Demo machines at Apple Stores

They''ll wipe the drive and sell the product at a discounted price. The prices will be similar to the student disccount.

I know CompUSA sells them as "floor-model" reduced price machines. Don't know about the apple store though.

i'd be warry of buying one of these to save a hundred books-the demo machines i've seen all have cosmetic blemishes (not the biggest thing) but of more concern is that they've been keep on 24/7 for months so there's already a lot of wear and tear on them

thehuncamunca said:

but of more concern is that they've been keep on 24/7 for months so there's already a lot of wear and tear on them

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First of all how do you know they don't shut them down for night? Second, letting computers (Macs) run all the time extends their lifetime, because computers a BUILT to be on all the time

First of all how do you know they don't shut them down for night? Second, letting computers (Macs) run all the time extends their lifetime, because computers a BUILT to be on all the time

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...mmmmmmmm.... Not sure if you're being sarcastic or not... but in the case that you're not-

A computer's lifetime does not get extended by running it 24/7. A hard drive in particular is guaranteed to fail after an extended amount of wear. An LCD is theoretically supposed to last forever, but how often does that actually happen...

On another note, I've heard some nasty horror stories of display models... Of them being eternally kernally panicked (nice rhyme, huh?), and having broken cd trays and displays... of them not even being able to work and employees not bothering to do anything about it cause "it's a mac".... Makes me shudder.

Regarding Mac display models

I know sometimes at other retail stores some PowerBooks have had keys missing from they're keyboards. Probably some Mac-haters trying to deface the Macs. I'm not sure if they eventually sell those Macs, but....

time factor

I've had my pismo on 24/7 for almost 5 years now.... 98% of the time. The hard drive has failed once (IBM travelstar - prone to failure). I still have the original drive but it hasn't been used much. So I don't see a problem in buying a computer that has been left on for a long time.

Nuc

When the Apple stores replace their floor models they "refresh" them, meaning they wipe the hard drives and get them as physically close to out-of-the-box new as possible and sell them at discounted prices. I actually bought a Powerbook from one of these sales and it was a great machine. It was just like new and I never had any problems with it at all.

pdpfilms said:

A computer's lifetime does not get extended by running it 24/7.

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When I said this I ment that constant shutdowns shorten compute's lifetime

eXan said:

When I said this I ment that constant shutdowns shorten compute's lifetime

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That's correct, Mac's do definatly benefit from being on 24/7 and the Hard drive will spindown during the night times anyway when the computer goes to sleep...I would not worry about buying ex-demo models apart from if they were cosmetically in poor condition....

ShadOW

My G5, G4 MDD, TiBook, and 17" PB were all "floor models" and I've had no problems with them at all (knock on wood.) On top of that, they're all Rev As. I guess I'm just a glutton for punishment.

you are lucky. some guy i know just bought a display model from CompUSA (Rev. A) and after two weeks he said the screen went to "snow". He has since sent it out for repair but its been two weeks since he has heard anything.

Don't buy floor models.

don't buy floor models from compUSA, actually don't buy from compUSA

eXan said:

First of all how do you know they don't shut them down for night? Second, letting computers (Macs) run all the time extends their lifetime, because computers a BUILT to be on all the time

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How did you get the new U2 Ipod in europe?