MacBook nerds: I need thee

[Faldoe]

My friend is living in China - teaching and studying - and his computer died. I was thinking of getting him a computer and sending it to him.

I still have my early 2011 MBP - using it right now - and it's held up but I'm not sure how much life it has left. What would be a reasonable year MBP to consider that would still have a good amount of life left in it. Say 2013-2015? I'm be buying something used.

He'd likely use it for school, movies/streaming. He's not a gamer. Maybe an AIR would be good too?

[Bassist_Diver]

Macbook Pros tend to last about 7 to 8 years, depending on use. And honestly, unless you're doing intense editing, hard scientific computations, or other graphically-intense processes you don't really need spend the extra $1,000 on a MBP. Save the scrap and buy a used Air or regular Macbook.

[Dr. Sherman Sticks M.D.]

mine is late 2008 and still going strong. *knock on wood*
semi recently put twice the apple spec'ed amount of ram in it and an SSD
which made it fly as far as i was concerned.
i use it a ton every single day. and recently replaced the battery as well

i heard that at some point (2011?) they changed it so there isn't any or as many user replaceable parts
which would prolly shorten the life on any laptop.

[Faldoe]

Mine is 2011 and I also maxed the ram - 16gb - and added an SSD. Perhaps it was the 2013 or so when they went to flash memory I think where the RAM is also soldered in.

[Dr. Sherman Sticks M.D.]

ah word yea i kinda hope they go back to the user replaceable shit by the time i am looking for a new one

anyway, i agree w/ BD, if the person isn't doing anything crazy w/ it, they prolly dont need anything fancy.

i seen some really cheap refurbed MB's and AIR's on eBay recently for like 2-3 hundo (atleast seemed cheap to me i didn't really look into it and compare)

[Dr. Sherman Sticks M.D.]

also what a nice friend u are!

[tremolo3]

Why does he need a Macbook? Can't it be something else?

[Faldoe]

Macbook Pros tend to last about 7 to 8 years, depending on use. And honestly, unless you're doing intense editing, hard scientific computations, or other graphically-intense processes you don't really need spend the extra $1,000 on a MBP. Save the scrap and buy a used Air or regular Macbook.

Yeah I changed the title to MacBook after realizing the air could be good for him.

Trem - yeah, could get something else. I think he is interested given his awareness of their reliability, but I’m sure there are other windows laptops that are as good.

[Mudfuzz]

I have a 2011 13" MacBook Pro and a 2009 13" MacBook, both with a solid state hard drive added coming in the post right now. I have needed for them and they are both machines I like.. AND neither are coming with fucking 10.13 on them fuck 10.13 I also have a 10.8 disk coming from Apple and if the 10.11 that they are coming with pisses me off I will downgrade the is on both.

As the good doctor said.. Stay awayyyyyyyyyy from 2011 15 & 17 MacBooks I know... I have a dead one...

[Faldoe]

I have a 2011 13" MacBook Pro and a 2009 13" MacBook, both with a solid state hard drive added coming in the post right now.

As the good doctor said.. Stay awayyyyyyyyyy from 2011 15 & 17 MacBooks I know... I have a dead one...

Interesting. Is there something about those that made them more susceptible to failure?

[Mudfuzz]

The graphics cards overheated https://www.cultofmac.com/262861/early- ... ues-blame/
Mine lasted until February of 2017... Other than it dying it was a awesome computer, never had issues... Until.. Almost as good as my G4.. Now that computer is a tank

[Bassist_Diver]

I have a 2011 13" MacBook Pro and a 2009 13" MacBook, both with a solid state hard drive added coming in the post right now. I have needed for them and they are both machines I like.. AND neither are coming with fucking 10.13 on them fuck 10.13 I also have a 10.8 disk coming from Apple and if the 10.11 that they are coming with pisses me off I will downgrade the is on both.

As the good doctor said.. Stay awayyyyyyyyyy from 2011 15 & 17 MacBooks I know... I have a dead one...

I have a mid-2015 MBP and it's been beast mode so far....

[Dr. Sherman Sticks M.D.]

i think he meant 2011 -> 15" & 17"

[Mudfuzz]

Yes, it was a batch in that year. And only the larger sized ones.

[odontophobia]

I have a 2009 hanging around that’s still going strong. 6gb of RAM because I haven’t ordered another 4 GB stick. Traditional hard drive still. I’ll upgrade to SSD at some point. But honestly the only thing I’ve used it for is web browsing and iTunes.