My old wMacBook is showing its age, so I've decided to start looking for a new MBP. My budget is around $2000-$2500 (canadian), and I'm mostly looking for a 15" MBP refurb. It'll be used for some light photoshop editing, some gaming (CoD, CS, Sims) and school work while hooked up to a 24" external display. I'm trying to buy smart in hopes of it lasting 3-4 years. Just some questions:
1) Are SSDs worth it? I'm interested in the speed boost but not sure if its worth the -500GB hd space.
2) Is there a difference in noise from the 5400rpm drives to the 7200rpm? Battery life differences?
3) Best graphics card options? Any to specifically stay away from?
4) 2.2GHz vs. 2.3GHz vs. 2.4 etc.?
4) Any way to run dual monitors?
That's about all I can think of for now. Feel free to throw out any suggestions.
1) Well speed wise they are definitely worth it. SSD's are a dream, everything is super fast. For me its worth the less capacity because I like to keep all the things that use lots of space on an external. Don't get an apple refurbished with the SSD allready though. Get a normal one with HDD. If you want to upgrade buy an SSD and exchange it. The apple ones are not worth it because they are older and you can have much quicker SSD for cheaper. If you buy an SSD after, what you can do is take out the optical drive and place the original HDD into that spot using a caddy like this
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=470938631&pf_rd_i=507846. You can then have both SSD and HDD running. Speed of the SSD and storage of the HDD.
2) I didn't notice a difference in noise between my 7200rpm HDD and all other 5400rpm HDD's
The vibrations are however a little bit stronger. They are not annoying or anything though and you wont notice the difference unless you look for it.
3) Try not to buy the 2.0 GHz i7 models because they have the 6490M. Which is not very good. Thats all really. The 6750 and 6770 are no big difference and VRAM (512MB vs 1GB) is not of much relevance to you since you will not be gaming heavily from what you wrote.
4) Dont bother with the 2.3 GHz. It was a option on the early 2011 MBP's and not worth the minimal speed increase. Some of the 2.2GHz versions will be the early 2011 with the 6750M 1GB and 750GB HDD, others will be the late 2011 low end versions which came with the 6750M 512MB and 500GB HDD. The 2.4GHz is the high end current version with 6770M 1GB and 750GB HDD.
my advice, stick with a 2.2, and a Oktober 2011 version. The cheapest from the refurb site. Unless you think you need the 750GB HDD and extra 512MB VRAM then the 2.2 february 2011 version for 120 more. Your choice.
5) Yes absolutely. Several ways. 1. Either daisy chaining two thunderbolt displays, this will give you three screen including the MBP one. You can also just connect one extra screen and use the MBP one as a secondary. Or you connect one screen and then use a USB to VGA or DVI adapter to connect another second external.
My recommendation is also too look for a hi resolution antiglare MBP model. You will have more space for you windows on the screen and no stupid glare on the screen either. Its worth every penny. Some people don't like the looks but thats up to you.
