Need Help Deciding on Macbook

[jvivlemore]

Ok, I own a 2010 iMac 21.5" for my studio at home.

I'm now looking at replacing my ancient laptop I use for Mobile DJ and some light Photoshop work making website graphics. It's a Dell Inspiron 6000 I purchased in around 2004-2005. It has a Intel Pentium 4 M 1.5ghz 598mhz with 512mb of ram. Yeah, It's OLD!

It's capable of doing the mobile DJ thing but hangs up every now and then although never skips the audio thankfully. It just plays catch up on the screen after freezing for a few seconds. I don't quite have $1200 to drop on the 13" base model right now. I'd like to get something sooner rather than later though.

I'm assuming since my machine is so old I wouldn't need much to equal or greaten the performance I already have while going Apple. Does anyone recommend anything in particular? I'd like to stay around 13-15 inch screen size and not go any bigger.

What's the best bang for the buck at this point? I see tons of them on craigslist from previous years too.

 

[alent1234]

13" MBP is nice. 15" is faster CPU and GPU

 

[jvivlemore]

Should I even consider buying used or refurbed? I can't decide (especially not being that knowledged in the latest tech and processors) if I should only consider new or a model that is 2-3 years old on craigslist or the apple site thats 1-2 years old refurbed. I did see they recently went to that i5 dual core processor from the intel core 2 duo (once again not sure how much of a difference that made though in speed).

 

[TheStu]

The Core i5 is a BIG step up from the Core 2 Duo. The i5 can also exceute 4 threads at once giving you a sort-of quad core.

Buying refurbed from apple is always a good idea, lower prices, same warranty.

 

[Pliablemoose]

Definitely go for an i5, it's a nice jump in performance, if you go used, make sure buy one with Apple Care or less than a year old so you can add Apple Care & get the warranty changed to you name.

And you can't go wrong with a refurb from the Apple Store, full warranty and perfect condition.

 

[boomhower]

Apple has a refurbed 13" i5 for $929.

 

[dclive]

Microcenter has 'em new for $999, $1080ish after tax.

 

[Oyeve]

Definitely go for an i5, it's a nice jump in performance, if you go used, make sure buy one with Apple Care or less than a year old so you can add Apple Care & get the warranty changed to you name.

And you can't go wrong with a refurb from the Apple Store, full warranty and perfect condition.

What he said.