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Any of you preunibody guys still on your original 8600GT?

puma1552 said:
Alright, I received a reply about the warranty eligibility:



What do you guys think?
Click to expand...

I'd ask him for the complete serial number so you can plug it into Apple's warranty checker yourself and see what comes up.

And it's still not worth anywhere near $1800 even if you can somehow manage to get a year-long warranty on it.
 
Penguissimo said:
I'd ask him for the complete serial number so you can plug it into Apple's warranty checker yourself and see what comes up.

And it's still not worth anywhere near $1800 even if you can somehow manage to get a year-long warranty on it.
Click to expand...

I agree, I wouldn't pay more than $1200-$1300 for it at the most, if it's fully warranty eligible.

I'm going to ask him for the serial number, as well as how his company acquired it--I could understand it not having an initial retail purchase date if it was coming from an authorized seller, but how would a non-authorized seller acquire it other than through a retail purchase?
 
I'm not, but not because the 8600GT chip has failed. Rather, they've had to replace the logic board about 3 times already for other problems, so the chip is not the original.
 
smiddlehurst said:
Where to start....

Chassis: The non-unibody MBP is very prone to dents. I've dropped mine a grand total of once from a height of MAYBE six inches and the port for the magsafe is now noticeably buckled. The palmrest is prone to 'pitting', not sure why but on mine the right side of the rest is badly discoloured thanks to this (the left side is fine...). Top case doesn't always align properly with the bottom case when closed leaving a big gap between the two. Silver covering on the latch switch wears off over time. The construction method of the bottom case can result in creaking panels, especially on the right side of the laptop.

Battery: Oh god, the headaches this has caused. The swelling / shorting battery issue that dogged pre 07 MBP's seems to be common in ALL pre-unibody machines. This can cause your battery to go from perfectly healthy to screwed overnight and can also be an intermitent problem so you may not notice it during testing on a second hand machine.

Keyboard: Can be misaligned. This can be a cosmetic issue or may be more serious and cause some keys to respond poorly.

Trackpad: Isn't that bad but the button can become clogged up with debris making it's way into the space underneath the button. Hopefully the owner took good care of the machine though.

Heat: Make no mistake, pre-unibody machines get HOT. Even my 17" MBP gets uncomfortable to use on the lap, the 15" I had briefly got hot enough to be uncomfortable on the palmrest.

Screen: As someone mentioned above, yellow screens were common on the first LED-backlit MBP's and not all were swapped out if the user didn't spot it. I was originally going to buy a 15" with LED backlighting and went through three of 'em before giving up and getting a 17" because of this issue. It's really noticeable, especially on full-screen web browsing and WILL annoy you.

GPU: In off-the-record discussions with an Apple store manager I was told Apple expect all Nvidia 8600GT's to fail on these machines. When that'll happen will of course vary and I'm sure some will keep on going regardless but it's a huge problem and the odds probably aren't in your favour.

That's just the issues I've personally experienced, I know there are others out there too. Personally I wouldn't do it, if you want to replace an Air the 13" MBP is, IMHO, a far better choice than any second hand pre-unibody MBP.
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my experience with a SR MBP 2.2ghz 8600GT 128 mb

Chassis: pretty fragile if you're looking for every little cosmetic issue, otherwise it is acceptable. Not being able to swap out the hard-drive without taking the computer apart is annoying to say the least. Ram is accessible at least.

Battery: expect the battery to last about a year before you start loosing an hour or more...not sure if it's apple's fault or just lithium batteries in general of this type

keyboard is amazing

trackpad is amazing

heat: gets hot. Download fancontrol to make the fans come on more, but it still gets hot

gpu: haven't had one break, but i've had my logic board replaced about 3 times for different issues..all covered under warranty

all in all, i'd go for a unibody with that new 8 hr battery if you have the opportunity. Seems like a real selling point for me, and it's suppose to be a more durable battery that will last longer. Also, it is easy to change out the hard-drive on the new ones.
 
Have an early 08 Penryn MBP 15", 2.5GHz, 8600 GT w/ 512 MB.

Has been working flawless since I got it. I've upgraded the ram to 6GB and swapped the hard drive out numerous times. Currently using 320GB 7200 RPM. I also have Vista 64 installed and played numerous Windows games. Never had any issues besides the battery charge going down faster than normal. So I was able to get Apple to replace my battery.

Otherwise, no issues and problems whats so ever. If Apple does release a new version of MBPs soon I'd consider selling and getting the new one... however I really like the keyboard design of he pre-Unibody. Not very found of the keyboard layout Apple uses now. My wife loves current designs (She has a Unibody MBP 13") and hates the pre-Unibody though... to each their own lol.
 
2.2Ghz SR MBP with original 8600GT , now 29 months old
upgraded HDD and RAM
Only issue has been to replace the battery under applecare as it wasnt holding its charge.
 
I have a couple friends with them, cause I joined the "Macbook Pro Club" after the unibody have been released. One of them has never had a problem with it, but the other one had it almost burn at school cause his card overheated or something. You could actually smell the burning rubber inside. Twas quite intense.
 
Chipset Model: GeForce 8600M GT


I still have mine, but it is dying. Actually getting worse each week -- I've just been holding out for the new Arrandale versions so I don't have to live without my computer for a week during repairs.
 
noskill said:
Had a early 2008 MBP (2.4 GHz) up until a couple of weeks ago. Was actually planning to sell it at some point in future after new models will be released. But that was one of those "I just want it" things with no real reasoning behind it -- MBP was more than enough for my needs, stable and smooth...

... up until logic board miserably failed one morning about a month ago. Now I'm laptopless and OSX-less and don't have any other choice than to buy a new one.

Other than that it was a very good machine.
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Ouch! No AppleCare?
 
Received a reply about the warranty:

seller said:
Good Morning,

Yes, of course you may have the serial number as long as we have your
assurance that you will not register the unit. Not having an initial
purchase date Apple is very "pushy" to have you register the unit if you
call in. However if you tell them it is not yet in your possession, they
will likely ease off of that. The serial Number is WXXXXXXXXXX. If you
enter the number into the online service and repair warranty checker, it
will tell you that it is out of warranty, however I encourage you to call
into Apple and explain the scenario and they should tell you the same thing
they told me.

I can certainly understand you hesitance as far as where we acquire them.
Thats a good question. We are affiliated as a reseller of Best Buy
overstock through their employee-invitation-only Best Buy Private Store and
Auction. This is a website where Best Buy provides it employees access to
purchase overstock, quality returns, refurbished and other products that
their company will no longer sell on the retail. We tend to stick strictly
to the factory sealed overstock products so as to avoid any of the issues
inherent to returns or refurbished products. As this unit was an overstock
item, then released through their overstock channels, hence it has no
initial purchase date. When sold through this channel products are
"registered" at purchase like they would be in a store.

However, again, I spoke at length with AppleCare last night and essentially
placed myself in your shoes. I stated that I was an interested party in a
unit being sold by the Best Buy Private Store and Auction and I was
interested in purchasing ONLY if I could register it for an AppleCare
program. The assured me that if I could provide a proof of purchase date I
would be able to register it for the first time and that ll warranty status'
would begin at that point. I explained that all I would have would be an
online invoice for the unit. They stated that all that is necessary is some
form of proof of purchase that states where it was purchased, the date and
identification of the model. All of which I have from Best Buy and would be
happy to provide you with the purchase. It would of course be in my name
and have the price I purchased it as, however that would not be a problem as
the name is not important. As we've mentioned, ALL apple products are not
user specific, only equipment specific. You can tell them I got it for you
as a gift you wish to avoid the conversation.

Once again, I understand this is an unusual means but I assure you it is
100% legit. We just recently began selling our factory sealed products on
Amazon and are just beginning to receive the 5 star marks indicative of how
we do business. We also sell our products on ebay and if you wish you can
look up our username and feedback there under "coloradocameraandmore".
There you will find a much more lengthy chain of positive feedback and
happy customers speaking to our honesty and integrity.

That said, if you have ANY more questions. Feel free to give me a call and
I can discuss it with you. We just want to make sure you are comfortable
with your purchase.

Sincerest regards,
JR

PS - we've receive great interest in this unit from those on ebay and Amazon
so I'm afraid at this time that price listed would be our best available.
Thank you again for your interest, JR
Click to expand...

I decided to pass given the problematic warranty and the inflexibility on the price of $1800. Ah well.
 
Mine has been running constantly since it's release in late Feb 2008 running Einstein@home and such. I even overclock the GPU almost 40% higher than default clocks and it's stable.
 
Experience with MBP SR 2.2, mid 2007

An amazing machine, even though I have had ********s to cope with. For me the SR and the Penryn are the last truely goodlooking Macbook Pro's and that matters a lot to me :)

However:

1. Screen died on me just outside warranty, got replaced under the leniency program from Apple

2. Battery health got below 50% after a mere 150 or so cycles, got replaced under warranty.

3. 8600 GT died after 2,5 years, replaced under the recall program.

4. The palmrest is receptive for corrosion and keeping the keyboard shiny can be a pain in the ****.

Now everything is up and running I'm planning to keep it for another 2 years or so since it's still an amazing complete package. Just added another 2 gb of ram and I'll hopefully install a WD black this weekend which should keep me fast and happy.

If you can get one for a € 1000,- or less I'd say it's still a good buy, anything over it is probably too much.
 
I have a refurbished early 2008 MacBook Pro. I've never experienced any graphics distortion, but sometimes the screen will go black if I'm running a lot of Flash. The computer has never gone to sleep properly though. Apple has tried to fix it twice, and I'm about to send it in for a third repair.

The first thing I noticed about the early 2008 MBPs when I saw them in an Apple store was that the front of the top case to the left of the latch was raised up. Also, the front and back left corners of the top case do not fit the bottom case well. Mine is like this, and so is every other early 2008 MBP I've ever seen.
 
Early '08 15" 2.5Ghz, 4GB, 8600M GT 512MB, 250GB HDD. Working as good as the day I got it. I need to get a new battery, the charge has slipped pretty good due to use. I want to upgrade the HDD to 500GB in the next month or so.

Anyhow, I love my MBP. I've used the unibody designs and those are really nice (the computer, naturally, feels more sturdy). But this thing should last me a long time yet.
 
I have an early 2008 15" MBP w/ the 8600 GT and 2.4GHz processor. I upgraded it to SL and 4GB or RAM. It's still working great, despite dropping it 5ft onto pavement last summer. I did just replace the battery, but otherwise no troubles yet.

That being said, $1,800 for a 2-year old NIB MBP sounds like a ridiculously awful deal to me.
 
My computer will be 2 years old in a bit over 2 weeks and it's still kicking strong. I had a logic board repair but that was due to a power failure. I've gamed and powered external displays for a long time. I'm going to upgrade when the mbp gets updated, but I'll keep this one as long as it lasts me.
 
my logic board was replaced twice about a year and a half ago -- not due to the nvidia problem but because of other issues... how can i tell if i'm on a Rev.2 board? or is that just a myth and they're all really the same?

i haven't had any gfx problems. i purchased mine in nov. of 2007.
 
puma1552 said:
Make me feel better about possibly picking up a pre-unibody machine just because I want one to replace my air, even though I already have a unibody MBP as well. I just like the design, tell me happy stories.
Click to expand...

Bought two, still have one. Both rock solid, no GPU or other problems. It was my favourite Mac design, I love the all over silver. Was sad to sell one of them, but didn't need as many laptops as I had!

If you can get one, go for it.

Damo
 
I have an early 2008 and it has been very solid minus two little issues:
1. Battery, on my third, but Apple has replaced with no issues.
2. Top and bottom cases not latching together properly. Again, Apple has fixed and now my machine looks brand new.

Of course, now i am itching to buy a unibody as soon as the new ones get released!
 
My April 2008 Penryn 8600 GT MBP died last Friday, the GPU chip problem. There was no warning whatsoever, it just didn't turn on one day. It seems that sooner or later everyone with this chip WILL experience a failure.

Currently it is in the Applestore getting repaired along with the battery and superdrive under applecare. (The superdrive stopped working after normal use and the battery was down to 15% health after less than 200 cycles).

While I was happy with the level of service at the genius bar and I can't fault the apple guys for how they dealt with me it is frustrating that they will just replace the broken chip with yet another 8600 GT chip meaning it WILL inevitable break down yet again. Who knows how long Apple will continue to honour replacing the chips though... Currently supposedly 3 years and then you may be on your own. 3 years is not very long for a $3000 computer. Let's hope Apple extends the warrantly beyond that time.
 
my 8600 refurb is fine

I bought a pre-unibody 15" 2.5ghz refurb from the apple online store when the unibody first came out. The first unibody screen seemed way too glossy and I didn't like the port reduction.
Mine works fine, has no discoloration or any problems. I recently put in a Travelstar 500gb 7200rpm drive and things work even faster. These models also have an express card slot which is good for esata external high speed drives, not to mention video p2 cards.
I do worry about the possible 8600 problem. I have Applecare, but have not used it yet.
 
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