Help me pick out a laptop that I will barely use?
June 14, 2019 1:11 PM   Subscribe

I've had my current 13" MacBook Pro for about 7 years, and it's slowed to a crawl. I'm thinking it might be better to get a PC laptop with a bigger screen rather than spending a bunch of money on a new Mac, but I don't really know anything about what's out there. Just tell me what to get?

Budget:
I'm imagining something in the $750 range but I really have no idea...I'm hoping to keep the same one for a long time, so I can afford to spend more, but also if there's a $500 one that does what I need, that's fine.

Specs:
-I almost never take it anywhere, so it doesn't have to be light.
-My house is tiny and I don't have space for a TV or desktop, so I'd like a large (maybe 17"? is that too large?) screen.
-I would prefer something in like, a tasteful silver if possible, rather than clunky black plastic or with, like, flames on the side
-I get a small discount for HP or Dell but it's probably not enough to make a big difference if another brand is a lot better

Main uses are:
-watching YouTube/Netflix and occasionally a DVD from the library
-internet browsing with Firefox
-blog posting/editing
-photo editing (rarely)
-word processing (nowadays this mostly happens thru Google Drive anyway)
-ripping CDs into itunes to put on my phone, but I'm thinking maybe it's time to get over myself and just sign up for a streaming service

Other considerations:
-I don't do any gaming or video editing or music editing.
-How do I avoid a bunch of unwanted software?
-My big worry about switching to a PC is malware--how worried should I be?
-Operating system?? Windows/Chrome/Ubuntu? I don't care about getting under the hood, I just want it to work.
posted by exceptinsects to Computers & Internet (13 answers total) 2 users marked this as a favorite
 
I personally have trialed and rejected a number of PC laptops after my 2012 Retina MacBook Pro died. This isn't a Windows vs. Mac thing - I don't care, and I have a HEDT (high-end desktop) that runs Windows that's fine - it's a quality of laptop thing.

My feeling after all this time is that a post-2015 Apple-manufactured laptop will have keyboard issues. This isn't about personal keyboard comfort, this is just about the reliability of the post-2015 Mac keyboards. They're bad. At first they're fine, but not later. I wouldn't buy one again until the fundamental architecture of the keyboard changed. Sorry, Apple, it's true.

At the same time, all of the post-2015 Windows laptops have awful trackpads. All of them, even Surface laptops or Dell laptops. They have perfectly fine keyboards, but the trackpads will eventually drive you crazy.

Right now, the only way to buy a laptop where both the keyboard and trackpad won't drive you completely insane after a couple of years is to buy a pre-2016 Apple MacBook Pro. I ended up buying one used with very little use. It's great! But, yeah, it's weird. Post-2015 laptops blow.
posted by I EAT TAPAS at 1:47 PM on June 14, 2019 [1 favorite]


Best answer: You have a 2012-era (non-Retina) Macbook Pro? It should still be plenty useable. If you're at all handy with a screwdriver it's entirely plausible to upgrade the RAM and/or replace the hard drive with an SSD (then use Disk Sensei to enable TRIM support, because Apple). There's nothing tricky involved, it's all right there under the bottom plate.

The somewhat tricky part would be reinstalling OS X (tricky, and generally unnecessary) or cloning your existing hard disk (probably you can just pay someone to do this, or find a friend who has the necessary equipment/knowledge). It's really "just" a matter of getting an SSD the same size as your disk (500GB probably), plugging them both into the same system, and using dd to block copy one to the other. I've done it myself, it works fine even if you have disk encryption enabled. This requires another computer, obviously.

Unless you're running on only 4GB of RAM or something, your hard disk is almost certainly the culprit. Newer OS X versions assume you're on SSD, and seven years is getting long in the tooth for a mechanical disk.

To answer your actual questions:

-How do I avoid a bunch of unwanted software?

That's the rub with Windows laptops. If you're feeling feisty, you can make a Windows 10 installer USB stick and blow away the existing installation. Windows grabs your serial number from the hardware so it's fully legit. The catch with doing this on a laptop was always that you'd be missing drivers, but Win10 has drivers for basically everything built in now.

-My big worry about switching to a PC is malware--how worried should I be?

It's not the bad old days anymore. Keep Windows updated and keep Windows Defender running and don't install any dubious software (and don't make any powerful enemies) and you should be fine.

-Operating system?? Windows/Chrome/Ubuntu? I don't care about getting under the hood, I just want it to work.

Chromebooks are a good alternative (if you don't mind Google), but you wouldn't be able to do Photoshop. I wouldn't recommend Ubuntu.

I personally have trialed and rejected a number of PC laptops after my 2012 Retina MacBook Pro died. This isn't a Windows vs. Mac thing - I don't care, and I have a HEDT (high-end desktop) that runs Windows that's fine - it's a quality of laptop thing.

As a rMBP owner with a Windows desktop, I feel the same way. I dislike the newer Macbooks, too -- I don't know what I would do if my rMBP died. The Windows ones all kind of suck, especially the trackpads.
posted by neckro23 at 1:55 PM on June 14, 2019 [2 favorites]


Best answer: Definitely replace the SSD and max out the RAM...it will breathe new life into your machine for far, far less than it would take to buy a new computer. It’ll be like new again.

Get an external USB enclosure for your existing drive, and that will make the transition much easier. All you have to do is install the drive and the RAM—easy to do in your particular model of MacBook Pro—then plug in your existing hard drive to the enclosure.

When you power up your machine, it will boot off the hard drive in the enclosure, since the SSD is blank. Then you can just download a Mac OS installer and install the OS on your new internal SSD.

Once the SSD has an OS on it, you can boot off the SSD, and use the Migration Assistant to copy all your old data off your old drive. And you’re done.

You could also follow that process in reverse by putting the SSD in the enclosure, installing the OS on it, booting off the SSD and using the Migration Assistant. Then, once it works, you can install it internally.
posted by vitout at 3:08 PM on June 14, 2019


Response by poster: Wow, this is not the advice I expected but I like it!
Do I even need to clone the hard drive? I have a Time Capsule that is supposedly backing up my stuff, although really I don't have anything too major to back up--photos are on icloud and I have maybe 5 documents that I should probably just put in my google drive anyway. Might be a good time to just get rid of all the music as I mentioned earlier.
posted by exceptinsects at 3:22 PM on June 14, 2019


Best answer: Ah, you have a Time Capsule? Then it’s even easier, you don’t need to clone the drive. You’ll still have to get the OS on the new SSD drive, though, so a USB enclosure would come in handy to do that—just download an installer of the OS, install it on the SSD via the enclosure, and then pop the drive in your Mac. The enclosure might be faster than the Time Capsule for restoring files, too.

Or, if you have a 12GB or larger flash drive handy, you can skip the enclosure, and follow these instructions from Apple to create a bootable flash drive with the OS installer. Pop in the SSD, use your flash drive to boot and install the OS, and restore from the Time Capsule. Done!

You could also restore the Mac to the version of the Mac OS that it came with using Internet Recovery—the Mac would boot off the Apple’s servers over the Internet, so no flash drive or enclosure needed. Then upgrade that version of the OS to the current version of the OS, and then restore from the Time Capsule.
posted by vitout at 3:35 PM on June 14, 2019


I was incorrect in my last post. Internet Recovery used to install the version of the OS that shipped with your Mac, but it now installs the latest supported version of the OS for your Mac.

So that’s your easiest and cheapest way forward: pop in the RAM and SSD, boot from Internet Recovery, install the Mac OS onto your Mac, and then restore from the Time Capsule.
posted by vitout at 3:43 PM on June 14, 2019


Best answer: If i were in your situation i’d spend a bit to upgrade the MacBook and hope to get a couple of years more use and see if Apple has remedied the keyboard situation by then (which i expect they will).

Note that the newish file system (APFS) that Apple has switched to is more efficient with SSDs than the old format (HFS+), while spinning hard drives are slower under MacOS 10.14. If you have upgraded to 10.13 or 10.14 your boot drive would have been automatically changed, which may be a part of the slowness you are encountering.

The easiest place to shop for replacement drives and RAM that is in spec for the Mac you are putting it in (along with install guides) is Other World Computing.
posted by D.C. at 4:27 PM on June 14, 2019


Get an iPad. If you've already got one, then just stop reading now. But seriously: it will do almost everything you want - not much good for ripping CDs, true, but I'm trying and failing to remember the last time I needed to do that - and I think you drastically underestimate the awesomeness of the portability of a tablet device. I apologize if this seems harsh, but it sounds like you're trying to replace your 7 year old computer with another 7 year old computer. I've got many, many, many issues with Apple - but the iPad almost literally like Living In The Future.
posted by doctor tough love at 6:35 PM on June 14, 2019 [1 favorite]


However, it does not prevent typos.
posted by doctor tough love at 6:55 PM on June 14, 2019


Internet Recovery used to install the version of the OS that shipped with your Mac, but it now installs the latest supported version of the OS for your Mac.

Ah, that was the annoying step my disk cloning advice was intended to avoid. I figured one would have to install OS X at least twice.

If you have a Time Machine backup then doing it this way should be relatively easy, then.
posted by neckro23 at 8:54 PM on June 14, 2019


Best answer: Internet Recovery used to install the version of the OS that shipped with your Mac, but it now installs the latest supported version of the OS for your Mac.

I think there's a key combo you can use to install the shipped version, rather than the latest version.

Here we go Cmd-R is the last OS installed, option-command-R is the newest compatible version and shift-option-command-R is the version that came with the machine.
posted by pompomtom at 11:30 PM on June 14, 2019


Response by poster: OK I'll give it a try! It looks like the SSD isn't very expensive and OtherWorld Computing has a whole installation kit with the enclosure and everything.
I think my macbook is actually a 2010, I bought it used at the time.
posted by exceptinsects at 9:38 AM on June 17, 2019


Response by poster: Update: I finally ordered new memory and hard drive and installed it today and it works!! You guys are brilliant, thank you so much! Other World had great installation videos that made it all super easy.
posted by exceptinsects at 10:09 PM on April 12, 2020


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