Considering buying macbook for the first time: refurb 15in 2015 pro?

[badgerbadgerx2]

I know they exist lol, but who wants to carry around a big hub everywhere? Now if the op can find a M1 MBP 14" for less than 1000, THAT would be perfect imo. They do exist, on ebay, quite often.

Again, maybe for some people. Our 2 MBAs have never used/needed more than 1 port, for charging. Everything else is wireless. Net, mice, keyboards, printing, iphone sync, etc, etc. All wireless. Id be willing to bet there are less than 5 USB A cables in the house, and in the garage, in a tech bucket. meh.

 

[HawkTheHusky1902]

he Again, maybe for some people. Our 2 MBAs have never used/needed more than 1 port, for charging. Everything else is wireless. Net, mice, keyboards, printing, iphone sync, etc, etc. All wireless. Id be willing to bet there are less than 5 USB A cables in the house, and in the garage, in a tech bucket. meh.

I dont think everybody is a fan of an all wireless setup. Its nice though, but wireless accessoeries tend to be more expenaive than their wired counterparts, which is important becaise the OP is on a tight funds and accessories really add up! So if he can get away with wired accessories he can spemd less money. On a M1 MBA he cant do that easily.

 

[macsforme]

How does it make any sense to “plan ahead” for data recovery, yet not plan to just back up your data? 🧐

Because having backups is one of several layers within a reliable data storage strategy, and is not a substitute for direct access to the original storage medium when a non-storage-related failure occurs. The two are not mutually exclusive.

 

[kschendel]

I was wondering what people were doing with the 2012 stuff. Good to know that they still work 😁

I've been using a late 2013 15" rMBP for all of my "office" work: web, email, telemeetings, work documents, etc etc since I bought it new in early 2014. It's still going strong and I feel no urgency to replace it, although since Big Sur is going out of support in November I might have to think seriously about either using OC Legacy Patcher, or replacing it.

Having said that, I can't actually recommend going the route of an old Intel MBP unless you're getting the machine for an incredibly low price that you can't refuse, and that gives you some time to save up for a new model. I agree with looking for an m1 or m2 Air.

 

[badgerbadgerx2]

I dont think everybody is a fan of an all wireless setup. Its nice though, but wireless accessoeries tend to be more expenaive than their wired counterparts, which is important becaise the OP is on a tight funds and accessories really add up! So if he can get away with wired accessories he can spemd less money. On a M1 MBA he cant do that easily.

huh?

 

[HawkTheHusky1902]

I've been using a late 2013 15" rMBP for all of my "office" work: web, email, telemeetings, work documents, etc etc since I bought it new in early 2014. It's still going strong and I feel no urgency to replace it, although since Big Sur is going out of support in November I might have to think seriously about either using OC Legacy Patcher, or replacing it.

Having said that, I can't actually recommend going the route of an old Intel MBP unless you're getting the machine for an incredibly low price that you can't refuse, and that gives you some time to save up for a new model. I agree with looking for an m1 or m2 Air.

Definitely use OCLP! It works great and why retire a perfectly fine macbook!

 

[badgerbadgerx2]

Wireless "accessories" (not sure exactly what that entails) are no more expensive than wired. Unless you specifically are referring to "apple" accessories? Which are totally unnecessary.

 

[HawkTheHusky1902]

Wireless "accessories" (not sure exactly what that entails) are no more expensive than wired. Unless you specifically are referring to "apple" accessories? Which are totally unnecessary.

It depends on thr country i think, but yes generally the prices are not a lot more expensive for wireless accessories.

 

[FreakinEurekan]

Because having backups is one of several layers within a reliable data storage strategy, and is not a substitute for direct access to the original storage medium when a non-storage-related failure occurs. The two are not mutually exclusive.

🙄 and I suppose you never store data in a cloud environment either? Data protection is data backup, period. Anyone who’s relying on “recovery” as a protection mechanism, is destined for disappointment.

 

[HawkTheHusky1902]

🙄 and I suppose you never store data in a cloud environment either? Data protection is data backup, period. Anyone who’s relying on “recovery” as a protection mechanism, is destined for disappointment.

Ha id trust a physical data backup to a physical drive that i can access any time without internet and is in my hands than any cloud backup lol cloud imo is best for light backups.

 

[wegster]

Yet some here would like people to believe they need a fully spec's out MBP just to surf the web LOL...

Q-6

To be fair, there are also enough users saying ‘heavy video editing’ which can be done on an iPhone/iPad so buying Mac Studios..

It is a bit tough at times when people are considering for example, keeping a new laptop for 5 years, as to what specs they many not yet need but will help keep the laptop useful for that length of time. The explosion of video resolution to 4k and higher alone can seriously blow out storage sizes for local storage and editing, and even picture sizes, etc.

I don’t think it helps that some of the ‘base’ spec systems tend to be on the low side - someone just taking a lot of pics and family videos from their phone can blow out their base 256GB storage pretty quickly, and while I do think many people can get by on 8GB RAM <right now> still, I’m a whole lot less confident on that system being reasonably useful 4-5 years from now even for some relatively basic tasks.

I bought my wife 8GB RAM systems for the past ~10 years or so now - as a teacher she does some minor artwork, a fair amount of powerpoint, basic Word docs, some Zoom and online collaboration tools - pretty much the definition of relatively light/casual-but-professional non-technical use. I used to get her MBP13s with an external display in her home office, but after she somehow managed to kill not 1 but 2 MBPs in truly bizarre ways (random power-off, thought was a bad cable, replaced, reloaded, ran diags, stress tests, then ran for a day solid and no issues, hand it back to her, an hour later = powered off..), I’ve shifted her to an MBA and for her use, it remains just fine (still on Intel). When it comes time to replace, I’ll probably be recommending an M2 MBA but go with 16GB and 512GB SSD just as all types of content keep growing.

 

[macsforme]

🙄 and I suppose you never store data in a cloud environment either? Data protection is data backup, period. Anyone who’s relying on “recovery” as a protection mechanism, is destined for disappointment.

In a cloud-centric workflow (e.g., G Suite, Office 365, etc.), and others where the local machine is basically a thin client accessing data stored elsewhere, it is true that the local machine storage may be deemed unimportant. In workflows where the primary data storage is local, important data may exist only on the local machine for a period of time, so I disagree that backup is the only component of data protection, especially for portable devices such as laptops (which you might take into the field or may not have 24/7 network connectivity).

In the digital forensics field where I work (we also do a small amount of data recovery), it is common for the last cloud backup for a device (usually cell phones and tablets) to be weeks or months old. Granted, cell phones rely more heavily on cellular data and less on WiFi (leading to less frequent backups due to metered connections), so you might expect this to be less true for laptops. Nevertheless, data recovery from local device storage is your only option in some cases, and should not be dismissed.

 

[FreakinEurekan]

Nevertheless, data recovery from local device storage is your only option in some cases, and should not be dismissed.

Data recovery should always, always, always be considered a last-ditch, emergency effort. Yeah, **** happens sometimes and users ignore the "You haven't backed up in x days" warnings - not uncommon. BUT - for anyone I'm supporting we just refer 'em to a commercial recovery service and tell them it'll cost a MINIMUM of $250, no guarantees of success. If the data's that valuable to them, they can pay it - and that will reinforce the importance of making sure your stuff is backed up.

Could I put the computer into Target Disk Mode, or remove the media, or whatever? Sure. But then the wrong lesson is learned - instead of "This is CRAZY expensive, I should be more careful" they just learn that "FreakinEurekan will pull my ass out of the fire if anything goes wrong."

Any of the "Easy" things, OnTrack or DriveSavers or whomever can try just as easily as I can - and reinforce the lesson at the same time.