Help Me Decide Between Used And New MacBook Pro?

[Michael Crawford]

That there are arguments for and against each has me stymied.

I presently have a Mac mini, but a second Mac would enable me to
develop drivers without borrowing equipment from my clients.

I plan to buy a MacBook Pro with my next paycheck. I have a choice
between a new one and a used reconditioned one that I would buy from
http://macsales.com/

While the used one would have more IO ports and so less need for
dongles, and would cost quite a lot less, the new one would enable me
to develop Thunderbolt 3 drivers.

I am uncertain whether being equipped for Thunderbolt 3 would really
make a difference to my livelihood - I've never had a potential client
request them from me.

However if I did have the new unit, I would list Thunderbolt 3 drivers
among the services I offer on my website.

I Am Eternally In Your Debt.

M.
--
Mike Crawford
Portland Software Development And Consulting
mi...@soggywizards.com
http://soggywizards.com

One Must Not Trifle With Wizards For It Makes Us Soggy And Hard To Light
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[Programmingkid]

> That there are arguments for and against each has me stymied.
>
> I presently have a Mac mini, but a second Mac would enable me to
> develop drivers without borrowing equipment from my clients.
>
> I plan to buy a MacBook Pro with my next paycheck. I have a choice
> between a new one and a used reconditioned one that I would buy from
> http://macsales.com/
>
> While the used one would have more IO ports and so less need for
> dongles, and would cost quite a lot less, the new one would enable me
> to develop Thunderbolt 3 drivers.
>
> I am uncertain whether being equipped for Thunderbolt 3 would really
> make a difference to my livelihood - I've never had a potential client
> request them from me.
>
> However if I did have the new unit, I would list Thunderbolt 3 drivers
> among the services I offer on my website.
>
> I Am Eternally In Your Debt.
>
> M.
> --
> Mike Crawford
> Portland Software Development And Consulting
> mi...@soggywizards.com
> http://soggywizards.com
>
> One Must Not Trifle With Wizards For It Makes Us Soggy And Hard To Light
>

I would go with the used MacBook Pro. It sounds like the better option.

[bralc...@ics.com]

I have older MacBook Pro, I think 2010 model, added RAM for total of 8G, replaced hard drive with SSD and it works nicely. I use external monitor most of time, native resolution of 1440x900 is a bit too little. Could be an option too.

Regards,

    Boris Ralchenko.

https://lists.apple.com/mailman/options/darwin-drivers/bralchenko%40ics.com

This email sent to bralc...@ics.com

[Michael Crawford]

Your helpful advice has convinced me to buy a used, reconditioned
MacBook Pro from http://macsales.com

Before I actually order one I'll spend some time studying their specifications.

I tried pricing a custom build of a new MacBook Pro. That turned out
to be quite a lot more than what I wanted to spend - but I would have
spent it if I were convinced that was what my consultancy needed.

It happened that I finished a big project on Friday. I'll be
receiving a nice paycheck Real Soon Now, with which I'll pay for my
new - or rather used - box.

Warmest Regards,

Mike

--
Mike Crawford
Portland Software Development And Consulting
mi...@soggywizards.com
http://soggywizards.com

One Must Not Trifle With Wizards For It Makes Us Soggy And Hard To Light
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[zum...@gmail.com]

I recommend cheap 2010 White Macbook's off ebay, as they can be
(unofficially) expanded to 16GB (I run with 10GB RAM), and can take a
second HDD in place of the CDRom. 2.4GHz is OK, and they don't have
graphics chip problems like some older Macbooks did. Battery life is
quite good with an SDD. Maybe these old machines are getting close to
end of life in terms of upgrades. VMware doesn't support the CPU
anymore, so I don't upgrade that.

> https://lists.apple.com/mailman/options/darwin-drivers/zumwild%40gmail.com
>
> This email sent to zum...@gmail.com

[B.J. Buchalter]

> On Mar 5, 2018, at 3:10 AM, zum...@gmail.com wrote:
>
> I recommend cheap 2010 White Macbook's off ebay, as they can be
> (unofficially) expanded to 16GB (I run with 10GB RAM), and can take a
> second HDD in place of the CDRom. 2.4GHz is OK, and they don't have
> graphics chip problems like some older Macbooks did. Battery life is
> quite good with an SDD. Maybe these old machines are getting close to
> end of life in terms of upgrades. VMware doesn't support the CPU
> anymore, so I don't upgrade that.

Those don’t have Thunderbolt (of any flavor). For Mike’s purposes (writing drivers for third-parties), that probably a problem.

[Brian Bechtel]

On Sun, Mar 4, 2018 at 11:04 PM, Michael Crawford <mi...@soggywizards.com> wrote:

Your helpful advice has convinced me to buy a used, reconditioned
MacBook Pro from http://macsales.com

MacSales (OWC) is well regarded. Two other resources, both well recommended:

https://www.macofalltrades.com/

https://www.powermax.com/used/used-macs/

 

[Michael Crawford]

> For Mike’s purposes (writing drivers for third-parties), that probably a problem.

That's why I posted to Darwin-drivers.

While a portable Mac would be quite cool to possess, I don't really
_need_ one other than to enable firewire logging with fwkpfv as well
as the two-machine debugger.

Also to convince clients that I'm really a Mac developer. I was quite
self-conscious when I interviewed with my current client, because I
brought a Windows box to our meeting. Happily it didn't occur to the
client that I really should have brought a Mac.

I have a Mac mini that I am quite enthusiastic about.

--

[Michael Crawford]

These are very valuable resources:

Apple MacBook Pro Specs
https://everymac.com/systems/apple/macbook_pro/index-macbookpro.html

Refurbished and Used Apple MacBook Pros
https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/Apple-Systems/Used/MacBook-Pro?_ga=2.34964258.24686710.1520291049-1385605791.1520291049

Some of MacSales.com's products are new, in the factory-sealed box and
come with an Apple warranty - but that warranty might not cover a full
year.

The prices of some of the new ones aren't significantly higher than
some of the used ones.

Some Model Identifiers were released only with 13" screens.

I want 15" a Retina Display and a Core Quad i7.

I haven't found the clock speed to make a significant difference to my
experience, but I loves me some cores.

Having lots of cores as well as PCI express Flash storage makes
booting quite a lot faster than my humble Core Duo i5 Mac mini. I
expect I'll use the Pro as the target when I work with the two-machine
debugger.

[Michael Crawford]

Some of macsales.com's MacBook Pros come with the OWC Aura Pro X
Solid-State Drive rather than Apple's pre-installed PCIe SSD.

https://www.owcdigital.com/products/aura-pro-x

This is faster than Apple's 2014 SSD but slower than the 2015 model.

However I was always happy with the SSD in my Mid-2012 MacBookPro10,1.
Doubtlessly I would be happy with any of the drives that came after
that.

(My MacBookPro10,1 won't power on anymore. If the motherboard is at
fault a replacement wouldn't be that much cheaper than a refurbished
used one.)