Aluminium vs White Macbook?

Erko said:

Hey,
Been wanting to try the OS X ecosystem for a long time, but haven't had enough funds to buy a brand new Macbook. So I recently started to look at used notebooks beacause I could use a portable notebook and came across some pretty reasonable deals. The problem is deciding between them and justifying the price difference, so I thought I could ask some advice here
Deal 1)
2009 White Macbook poly unibody for 350€
Pros: Newer, costs less
Cons: More weight, no kb backlight, slightly less power

Deal 2)
2008 Aluminium Unibody 2,4 Ghz Macbook for 480 €
Pros: Slightly less weight, kb backlight, slightly more powerful, possibly more durable
Cons: Price, older

So these are the deals Im looking at right now. I was pretty set on the White one until I came across the Alu one. Granted, it costs a bit too much, but it seems I would get some pretty sweet features as well(mostly the backlit kb) and I would try bringing the price down to at least 450, although 400 would be perfect.
BTW, I would most likely upgrade the HD in either to a SSD in near future anyways.
So, opinions?

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Get the aluminum one, it's kind of a rare version.

I'm using a 2009 white MacBook, released in early 2009 just before the unibody white MacBook, that same year.

It's a lovely machine. It does everything I need and tends to do it well. It still has the stock 2 gigs of memory but that hasn't hampered it. I'm not a gamer, nor do I do any graphic- or processor-intensive tasks. I watch the occasional DVD on it, watch live sport streaming occasionally, and the usual e-mail, iTunes and web surfing stuff.

I have grown fonder of the white MacBook over the years since I bought it (new) and I think it will come to be considered as one of Apple's classic designs. It's very elegant in its looks and very distinctive.

I'm planning to semi-retire it eventually and go for a Mac Mini, as the laptop tends to sit on my desk most of the time (though I like the fact that it's versatile and I can go and work by the fireside on a particularly cold day). It gets plugged into a 23 inch monitor when I need to get a good, up-close look at the text I'm editing.

No backlit keyboard, of course, but if it's ultimately down to what your available budget is, and you do choose the lower-priced machine, if it's in good condition I think you'll be happy enough with it.

Pricing seems kind of high on these. You have to figure in potential maintenance costs. I had the dreaded swelling battery on one of the older ones a while ago. It was a fairly old battery at the time, but things like that can offset your total cost of ownership. If battery, drive, charger, etc. are all original, it's something to keep in mind.

thekev said:

Pricing seems kind of high on these.

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For the US, maybe. For Europe, no.

Erko said:

Thanks for the reply wordsworth, I guess at the end it will come down to the price and condition of both models. If I cant get the Alu on cheaper and the White is in good condition I'll opt for that. If the white one however is in bad shape(haven't seen the pictures) or I get enough discount with the Alu one, Ill probably opt for that, because according to the pictures it looks pretty good.

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I must point out though that the Aluminum Macbook (aluminum Macbook, not Macbook Pro) has a terrible screen, I owned one a few years ago. You can search on this forum and I'm sure you will find many threads from a few years ago when it was released.

I'd say deal 1 for sure. The white unibody MacBook is pretty iconic, at least in my eyes, and its still a very functional machine. We have an early 08 and it still does everything we need it for.

get the aluminium to avoid hairline cracks.
put in a ssd harddrive and it screams!

A 3rd-party battery for the MacBook costs about $30, so that shouldn't be your main worry.
Coconut Battery only needs to be dropped in the Applications folder, IIRC.

Otherwise, check that the screen is good and that the case has no cracks. And maybe the fan is clogged with dust or too noisy, I'd check that, too. After you've bought the MacBook, I'd change the thermal grease on the CPU and GPU and clean the heatsink, to keep it running cool and quiet.

Also, I'd install at least 4GB of RAM, better yet 8GB, as well as an 120GB SSD.
After those upgrades, the MacBook will be useful for many years to come.