Mac??

[chriscoolzap]

Hey, I'm looking for a MacBook (laptop) under $400 that is in good condition. I'm tired of using my old Dell laptop that can barely run Yosemite. Just need it for developing apps. I've learned all of Swift 2 and just need a laptop that just works nicely. 

[jsirius]

Check eBay out, not sure what version of OSX you are developing for but I would recommend a MacBook Pro Late 2011 or 2012. They can run the latest version of El Capitan and run about $4-600 US

[evilarceus]

Craigslist and eBay are open to you.

Could get a Windows laptop that has decent specs and attempt to Hackintosh that. Won't be getting the greatest performance as a normal MacBook, of course.

[Jack02]

5 minutes ago, vinyldash303 said:

There's some white macbooks on ebay right now for $250 that aren't bad. Factor in a ram upgrade and maybe an SSD and you're in business. 

I'd do this. What processors do the old MacBooks run?

[mrchow19910319]

I think those mid 2012 non-retina macbook will fit your need perfectly.

Just swap out the 5400rpm HDD for a SSD and add some ram (8G is enough I think) then you are good to go.

That is what I did anyway. Hook up your laptop to a external monitor, boom, OS X running flawlessly on a big 1080p screen. 

 

If you have the extra budget , you can always go for the retina one. 

Just need to prepare an external hard drive cos I think 128G/256G is not really enough. 

 

 

Edit:  there's an app called : MacTracker go check it out, it is super useful, inside it contains every single mac that apple has made. 

Started from Apple I. It will show you the specs, the operating system it has, does apple still officially support it or not. All the info you need, even more than apple's own website. 

[jsirius]

1 minute ago, mrchow19910319 said:

I think those mid 2012 non-retina macbook will fit your need perfectly.

Just swap out the 5400rpm HDD for a SSD and add some ram (8G is enough I think) then you are good to go.

That is what I did anyway. Hook up your laptop to a external monitor, boom, OS X running flawlessly on a big 1080p screen. 

 

If you have the extra budget , you can always go for the retina one. 

Just need to prepare an external hard drive cos I think 128G/256G is not really enough. 

 

The 2012 models are a nice model because it's still easy to upgrade the storage and the RAM. Retina models are nice but you get what you got for the most part, definitely not the easiest to repair or upgrade.

[mrchow19910319]

Just now, jsirius said:

The 2012 models are a nice model because it's still easy to upgrade the storage and the RAM. Retina models are nice but you get what you got for the most part, definitely not the easiest to repair or upgrade.

Yup. That is why if you search the internet, you'll find that a lot of people searching for older mac mini, instead of the latest one. 

Because it is easily upgradable. I own one myself, and upgraded the HDD to SSD. Feels like a new machine.  

Apple is messing up their product line up. 

Now the mac minis feels like a handicapped version. 

 

[jsirius]

Just now, mrchow19910319 said:

Yup. That is why if you search the internet, you'll find that a lot of people searching for older mac mini, instead of the latest one. 

Because it is easily upgradable. I own one myself, and upgraded the HDD to SSD. Feels like a new machine.  

Apple is messing up their product line up. 

Now the mac minis feels like a handicapped version. 

 

 

I work for a company that does upgrades and user migrations for mac users, the newer models are a nightmare in all cases. Some of the specs are nice and the new displays are really crisp, but they're a pain to work on compared to the old models. (Why a proprietary SSD Apple? Why?)

[mrchow19910319]

4 minutes ago, jsirius said:

I work for a company that does upgrades and user migrations for mac users, the newer models are a nightmare in all cases. Some of the specs are nice and the new displays are really crisp, but they're a pain to work on compared to the old models. (Why a proprietary SSD Apple? Why?)

Ya. For the older mac mini anyone can swap out their HDDs. Just need to watch a 10 mins youtube video.,

The newer one though, some people from I don't remember where a mac related website, tried to swap out the HDD in it and then warned their website readers not to do it. It was a pain in the ass. Not worth the effort/ time to do so.