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Purchase Thoughts : Refurb MBP 17"

L

Letsjet

macrumors member
Original poster
Apr 13, 2009
47
0
Hey guys,

Like some of you, I was waiting for the 17" update and was quite surprised that Apple discontinued it.

Now I'm looking for a replacement for my 17" MacBookPro5,2.

I'm strongly considering a refurb, but I was surprised when the Apple sales assistant told me they are being sold online at actual original cost.

There are a few models that have savings but most do not.

Is this accurate? I'd like to think you get a savings buying a refurbished machine.

Is there still a matrix of what these machines used to cost?

BTW - I've looked at the MBP Retina display and the weight and screen are nice. It's just not what I'm looking for.
 
Are you in the US? The US 17" refurbs are several hundred dollars cheaper than they were.

Can't link to one as the Apple store is down.

The October 2011 2.5 processor was the top of the line (I like hires antiglare the best). Be careful to look at the specs carefully, sometimes an older machine that was more expensive can cost more in the refurb store even if a newer one is a better spec because the discount is based on the original price.

The 17 hi res antiglare is an excellent machine. I'd recommend putting an SSD in to make it really fly.

Just for the record though, I reluctantly switched from a fully loaded top of the line 17 with an SSD to the retina MBP and I'm very happy with it.
 
Hmmm you are right. The store just went down. I just looked at it before I posted.

I have the anti-glare and I know what you mean. I was also planning on pulling the ssd drive and pulling the optical. I like the retina display but it's a bit of an eye strain with hi res putting two pages side by side like I do with the 17". I brought mine into the store and compared right next to each other.

I just don't know the pricing since the machines are not in the store anymore.

Yes, I'm in the US...
 
Letsjet said:
Hmmm you are right. The store just went down. I just looked at it before I posted.

I have the anti-glare and I know what you mean. I was also planning on pulling the ssd drive and pulling the optical. I like the retina display but it's a bit of an eye strain with hi res putting two pages side by side like I do with the 17". I brought mine into the store and compared right next to each other.

I just don't know the pricing since the machines are not in the store anymore.

Yes, I'm in the US...
Click to expand...

Last time I checked, 17 2.5 antiglare was $2159. SSD will be extra obviously, plus optibay, 16gb ram if you need it is about $140 these days. To buy new on the 11th June, the price for the machine was about $2800.

If it's any consolation, I checked both machines in store (already owned the 17) and didn't think I'd grow to like the Retina as much as I do. The clarity means less eye strain, and the ability to switch resolutions to 1680 and 1920 (same resolution as the 17 but smaller, but clearer) when necessary - and these look fantastic by the way, I couldn't tell they were not native easily compensates for the lack of 2 inches - well 1.6 to be precise. Reflection is significantly less than the previous glossy machines and is only an issue when looking at a black background with a light shining on the screen.

I read a lot of documents on my machine. Incidentally, I went back to the 17 for a couple of days last week - the difference was striking. I can't say I missed it all - except I like the physical size of the screen.

Anyway, best of luck.
 
Last edited:
Check out MacMall they have new base 17" MBPs (early/Late 2011) at pretty good prices. I picked up on this past March for around $1800. Just save the receipt for when you register it for apple warranty.
 
I just bought a refurbished 2.4ghz 17" online from apple a few weeks ago and I love it! The cost was about 2200 down from the original 2800 last year.

I considered a retina 15" but decided that, since I mainly use it as a desktop replacement, I preferred the larger screen and turned into quite a powerhouse:

I bought 16 gigs of RAM from crucial, transferred my 512mb SSD to it, and moved the stock 750 HDD to the optibay. I also bought a cheap usb 3.0 expresscard, installed oyendigital drivers and am able to move files across it at ~100mb/s.
 
Thanks for the info guys...

FYI - I might get the retina display at another time. For now I think the latest 17" is what I need.

I really like my machine now but I want the thunderbolt port. I wish the vid card was Nvidia but I haven't heard anyone complain about it either.

How did you know what the old price was? From memory? The machine I'm looking at is $2200 also. Prob. the same one you got?

All the upgrades Ram, SSD, etc are in my plans.
 
Letsjet said:
Thanks for the info guys...

FYI - I might get the retina display at another time. For now I think the latest 17" is what I need.

I really like my machine now but I want the thunderbolt port. I wish the vid card was Nvidia but I haven't heard anyone complain about it either.

How did you know what the old price was? From memory? The machine I'm looking at is $2200 also. Prob. the same one you got?

All the upgrades Ram, SSD, etc are in my plans.
Click to expand...

Bought one for a colleague.

Check in with the spec of the one you intend to buy - 2.5 quad core i7 antiglare.
 
That is great info, thanks....

Just what I was looking for. It would be awesome if they put the configuration prices in there as well.

If I'm correct, the 2.5Ghz 4mb Anti-glare is what I'm looking for. It doesn't look like there are many options. Just choice of processor speed, ram and screen type.

I think getting the fastest processor with the least ram and anti-glare is the way to go.

I plan on upgrading the ram to 16gb anyway so those chips will be pulled.
 
Letsjet said:
That is great info, thanks....

Just what I was looking for. It would be awesome if they put the configuration prices in there as well.

If I'm correct, the 2.5Ghz 4mb Anti-glare is what I'm looking for. It doesn't look like there are many options. Just choice of processor speed, ram and screen type.

I think getting the fastest processor with the least ram and anti-glare is the way to go.

I plan on upgrading the ram to 16gb anyway so those chips will be pulled.
Click to expand...

Yes. That model - the refurb store is a bit confusing as lesser models can be more expensive.

http://store.apple.com/us/product/G0NG3LL/A#overview

They used to sell it with a 7200rpm drive etc etc but it doesn't matter much if you're adding an SSD and the 5400 in the optibay will ameliorate the battery drawdown and heat. SSD plus 16gb is a good way to go.


Good luck.

PS - I know you've decided but I still recommend the retina :)
 
Rajpdx said:
Yes. That model - the refurb store is a bit confusing as lesser models can be more expensive.

http://store.apple.com/us/product/G0NG3LL/A#overview

They used to sell it with a 7200rpm drive etc etc but it doesn't matter much if you're adding an SSD and the 5400 in the optibay will ameliorate the battery drawdown and heat. SSD plus 16gb is a good way to go.


Good luck.

PS - I know you've decided but I still recommend the retina :)
Click to expand...

Interesting, they used to come with the 7200rpm?

I have.....

I might get the retina display in it's second generation and then use this one as a backup. --- But, that's still awhile away.

The window I have of purchasing a "new" 17" is fading.
 
I just bought the 2.4 ghz 17" late 2011 and i must say that it is a great machine. Coming from the mid 2009 17" 2.8 ghz I was a little nervous about the screen being different but to my surprise it's almost identical i color tone.
This is important to me as photography is my hobby. I was also worried about battery life and heat since it came with Lion.

I must say that if anything this machine is cooler with better battery life. I tested encoding a dvd movie with handbrake and the 2011 completed the task in about 20 min and maxed out at 86 C with fans running at 3900 rpm. The 2009 encoded the same movie in 1h 20 min and maxed out at 87 C with fans at 2000 rpm (Coolbook running). I can easily achieve the 7 hours stated doing light tasks. Running lightroom 4 importing and editing raw files i get around 3.5h.

I must say that I'm sad that the 17'' is discontinued.
 
The current refurb price for the late 2011 17" 2.5GHz is excellent IMO. $5-600 less than original price?

Great price anyway, IMO.

(And a great machine, in my opinion. I'm using the retina now but miss the speakers and screen size of my 2011 17". )
 
Thanks for all the info and help...

Purchased:

Refurbished MacBook Pro 2.5GHz Quad-core Intel i7 Antiglare
 
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