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The "I just ordered / bought / got my new/refurb MBP" thread [Merged]
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Macbook Pro 13'' 2018, 16GB ram, 256GB SSD ordered from the Apple refurbished store. Will split 50/50 being used on the go and on a desk with a 4k LG Monitor, eGPU, 4TB HDD and 500GB Samsung T5.
Dec 24 2018
Oh the feeling when u wake from a great sleep, one day to Christmas and your better half is cleaning the kitchen table . Her 13" 2011 MBP in the sink. You pick it up and coffee runs out of it AGAIN. You look at her and can see how distraught she is too have dumped her coffee on a laptop for the third time. (Third times a charm? Not so much)
So instead of getting mad you say " you should have told me you wanted a new computer for Xmas"
So 5 days later we took possession of a referb from OWC 2012 13" MBP 16G ram and 500G HDD ($800+), swapped in her old 500G SSD and removed the optical, installed her old 500G HDD and new battery ($145) she was back in business.
Sent the damaged 2011 to Wes at Beetstech who replaced several transistors then tested it and found the MCP chip had shorted so i opted to install a new motherboard and keybord ($300). Gave this one to my daughter as her 2008 macbook just crapped out as well.
Mother and daughter happy.
As they say "Happy wife Happy life"
-R-
Oh the feeling when u wake from a great sleep, one day to Christmas and your better half is cleaning the kitchen table . Her 13" 2011 MBP in the sink. You pick it up and coffee runs out of it AGAIN. You look at her and can see how distraught she is too have dumped her coffee on a laptop for the third time. (Third times a charm? Not so much)
So instead of getting mad you say " you should have told me you wanted a new computer for Xmas"
So 5 days later we took possession of a referb from OWC 2012 13" MBP 16G ram and 500G HDD ($800+), swapped in her old 500G SSD and removed the optical, installed her old 500G HDD and new battery ($145) she was back in business.
Sent the damaged 2011 to Wes at Beetstech who replaced several transistors then tested it and found the MCP chip had shorted so i opted to install a new motherboard and keybord ($300). Gave this one to my daughter as her 2008 macbook just crapped out as well.
Mother and daughter happy.
As they say "Happy wife Happy life"
-R-
Offloaded my Surface Book 2 15" and picked up a refurb 2018 15" MacBook Pro (i7/16GB/1TB/Vega 20). I missed having the higher watt CPU after all and I just didn't use the pen/touch all that much. Windows 10 is fine (though multi-monitor on Mac is still better). Glad I kept the CalDigit TS3.
How do you find the Vega 20 compared to the 1060?
CPU throttling was super noticeable on the 13" SB2 I tested out if you really pushed it so I'm not surprised the MBP is overall a faster feeling machine.
Definitely an improvement. I’m not into video, but I primarily use Capture One for photo editing 45 megapixel images. Things like masking are much improved. Something is odd on the way the Nvidia graphics are passed through the system. But when I made the jump from 26 to 45, it became very frustrating.
My son has the same Surface, so I may try boot camp and compare VR experience (Samsung Odyssey) for the heck of it.
Interesting that you note oddness about the way graphics are handled. I noticed a huge amount of latency with the way graphics would display on the Surface Book when using the GPU. Thought it was just my oversensitivity to that sort of thing.
I'm also a Capture One user and I'm in my trial period for that same Vega 20 MBP machine you have and have another 10 days to decide if I think the performance is a good enough of a jump from my 2016 MBP to keep it.
That’s exactly it. Latency. Especially on external displays.
Not like mouse lag, just the rendering.
Are you guys talking about an eGPU or the GPU in the Surface Book? I tried buying the BlackMagic eGPU for my 2016 MBP hoping to speed up my Capture One workflow, but instead it slowed it down. The extra power was entirely offset by a latency penalty. I'm putting my new 2018 Vega 20 MBP to the test in Capture One right now and so far I really like what I'm seeing. It's not drastically faster, but I'm seeing fewer extended stutters and just the slight improvement in rendering time helps me cull faster.
Well, the built in GPU on the Surface Book interfaces much the way an eGPU one and so it suffers the same problem. Notable delay in the time it takes for a frame to be sent, rendered, and sent back to the iGPU and displayed on the monitor. For the few things I need a GPU for (older esports games) this is irritating.
The difference that you can have with an eGPU through Thunderbolt is that you can have direct output from the eGPU to a display which comes with less of a delay but if you're routing back to the internal one you get the exact same problem.
In the case of Capture One Pro, it may have been routing back through the MBP even when the output was being directed to an external display. This was in the first couple of months of the BlackMagic eGPU release so it could be fixed by now. I didn't wait to find out though. I returned the eGPU as soon as I realized I was getting no benefit from it because of the latency it was introducing.
My boss just ordered for me a 2018 MacBook Pro 15" 2,6 GHz 16 GB with 1TB SSD 
I'm quite happy of not having to worry about keyboard reliability and so on, since it's not my money anymore...I think I will enjoy it a bit more
I'm quite happy of not having to worry about keyboard reliability and so on, since it's not my money anymore...I think I will enjoy it a bit more
Apple just replaced my faulty 2016 Macbook Pro 15" 2.6Ghz i5 16GB 512GB for a 2018 MBP 13" 2.7GHZ i7 16GB 1TB! My 2016 had been brought in 4 times for multiple issues including the snapping case sound, keyboard, loose USB ports. They offered to completely replace it and since I really wanted to switch to a 13" computer as i have no need for a 15" anymore I just asked if they would accommodate that. Sure enough they said no problem and gave me the most spec'd out $3800 replacement. I'm very happy with that service and this new 13" spec'd out model is fantastic. Keyboard is night and day better imo.
I just bought a 2007 17” MacBook Pro 2.1 for a ridiculous price. I absolutely love it, in fact more than my 2013 13” retina.
Hello. I’m brand new to the forum but not Apple. I’m a longtime member of iMore Forums but decided to join this one since I just got a 13” MacBook Pro Non-Touchbar. I didn’t need what the Touch Bar offers so I didn’t go with that one. I’m really liking it so far. To be honest I’m on it 24/7. Even answer my phone calls on it when I’m home. Looking forward to learning more about it. Happy 50th birthday to me!!!
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Hello. I’m brand new to the forum but not Apple. I’m a longtime member of iMore Forums but decided to join this one since I just got a 13” MacBook Pro Non-Touchbar. I didn’t need what the Touch Bar offers so I didn’t go with that one. I’m really liking it so far. To be honest I’m on it 24/7. Even answer my phone calls on it when I’m home. Looking forward to learning more about it. Happy 50th birthday to me!!!
Happy 50th!
Hey, I have a '16 as well and brought mine in for the same casing sounds. Did they tell you what it is exactly? Thinking on bringing it in again
Last time I posted in this thread was in Aug 2013! I snipped the post I made detailing what I bought then and my hope around that purchase. That 2013 MBP was still going strong in 2018 when I sold it right around the same time actually. Incredible. It got me through grad school though I admit that I didn't use it often towards the end which is what prompted me to sell it sooner than later. Great buy and experience. Never an issue with it.
Finally shopping for my second MBP in 2019 and once again, Best Buy comes through. I thought I was getting a good deal this past Saturday by going for a refurb at Microcenter, but I didn't want the 13" after all and the 15" I exchanged for probably had never been touched other than to clean it. It was that problematic.
I had resigned myself to returning and just waiting a little longer. Then I saw an email from Best Buy early this morning advertising up to 40% off on open box and clearance items. Decided to look around since I had been checking them out anyway and lucked upon $500 off sale on NEW select MBP's + I had a $100 student discount offer. YES! I ended up with a brand new 15" MBP for the same price as the Microcenter (not)refurb. Both with the same 2.2 i7/16GB RAM/256GB/555X.
I did drop from a 512GB to a 256GB compared to the 2013 MBP. It would be nice to have the storage onboard, but the $400 jump can easily get me a 4TB external hard drive (with plenty left over) or a 2TB external SSD drive (still with a little left over).
Will see how the experience goes over the next 30 days with the hope of getting another 3+ years out of this one as well. Oh, and while not black aluminum, I did go space grey.
Aghhh... time flies. I’m in the same boat and hoping to push through another year of my undergrad and then into grad school with my MBP ‘16.View attachment 833000
Last time I posted in this thread was in Aug 2013! I snipped the post I made detailing what I bought then and my hope around that purchase. That 2013 MBP was still going strong in 2018 when I sold it right around the same time actually. Incredible. It got me through grad school though I admit that I didn't use it often towards the end which is what prompted me to sell it sooner than later. Great buy and experience. Never an issue with it.
Finally shopping for my second MBP in 2019 and once again, Best Buy comes through. I thought I was getting a good deal this past Saturday by going for a refurb at Microcenter, but I didn't want the 13" after all and the 15" I exchanged for probably had never been touched other than to clean it. It was that problematic.
I had resigned myself to returning and just waiting a little longer. Then I saw an email from Best Buy early this morning advertising up to 40% off on open box and clearance items. Decided to look around since I had been checking them out anyway and lucked upon $500 off sale on NEW select MBP's + I had a $100 student discount offer. YES! I ended up with a brand new 15" MBP for the same price as the Microcenter (not)refurb. Both with the same 2.2 i7/16GB RAM/256GB/555X.
I did drop from a 512GB to a 256GB compared to the 2013 MBP. It would be nice to have the storage onboard, but the $400 jump can easily get me a 4TB external hard drive (with plenty left over) or a 2TB external SSD drive (still with a little left over).
Will see how the experience goes over the next 30 days with the hope of getting another 3+ years out of this one as well. Oh, and while not black aluminum, I did go space grey.
Smoking deal you got! Keep us posted on your experience
Last Friday I ordered a Refurb 2018 MBP 2.2GHZ/16GB/512GB/560X. My stomach couldn't handle spending any more. Going from 512GB to 1TB, omg, my body almost wanted to have a seizure when I saw the price of +$400 just got 512GB more. Completely ridiculous - which is why I ordered the laptop I ordered. I'm replacing a Mid 2012 16GB 1TB so I'm excited about that. It's really heavy.
The website says it will be available for pickup on Tuesday. How has the experience been with refurb machines from Apple? I'm a little nervous about it but from what I read I shouldn't be? Has anyone had any issues where they had to return a refurb for one reason or another?
The website says it will be available for pickup on Tuesday. How has the experience been with refurb machines from Apple? I'm a little nervous about it but from what I read I shouldn't be? Has anyone had any issues where they had to return a refurb for one reason or another?
Apart from the packaging that states it is refurbished, I have not been able to tell the difference from new (in appearance, functionality and reliability)
Nice! Thanks for the reply, really appreciate it! Can’t wait until Tuesday!
I read that the case is new - I wonder if they just blow out the keyboard or if the keyboard is new too?