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Refurbished is definitely a good & valid option. I bought a refurbished 2010 MB Pro in 2011, and sold it less than a year ago (for $400, no less). I replaced it with a refurbished 2015 MB Pro. If I hadn't bought them myself, there's no way I could have figured out they were refurbished.
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Mar 17, 2019 16:36
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Parrotine posted:I don't think I can go the refurbished route TBH, i've heard (and personally experienced) too many negative experiences when going down that path. The refurbished computers on the Apple site have the exact same warranty as a new one and they have new batteries. Pretty much a fool to buy a new one if the same refurb is available. I would only buy new if there was some specific configuration you needed.
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Mar 17, 2019 16:46
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Mu Zeta posted:The refurbished computers on the Apple site have the exact same warranty as a new one and they have new batteries. Pretty much a fool to buy a new one if the same refurb is available. I would only buy new if there was some specific configuration you needed. the refurbished computers on the apple site are literally just computers where someone's opened the box and then returned it; they're pretty much like-new. i probably wouldn't buy refurbished from anywhere else just because of personal bad experiences with poo poo third party 'warranties' - might as well just go second hand, these things hold up well and it's pretty low risk if you're careful
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Mar 17, 2019 17:00
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About the only way you can tell that it's refurbished is that if you buy it from Apple, you get nearly the same box you would if you bought it new, with the exception being that the box is totally blank white except for an ID sticker. If you go through this thread you'll find nothing but praise for Apple refurbished products. Refurbs get a bad wrap because the rest of the industry does refurbishing wrong. Usually when other companies get returns, they cursorily inspect the device, maybe power it on once, did it start? Hey great, slap it back in the box it came in and call it a refurb. Apple puts returned machines through a quality control program; diagnostics are run, the machine is tested and if parts are found to be failing, THEY ARE REPLACED. Machine is tested again, if it passes everything then it's repackaged in variant boxes and sold as refurbished. As some folks have said, it's technically better than new because whatever can go wrong with that machine has already been switched out.
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Mar 17, 2019 17:03
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Parrotine posted:I don't think I can go the refurbished route TBH, i've heard (and personally experienced) too many negative experiences when going down that path. Not to be a dick but have you read any of the stickied advice yet? It covers a lot of the things you ask about and talks about Apple refurbs. Official Apple refurbs are the gold standard by which all other refurbishment/resale programs should be measured. The computers are arguably better than new since they go through individual QA after having all the touch points replaced. To answer your question- pretty much any Mac from the last 5 years is gonna be great for you. A lot of Mac fans consider the Mac notebook to be at a bit of a low point at the moment, with Apple having painted themselves into a bit of a corner with a trick keyboard that everybody despises and seems to break all the time and a focus on thinness that necessitated said keyboard. If you don’t hate the keyboard/are willing to chance it (Apple does have a pretty great repair policy in place for people who have keyboard issues) something like a retina MacBook Air or one of the 13” MacBook Pros should float your boat. If you’re really looking to save (and still want a Retina display and what many consider to be the best keyboard Apple shipped, to boot) look at preowned or refurbished 2013-2015 MacBook pros. People are holding onto theirs. If you’re willing to give up a Retina display there’s also the older version (pre-2018) MBA, which is solid as a brick and still being produced and sold new by Apple if you want a new one. That one also has the older style keyboard and it feels. so. good. Those are a good bet refurbished since they honestly haven’t changed much in like 4 years. Desktops are another option, but I wouldn’t really look at a Mac Mini unless you were gonna buy a new one. trilobite terror fucked around with this message at 18:03 on Mar 17, 2019 |
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Mar 17, 2019 18:01
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Generic Monk posted:the refurbished computers on the apple site are literally just computers where someone's opened the box and then returned it; they're pretty much like-new. i probably wouldn't buy refurbished from anywhere else just because of personal bad experiences with poo poo third party 'warranties' - might as well just go second hand, these things hold up well and it's pretty low risk if you're careful Yeah refurbish can mean many things. On Newegg it's a total crapshoot and you only get like a 90 day warranty.
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Mar 17, 2019 18:33
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Never buy anything refurbished on newegg, I tried that half a dozen times and got burned bad every time. Their support doesnt care and the company itself is a pile of poo poo now.
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Mar 17, 2019 19:13
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Yeah some Apple refurbs are literally just unsold new old stock. Others are demo models from stuff like press events/review loaners/WWDC. I forget where I read it, but I remember a story of like x-number of MacBook pros getting pulled for some workshop event, only half of them getting unboxed and used for like an hour by some developers with Apple people on hand, and then the whole lot of them going straight into the refurb stream.
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Mar 17, 2019 19:31
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redeyes posted:Never buy anything refurbished on newegg, I tried that half a dozen times and got burned bad every time. Their support doesnt care and the company itself is a pile of poo poo now. Same with Best Buy.
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Mar 17, 2019 19:31
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redeyes posted:Never buy anything refurbished on newegg, I tried that half a dozen times and got burned bad every time. Their support doesnt care and the company itself is a pile of poo poo now. Yes Electric Bugaloo posted:Same with Best Buy. And yes. I’d also like to add Frye’s to that list. Never buy refurb from them. They typically (at the Downer’s Grove IL one does) take returns/exchanges, make sure stuff is in the box, then re-shrink wrap, and put up on the shelves at very slight discount (usually less than <5%). They do this regardless of the reason the device was returned or exchanged.
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Mar 17, 2019 19:52
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I know this thread is mostly about computer buying, so I apologize if I'm missing a better thread for this. I've never bought Apple accessories and it doesn't sound like my new job's going to issue/let me expense them so I suddenly care about finding a decent deal. Say I wanted a Trackpad 2, is my best bet to wait for any old retailer to have a discount like with most brands, or is it normally a good option to get it refurbished/through someone with an employee discount?
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Mar 17, 2019 20:04
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Think amazon has them on sale right now for $99.
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Mar 17, 2019 20:56
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Meldonox posted:I know this thread is mostly about computer buying, so I apologize if I'm missing a better thread for this. I've never bought Apple accessories and it doesn't sound like my new job's going to issue/let me expense them so I suddenly care about finding a decent deal. Say I wanted a Trackpad 2, is my best bet to wait for any old retailer to have a discount like with most brands, or is it normally a good option to get it refurbished/through someone with an employee discount? If you need it ASAP and you really don’t want to just pay retail you’re better off going to the Apple refurb store/hitting up an employee/education discount. If you’re willing to wait on it, accessories and peripherals do go on sale but I’d argue that those sales really aren’t worth waiting for. Honestly, Apple computers and mobile devices get discounted way more frequently by different retailers/Apple themselves than the peripherals do.
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Mar 17, 2019 21:31
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If I send my mbpro to get its keyboard changed, do I need to worry about making a backup?
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Mar 17, 2019 22:11
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gmq posted:If I send my mbpro to get its keyboard changed, do I need to worry about making a backup? Always make a backup before you send it off. Always.
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Mar 17, 2019 22:12
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MarcusSA posted:Always make a backup before you send it off. Better yet, have a backup before it fails so that if it’s an SSD or motherboard failure you don’t lose anything.
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Mar 17, 2019 22:38
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Generic Monk posted:the refurbished computers on the apple site are literally just computers where someone's opened the box and then returned it; they're pretty much like-new. i probably wouldn't buy refurbished from anywhere else just because of personal bad experiences with poo poo third party 'warranties' - might as well just go second hand, these things hold up well and it's pretty low risk if you're careful Refurbished Macs are actually way better than like-new in the general market because they're returned to Apple, tested extensively, and the components are replaced up to the brand new standard. There's really no reason whatsoever to buy new if refurb is available for the Macbook you want. The only issue is the popular configs with good specs usually don't last long, but the savings can be 20% or higher so it's worthwhile. Cough Drop The Beat fucked around with this message at 22:51 on Mar 17, 2019 |
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Mar 17, 2019 22:47
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Oh geez, maybe I should rethink my refurb notions, they do seem to be a lot cheaper that way
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Mar 17, 2019 23:20
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Apple store is down New iMacs?
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Mar 18, 2019 13:18
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Looks like a new iPad Air and iPad Mini.
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Mar 18, 2019 13:47
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so the rumors were true: https://www.macrumors.com/2019/03/13/10-2-and-10-5-inch-ipad-rumor/ this means the regular iPad will be updated at WWDC or the yearly iPhone launch. e: probably O/T for this thread but in case you're wondering, the "all new iPad Air" is the last gen 10.5" iPad Pro with an A12 Bionic and some features missing (120 Hz, quad speakers, not sure what else) eames fucked around with this message at 14:13 on Mar 18, 2019 |
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Mar 18, 2019 13:55
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Electric Bugaloo posted:Not to be a dick but have you read any of the stickied advice yet? It covers a lot of the things you ask about and talks about Apple refurbs. Official Apple refurbs are the gold standard by which all other refurbishment/resale programs should be measured. The computers are arguably better than new since they go through individual QA after having all the touch points replaced. Nah you're not being a dick, just being honest. I'll take another look at the stickied advice in this thread to see if it answers any more questions I may have. I think i'm gonna shoot for a 2016 or maybe a 2015 macbook pro model. Think I can snag one for under a grand? On a related note, i'm a bit confused as to why they seem to be charging the same general price for a regular macbook compared to a pro; I used their in-store spec comparison for their books, and the macbook offered at the same price as the pro looks to have lower specs in every way flat across the board. Even the regular vanilla macbook screen dimensions are smaller! I gotta wonder why they would charge the same price for a book that is straight up worse in all aspects, that's super weird. Perhaps i'm missing something? White Light fucked around with this message at 15:01 on Mar 18, 2019 |
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Mar 18, 2019 14:58
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eames posted:so the rumors were true: Different Screen, different speakers (so different case), different CPU and probably less RAM. It’s significantly different. It’s a weird machine when they could have just resold the old Pro as the New Air. It’s also selling at $499 which is what the old Pro would go on sale for.
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Mar 18, 2019 16:19
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Parrotine posted:On a related note, i'm a bit confused as to why they seem to be charging the same general price for a regular macbook compared to a pro; I used their in-store spec comparison for their books, and the macbook offered at the same price as the pro looks to have lower specs in every way flat across the board. Even the regular vanilla macbook screen dimensions are smaller! I gotta wonder why they would charge the same price for a book that is straight up worse in all aspects, that's super weird. Perhaps i'm missing something? The Macbook is a lot thinner and lighter than the Pro. Between the Pro and the Air: Current wisdom says to go for the Pro instead of the Air at the same time since the Pro is more powerful and has a better screen. In any case, get AppleCare Plus or whatever. Also, have you considered trying to get Sketch working on a Hackintosh or in a virtual machine? I went down that route (for Sketch funnily enough) and then gave up and started using Figma.
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Mar 18, 2019 16:53
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Best Buy has the touchbar 13” for $1400 - $400 off
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Mar 19, 2019 02:11
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Parrotine posted:Nah you're not being a dick, just being honest. I'll take another look at the stickied advice in this thread to see if it answers any more questions I may have. If you’re talking about the 12 inch MacBook, that’s a niche product and commands a premium. It’s what you buy when you want to trade all your practicality for size and thinness. It has one hole for both its inputs and it’s outputs. It’s an iCloaca.
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Mar 19, 2019 02:31
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I got a new iPad Mini 4 for about $300 a year or so ago and I'd still take that deal today because the iPad Mini 5 is just a terribly boring refresh, basically just a new processor and TrueTone. I'd buy it if it had the 120Hz screen though. Maybe the 6.
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Mar 19, 2019 05:59
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jokes posted:I got a new iPad Mini 4 for about $300 a year or so ago and I'd still take that deal today because the iPad Mini 5 is just a terribly boring refresh, basically just a new processor and TrueTone. Umm Apple Pencil is a gamechanger and I kinda wish I had the disposable cash to have a mini just for the excuse of being able to carry it around the lab. As with the other non pro models I wish they’d skipped the clunky older Pencil design and made them all compatible with Pencil 2 but I guess that would require changing the cases more. Do the phone next apple I wanna doodle on everything
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Mar 19, 2019 06:14
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iPad mini 4 is really slow and has iPhone 6 hardware. Calling this a boring refresh is silly. It makes it a viable product again.
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Mar 19, 2019 11:18
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refreshed iMacs announced today https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2019/03/imac-gets-a-2x-performance-boost/ the base iMac still comes with a 5400rpm HDD and iMac Pros now have a 256GB RAM option. 
eames fucked around with this message at 14:29 on Mar 19, 2019 |
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Mar 19, 2019 13:38
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Yessssss I mean, laziest update ever but at least it has newer processors. And if they didn’t touch anything else that probably means no T2 and upgradable RAM on the 27”. Since I’m coming from a 2011 iMac and don’t have a good external monitor, I’d consider the 27” iMac good value.
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Mar 19, 2019 14:29
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Zoom Zoom, motherfuckers
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eames posted:refreshed iMacs announced today I run a small shop and every loving slow iMac I get in has one of these POS HDDs. I don't upgrade them either. To much risk pulling the LCD panel.
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Mar 19, 2019 15:19
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So, improvements to the processors and a Vega option on the top-tier iMac means they’re building an iMac Pro Lite, neat. Wonder if it’ll chew into iMac Pro sales for companies that want the “one and done” solution?Pr0kjayhawk posted:Yessssss I’m coming from a 2013 rMBP which has weird booting issues and probably has another year or two at max before it goes to computer hell. What’s the magic combo in value for the new iMac, the 6-core 8th gen i5 and 575x model with an SSD? I don’t give a drat about memory since that’s owner-upgradable and I’ll end up slapping like 16GB in and calling it a day.
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Mar 19, 2019 16:41
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What I'm wondering is, if Vega's going into their 'mid-range' machine, what the heck is gonna go into their coming Pro machine? Navi? iMac Pros not only got 256 GB option (bringing max price to an LOL-worthy $15,700 shipped from Apple) but they got another GPU, the Vega 64X with 16 GB of HBM2 memory. I mean, it's nice Apple finally updated the iMac with a speed bump (Retina 5K, 27-inch, 2019) but everyone is still waiting with baited breath for the new Mac Pro and monitors. Something to note: the new 21.5 and 27-inch 2019 iMacs do NOT come with T2 security chips. Curious, did they do that to shave off $ or do they just not care about security and disk acceleration at the lower price point? I guess the T2s will eventually be just Pro machines only? So what about the MacBook Air and Mac Minis, those have a T2 and they're not Pro.. Binary Badger fucked around with this message at 18:06 on Mar 19, 2019 |
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Mar 19, 2019 17:54
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Just drop 7k on an iMac Pro and stop worrying about upgrades.
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Mar 19, 2019 17:57
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The iMac not getting T2 really doesn't make much sense. I imagine this is because there's a major iMac upgrade in the works that's not ready yet, so they came up with this  -speedbump-update because they learned from previous mistakes.e: they also dropped SSD upgrade prices in the MBPs but you won't care... believe me. eames fucked around with this message at 18:15 on Mar 19, 2019 |
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Mar 19, 2019 18:10
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It was a lazy update. I don’t believe the T2 is compatible with HDDs. Simple as that. I read on Ars that the T2 has caused problems on MacBooks and the iMac Pros. Has anyone heard about that? Ripoff posted:I’m coming from a 2013 rMBP which has weird booting issues and probably has another year or two at max before it goes to computer hell. What’s the magic combo in value for the new iMac, the 6-core 8th gen i5 and 575x model with an SSD? I don’t give a drat about memory since that’s owner-upgradable and I’ll end up slapping like 16GB in and calling it a day. I think the base 27” with the 256GB SSD upgrade seems like the best value. I don’t think a small bump in cpu frequency or gpu update is going to be terribly noticeable. Would it be worth the hassle to go with an NVMe enclosure + 1TB Samsung 970 Evo for extra storage or should I stick with a 512GB apple SSD?
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Mar 19, 2019 18:21
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Pr0kjayhawk posted:It was a lazy update. I don’t believe the T2 is compatible with HDDs. Simple as that. Most likely as the T2 is only on machines with Apple's embedded SSDs so far, iMac still uses HDDs. quote:I read on Ars that the T2 has caused problems on MacBooks and the iMac Pros. Has anyone heard about that? MacBooks don't have T2s, the only machines with T2s are MacBook Pros from 2018 forward, iMac Pros, Mac Minis from 2018 forward, and Retina MacBook Airs. Some people on other boards are reporting greatly reduced issues with T2s after running security/version updates of High Sierra/Mojave, folded into those updates are BridgeOS updates that patch some of their found bugs. quote:Would it be worth the hassle to go with an NVMe enclosure + 1TB Samsung 970 Evo for extra storage or should I stick with a 512GB apple SSD? Depends on your use case; also the maximum speed you can get on a USB 3.1 Gen 2 enclosure right now is just under 1 GB/sec, and prices on Thunderbolt based options which might get you to 1.5/3 GB/sec are ridiculous ATM.
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Mar 19, 2019 18:27
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Binary Badger posted:Depends on your use case; also the maximum speed you can get on a USB 3.1 Gen 2 enclosure right now is just under 1 GB/sec, and prices on Thunderbolt based options which might get you to 1.5/3 GB/sec are ridiculous ATM. I didn’t realize those had a 1GB/s limitation. The spec can handle more, right? Is it just a function of waiting for better USB 3.1 Gen 2 enclosures? Edit: it appears I got 10Gbps and 1 GBps on the Gen 2 spec confused. That’s disappointing. Pr0kjayhawk fucked around with this message at 20:43 on Mar 19, 2019 |
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Mar 19, 2019 20:27
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Pr0kjayhawk posted:I didn’t realize those had a 1GB/s limitation. The spec can handle more, right? Is it just a function of waiting for better USB 3.1 Gen 2 enclosures? USB 3.1 gen 2 is 10 gigabit/sec, translated to megabytes it'd be 1.25 GB/sec. In reality, given overhead considerations, throughput tops out around 950 MB/sec for most true gen 2 enclosures, also dependent on media you're writing to. Thunderbolt 3, on the other hand, maxes at 40 gigabit/sec, which translates to 5 GB/sec ideally; OWC sells Thunderbolt 3 SSD drives that top out at 2.5 GB/sec, and there's another company that sells a TB3 dock that has a built-in NVMe SSD slot but that only has a throughput of 1.5 GB/sec. I have a MyDigital M2X Portable USB 3.1 Gen 2 enclosure and it has an ASMedia chip that gets 940 MB/sec reads, 920 MB/sec writes (as tested by AJA System Test lite on a 13-inch 2017 rMBP 4 Thunderbolt Ports) with an NVMe SSD installed. The next generation of USB 3.x, 3.2 includes a 20-gigabit speed which equates to an ideal 2.5 GB/sec. Binary Badger fucked around with this message at 20:56 on Mar 19, 2019 |
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Mar 19, 2019 20:53
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