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2.0 vs 2.4 -- Worth the extra $245 USD?

D

darshan

macrumors member
Original poster
Nov 1, 2008
78
0
hey guys i know that there's a poll on this

but 2.0 vs 2.4

is it worth switching from 2.0 to 2.4 macbook (unibody) for additional $245 USD

im hoping someone i know would be able to get me the 25% discount making the difference betweent he two laptops around 245 USD (incl tax)

what do you guys think?

245 worth - back lit keyboard, 2.4 processor, 90 GB hard drive space?

i wanted to look things from a different perspective as well...

what if i buy the 2.0 version and just do the harddrive and ram 4gb upgrade ... would i be able to get a trusted brand components for about 245?

do you guys think thats a smarter way to go or just buy the 2.4 n worry about ram upgrade later...

ps im a college student... main attraction towards 2.4 is resale value (am i wrong to think that with 2.4 i'd reduce the marginal loss between the usage period vs the 2.0 version?)
 
darshan said:
im hoping someone i know would be able to get me the 25% discount making the difference betweent he two laptops around 245 USD (incl tax)
Click to expand...
This someone probably means the eBay live.com 25% cashback promotion, which most likely wouldn't charge tax.

You could get it yourself if you find a Buy-It-Now auction on eBay.

And yes, I feel it's worth the difference. Backlit keys FTW.
 
I wouldn't, the screen lights the keys enough to use at night. And the CPU increase is slim to none unless you do alot of rendering.
 
As someone who changed from a 2.0 to a 2.4 i can tell you its not worth it. I am only telling you that because i merely upgraded because of the back lit keyboard i didn't need the faster processor.

In comparison you don't get much more and its really a lot to spend, but i think Apple knew that many people would be drawn to the backlit keyboard thats why they didn't put a lit keyboard into the 2.0 otherwise not as many 2.4's would of been sold.
 
The price difference is too big to be worth it. I knew this but I STILL bought the 2.4, I have no idea why XD
 
darshan said:
... main attraction towards 2.4 is resale value (am i wrong to think that with 2.4 i'd reduce the marginal loss between the usage period vs the 2.0 version?)
Click to expand...

In terms of resale value, here's what I think. Say in 3 years from now, the difference in their resale price will not be $245, it'll be more like $100. Like most things, computer depreciate in percentages. The more $ you spent, the more you'll lose. Also, I tend to think that people buying used look for the cheapest, so it's easier to sell the base model.
 
I have the 2.4, bought mainly for the back-lit keyboard.

For me it is expensive but worth it. You can adjust the brightness of the keyboard, the same way as for the sound and screen and this is really good. If I turn it off it is often very hard to see the keys and it is one of the factors that make a macbook special.
 
Yeah, but...the reason why everyone's gaga over the frakkin' light up keyboard is that it used to belong to the pros only. And before then, it belonged only to the top of the line (not base model) powerbooks.

Part useful, gee whiz feature, part status symbol to the mac community.

There's some people who don't care about this feature. There's others who do. If you spend the extra money for this feature, and the extra hard drive and slightly faster processor, you will not get it all back when you resell it. That's the nature of tech.

But it may mean the difference between selling your used 2.4 two years from now and not selling your 2.0 at all. Or selling it at a bigger loss.
 
I juggled this around in my mind for a while before ordering the 2.4 yesterday.

I had the budget to either get the 2.4 with 2 gig of ram, or the 2.0 with 4 gig of ram. I went with the 2.4 as there's more flexibility i.e I intend on upgrading to 4 gig ram in a few months, whereas I couldn't upgrade the chipset, would never bother upgrading the harddrive etc.

I don't think the .4 ghz extra is going to make a huge difference, but I don't intend on buying another computer for a while so trying to get the max spec for my cash at the moment.
 
no. it won't make a big difference. Unless you are doing large cpu intensive task like encoding, compression, or any other computation for a long time (24hours or more). I would save the money and go with the 2.0 +2gb of ram, and upgrade to 4gb when snow leopard comes out.
 
Do you touch-type or do you look at the keys while typing? If you answered the latter, than it may be worth it to you, but for me, it was not.
 
As an early adopter of the first Titanium powerbooks, I bought the lower end model the 400mhz.

Later, i remember wishing I had the 500mhz machine.

That inspired me to trade in my 2.0 for the 2.4. I think it does affect resale, too.

P.S. that Titanium is still working.
 
It's not really worth it unless you'll be running Final Cut Studio or something, but if you're doing that stuff, you should be running a MacBook Pro or Mac Pro anyways.
 
hey guys

thx for the repsonses... they have helped me in deciding which one to pick out during xmas... however i do have few specific concerns... :D


silverblack said:
In terms of resale value, here's what I think. Say in 3 years from now, the difference in their resale price will not be $245, it'll be more like $100. Like most things, computer depreciate in percentages. The more $ you spent, the more you'll lose. Also, I tend to think that people buying used look for the cheapest, so it's easier to sell the base model.
Click to expand...

hey i understand what you mean about percentage loss... but at the same time since ill be buying the laptop at a discounted price would the loss really be hurting me as much... another thing i wanted to say was i want to be keeping up to date with the new techs... so im not looking for a long term possesion of the laptop... probbly looking to upgrade if i can afford it with in the next, if not 2nd to next, upgrade... so i get the best for the moeny...

i know ill have to constantly putting in money but i figure i might as well spend 1400 over the course of many years and experience the newest tech then to be upgrading every 3 years...

i.e. lets say in next OCT they come out with another speed bump version of macbook priced to replace the current one at 1600 USD... (i know this is going to sound stupid) but do you think i can sell my laptop off for about 1400? (i mean im just looking for your predictions)... so that leaves me with the loss of only 200$ for a laptop which was the latest and the greatest of its' time now i can add another 200 n get myself a newer macbook (do you somewhat understand what my idea for the future is)

so i want to minimize the loss (i dont care if i have the 2.0 vs 2.4 as much as loosing money on the resale

having said that do you still think the 2.4 is not worth the extra 245 incl tax (e.g. if 2.0 was at 1100 the 2.4 would cost me about 1345)

clyde2801 said:
Yeah, but...the reason why everyone's gaga over the frakkin' light up keyboard is that it used to belong to the pros only. And before then, it belonged only to the top of the line (not base model) powerbooks.

Part useful, gee whiz feature, part status symbol to the mac community.

There's some people who don't care about this feature. There's others who do. If you spend the extra money for this feature, and the extra hard drive and slightly faster processor, you will not get it all back when you resell it. That's the nature of tech.

But it may mean the difference between selling your used 2.4 two years from now and not selling your 2.0 at all. Or selling it at a bigger loss.
Click to expand...

u see the people currently may be going coocoo for the backlit keys but interms of resale... the new trend of backlit keyboard mayb adapted in every consumer level laptop by next year... so if then i was to sell my un backlit keyboard (2.0) people may not find that to be an attractive buy...

i personally dun care for the backlit keys as i stare at the screen not at the keyboard while typing...

sangosimo said:
no. it won't make a big difference. Unless you are doing large cpu intensive task like encoding, compression, or any other computation for a long time (24hours or more). I would save the money and go with the 2.0 +2gb of ram, and upgrade to 4gb when snow leopard comes out.
Click to expand...

see i know it wont be a big different cuz i've read it everywhere... my main concern besides the resale is also i dont want to feel like i've downgraded

u see, i was using the older mid-entry macbook with 2.4 n 160 gb of hard drive... before i sold it ofcourse :p hehe...

do you think, in your opinion, that i will notice a difference between the older 2.4 macbook vs the alu 2.0 (if i were to buy that)... (i.e. like booting of the laptop and occational work i do in photoshop (n i mean REALLY OCCATIONAL))

California said:
As an early adopter of the first Titanium powerbooks, I bought the lower end model the 400mhz.

Later, i remember wishing I had the 500mhz machine.

That inspired me to trade in my 2.0 for the 2.4. I think it does affect resale, too.

P.S. that Titanium is still working.
Click to expand...

why did you wish you'd gone with the 500 mhz... n e specific reasons like a new OS came out which required a lil higher CPU pwer in order to see noticable difference...



for all to answer

THAS ANOTHER ONE OF MY CONCERNS... is the snow leopard going to require more CPU power or more ram to perform noticeablely faster
 
One comparison is enough:

Macbook 2.0
320 GB 7200 RPM Hard Disk
4 GB ram

1499

Macbook 2.4
250 GB 5400 RPM Hard Disk
2 GB ram

1599


My 2.0 MacBook is A LOT faster than stock 2.4 and CHEAPER :D

Just 2 cents
 
i would get the 2.4.

you can always upgrade the RAM later, but you are never going to put in a new processor or a new keyboard.

if you can get it with a discount, even better!
 
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