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mac book pro advice needed

1964meb

1964meb

pfm Member
Hi Knowledgable Folk. my mac book pro is dying : the mouse pad does not work; the cd reading drawer does not work; the screen has been held together with sellotape for years.

I use the mbp for storing Aiff music files and playback through a dac to my naim / avondale amps and floorstanders. I did stream amazon music hd ( and loved that)

I have way less than a terabites worth of music files.

I wish to keep the digital music and wish to restart streaming music from amazon
I think I should replace the mbp with a newer s/h one but dont know where to start.

All advice very welcome

Many thanks in advance

Mike
 
if you are using optical to connect to your dac, apple stopped adding the optical port to the headphone socket at some point - worth doing some research. I cant remember when off hand.
Various places do refurbished macs - at least you know its been checked over. the keyboards on the 2015-2018 macbook pros often break, so make sure all keys work. Apple can replace these keyboards for free, but I'm not sure if that programme has gone now.
 
Probably not worth paying apple prices for 1TB storage, rather use an external USB SSD. If you need an optical output you will need to buy a USB to s/pdif converter, as newer macs don’t have a headphone socket with optical. Something like this will do fine (though there are many alternatives).

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B08HN3VSF8/?tag=pinkfishmedia-21
 
This site contains affiliate links for which pink fish media may be compensated.
Hi Mike,

Unless you actually need the portability of MacBook, I'd echo the suggestion to change over to Mac mini. A nice condition used mini can be had for sensible money, although you'll want to budget for a monitor, keyboard and mouse (unless your telly will do). Models up to late 2018 have USB ports, and there is an Apple USB-C to USB adapter available for those models than have come since. No need to change out your DAC. As bonus, sticking with Apple computers means that you'll have an easier time transferring your data, apps and settings (bookmarks, e-mail, etc.) from old to new.
 
Craig B said:
Hi Mike,

Unless you actually need the portability of MacBook, I'd echo the suggestion to change over to Mac mini. A nice condition used mini can be had for sensible money, although you'll want to budget for a monitor, keyboard and mouse (unless your telly will do). Models up to late 2018 have USB ports, and there is an Apple USB-C to USB adapter available for those models than have come since. No need to change out your DAC. As bonus, sticking with Apple computers means that you'll have an easier time transferring your data, apps and settings (bookmarks, e-mail, etc.) from old to new.
Click to expand...
thats excellent advice - just what i need.. many thanks..
 
You're welcome Mike.

A few things that come to mind that you should be aware of:
  1. Mac mini stopped including a built-in optical drive with the intro of the mid-2011 model. Apple's own USB SuperDrive is available as accessory (at a price), however, 3rd party USB models can still be had for anywhere from 1/3 to 1/5 the Apple price (assuming you'd still like to rip the occasional CD).
  2. If you really enjoyed your trackpad (while it lasted), Apple do a stand alone version that some opt for instead of a mouse. I like the now defunct 2 x AA battery version myself, and use rechargeables in. The current model has a none user replaceable rechargeable battery (same with their current wireless mouse and keyboards).
  3. Any wired USB Keyboard (Windows PC or Mac) or mouse will do, you don't have to spring for Apple's wireless rechargeables.
  4. You may have to budget for an adapter if using a computer monitor. Otherwise, all since the mid-2010 model have included an HDMI port.
 
fergch said:
There is a macmini advertised in the for sales on here.
Click to expand...
If it is 'Mac Mini M1, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD' that would have been $US 699. plus tax. Don't know what UK retail was, but sounds like a great deal, especially so, delivered with Apple keyboard and mouse included.

FYI, one can store their media library on an external HDD that plugs into the mini, or on a network attached storage device (NAS).
 
Craig B said:
If it is 'Mac Mini M1, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD' that would have been $US 699. plus tax. Don't know what UK retail was, but sounds like a great deal, especially so, delivered with Apple keyboard and mouse included.

FYI, one can store their media library on an external HDD that plugs into the mini, or on a network attached storage device (NAS).
Click to expand...

That was the one I was seeing...

Thought about it for myself, to replace an old MacMini from 2012.
 
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I would honestly get the device repaired. Less waste that way. Sounds like it worked fine before the issues. Heck I still sometimes use my old 2009 Gateway P-79 when I need an optical out for music on the go.
 
I suspect that Mike's MB Pro is mid-2012 or earlier, as these were the last that had SuperDrive built-in. He likely could fix it up, however, should he also be using it for general computing duties, he may want to consider taking it past the last officially supported macOS (10.15 Catalina, IIRC) via dosdude's patcher or OpenCore Legacy Patcher. Then again, Catalina and beyond bring with mandatory APFS which absolutely necessitates changing out the original HDD for SSD, else the machine gradually become virtually unusable due to the way APFS favours SSD performance at the expense of that of HDD. If his is HDD and running 10.14 Mojave or Catalina now he'll already be on APFS and possibly still wondering where the old MB Pro performance went.

BTW, 10.14 Mojave is the last macOS that one can opt out of APFS via using a specific option during OS install via command line (not difficult to do but absolutely necessary with HDD). As such, Mojave should be considered as 'end of the road' for HDDs (and only then should one manage to install this on HFS+ Journaled).
 
I think Mac Minis after the 2014 edition ditched the TOSLINK optical fibre output.
I still have a 2014 version but I'm not using it, as I have a new M1 that has no optical output.

The new M1 was a big let down as I'd hoped it would natively use 4K for all applications - not so.
Speed difference overall was not usefully any better as my 2014 had a fusion drive.
It's connected via HDMI to a TV and I'm using the optical output of the TV into my Naim NAC 222 as it doesn't have a USB type B input for the Mac.
 
Fusion drive is nice.

I'm about to install a Kingston 480GB SSD in my mate James' late-2014 1.4Ghz base model this week (came standard with 500GB HDD). Just picked up the official Apple Logic Board Removal Tool on Saturday. The Kingston was just over $CDN 30. with tax. There was an ADATA 480GB model for $5. less but they had just sold out. We had stuck one of these in his Acer laptop a couple of weeks ago and it is flying along nicely on Windows 10. To be honest, the Acer was fine with its 5400rpm WD Blue 500GB in, however, his mini is a dog on APFS (via Monterey, IIRC), and not because of the processor speed (does 2.7GHz with Turbo Boost), this is all down to content enumeration, the more one puts into storage, the worse it gets.

IMO, Apple are anti-green pricks for dropping HFS+ system drive support on machines sold with HDDs that can officially run macOS versions that are beyond the changeover.
 
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