Can I get a decent MacBook Pro for $500 or less?

[Motife43]

My daily driver is my HP Elitebook8440p, but I want a Macbook to carry around for work and travel. I'm looking for a Macbook Pro.

Primary uses for it:

• light computing (web browsing, emails, imessage ,etc)
  
• podcasting (software is Mac only)
  
• streaming TV/movies (thunderbolt to hdmi?) or whatever A/V port to HDMI

I've been searching on New Egg and saw some in that range. But for what I'd like to do what specs do I need to be searching for?

Would a Macbook Air fit my needs?

Any links are appreciated as well (reps pending)

 

[Kamikaze Revy]

$500 is going to get you a pretty old, and under powered mac.
I would advise on finding a new software to record your podcasts if $500 is your budget.

 

[Maude]

you can find a older macbook for 300 on craigslist, spend the rest on ram and a ssd and it will perform comparable to a 1500 macbook. probably wont have
retina display but its still a macbook.

 

[Hood Critic]

No.

 

[Brandeezy]

No unless you got the hook up

 

[Motife43]

$500 is going to get you a pretty old, and under powered mac.
I would advise on finding a new software to record your podcasts if $500 is your budget.

I've been advised a 2013 MacBook Pro would be ok. Is that in your classification of "old'?

This is the software, for reference:
Rogue Amoeba | Audio Hijack: Record Any Audio on MacOS

 

[ORDER_66]

Amazon.com

 

[Wargames]

A decent older macbook is gonna cost about $750 -$1000

 

[Liquid]

Probably looking at a used Mid 2012 Non-Retina MacBook Pro for about $350-$400 used in pretty good shape.

Then add a 256GB SSD and hopefully 8GB-16GB of RAM.

Still an ok performer, but that screen is terrible by todays standards.

 

[Notorious 1 E.Y.E.]

unless you paying someone 500 to steal a macbook pro, no

 

[Pressure]

Just get yourself a surface pro 4. Prices are down with the new surface and surface laptop out.

 

[puppetmaster]

For what you described in your post a late 2011/2012 15 inch one with an i7 should tackle it.

Max out the ram and put in an ssd both pretty easy installs.

Shouldn't be difficult finding one under 5 at all, the condition is the main concern.

However.

You never know what someone has put an older laptop thru which is why it's hard to advise someone to buy a mac that old

 

[FcKuPaYmE]

Just get yourself a surface pro 4. Prices are down with the new surface and surface laptop out.

 

[Pressure]

It's more versatile, more power powerful, and an overall better product than a 5 year old macbook you can get a surface pro 4 at best buy for right around 500.

 

[Toe Jay Simpson]

I bought a 2009 MacBook off eBay for $150. Came with an SSD already preinstalled, both a body cover and a keyboard cover for scratches and dings. Took another $150 and upgraded the ram to 8gb and put in a new battery and it runs just as good as anybody else's mac