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Refurbished vs new

K

KG2002

macrumors member
Original poster
Oct 21, 2009
36
0
I am about to get a Mac Pro. I have an option to get a new one with about 10% discount through my office or to get a refurbished one at about 15% off. I know that 5% may not seam a lot but with the current MP prices, it means an extra HDD or a video card. At the same time, if I am spending over $2K I do not want to get "used" stuff.

So, my question is - have anyone purchased refurbished MPs? Are they worn or they look like new, come with all the packaging and etc? Keyboard, mouse... Any known issues with refurbished products?

I am looking for either the basic 4 core config or for the basic 8 core config.
 
I bought mine refurbished. Apart from coming in a plain white box it was as new. Came with all accessories in new packaging. For all intents and purposes it was brand new.

Having said that I've got a refurb mini and it was almost perfect except for a small nick in the bottom from where it had been opened, and a noisy hdd which I replaced.

But I'd doubt you'd be likely to get some raggedy old bucket-o-crap through refurb.
 
+1 for refurb. I have ordered many refurbs (including my current laptop) and only one refurb (my parents iMac) ever had a problem. (The problem was easily missed, it was something on the inside of the screen, almost like fingerprints but only visible on a white background.) They never even noticed it, I did. Aside from that I'm really happy with Apple refurbs.
 
typing on a 1 week old Refurb Mac Pro, as far as I can tell it is mint. Shipped in a plain white box and everything was wrapped as new.

Ken
 
Refurbished with Apple is not returned and resold; it's literally gone back to the factory, everything cleaned and checked and then reassembled. So if there are scratched those and damage those parts would have been replaced with new parts.
 
KG2002 said:
At the same time, if I am spending over $2K I do not want to get "used" stuff.
Click to expand...

That's what I was thinking before buying one :D I would add that it was (and still is, in my opinion) too good of a deal to pass up.

It was as pristine as it could be. It also had 4GB of RAM instead of the two I was expecting (just don't know why).

Here's a pic of the box you may get.
 
Thanks everyone! Refub it is then.

Just need to figure out if I would ever need 8 cores. They are expensive to upgrade. Double the cost of CPUs you know :)
 
I have a refurb Mac Pro. The only problem I had (if you want to call it that) is that it didn't come with a wireless card preinstalled. And you can't get refurbs built-to-order (BTO), aka configured-to-order (CTO).

If you need a wireless card, it may be a bit of a challenge getting said wireless card after the fact. That is, if you're not willing to lug your Mac Pro to the Apple store to have one installed. They won't sell one to you directly unless they install it, though occasionally there are ways around that.
 
I'd strongly recommend the refurb route, also. What you are getting is a computer that has been individually tested and tried, is as good as new, and comes with all of Apple's warranties that a brand new machine has.

Cheers and good luck
 
I was going to go with refurbished, but ended up buying a new base model quad from Amazon instead. No sales tax from Amazon along with their $200 discount, the amount I paid was about $80 more than the refurb. Plus, I was able to get it on the next day compared to a 3-5 day wait for the refurb. That was worth it to me.
 
Oh and that reminds me, you may get lucky with a refurb.

I ordered a 2006 Mac Pro with 2x2.66dual core cpus, 7300gt vid card and 250gb hdd.

I got sent a 2007 with 2x3.0quad core cpus, x1900xt and a 500gb hdd.

I've heard of a number of stories like that.
 
Refurb is identical to new other than the price since they can't legally sell them as new once a component has been replaced. If you set the same spec machines next to each other and tested each, there is no possible way to know which one is the refurb without looking at the serial number.

maghemi story is a good example of the occasional benefits of refurbs. Apple doesn't have to send you the exact machine you ordered, it only has to be at least those specs.

They pulled that with the last G4 Mini. Rather than releasing a whole new 1.5GHz mini with 64mb vRAM, they put them in the old 1.42ghz marked boxes so there was no way to know which you were buying without opening the box. :)

My 160GB iPod is a refurb and I haven't had a single issue with it in the 2 years I've owned it.
 
300D said:
maghemi story is a good example of the occasional benefits of refurbs. Apple doesn't have to send you the exact machine you ordered, it only has to be at least those specs.
Click to expand...

I guess this explains why I got 4GB instead of the two I paid for. Thanks Apple :D
 
Got my refurb last week! Smells like new :)

Got one last week. No good surprises in terms of extra memory or video card. However, I am quite sure it is a brand new box. I figured that with upcoming Mac Pro upgrade Apple simply clears the stock under refurb umbrella. Even a month ago there were only a few refurbs available. Now it is a full stock of recent models.

I am very happy with the purchase. Thanks a lot for your help, folks. Even though I have a good discount with Apple anyway, the $200 I saved funded 2x1T HDDs!

Now it is RAM, UPS and Speakers time and I am all set. Back to work.

BTW, this is my first Mac Pro. Being an iMac user it is a big difference! Really impressed so far.
 
I had the chance to get anything in the apple store at 15% off. I could have gotten the base line MBPro at 15% off $1699. I was looking in the refurb store and saw an early 2009 MBP for 20%. The early 2009 was the $1999 model with 6MB L2 cache, the 9400 + 9600 graphics card plus 512MB video memory. I opted for the refurb because I preferred the better specs over the 7hr battery and SD card slot. It was $1698 with MA tax which was only $150 more than the baseline new MBP. It came in a white box with all the accessories and a drop in SL disk and I couldn't be happier. The machine looks like it is brand new and I have not found one issue with it. I don't think I would ever pay for the new pricing again.
 
Jarman74 said:
That's what I was thinking before buying one :D I would add that it was (and still is, in my opinion) too good of a deal to pass up.

It was as pristine as it could be. It also had 4GB of RAM instead of the two I was expecting (just don't know why).

Here's a pic of the box you may get.
Click to expand...



Hello - I know this is a very silly question - but how did you find out you had 4GB instead of 2GB? Did something say this when it arrived or did you open the computer?
 
I've got a refurb cinema display that's been running flawlessly for 5 years. My next purchase will be a refurb unless the configuration I want isn't available -- but with a Mac Pro that shouldn't be an issue, since you can swap out almost any part.
 
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