New 2.5GHz or refurbished 2.3/2.6?

markw508

Hi everyone,

 

I'm planning to order a 15" Macbook Pro and am looking at the 2.5GHz model. I want to upgrade to a 1TB harddrive, which brings the total to £2400. It costs more to upgrade to 1TB on the 2.2GHz model (total would be £2240) so it seems worth the extra £160 for the better processor and dedicated graphics card.

 

I notice however that the refurb store has 2 of last years models with 1TB harddrives. The 2.3GHz version is going for £1900 and the 2.6GHz version is going for £2080.

 

So a few questions:

1) Are there any changes at all between the current models and last year's models besides the processors?

2) How do last year's 2.3/2.6GHz processors compare to this year's 2.5?

3) Do you think it would be worth saving £320/£500 and getting one of the refurb models?

 

Thanks in advance for any advice.

marvin

markw508 wrote: »

1) Are there any changes at all between the current models and last year's models besides the processors?

No, just the processor changed and even then it's the same architecture (Haswell vs Haswell refresh).

markw508 wrote: »

2) How do last year's 2.3/2.6GHz processors compare to this year's 2.5?

Almost identical. You can see the numbers here if you click on 64-bit multi-core:

http://browser.primatelabs.com/mac-benchmarks

The 2014 one sits between the lower and higher 2013 models. In all cases, you won't notice the difference. It's a range of about 7%, which means that if you were encoding something in 30 minutes on the slowest one, the fastest one would take 28 minutes. The lowest model is the best value.

markw508 wrote: »

3) Do you think it would be worth saving £320/£500 and getting one of the refurb models?

Yes, they are practically the same machines and have a full warranty, which can be also extended to 3 years within a year of purchase. The only difference is they may come with small visual marks like scuffs but usually don't and they come in a plain white box. Well worth the savings.