Used vs New MacBook Pros

[OneBadCat]

Hey guys I’m in the market for a new laptop. Trying to stay under $900. I’d like to get a MacBook Pro for editing purposes. They also seem to last a pretty long time.

I can get a near mint 2012 model pre retina for about $450. They are also the last year model you can upgrade. So I was thinking I can future proof it and upgrade the ram to 12 or 16gb and then install a solid state drive. The only thing about this route is I don’t know how much longer Apple will support new operating systems  for them. 

On the other side it seems like a good condition 13/14 model is going for around $700 at least. But the hardware is not upgradable and most of the ones I see for sale are 8gb ram and 128/256gb of solid state drive. But i figure the technology is newer and probably runs more efficiently.

I recently switched to iPhone and currently have an 8 Plus. I tape a lot of self tape audition videos with it and I basically want to stream line the process and make it idiot proof when uploading. 

Can anyone with mac experience chime in?

Edit:  So i suppose this isn’t used vs new but old vs newer. Brand new mcp is completely out of my price range.

[d-dave]

For basic, start/end, editing where you aren't color grading or doing multiple layers or effects work, about anything will work.

Keep in mind that Macs don't age the same.  While my wife is lucky her 2010 13.3" mbp was able to be upgraded to 16gb or ram and a SSD, it still doesn't make the guts any faster.  I was trying to simply put a few video clips together and that brought the CPU to it's knees.

Go for the best processor you can get.  At your budget, I'd look around the non Mac world. Macs can be wonderful, but they aren't cheap and are easy spot/steal. My wife had someone at a coffee shop try to grab hers while her back was turned.  Good thing I was sitting behind her.

[Paa Langfart]

Not a mac user but my last 2 pc s have been reconditioned Dells from the Dell web site.  Both have been like new computers and I saved about $200 off the brand new price.   Id only pull the trigger on one if it was from a reputable dealer with an iron clad warranty period.

[OneBadCat]

On 12/31/2017 at 7:49 PM, d-dave said:

For basic, start/end, editing where you aren't color grading or doing multiple layers or effects work, about anything will work.

Keep in mind that Macs don't age the same.  While my wife is lucky her 2010 13.3" mbp was able to be upgraded to 16gb or ram and a SSD, it still doesn't make the guts any faster.  I was trying to simply put a few video clips together and that brought the CPU to it's knees.

Go for the best processor you can get.  At your budget, I'd look around the non Mac world. Macs can be wonderful, but they aren't cheap and are easy spot/steal. My wife had someone at a coffee shop try to grab hers while her back was turned.  Good thing I was sitting behind her.

Thanks I appreciate your advice. What pc laptop would you recommend? And following that, what kind of editing program? A friend of mine has adobe premiere but as I understand it you have to pay for that per month and is rather expensive. I’d likely just be making simple edits and cuts but would like something a little more than basic capability if I wanted to make a short film perhaps.

[frash.exe]

if you want straight up licensed software without needing to do crazy editing, you should probably look into one of the mid tier vegas pro wares.

adobe has always been annoying with their licensing, and a lot of ppl including me have issues with them switching over to a subscription service for licensing, but they honestly have the most robust product in the market for editing.

i used to work for a media conglomerate and ppl would come up to me with brand new macbooks that they were just given and saying that premiere pro wasn’t rendering projects fast enough for them, but they were also overworked divas so w/e. it does nothing to take away from the fact that adobe killed the final cut suite and took over their share of this niche.

other than that, d-dave is right in the sense that a PC is only as fast as its most obsolete component. so you can quadruple your RAM and upgrade your 5400 rpm HDD to a samsung SSD, but even if that macbook has an i7, well there are probably new laptops you can buy with mid tier i5 processors today that are probably faster than what that macbook has.

[redbuddha]

I think you are looking at the problem backwards. Based on the software you have now, will either one get the job done. I do a lot of photo work, I have been using an older MacBook with software from 2012 to knock out all of my projects faithfully.

[d-dave]

On 1/1/2018 at 11:03 PM, OneBadCat said:

Thanks I appreciate your advice. What pc laptop would you recommend? And following that, what kind of editing program? A friend of mine has adobe premiere but as I understand it you have to pay for that per month and is rather expensive. I’d likely just be making simple edits and cuts but would like something a little more than basic capability if I wanted to make a short film perhaps.

For $800ish, you can fine a quad core laptop with decent ram and a SSD in a number of places.  The leveno yoga line has some good options.  I'm personally looking at a Dell 15" 7000 because for about $900 you get a quad core, 8gb ram and a 256 SSD with a 1060 max q.

As fast as video editing, I'd check out hit film.  (https://hitfilm.com).  It's a pretty powerful free program that also has a compositor (like after effects).  For better color work, black magic davimci resolve is dope(  https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/davinciresolve/).

Both do alot of what Adobe does well enough. They will do well for basic cutting and whatever future plans you make for your editing.

Both resolve and hitfilm have free versions that are quite good.  Their paid versions aren't unreasonable either, eving less than $400.

I use premiere at work, and someone else pays for it :). For my personal work, I used hitfilm.  I just need a better computer myself once I get some debt paid off.

[SmokinwithWilly]

I've had my Mac for about 4 years and absolutely love it. The only downside is, certain software companies are steering away from supporting the Mac platform, so you have to check that out before you buy.