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which version of Macbook Pro 17" to buy?
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Junior Member
Join Date: Jan 2008
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Offline
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Hey all,
I'm ready to buy a 17" Macbook Pro to replace my older Mac laptop. I'm planning on buying a refurb from the Apple Store.
I see there's some Apr 2010 ones and some that were released in Feb 2011, with various flavours of CPU in each. My biggest criterion in selecting one is to get one with as few design flaws/reliability issues as possible. Are either of these two model production lines generally okay, or is one preferable to the other in terms of overall reliability? I'm a little out of touch with this, and surprisingly I couldn't find any website that compares overall model reliability among Mac models.
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Posting Junkie
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: UK
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The design is fairly well established at this point. I'm certainly not aware of any common flaws with any unibody Mac.
Personally I'd go for the 2011 if you can stretch to it. The CPU architecture is a good upgrade over the previous generation and the Thunderbolt port will extend its useful life IMO.
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I have plenty of more important things to do, if only I could bring myself to do them....
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Mac Elite
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: Truckee, CA
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Neither have significant design flaws/reliability issues. However the 2011 is far superior due to the Sandy Bridge chipset, Thunderbolt and cheaply available Apple SSD (+$100). I bought one in March (2.2 GHz 17", high-rez matte display, SSD) and it is an amazing box.
Whatever you get, plan on an SSD. Modern CPUs are very seriously constrained by the limiting performance of 2.5" notebook hard drives. And SSDs' reduced latency in all operations is an absolute joy. If you need additional mass storage beyond external drives the optical drive can be replaced with a hard drive.
Regarding display options, screen glare and screen resolution are parameters only you can evaluate. I suggest that you spend some time (e.g. multiple sessions) at an Apple store literally doing your work on the various choices to help you decide. The Apple Store folks are good about that.
The bad news is that 2011 refurbs are pretty scarce.
HTH
-Allen Wicks
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Last edited by SierraDragon; Sep 6, 2011 at 01:57 PM.
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Junior Member
Join Date: Jan 2008
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Thanks. I thought I'd read something somewhere about some freezing problems with the 2010 models. But I guess if the 2011 config is superior, I should be looking at that anyway.
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Professional Poster
Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: Hamburg
Status:
Offline
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I also have a 2011 17", matte display, 2.3GHz from the refurb store and replaced the optical with a SSD myself.
Not really a cheap notebook but damn that machine is fast! 
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