to the 512 one, but still fast enough for diablo 3.
 
Medic278 said:
I believe that some of the early 2011 machines were still using SATA II, which may not matter but if you plan on upgrading it could make a difference to you. Just an FYI. Still is a steal at that price!
Click to expand...

Not entirely true. All of the 2011's (early and late) use SATA 3 in the HDD drive bay. The only difference would be in the support of SATA 3 on the ODD (which there are no ODD's that use SATA 3 so it wouldn't matter unless you plan on replacing it with a drive as well). It was hit or miss on the whether the ODD supports SATA 3 but that can be found easily through the System info.
 
squeakr said:
Not entirely true. All of the 2011's (early and late) use SATA 3 in the HDD drive bay. The only difference would be in the support of SATA 3 on the ODD (which there are no ODD's that use SATA 3 so it wouldn't matter unless you plan on replacing it with a drive as well). It was hit or miss on the whether the ODD supports SATA 3 but that can be found easily through the System info.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the correction, I wasn't entirely sure on it, I heard it somewhere when we were discussing SSD options.
 
Feb 2011 i7 vs Oct 2011 i5

Hi all,

I'll be buying a genuine Apple refurb very soon. It's between the following...

Refurbished MacBook Pro 2.4GHz Dual-core Intel i5

Originally released October 2011
13.3-inch (diagonal) LED-backlit glossy widescreen display, 1280-by-800 resolution
4GB (2 x 2GB) of 1333MHz DDR3 SDRAM
500GB Serial ATA @ 5400 rpm
8x double-layer SuperDrive (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
Intel HD Graphics 3000 with 384MB of DDR3 SDRAM

and...

Refurbished MacBook Pro 2.7GHz dual-core Intel i7

Originally released February 2011
13.3-inch (diagonal) LED-backlit glossy widescreen display, 1280-by-800 resolution
4GB (2 x 2GB) of 1333MHz DDR3 SDRAM
500GB Serial ATA @ 5400 rpm
8x double-layer SuperDrive (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
Intel HD Graphics 3000 with 384MB of DDR3 SDRAM

The price difference is negligible - HKD100 (about GBP8) more for the i7 over the i5. The question here is whether having the Oct '11 model brings any additional benefit over the Feb '11. If not, then clearly I will get the i7, but just wanted to be sure.

Thanks in advance!

A.
 
Buy the 2011 - you can get all your money/nearly all your money back if you decide later you want the new mbp with extras.
 
adam.sh said:
Hey thanks, but they are both 2011 - one is Feb, the other Oct...

A.
Click to expand...

He's probably referring to the OP, in which case he's wrong as you can get some 2011 15" models down to $1200-1300 refurbished through Apple with a warranty. The weird thing about the refurbished items is that they charge quite a lot for non stock configurations, but you can get certain configurations really cheap.

The october vs feb thing in your case makes little difference. One geekbenches a little higher. In the case of the 2.0 Feb with the 6490m vs the late 2011 2.2 with 6770m that replaced it, that's a significant difference. The cpu was a bit better. The gpu climbed from a low end version that was arguably worse than the 2010 option to something respectable. On the 13" with integrated graphics, you have maybe a 10% difference in geekbench scores, but this is one of those things where I'd say if one doesn't cut it, the other won't either. If you're looking at refurbished options, ideally you'd want a 2012 refurbished model. Getting the cheapest 2012 on refurb would give you a much better price to performance ratio than an upgraded version of a past generation given the way Apple structures these things.
 
fryrice said:
Hi everyone, I am a first time macbook pro user but I have a deciding factor that just came up.

A friend of mine is selling a 15in mbp feb 2011 version for $1200 (like new) while the new mbp are around $2000 for the one i want to get (hi-res screen + AG, better GPU, a bit faster cpu).

What I will be doing on the mbp is some photoshop, running VMware fusion, some gaming (Diablo 3), and basic tasks like web browsing and music. The only huge difference i notice is the GPU, 256MB for feb 2011 and 512MB or 1GB (i7 2.4ghz) for oct 2011.

Do you guys/gals think it worth getting the early last year model for that price?
Click to expand...

Very good deal. The feb 2011 model can run SL but the late 2011 model cannot (according to Apple's web site).
 
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