Mackbook pro refubrished

[Drask]

Hello there,

About 2 motnhs ago I bought an iMac 27" 2011 (not refubrished) It's an amazing computer, now I want to get a laptop, this time a refubrished one so I can save some cash. I found this two that interest me the most:

Refurbished MacBook Pro 2.2GHz Quad-core Intel i7
Originally released October 2011
15.4-inch (diagonal) LED-backlit Hi-Res antiglare widescreen display, 1680-by-1050 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 and AMD Radeon HD 6750M


OR:

Refurbished MacBook Pro 2.8GHz Intel Core i7
Originally released April 2010
15.4-inch LED-backlit antiglare Hi-Res widescreen display (1680 x 1050 pixel)
4GB (2 x 2GB) of 1066MHz DDR3 SDRAM
500GB Serial ATA @ 5400 rpm
8x double-layer SuperDrive (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M graphics processor with 512MB of GDDR3 memory

Both are the same exact price, which one do you think its better? I'd like to plug it to my imac so I can use it as an external monitor, is that possible with the 2010 on? (with the lack of thunderbolt), Graphics seems pretty obvious that the 2011 is better, but how about the processor? the 2010 has a 2.8 vs a 2.2.


Oh and what do you think of the 17"? is it too big? the resolution is quite amazing and its just about +$60.

Any thoughts are welcome.
Thanks.

 

[mikeo007]

The October 2011 model is superior. No point in buying the 2010 if the prices are the same.

 

[robgendreau]

Note that if you were to use Adobe's Premiere in CS6, for example, it would run faster with the card in the newer machine (assuming it has 1gb memory); that card works with the Mercury graphics acceleration (and with some PS effects I imagine as well).

The 17" does feel quite big; go heft some and see what you think. You already have a big screen so portability might be a better choice.

And you can't use the laptop screen as a monitor for the iMac but I believe you could go the other direction. And you could try Screen Recycler to use the laptop as a monitor via software; works pretty well although a bit slow, but fine for documents, etc. And Teleport or the like for sharing the iMac's mouse and keyboard.

 

[thekev]

You really don't understand cpus at all, so I'm glad you posted on here before buying the wrong thing assuming these are being sold at similar price points. The 2.8 is a dual core cpu with a slightly older architecture. It is slower. Ghz don't mean anything when they are taken out of context. Regarding gpus, these are totally different gpu configurations. Google suggests that the AMD version is significantly faster. If gpu power is important to you, and you have a current laptop, I'd just wait for the current year release to get one that isn't so low on vram. Anything below 1GB is starting to feel skimpy for a machine you buy today, assuming you want 2-3 years out of it. I don't mean wait until launch. I mean wait for the bugs to clear up and then check the refurb store. Of course I don't know whether you need one right now or just want one.

 

[Drask]

And you can't use the laptop screen as a monitor for the iMac but I believe you could go the other direction.

Sorry, I was actually talking about making the iMac the external display, would be silly to go the other way around .

 

[trikky]

the october 2011 model is superior. No point in buying the 2010 if the prices are the same.

+1