Upgraded refurbished 2009 MBP on eBay?

[Ivyfishbone31]

Hi I am looking into a refurbished apple is the 2009 too old if it's been upgraded to new memory 8gb and 1 TB SSD it has a one year warranty. 2016 iOS it's a 17 inch MB Pro. I also saw a cheaper one with the DVD drive but didn't say the year. I want it for mainly iTunes, photos but I might want to do some video editing. Would this last for a few years? Or would I be better off spending more for a newer refurbished? I really wanted to keep it around $800 is the problem. I really don't know anything about computers so I'm asking you all. Thanks!

 

[more fps]

2009 is really too old, try for something from 2010-2012

 

[windows4ever]

If you're talking non-retina, the best by far is the 15" 2012. You can find them for around $600. If your eyes are good, get the "high res" version with the silver screen border. The 2010 is only dual core and slow by today's standards. The 2011 15" models have high graphic card failure rates.

 

[Sterkenburg]

Definitely go for something newer, 2012 or so, if you want your purchase to last.

The 2009 17" were tanks (been using one daily for 7+ years), but they are now officially obsolete, meaning that not even Apple will be able to fix them should something happen, and finding replacement parts would be hard. The Core 2 Duo processors inside those Macs are also very slow by today's standards. I suggest avoiding the 2011 models as well because of the high chance of GPU failure.

Overall, your best bet for an old, upgradeable non-retina MBP is the 2012 model, which also has USB 3.0 btw. If you install a good SSD and max out the RAM you should be fine for a few years.

 

[EugW]

You can't even install High Sierra on it. Well, you can, but it's not supported.

If this is your primary driver, save yourself the hassle. Get something else more recent.

 

[ApolloBoy]

I wouldn't go for something that old as a daily driver, especially if you want to do photo or video editing. As others have said, go for something from 2012 or newer, ideally something with 8 GB of RAM and an SSD.

 

[ZapNZs]

If your budget is $800, the computer for you is a brand new 2015 MacBook Air. You can easily find them for $800 brand new, and sometimes below $700 - beyond being new and having an insanely faster CPU, iGPU, SSD, and RAM, a higher resolution screen, dramatically better battery life, and 1/3 the weight, it also comes with a warranty and the option to purchase AppleCare.

Here it is for $800, which is a good deal, but they have been going on sale for even better deals with considerable regularity. You may be able to find an Independence Day sale that gets you into one of these for $700 or less brand-new-in-box. Act fast because now that the MBA has been updated, once 2015 stock is depleted they are probably gone for good and the 2017s cost a good bit more!
http://www.microcenter.com/product/463569/MacBook_Air_MMGF2LL-A_133_Laptop_Computer_-_Silver