Ready to Buy - Mid 2012 MBP 13 2.5/16/128SSD

[vr4playa]

I am planning on buying this MBP from Craigslist and will be meeting the seller at an Apple Store for the transaction:

http://phoenix.craigslist.org/evl/sys/4985966460.html

I feel this model is best for me as it is the last of the "user-serviceable" models before the retinas came out. The only downside I see is only 128GB for the HD, however, I can hopefully find a good deal on a 256/512 such as the ones listed on Crucial's site or a good sponsor/vendor from these forums.

Storage isn't the biggest thing, I just need to have enough space to run VM Fusion w/ Yosemite and Windows 7(which I use for my small tax biz w/ about 2gb of files) and will probably keep all my photos on Flickr and Music/Entertainment on iCloud. The device I'm upgrading from is a late '08 MB13 unibody 2.4/8/250HDD which I'm looking to replace before it dies like my wife's late '08 MBP15(RIP 05/05/15 - fried logic board).

This will be my 3rd used MB so I'm somewhat confident in the durability, however, are there any issues to look out for that would make me walk away?

One I'm considering is b/c he did the 16GB RAM and SSD installs himself. It looks like he's gonna go with the offer of $700, however, any other red flags I'm sure will drive that down lower.

 

[vr4playa]

I found this one now for $500... sounds way too low, but I guess I'll get the scoop on it soon:

http://phoenix.craigslist.org/cph/ele/5004399732.html

I contacted them to find out how much RAM and how many GB the SSD is as well as whether they are the original owner.

 

[vr4playa]

Ended up buying the Mid-2012 i5 2.5/16/128SSD. At first I thought I could do with the 128SSD and just use an EXT HDD to store pics and music, but looks like I can swing the Samsung 850EVO 500SSD for $200 shipped from Amazon so I'm gonna go that route and have what I feel is the perfect MBP setup as this is the last of "user-configurable" models and with 16GB 1600mHz RAM and 500GB of SSD storage to go with an i5 processor it should serve me well possibly until 2020

In fact, I'm thinking of taking the 128SSD from here and putting it in place of the Super-Drive in my late '08 and making that a good usable backup(or help the resale value, hopefully I can get $300 for it as-is now) and having effectively a 378GB hybrid setup.

 

[estabya]

Thats a pretty good deal! I just did something similar. I picked up a late 2011 13" pro with the 2.4ghz i5 and bumped it up to 16gb of ram and put in a 240gb SSD. This thing flies. It multitasks just as well as my 2013 i7 MBA. I'm really liking it, and I'm sure that I'll be using it for a long time.

I'm sure you'll be even better off considering you have the newer, more efficient CPU/GPU as well as USB 3.

 

[z31fanatic]

In fact, I'm thinking of taking the 128SSD from here and putting it in place of the Super-Drive in my late '08 and making that a good usable backup(or help the resale value, hopefully I can get $300 for it as-is now) and having effectively a 378GB hybrid setup.

Or use it in a RAID configuration to increase the SSD speeeds even more

 

[estabya]

Or use it in a RAID configuration to increase the SSD speeeds even more

That's a good idea. As long as you don't care about redundancy and the slightly increased risk of drive failure RAID 0 is a great option. If you have two identical SATA 3 drives you can effectively double your read speeds.