How old is too old for a MBP?

DJ Life & Community General Discussion
1

How old is too old for a MBP?

So a customer came in to my work (FedEx) yesterday and they were shipping some MacBooks that they sold for $600 each. And I asked him why they were so cheap. He replied saying it was because they were 4 years old. Yet they had never been used and looked amazing.

So this got me to thinkin that instead of spending $1300 on a new mac I could save a buttload of cash by getting an older model. So my question for you guys is this.. How old is too old for a Macbook?

PS. All it needs to be able to run is Traktor Pro for the time being.

2

There’s people playing the latest version of traktor, while they still have a powerPC CPU. :wink:

(Mine dates from 2009, 2nd gen intel CPU, and still works like a charm!)

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'07 MacBook (black) running Traktor Scratch Duo 2. Just put Snow Leopard on it, and it’s happy as can be, no issues whatsoever.

4

What Macbook Model?

I would not pay $600 for a White or Black model regardless of the condition, however if its a First Gen Alu Unibody its well worth it.

Also running a Mid 2009 MBP and it Rocks with anything I throw at it, Ableton/traktor/itch/VDJ/Mixvibes/Mixxx etc..

My GF has a first gen Unibody Alu and apart from .53mhz and a non-replaceable battery its essentially the same machine. I’ve used it on occasions for gigs too without any issue with Traktor / Ableton or combo of both.

5

Nope he was selling Unibody Aluminum models. They looks just like the brand new ones, I never would’ve been able to tell they were 4 years old unless he told me.

So what I’m getting at is there’s no reason for me to get a brand new mac. am i right? haha

6

I have just bought a December 09 Unibody 15" and paid £600 for it. I’m still trying to figure out if it’s a good deal but i’m happy with it and it’s doing everything i want!

7

I run a 2006/2007 White macbook, bought refurbished…only 2GB RAM 250GB HD, and i have no issues running Traktor, Ableton, Logic, Max/MSP (with some pretty intensive DSP stuff) or Photoshop etc.

Only problems i encounter is with Ableton and Logic running rewired with VSTs and M4L stuff running (VSTs like Massive, Absynth etc.)…which most CPUs struggle with tbh.

Oh and i don’t exactly look after my macbook, it’s always 85%+ full (hdd) and i never do a fresh restart before working with CPU intensive programs.

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Well I’m so glad to hear this guys! Thanks for all the input. This is gonna save me a shitload of money :slight_smile:

9

Anything Core2Duo and 2GB RAM or better should do just fine.

Before upgrading to my new MacBook Air, my older Black MacBook (2.0GhZ C2D + 2GB RAM) was doing just fine with Traktor Pro 2, Ableton & Reason. I decided to upgrade for other reasons.

10

dude - get us a link! :smiley:

11

just about any mac with a 2.0 ghz core solo should handle almost any dj program with 2 gb of ram

12

With all that money you saved, you can pick up an SSD and 8 gigs of RAM :slight_smile:

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Might be wrong, but thing those handle up to 4gb, still more than you will need in a while to DJ

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[quote]Nope he was selling Unibody Aluminum models. They looks just like the brand new ones, I never would’ve been able to tell they were 4 years old unless he told me.
[/quote]

VERY VERY good deal and I’d pick one up in a heartbeat, also you can get the Keyboard backlight from ebay sellers dirt cheap if its not already installed.

[quote]Might be wrong, but thing those handle up to 4gb, still more than you will need in a while to DJ
[/quote]

6gb I believe is the official limit however you can get them to recognize 8gb pretty easily its possible they may already be on the correct firmware to allow it.

  • Throw an SSD in there
  • Get rid of that internal CD drive and replace it with a regular Hard drive*
  • upgrade to 8gb and

You will have one AWESOME music machine.

*You can get an official Optibay - but its overpriced, ebay sellers are doing “clones” for under $20 :wink:.