If you have the older Tiger Server software, those "old" cheesegrater Mac Pros make excellent file servers. I'm still using one that my newspaper bought in 2010. Upgraded the RAM and put in larger hard drives, but it's basically been running 24/7/365 since it was purchased in 2010. The newspaper I worked at was bought out, but I still use the server everyday working from home for 3 different newspapers. I think this old Mac Pro will outlast me.
I use my M1 Mac mini as a file server and it works fine, stays cool and uses tiny amounts of power. I'm more inclined to run Intel stuff in the fall, spring and winter as I'm in a basement without AC or heat.
no they don't lol. first of all power consumption is unbelievably high on those machines and especially today with energy prices as high as never before it's gonna cost you hundreds of dollars to run this thing 24/7. second of all you're running outdated server software which is a huge security risk. only good thing about them is their looks, so best you could do is to rip out the internals and put some M1 Mac mini or some raspberry pi in there, add some hard drives and then you can use it as your file server.
I think that Macbook is in excellent condition for an 800 year old Mac, and a bargain for an antique, may bid myself!! Possibly need new batteries by now though.
The older Mac Pros have tremendous upgradability and a strong user community. CPU performance is limited, but GPU performance is still excellent with modern upgrades (I.e. Radeon RX 6800, etc.). Real world performance, not synthetic benchmarks, show that if you have already invested in one, it’s still viable for doing pro graphics, video and audio production. If you are starting from scratch, yeah, probably better options out there in newer hardware. But if you know what your buying and why your buying, it’s not a mistake. If Apple would have made a better, and upgradable, Mac Pro, these old boxes would have been recycled years ago. But Apple didn’t and they are still running.
When comparing the old Mac Pros with the M1 lineup: some people _want_ and _need_ x86 and the hardware and software support that comes with it. Those are rather specific use cases, but if you need things like VMs with older OSes (important for logging into some enterprise VPNs and things like that) or support for PCI Express cards (eg. multichannel pro audio interfaces), Apple Silicon wouldn't cut it. You can go PC (and that's probably the wise choice in this case), but if you also like and want macOS... well, older Mac it is. That's probably what's inflating the prices here.
One of my greatest used tech pet peeves is when the seller uses original promotional art and photos instead of the item they are selling. You have to dive down a rabbit hole to get a real idea of the items condition! On the prices, that's unfortunately the range here. You can still find 2012 MacBook Pros with no upgrades going for $700
@Jaquan Kelsor Lol, easy there chief! Is this what you do for a living? It seems like a nerve was touched! No one is out here expecting pristine 10 year old macs. All we ask for is the common courtesy of not wasting people's time.
Especially when the photo is obviously not even the model that's for sale. I've had to contact sellers on a couple of occasions, to find out what the heck they're actually offering. Not every seller is computer-savvy: some people know it's an iMac but know little more than that.
@Jaquan Kelsor Ok JK, how about a current M1 MacBook Pro 1TB 16"? Here's what the seller wrote: "Apple MacBook Pro 16-inch, M1 Pro 16-core GPU, 16GB Memory, 1TB SSD. Lightly used, some minor cosmetic damage to metal frame (e.g. scratches)" DID NOT POST ANY PICS!! Only 2 STOCK photos. Why no pics?? I think you know. Even used the words "DAMAGE TO METAL FRAME." Yet, still got 2 bids and sold for $1755. ALL M1 mac's are getting double digit bids, but not this one, as it should be with no real photos. Individual seller, not a business, therefore NO RETURNS. You find out about the "damage" when you receive it, with no option to return. Swell. So JK, would you take a chance on the PROMOTIONAL ART photos when given "damage" in the description and NOT seeing the photos?? Oh sorry, "scratches."
I got a 2011 i7 27-in iMac with a 1 TB SSD installed, and I've been using that thing since 2016.. it's still my main computer, it has no issues runs like a champ. And it still plays Minecraft Great!
Between 2012 and 2017, I bought, sold, flipped a ton of iMacs...mostly for fun but I made a little jingle in the process. I kept the very best machines for awhile then sold them on. I was also able to fully equip my classroom with Macs as well. It was kinda nice being the envy of my colleagues 😁
I have a bunch of these 27" iMacs, but they mostly have Core2Duo. They are a pain to dissasemble in order to scrap, plus they are fully functional. I'm considering making them Linux systems with an upgraded SSD drive. I wish it was more cost effective to make them into monitors.
Here in Europe prices are insanely high for these old machines. I mean, they're both still usable and well engineered, but aren't worth the rip off. Last year I've been lucky to find one for free that just needed a new hard drive (and got SSD instead); but to me if one has some hundreds bucks to spend on an iMac, it's better to make an effort a new one.
Luke, i reslly like that you help us Mac users to select used equipmwnt without being fooled. It says a lot on your honesty and good will. Congrats for all da great job. Best rgds
You're right, I have a 2011 21.5" and still running strong, I only replaced the HD with an SSD. The only thing that would kill the machine is if I slam it against a wall.
Well done, Luke. As a veteran eBayer I look for the very things you're talking about. Main thing is the seller, and the ability to return ship on their dime, just in case. The good sellers are not hard to find. Just pay no attention to feedbacks less than 99% positive, unless they only have one negative in their history and the percentage goes below 99 for that reason. Remember to read the negatives, some of which are just wrong and shouldn't be included. Some are warnings to stay away and should be heeded. I want only 100% positive sellers ideally. Having said that, I've still had to use eBay a few times to resolve bad sellers that weren't detectable. Ebay sided with me every time, thankfully.
Wake up! The reason that the cheese grater Mac Pros are still worth the money, is that they are still the ONLY Macs that are UPGRADEBLE/EXPANDEBLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (Excluding the $15.000 2019 Mac Pro). This is what's killing the Mac for professionals.
Yup! That upgradability isn’t found in Apple products today. Everything is soldered in so you need to order an upgraded model when you buy it since there is no option to do it later.
If I was doing a video on eBay purchases I would discuss MDM. Basically how people sell computers they don't own and then sometime after installing a new version of MacOS the machine phones home and resets the software to what the company had programmed. I had it happen on two machines and typically getting a refund is probably the only thing you can do legally. My tip would be not to buy a machine where a person cannot log in. That includes firmware locked, MDM or iCloud locked. The problem with MDM is that you can't track down the real owner or previous owner to release it from MDM or firmware lock or iCloud lock. And Apple isn't going to help you if you bought it from a third party.
An m1 Mac Mini with 8GB is worthless next to a 3.33 or 3.46Ghz 12-core 5,1 Mac Pro even if the CPU power is slightly higher. It’s not magnitudes higher, it’s 20-30% faster at best and has weak sauce GPU capabilities that only allow 2 screens and have no support for eGPUs. Even the 2018 Mac Mini can handle 3. Anything that takes advantage of the cores and needs more RAM in real world use, like non-Apple DAW software that’s still in transition to Apple Silicon at present really needs Apple Studio or 14” M1 Pro performance to make it worth using Apple silicon because it’s still relying on Rosetta. Used 16GB M1 prices are much higher than 8G models too. I picked up half a 2012 Mac Pro for £70 a couple of months back. It was just the case, optical drive and logic board. Put the RX570, Sonnet Allegro USB card, PCIe SSD boot drive and dual X5690 CPU tray with 96GB out of my older 2010 model in it and it benches just over 6000 in geek bench and runs Pro Tools 2022 and loads of Waves and Izotope plugins just fine. The nightmares on forums people are having with both Apple Silicon and MacOS 12 are numerous.
There are plenty of valid reasons to be purchasing older Mac Pro systems - the M1 and M2 systems won't support 128GB RAM, nor will they run Intel apps natively, and software requiring older operating systems will also require the older hardware, especially given that the M1/M2 won't support older drivers (even for my 4 year old Thunderbolt 10GbE NIC, for example, and my older Pro Tools gear). I still run a few 2010/2012 Mac Pros (maxed out - 12 cores/128GB RAM) and a 2013 Mac Pro. It does beg the question as to whether there is a market for backwards compatibility as a commercial product. I mean, I'd pay thousands of dollars for the ability to run my x86 VMware VMs on an M1 Max, and to use my kernel extensions with a modern Mac.
Hey, Luke! Seeing that 2011 iMac made me remember that you have upgraded that model more than once quite a while ago. I think it would be interesting to revisit that, since a lot has changed and there are better tools, parts and documentation now than when those original videos were made.
My spect out MacPro 2009 has 96Gb of Ram, Multi Core Geekbench Score of 6977 (dual 5690x) and a Metal Score of 131482 (Radeon 6800 MacVidCards Eu) SSD speeds up to 1,4gb/s PCI and 650 Mb/s for the HDD Raid, USB 3.0 and USB c. Cyberpunk 2077 with low raytracing 60fps, WoW Shadowlands with Raytracing 60fps, Parallels Desktop with dozens of VM´s is just and I don't need to burn Gas to tempere my Room. With Open Core legacy Patcher it even runs MacOs Monteray. Also I own an old Apple Cinema Display 30 inch (yes the dual link DVI Monster) but I don't use it for Video since my old IPAD3 is still a perfect Video Player for Netflix and Amazon (but not RUclips :)). All of this consumes a lot of Power BUT it is still better to upgrade these Machines compared to throw them away since they CAN keep up with an M1 and outperformed an M2 in other Areas and the Displays of the CinemaDisplay and the iPad are sill great. For me it is an Hobby and I´m mainly playing Games and tinkering with this Machine... but that is usage too ! Right to Repair Baby !
Great video on eBay iMac purchases. Maybe I’m chicken, but I’ve always have been scared of buying anything sight unseen from any online source not backed by a major retailer. Even Amazon has sold me some intentionally misleading and fraudulent merchandise such as fake USB memory sticks. When it’s eBay, run away!
eBay has good buyer protections if you receive something not as described in the listing, but you have to be more knowledgeable about what you're purchasing and know which listings to avoid.
I came close to pulling the trigger on a 12 core cheese grater 3 years ago. Today I have a M1 max 64 gigs of ram studio, and I'm so glad I didn't waste my money on what is essentially an overly large space heater.
@@axi0matic 2012 27 inch imac. In 2019 at the start of the pandemic I first nearly switched to windows, then I thought about a cheese grater. In the end I just took the machine from 24 gigs of ram to 32, and I found an external PCI thunderbolt enclosure and ran the boot drive off an NVME drive. It was an i7 imac with a pretty beefy GPU so that last uprade kept the machine running pretty good even on catalina. I don't push my gear that hard so it was highly functional. I could have got another couple of years out of it but I came into a little money and the studio is an appealing machine so I pulled the trigger. I hope to get 10ish years out of the studio.
@@claytonberg721 It's not really a meaningful comparison then. If you were happy with a 2012 iMac, then sure, a MP tower is a lot bigger and uses more electricity. But it's also capable of much greater multi-core and GPU performance. Plus it can boot off an internal NVMe drive (in a PCI slot), it's got space for internal HDDs / SSDs, can take loads of RAM etc. But if you already had the iMac, I can see why you stuck with that - I ran a 2013 iMac off a USB3 SSD for a number of years, and it was a pretty decent machine. The Mac Studio is obviously a massive step up from either though - pretty tempted myself.
I still have a maxed out dual processor 2010 5,1 Mac Pro. Half of the value of most of those machines is in newer graphics cards and PCI expansions. Especially when the GPU shortage was at its height. I even considered selling mine to exploit the value of its puny RX580 but it’s still a powerful enough machine for my teenage son to play most games. With raid abilities and many hard drive bays they also make great servers for various reasons. Modern Macs can’t do this easily. Would I go out of my way to buy a completed one, no. Would I build a new one, well… that’s dependent entry price and cost of parts. I think the increased cost of graphics cards make these price prohibitive for most situations, maybe if you have a GPU sitting on a shelf. BUT, it’s still a decent machine if you already own one pre GPU shortage or have parts plus they are faster maxed out than the trash can Mac.
He was also wrong about the CPUs. They're obviously ancient, but actually equivalent to a first-gen i7 EE, not a Core 2 Duo (that's the earlier MP 1,1-3,1).
One thing I am seeing recently is people taking real pictures from ebay and using them to advertise scammy local sales on facebook market, for like half the price they should sell. I wonder what would happen if you go pick up the device yourself, they'll rob you of your money with a gun?
I've seen that listing for the MacBook Pro that belonged to Genghis Khan of the Mongol Empire a few months ago. I do appreciate the humor. I wonder how much you'd have to offer to get it. You should try offering $300 and see if he accepts your offer, then slowly increase your offers until he accepts.
I just launched the Cherry Computer Morello (parody Apple Macintosh) on eBay for $2,599. If you want an alternative to the Mac Studio get the Power Morello 6000p which is expandable and can run a wide variety of OS.
Here's Luke, showing us Genghis Khan's Macbook, and Dawid (from Dawid Does Tech) showed us a new Lenovo laptop with Genghis Khan's spirit dwelling in it...
When I was 11 I thought of Core 2 Duo as Core i2 Also I think Luke Miani was being sarcastic about Ghengas Khan being a good deal because obviously that computer wasn't used by him but one of his descendants which make up 10% of earths human population
Genghis Khan laptops on eBay?!?! what a find! Thanks so much Luke for showing me this! You made my day…I’m going to use my CC right away and snatch that up before someone else grabs it!
I don't know if I would consider buying a mac soon but if I wanted to switch completely from windows to mac I would. I could always get one of the m1 iMacs or something else I am usually pretty skeptical of buying things used.
Thanks for reminding us of the scams out there. Those that want specific models and years, DO You Research!!!! Please do this every few months as the prices drop... Hopefully!
i got one of those cheesegrater mac pros! got it for 62$ shipped off ebay!.... its a 2008 model with 20gb ram and the dual 2.8 ghz zeons! i modded the os and i put osx catalina on it!
Another thing is many of the old systems such as the 2011 iMac cannot use the current level of OS. The last supported OS for the 2011 iMac is High Sierra. I also like series and that you point out some things to look for in the ads both positive and negative.
And anyone still using them are running Open Core and Monterey. And getting regular Apple updates too. They work just fine, if you have a metal compatible graphics card. If you want Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, you have to upgrade the internal adapter or add an external usb dongle. Very cheap to upgrade.
Dang I'm a couple of dollars short of the $8049 MacBook Pro that Genghis Khan used. If I can retrieve his DNA, I can make a clone of Genghis Khan and build an army to take over the world.
There's a 2013 iMac 27 in my area for sale for $200. It's been for sale for 2 months. I contacted the seller and asked a few questions and the system looks fine. There was a base M1 Mac mini for $350. It was scratched up and really dusty. It was originally listed at $550, then $450, then $350. It was located in a rural area. I have a 2009 iMac 27 and may sell it - I would probably ask $30. I have a 2010 iMac 27 with i7 and 32 GB of RAM. I could probably get $100 for it. Intel Mac prices are dropping really fast. I see overpriced listings all the time. The reason people price them too high is that they see other people doing the same thing. What they don't realize is that Macs that are priced right are sold very quickly so you don't see them for sale unless you're lucky. The ones that hang around forever are overpriced and don't sell but that's what people think that they should price their Macs at. There is also the approach where you just keep lowering your price until it sells.
Yeah that's why I just like to follow products and sometimes you can just watch it gradually lower its price. I've gotten some really good deals that way
There are some crazy listings for iPhones I found an iPhone XS Max going for 10k the other day and I also found some idiot trying to sell a 2009 plastic MacBook for around 10k madness!
If you're using older software the m1 Mac Mini won't run it or won't run it fast from what I understand so the 2009-2012 MacPros are great for this and can be gotten cheaper than a m1 Mini. Plus the old MacPros have all kinds of expansion options for drives, RAM etc...
Many people deprecate Intel Macs but they have a lot of life left in them and what exactly is wrong with a dual core or quad core Intel Mac? They’re reasonably fast and the software on them will always remain useful. Apple as a company embodies the worst of the throwaway mentality but that’s no reason to ape them. Classic Macs deserve love and appreciation simply because the M1s and M2s are insanely expensive!
These ebay seller warranties are pretty bad. They cover very limited things, basically it's a warranty that it works when you get it and later on it covers nothing. Just a shady selling tactic.
Are any of these listings decent? I for one can't say no to Genghis Khan's MacBook. Plus, Save 20% on Renderforest subscriptions through October 31: bit.ly/renderforest-lukemiani
I still use my imac 21' from 2008 a lot it runs Linux mint and the video card is a Nvidia quadro with modified rom. It's on the kitchen table. With just 4gb of ram it can just barely run modern software. I en do it has one of the last supported c2d It's slow. But it stil runs everything youtube Netflix browsing Web email etc. It's just not very fast. A 2400s sounds like a great upgrade if it has the Intel graphics.
Actually I had a bad experience with "stock4less". Total scam. When I tried to get a refund through eBay, they fought it, placing dubious conditions on the returned junk, before processing a refund. I ended up blowing off the few $hundred. Sorry to see eBay still carries them...
I have a theory to offer. I've been on eBay alot the past few months looking for an M1 mac mini, basic or a little better, and an M1 macbook pro [mostly the 1TB 16" but looking at 14" as well]. Interesting, I've won no auctions [mostly because the prices got too high and I refuse to play]. In seeing these auctions, something nefarious is going on IMHO. Practically every single one of them has SO MANY low feedbacks raising the prices it's ABSURD. I'm talking plenty of 0's and other single digit feedbacks pushing prices higher. And guess what?? Do any of them win?? NO, they bail before auction end. Some actually push it till the end but don't win. I've seen at least two single's win, and the item was back up for bid a day or two later. WTF?? Since it's so many auctions showing this behavior, I have to believe eBay is behind the single digit feedback bids to raise prices and make their own end payment from the seller as high as it can be. I can't prove it, but the facts say it's more than possible. Since eBay is killing the small refurb guy, my main source of tech buys, how can you think otherwise?? Seems to me auctions are now a thing of the past. I've seen very very few finish the way they used to; with solid eBayers placing the bids. It also looks like those solid eBayers are NOT playing the auction game anymore; based on the personal feedback counts I see placing the bids. They're too low for tech this high. They're mostly all less than 50-60. I would think seasoned veteran eBayers, like me, would be bidding on these M1 mini's and macbook pro's at such lower pricing. And these M1's would go for great deals, killer deals, were it not for these fake single digit bidders getting in the way. My 2 cents and always...GiddyUp...
9:54. You could’ve made an offer for $8.49 with free shipping. Somebody wanted to sell me a 2018 Mac mini, fully loaded with 64 GB of RAM and an i7 processor, for $1299. Not to mention that it did not power on. Hell of a steal! Low-Balled him for $259, and he just removed the listing because he got pissed. That’s all I’d give for it anyway.😝
Hey Luke, so ebay is crapping things out han? All right, now tell me I have just bought a 2013 iMac 27inch with 8gb ram 1.12 TB fusion drive for around 175 dollars. How's that? And yah it's screen glass is cracked but major crack is only a line from top right to a little bottom left. And that's it. You tell me is it a good steal or I've been fooled again?
can you check on MacBook Pro Intel 16"? It's hard to figure out the true pricing even with Amazon refurbished. Also a good pricing for the upgradeable 2017 iMac 21 ($350)and 27" ($600) which have Thunderbolt 3, mouse +kb.
If you have the older Tiger Server software, those "old" cheesegrater Mac Pros make excellent file servers. I'm still using one that my newspaper bought in 2010. Upgraded the RAM and put in larger hard drives, but it's basically been running 24/7/365 since it was purchased in 2010. The newspaper I worked at was bought out, but I still use the server everyday working from home for 3 different newspapers. I think this old Mac Pro will outlast me.
It probably will as long as you maintain it by cleaning the dust out every so often and replacing the thermal paste once a year or so should do it
I use my M1 Mac mini as a file server and it works fine, stays cool and uses tiny amounts of power. I'm more inclined to run Intel stuff in the fall, spring and winter as I'm in a basement without AC or heat.
no they don't lol. first of all power consumption is unbelievably high on those machines and especially today with energy prices as high as never before it's gonna cost you hundreds of dollars to run this thing 24/7. second of all you're running outdated server software which is a huge security risk. only good thing about them is their looks, so best you could do is to rip out the internals and put some M1 Mac mini or some raspberry pi in there, add some hard drives and then you can use it as your file server.
Should keep it off the net though. That thing is unsupported
The power consumption on it would be insanely high. Bette to use NAS or old Mac mini.
I think that Macbook is in excellent condition for an 800 year old Mac, and a bargain for an antique, may bid myself!! Possibly need new batteries by now though.
I wonder what OS Genghis installed on it. It's probably not supported anymore.
@@tehabe Gotta be something fancy - maybe COBOL?
OsVI Mammoth was the shit. I loved the function to execute a peasant remotely
The older Mac Pros have tremendous upgradability and a strong user community. CPU performance is limited, but GPU performance is still excellent with modern upgrades (I.e. Radeon RX 6800, etc.). Real world performance, not synthetic benchmarks, show that if you have already invested in one, it’s still viable for doing pro graphics, video and audio production.
If you are starting from scratch, yeah, probably better options out there in newer hardware. But if you know what your buying and why your buying, it’s not a mistake.
If Apple would have made a better, and upgradable, Mac Pro, these old boxes would have been recycled years ago. But Apple didn’t and they are still running.
When comparing the old Mac Pros with the M1 lineup: some people _want_ and _need_ x86 and the hardware and software support that comes with it. Those are rather specific use cases, but if you need things like VMs with older OSes (important for logging into some enterprise VPNs and things like that) or support for PCI Express cards (eg. multichannel pro audio interfaces), Apple Silicon wouldn't cut it. You can go PC (and that's probably the wise choice in this case), but if you also like and want macOS... well, older Mac it is. That's probably what's inflating the prices here.
2:22 I cracked up! 🤣😂🤣😂
Loving this series! Reminds me of your videos back in the day pointing out shady MacBook lasting with Noah…
One of my greatest used tech pet peeves is when the seller uses original promotional art and photos instead of the item they are selling. You have to dive down a rabbit hole to get a real idea of the items condition!
On the prices, that's unfortunately the range here. You can still find 2012 MacBook Pros with no upgrades going for $700
@Jaquan Kelsor Lol, easy there chief! Is this what you do for a living? It seems like a nerve was touched! No one is out here expecting pristine 10 year old macs. All we ask for is the common courtesy of not wasting people's time.
@Jaquan Kelsor If they listed it on the internet they probably have access to a camera they're literally just being lazy.
Especially when the photo is obviously not even the model that's for sale. I've had to contact sellers on a couple of occasions, to find out what the heck they're actually offering. Not every seller is computer-savvy: some people know it's an iMac but know little more than that.
@Jaquan Kelsor Ok JK, how about a current M1 MacBook Pro 1TB 16"? Here's what the seller wrote: "Apple MacBook Pro 16-inch, M1 Pro 16-core GPU, 16GB Memory, 1TB SSD. Lightly used, some minor cosmetic damage to metal frame (e.g. scratches)" DID NOT POST ANY PICS!! Only 2 STOCK photos. Why no pics?? I think you know. Even used the words "DAMAGE TO METAL FRAME." Yet, still got 2 bids and sold for $1755. ALL M1 mac's are getting double digit bids, but not this one, as it should be with no real photos. Individual seller, not a business, therefore NO RETURNS. You find out about the "damage" when you receive it, with no option to return. Swell.
So JK, would you take a chance on the PROMOTIONAL ART photos when given "damage" in the description and NOT seeing the photos?? Oh sorry, "scratches."
@@jasonpacker9607 Right on, Jason. Maybe Jaquan will read your post and GET IT.
I like watching these eBay videos.
I got a 2011 i7 27-in iMac with a 1 TB SSD installed, and I've been using that thing since 2016.. it's still my main computer, it has no issues runs like a champ. And it still plays Minecraft Great!
i saw this macbook listing that had “5000$ worth of software” like people are going to buy it because of that lol
Between 2012 and 2017, I bought, sold, flipped a ton of iMacs...mostly for fun but I made a little jingle in the process. I kept the very best machines for awhile then sold them on. I was also able to fully equip my classroom with Macs as well. It was kinda nice being the envy of my colleagues 😁
That Ghengis Khan MacBook was tempting ;-)
It is like a NFT, but one that you can hold in your hands, and is still as worthless.
Whoever made the khan listing I hope gets the 8k. That shits hilarious
I have a bunch of these 27" iMacs, but they mostly have Core2Duo. They are a pain to dissasemble in order to scrap, plus they are fully functional. I'm considering making them Linux systems with an upgraded SSD drive. I wish it was more cost effective to make them into monitors.
I'm pleased to learn that this will be a series. Your tips are very helpful and much appreciated. Thanks!
Here in Europe prices are insanely high for these old machines. I mean, they're both still usable and well engineered, but aren't worth the rip off. Last year I've been lucky to find one for free that just needed a new hard drive (and got SSD instead); but to me if one has some hundreds bucks to spend on an iMac, it's better to make an effort a new one.
Never buy from listing with stick photos.
Love this series!
Luke, i reslly like that you help us Mac users to select used equipmwnt without being fooled. It says a lot on your honesty and good will. Congrats for all da great job. Best rgds
Actually the Radeon 6000 series failed a lot in 27" 2011 iMacs, but only very rarely in the 21.5" 2011 iMacs.
You're right, I have a 2011 21.5" and still running strong, I only replaced the HD with an SSD. The only thing that would kill the machine is if I slam it against a wall.
If they’re really refurbished, I would think:what made them fail was fixed. I wouldn’t have bought them brand new.
Mine was 11 years old when I upgraded the GPU to a FirePro M5100 and the original GPU still worked great, I just needed something more powerful.
Ghenghis Khan would never have used a Windows machine. Fact.
Well done, Luke. As a veteran eBayer I look for the very things you're talking about. Main thing is the seller, and the ability to return ship on their dime, just in case. The good sellers are not hard to find. Just pay no attention to feedbacks less than 99% positive, unless they only have one negative in their history and the percentage goes below 99 for that reason. Remember to read the negatives, some of which are just wrong and shouldn't be included. Some are warnings to stay away and should be heeded. I want only 100% positive sellers ideally.
Having said that, I've still had to use eBay a few times to resolve bad sellers that weren't detectable. Ebay sided with me every time, thankfully.
Wake up! The reason that the cheese grater Mac Pros are still worth the money, is that they are still the ONLY Macs that are UPGRADEBLE/EXPANDEBLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (Excluding the $15.000 2019 Mac Pro). This is what's killing the Mac for professionals.
Yup! That upgradability isn’t found in Apple products today. Everything is soldered in so you need to order an upgraded model when you buy it since there is no option to do it later.
What a great morning, first with Retro Action and now you have a new video, I love starting my Saturdays like this!
I've never been concerned about any used tech gear being covered in piss before. Thanks, Luke, now there's one more thing to worry about.
😂😂😂
I'm going to put my Mac mini up for sale at double the price so I can be in a Luke Miani video 🙂
If I was doing a video on eBay purchases I would discuss MDM. Basically how people sell computers they don't own and then sometime after installing a new version of MacOS the machine phones home and resets the software to what the company had programmed. I had it happen on two machines and typically getting a refund is probably the only thing you can do legally. My tip would be not to buy a machine where a person cannot log in. That includes firmware locked, MDM or iCloud locked. The problem with MDM is that you can't track down the real owner or previous owner to release it from MDM or firmware lock or iCloud lock. And Apple isn't going to help you if you bought it from a third party.
Series, yessss!!! Thank you
An m1 Mac Mini with 8GB is worthless next to a 3.33 or 3.46Ghz 12-core 5,1 Mac Pro even if the CPU power is slightly higher. It’s not magnitudes higher, it’s 20-30% faster at best and has weak sauce GPU capabilities that only allow 2 screens and have no support for eGPUs. Even the 2018 Mac Mini can handle 3. Anything that takes advantage of the cores and needs more RAM in real world use, like non-Apple DAW software that’s still in transition to Apple Silicon at present really needs Apple Studio or 14” M1 Pro performance to make it worth using Apple silicon because it’s still relying on Rosetta. Used 16GB M1 prices are much higher than 8G models too. I picked up half a 2012 Mac Pro for £70 a couple of months back. It was just the case, optical drive and logic board. Put the RX570, Sonnet Allegro USB card, PCIe SSD boot drive and dual X5690 CPU tray with 96GB out of my older 2010 model in it and it benches just over 6000 in geek bench and runs Pro Tools 2022 and loads of Waves and Izotope plugins just fine. The nightmares on forums people are having with both Apple Silicon and MacOS 12 are numerous.
Please make this a series! Give it a cheesy name like “Good Mac Bad Mac”
THANK THE MAKER!!! 🎉🎉🎉 MORE EBAY VIDEOS!!! 🎉🎉🎉
There are plenty of valid reasons to be purchasing older Mac Pro systems - the M1 and M2 systems won't support 128GB RAM, nor will they run Intel apps natively, and software requiring older operating systems will also require the older hardware, especially given that the M1/M2 won't support older drivers (even for my 4 year old Thunderbolt 10GbE NIC, for example, and my older Pro Tools gear). I still run a few 2010/2012 Mac Pros (maxed out - 12 cores/128GB RAM) and a 2013 Mac Pro.
It does beg the question as to whether there is a market for backwards compatibility as a commercial product. I mean, I'd pay thousands of dollars for the ability to run my x86 VMware VMs on an M1 Max, and to use my kernel extensions with a modern Mac.
Hey, Luke! Seeing that 2011 iMac made me remember that you have upgraded that model more than once quite a while ago. I think it would be interesting to revisit that, since a lot has changed and there are better tools, parts and documentation now than when those original videos were made.
Not really. 2011 models are worthless
@@emilsecker7881 yea
Thanks Luke as always great information
My spect out MacPro 2009 has 96Gb of Ram, Multi Core Geekbench Score of 6977 (dual 5690x) and a Metal Score of 131482 (Radeon 6800 MacVidCards Eu) SSD speeds up to 1,4gb/s PCI and 650 Mb/s for the HDD Raid, USB 3.0 and USB c. Cyberpunk 2077 with low raytracing 60fps, WoW Shadowlands with Raytracing 60fps, Parallels Desktop with dozens of VM´s is just and I don't need to burn Gas to tempere my Room. With Open Core legacy Patcher it even runs MacOs Monteray. Also I own an old Apple Cinema Display 30 inch (yes the dual link DVI Monster) but I don't use it for Video since my old IPAD3 is still a perfect Video Player for Netflix and Amazon (but not RUclips :)). All of this consumes a lot of Power BUT it is still better to upgrade these Machines compared to throw them away since they CAN keep up with an M1 and outperformed an M2 in other Areas and the Displays of the CinemaDisplay and the iPad are sill great.
For me it is an Hobby and I´m mainly playing Games and tinkering with this Machine... but that is usage too !
Right to Repair Baby !
Great new series.Would like it book-ended with 'best recent deal' and 'worst recent deal' with a bonus of 'most outrageous deal'.
Love this series! Keep it up Luke.
yes yeees! Cant have enough of this kind of videos!!!
Can you look into 2nd gen iPad Pro 11in for the next video!?
I like this series, I shop on E-Bay a lot which is cheaper than Amazon, your tips are priceless.
thanks again Luke for this eBay series...cheers
that genghis khan one was outrageous 😂😂😂
Great video on eBay iMac purchases. Maybe I’m chicken, but I’ve always have been scared of buying anything sight unseen from any online source not backed by a major retailer. Even Amazon has sold me some intentionally misleading and fraudulent merchandise such as fake USB memory sticks. When it’s eBay, run away!
eBay has good buyer protections if you receive something not as described in the listing, but you have to be more knowledgeable about what you're purchasing and know which listings to avoid.
I came close to pulling the trigger on a 12 core cheese grater 3 years ago. Today I have a M1 max 64 gigs of ram studio, and I'm so glad I didn't waste my money on what is essentially an overly large space heater.
What did you use for the 3 years before the Studio came out?
@@axi0matic 2012 27 inch imac. In 2019 at the start of the pandemic I first nearly switched to windows, then I thought about a cheese grater. In the end I just took the machine from 24 gigs of ram to 32, and I found an external PCI thunderbolt enclosure and ran the boot drive off an NVME drive.
It was an i7 imac with a pretty beefy GPU so that last uprade kept the machine running pretty good even on catalina. I don't push my gear that hard so it was highly functional. I could have got another couple of years out of it but I came into a little money and the studio is an appealing machine so I pulled the trigger. I hope to get 10ish years out of the studio.
@@claytonberg721 It's not really a meaningful comparison then. If you were happy with a 2012 iMac, then sure, a MP tower is a lot bigger and uses more electricity. But it's also capable of much greater multi-core and GPU performance. Plus it can boot off an internal NVMe drive (in a PCI slot), it's got space for internal HDDs / SSDs, can take loads of RAM etc. But if you already had the iMac, I can see why you stuck with that - I ran a 2013 iMac off a USB3 SSD for a number of years, and it was a pretty decent machine. The Mac Studio is obviously a massive step up from either though - pretty tempted myself.
I still have a maxed out dual processor 2010 5,1 Mac Pro. Half of the value of most of those machines is in newer graphics cards and PCI expansions. Especially when the GPU shortage was at its height. I even considered selling mine to exploit the value of its puny RX580 but it’s still a powerful enough machine for my teenage son to play most games. With raid abilities and many hard drive bays they also make great servers for various reasons. Modern Macs can’t do this easily. Would I go out of my way to buy a completed one, no. Would I build a new one, well… that’s dependent entry price and cost of parts. I think the increased cost of graphics cards make these price prohibitive for most situations, maybe if you have a GPU sitting on a shelf. BUT, it’s still a decent machine if you already own one pre GPU shortage or have parts plus they are faster maxed out than the trash can Mac.
He was also wrong about the CPUs. They're obviously ancient, but actually equivalent to a first-gen i7 EE, not a Core 2 Duo (that's the earlier MP 1,1-3,1).
Great buying aid Luke, thanks.
One thing I am seeing recently is people taking real pictures from ebay and using them to advertise scammy local sales on facebook market, for like half the price they should sell. I wonder what would happen if you go pick up the device yourself, they'll rob you of your money with a gun?
I've seen that listing for the MacBook Pro that belonged to Genghis Khan of the Mongol Empire a few months ago. I do appreciate the humor. I wonder how much you'd have to offer to get it. You should try offering $300 and see if he accepts your offer, then slowly increase your offers until he accepts.
I just launched the Cherry Computer Morello (parody Apple Macintosh) on eBay for $2,599. If you want an alternative to the Mac Studio get the Power Morello 6000p which is expandable and can run a wide variety of OS.
that's a great deal for Genghis Kahn's MacBook.
“What was it covered in piss?” made me belly laugh at work. Thanks for that, turd 😁 oh my God, the laughs don’t stop, what’s with the KhanBook pro??
Here's Luke, showing us Genghis Khan's Macbook, and Dawid (from Dawid Does Tech) showed us a new Lenovo laptop with Genghis Khan's spirit dwelling in it...
LOLLL The last part had me laughing for quite some time.
When I was 11 I thought of Core 2 Duo as Core i2
Also I think Luke Miani was being sarcastic about Ghengas Khan being a good deal because obviously that computer wasn't used by him but one of his descendants which make up 10% of earths human population
Seeing the Genghis Khan Mac stirred my blood.😂
Genghis Khan laptops on eBay?!?! what a find! Thanks so much Luke for showing me this! You made my day…I’m going to use my CC right away and snatch that up before someone else grabs it!
😂🤣
What I really want is Kublai Khan's iPhone 6s Plus so I can call Marco....Polo......Marco.....Polo
Yeah fr how'd that get in there
Damn Luke! I literally spat my food all over the place and nearly choked with that comment about being covered in pi$$ ! 😂😂😂
This is an excellent series I would watch every single one of them if you would continue to make them
The CMP has pcie slots at least though. They do have that going for them.
That Genghis Khan MacBook tho’ 😂😂😂
There are also those who are replacing all the innards of the MBPs making it essentially a PC in a Mac frame running macOS.
How about finding Cesar's macbook pro? BeT it would be worth at least 9000.00.
I thought my buddy Ghengis was a Think Pad aficionado... He must have become a "switcher"
I don't know if I would consider buying a mac soon but if I wanted to switch completely from windows to mac I would. I could always get one of the m1 iMacs or something else I am usually pretty skeptical of buying things used.
Thanks for reminding us of the scams out there. Those that want specific models and years, DO You Research!!!!
Please do this every few months as the prices drop... Hopefully!
i got one of those cheesegrater mac pros! got it for 62$ shipped off ebay!.... its a 2008 model with 20gb ram and the dual 2.8 ghz zeons! i modded the os and i put osx catalina on it!
I’d buy Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s first-gen iPod, but I’m not certain Ghengis Khan’s MacBook Pro would be a sound investment.
Another thing is many of the old systems such as the 2011 iMac cannot use the current level of OS. The last supported OS for the 2011 iMac is High Sierra.
I also like series and that you point out some things to look for in the ads both positive and negative.
And anyone still using them are running Open Core and Monterey. And getting regular Apple updates too. They work just fine, if you have a metal compatible graphics card. If you want Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, you have to upgrade the internal adapter or add an external usb dongle. Very cheap to upgrade.
Dang I'm a couple of dollars short of the $8049 MacBook Pro that Genghis Khan used. If I can retrieve his DNA, I can make a clone of Genghis Khan and build an army to take over the world.
honestly i wonder if there's old intel mac that can be a good Windows machine...because i like indie/old games and those are mostly Windows only sadly
There's a 2013 iMac 27 in my area for sale for $200. It's been for sale for 2 months. I contacted the seller and asked a few questions and the system looks fine. There was a base M1 Mac mini for $350. It was scratched up and really dusty. It was originally listed at $550, then $450, then $350. It was located in a rural area. I have a 2009 iMac 27 and may sell it - I would probably ask $30. I have a 2010 iMac 27 with i7 and 32 GB of RAM. I could probably get $100 for it. Intel Mac prices are dropping really fast. I see overpriced listings all the time. The reason people price them too high is that they see other people doing the same thing. What they don't realize is that Macs that are priced right are sold very quickly so you don't see them for sale unless you're lucky. The ones that hang around forever are overpriced and don't sell but that's what people think that they should price their Macs at. There is also the approach where you just keep lowering your price until it sells.
Yeah that's why I just like to follow products and sometimes you can just watch it gradually lower its price. I've gotten some really good deals that way
Nice in uk youre mac worth 500 :)
Look at some of the refurbished crap amazon tries to sell!!
Gotta love the 8K. Obvious joke that some highroller might get a kick out of supplying your needs… Bueno
I've never seen an eBay listing that's been so clearly made just for humor's sake as that Gengis Khan one. Made me giggle.
Next time I suggest finding out how much Gengis Trash Khans are going for.
Watch out for the 'OS X 2019' listings. 🙄 Some seller wanted $500 for a 2012 13" MacBook Pro (the thicc one - non-retina).
If the specs are upgraded with Catalina, its a good buy. I love mine.
There are some crazy listings for iPhones I found an iPhone XS Max going for 10k the other day and I also found some idiot trying to sell a 2009 plastic MacBook for around 10k madness!
Never stop making videos
If you're using older software the m1 Mac Mini won't run it or won't run it fast from what I understand so the 2009-2012 MacPros are great for this and can be gotten cheaper than a m1 Mini. Plus the old MacPros have all kinds of expansion options for drives, RAM etc...
Many people deprecate Intel Macs but they have a lot of life left in them and what exactly is wrong with a dual core or quad core Intel Mac? They’re reasonably fast and the software on them will always remain useful. Apple as a company embodies the worst of the throwaway mentality but that’s no reason to ape them. Classic Macs deserve love and appreciation simply because the M1s and M2s are insanely expensive!
@@NormanF62 Well said... The old Apple was superb the new Apple not so much... IMHO...
I’ve noticed used iMac Pro’s are going for the same price as the new m1s on ebay….
These ebay seller warranties are pretty bad. They cover very limited things, basically it's a warranty that it works when you get it and later on it covers nothing. Just a shady selling tactic.
Genghis Khan Macbook Pro is such a huge deal!
Haha my 2011 iMac is still trucking along, and I might or might not have pirated software in it
Are any of these listings decent? I for one can't say no to Genghis Khan's MacBook. Plus, Save 20% on Renderforest subscriptions through October 31: bit.ly/renderforest-lukemiani
Thank You
I still use my imac 21' from 2008 a lot it runs Linux mint and the video card is a Nvidia quadro with modified rom. It's on the kitchen table. With just 4gb of ram it can just barely run modern software. I en do it has one of the last supported c2d It's slow. But it stil runs everything youtube Netflix browsing
Web email etc. It's just not very fast. A 2400s sounds like a great upgrade if it has the Intel graphics.
Actually I had a bad experience with "stock4less". Total scam. When I tried to get a refund through eBay, they fought it, placing dubious conditions on the returned junk, before processing a refund. I ended up blowing off the few $hundred. Sorry to see eBay still carries them...
I have a theory to offer. I've been on eBay alot the past few months looking for an M1 mac mini, basic or a little better, and an M1 macbook pro [mostly the 1TB 16" but looking at 14" as well]. Interesting, I've won no auctions [mostly because the prices got too high and I refuse to play]. In seeing these auctions, something nefarious is going on IMHO. Practically every single one of them has SO MANY low feedbacks raising the prices it's ABSURD. I'm talking plenty of 0's and other single digit feedbacks pushing prices higher. And guess what?? Do any of them win?? NO, they bail before auction end. Some actually push it till the end but don't win. I've seen at least two single's win, and the item was back up for bid a day or two later. WTF??
Since it's so many auctions showing this behavior, I have to believe eBay is behind the single digit feedback bids to raise prices and make their own end payment from the seller as high as it can be. I can't prove it, but the facts say it's more than possible. Since eBay is killing the small refurb guy, my main source of tech buys, how can you think otherwise??
Seems to me auctions are now a thing of the past. I've seen very very few finish the way they used to; with solid eBayers placing the bids. It also looks like those solid eBayers are NOT playing the auction game anymore; based on the personal feedback counts I see placing the bids. They're too low for tech this high. They're mostly all less than 50-60. I would think seasoned veteran eBayers, like me, would be bidding on these M1 mini's and macbook pro's at such lower pricing. And these M1's would go for great deals, killer deals, were it not for these fake single digit bidders getting in the way.
My 2 cents and always...GiddyUp...
Do not forget that this trashcan can be used for windows that cannot be run om m1 or m2 MAC (at least not yet)
9:54. You could’ve made an offer for $8.49 with free shipping. Somebody wanted to sell me a 2018 Mac mini, fully loaded with 64 GB of RAM and an i7 processor, for $1299. Not to mention that it did not power on. Hell of a steal! Low-Balled him for $259, and he just removed the listing because he got pissed. That’s all I’d give for it anyway.😝
Hey Luke, so ebay is crapping things out han? All right, now tell me I have just bought a 2013 iMac 27inch with 8gb ram 1.12 TB fusion drive for around 175 dollars. How's that? And yah it's screen glass is cracked but major crack is only a line from top right to a little bottom left. And that's it. You tell me is it a good steal or I've been fooled again?
can you check on MacBook Pro Intel 16"? It's hard to figure out the true pricing even with Amazon refurbished. Also a good pricing for the upgradeable 2017 iMac 21 ($350)and 27" ($600) which have Thunderbolt 3, mouse +kb.
Khaaaaaaaaaaan!!!
Oh, wrong Khan.
I found the price of 2015 MacBook is going up these days, why?
Did you forget you can replace gpu in 2011 iMac with better gpu from another apple imac
ebay shopping tip: search for the model number and year of the mac you want, ie: A1347 2012 = 2012 mac mini
PCIe Connectivity to M1--M2 Macs through Thunderbolt? I have no idea why, but no one is talking about it so ..........
Hello Luke. I love you videos and all apple/iphone staff.
Don't u forget to mention the the GPU can be upgraded?
Yo your content is so lit.
the guy with the feets😭