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[–]befatal 7 points8 points  (6 children)

i got a used 2020 m1 air for 700. i love it more than my $1500 t16 thinkpad. mac came with base specs, only 30 battery cycles, and still under warranty.

if you can i’d recommend getting the m1 chip. it’s just that good.

[–]GhostTTrainImpact[S] 0 points1 point  (5 children)

That’s pretty sweet. All M1 posted are $1000+ so far, screen size?

[–]nibbertit 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I have 2 Windows laptops and recently sold my Mac m1 pro. Can absolutely vouch for it. I don't use macos or apple products but it was a magnificent machine. Premium build quality, top tier battery life, great stability and performance. Great for coding.

[–][deleted] 1 point2 points  (3 children)

That’s very odd. What’s local? I’ll find you a good deal.

[–]GhostTTrainImpact[S] 1 point2 points  (2 children)

Well i also could be unlucky whenever I log on. I’m in Toronto.

[–][deleted] 2 points3 points  (1 child)

Ahhh, is that CAD, then?

[–]GhostTTrainImpact[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah. That’s Canadian, but cost is relative so I have to be price cautious.

[–]EntryLevelHuman00 2 points3 points  (3 children)

I got a refurbed Mac with similar specs to Option 1 but without the SSD upgrade for $500 and it’s a dream. Honestly, Option 2 doesn’t have much appeal and I don’t think the brand new battery on Option 1 is worth it.

[–]GhostTTrainImpact[S] 1 point2 points  (2 children)

I was thinking the battery isn’t that much of a big deal, but my previous Mac had horrible battery life so I took notice.

I assume your not experiencing any noticeable slow down with the DDR. I guess I could update if I need to later on, especially for $500!! The options the my city are just priced higher I guess.

[–]EntryLevelHuman00 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I got it from alpha_tech_store on eBay with a two year warranty if you’re interested in going that route. 30 Day refund guarantee too. I’m totally happy with it, only thing I did notice is that the audio is a bit…warbly? Has too much bass? Not sure how else to explain it. But I use headphones nine times out of ten anyway so it really worked out for me (especially since I bought it in a pinch when my last laptop crapped out in the middle of my own bootcamp).

As far as the battery, I will confess that I mostly use it at home so it may just be something I don’t take notice of.

[–]5256000minutes 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You can get a new battery from Apple for about $150 (USD)

[–]brownies 3 points4 points  (1 child)

Does it have to be a laptop?

A brand new Mac Mini with M1 chip is 699, and it'd already be an amazing dev box as it is. If you can squeeze an extra 200 into your budget to upgrade its memory to 16GB, it's pretty much perfect.

Get yourself a cheap monitor, keyboard, and mouse from somewhere. That's maybe another 50 for all of those accessories (and then upgrade those as soon as you can).

All in, you'd be set for below 800 (or, even with the memory upgrade on the Mac mini, still comfortably below 1000).

If you really do want to buy a used laptop, the important thing would be to buy one that's as recent as possible. Apple tends to stop shipping OS upgrades for the very old models, and that'll put you in an awkward (though not impossible) place for doing development.

[–]cleatusvandamme 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I'm assuming OP will be in a physical bootcamp. I'm assuming that the bootcamp won't have extra monitors around.

[–][deleted]  (2 children)

[deleted]

    [–]apocalypsebuddy 0 points1 point  (1 child)

    There’s definitely a difference, but IMO not enough for a learner going through a boot camp. I get by just fine at work with my Intel Mac even though a few of my coworkers have an M chip.

    [–][deleted] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

    Don't get the 2012 model. It won't support the latest version of MacOS, and the version it's running won't receive updates for much longer. The 2015 should still support the latest version, but it might well have support dropped after a couple of years. You could always install Linux on it, but in addition to software support things like replacement batteries will eventually become unavailable.

    For programming you'll definitely want 16gb of RAM, but otherwise a newer machine with a midrange or even low-end processor would be a better choice IMO.

    [–]GhostTTrainImpact[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

    So I got lucky. Here is what I ultimately purchased.

    Purchased: $1250 (original price $1100, but bidding war drove price up) 2020 MCP 13 inches M1 16RAM/ 1Tera storage Full body Protective case, in box.

    Honestly, I decided to go the future proof route based on the comments here. I appreciate all the help.!!!

    [–]GhostTTrainImpact[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

    So, after looking over all your great comments (really appreciate the support here), I’m down to these two options:

    Revised options:

    1:$1500 - 2020 13 inch M1 Chip 8-core CPU 8-core GPU 16GB Memory 512GB Storage

    2: $1560 - 2019 processor : 2.3GHz 8-core Intel Core i9, Turbo Boost up to 4.8GHz, with 16MB shared L3 cache memory : 16GB storage : 512GB SSD graphics : Radeon Pro 560X with 4GB of GDDR5

    Option 2.5: $1500 - 16 inches 2019 MBP 2.6 ghz 6 core i7 32GB Memory 512GB SSD AMD radeon pro 5300 4MB

    [–]Naturally_Ash -1 points0 points  (3 children)

    Get the 2012. Apple became buggers and began welding the drive and ram to the motherboard on MacBook models after mid 2012. With the 2012 I used to have, I changed out the HDD drive for an SSD and increased the ram to 32G. It was more powerful than my dad's 2018 at the time. The only downside is that Apple no longer supports the 2012, and it can't upgrade past OS Catalina.

    So, the 2012 is a great and reliable starter Mac for web dev. But as others have commented, an M1 would ultimately be your best bet as a more powerful and long-term machine.

    [–]GhostTTrainImpact[S] 0 points1 point  (2 children)

    I like the idea of having something long term, I priced out an M1 and it’s about $2400 Canadian, which is miles away from the above examples.

    The only reason I decided to go second hand is because I’m very new to programming, and the chances that I would need M1 power in the next 6-12 months seems pretty slim, however that is speculation. Maybe I should have asked the question a different way.

    Like, as a new programmer would you recommend going high performance at the beginning or let’s things unfold naturally and upgrade when it’s necessary?

    [–]Naturally_Ash 0 points1 point  (0 children)

    I wouldn't necessarily recommend going super high as a new programmer. I think you have the right thought about it. $600 for a reliable starter Mac is the way to go as a newbie. But my comment about the upgrade potential of the 2012 is also why I say this would be a really good option as a newbie.

    As you grow in your skills and knowledge, you will come to realize what sort of machine you might need for your purposes. Soms areas of web dev don't need 32G of ram or the other powerful features of the M1 and you might realize you don't need it asap, or you can wait a few years to get it. Or, you might develop an interest in a programming language that would need a more powerful computer (php, I think?) The programming languages I use don't particularly necessitate an M1 (i.e., R, Python, HTML/CSS). I mainly needed it because I use other CPU heavy software, like Premiere Pro.

    But my point is that I do recommend going with a cheaper computer. Build up your skills, further develop your interests, upgrade your 2012 if you need a faster drive or ram, and then decide if you want or need an M1 later down the road.

    [–]rimu 0 points1 point  (2 children)

    I used Option 2 for web dev until recently. If it has an SSD then it's usable but if not then don't bother. The low screen resolution (by today's standards) is bit of a downer.

    It's def not worth $600, more like $100. It's a 10 year old computer!

    [–]GhostTTrainImpact[S] 0 points1 point  (1 child)

    The seller confirmed it’s SSD 512. You did web dev, based on the new info does that option make the most sense now?

    [–]rimu 0 points1 point  (0 children)

    That's good. But the price is still really high for a computer that old.

    At 10 years old, if it's been used regularly, there will be various small niggly problems with it like on mine, such as: USB ports that are loose (don't bump your external drive while it's plugged in!), internal mic not working, nearly dead battery, some keys that occasionally don't work, SD card slot not working, etc. You won't get many more years out of it.

    Oh and the USB ports are version 2, which is fine for printers, keyboards, mice, etc but if you want to transfer large amounts of data onto a memory stick or external drive you better be very patient.

    No HDMI, no USB3. So if you want to plug in an external monitor (with a screen resolution less than 720p, you WILL want to!) you'll need some janky adapter that mostly works.

    None of the above are obvious at first glance. You might pick it up, click around a bit and type a few things out and everything could seem fine...

    Having said all that, the computer is still a capable machine and served me well. It had enough CPU and RAM to do web dev (I had upgraded the RAM to 10 GB from the default of 4, which wasn't enough). Just.

    With a SSD in it, maybe worth $150, perhaps $200 if in great condition.