An authorised apple retailer is clearing old stock, and one of the products is a 2.5Ghz 17" MBP (late 2008 model)... it would be powerful enough for me, it is the 8600m model however, which has a high failure rate if I'm correct, but is covered by Apple?
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Buying a pre-unibody macbook pro, your thoughts
- Thread starter alskdj
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Actually that model of mbp has an extended warranty (three years if I remember correctly) that covers the infamous gpu failure rate of the 8600.
In fact that has been my main machine for almost two years now, and I haven't had a single complaint (at least not one that wasn't in part my own fault). If you are getting a good price I highly recommend it, and it has a couple superior characteristics over the current models (two firewire ports, expresscard and removable battery).
In fact that has been my main machine for almost two years now, and I haven't had a single complaint (at least not one that wasn't in part my own fault). If you are getting a good price I highly recommend it, and it has a couple superior characteristics over the current models (two firewire ports, expresscard and removable battery).
Actually it is included in the MacBook Pro (Early 2008) entry, which also includes the 17 inch. If I'm not mistaken all MBP's that had the 8600 are affected.
He says it's late 2008. The 17" didn't get redesign and new hardware until 2009 but shouldn't be affected and it shouldn't affect pre unibody 15" manufactured in october of 2008. And according to apple only 17" 2.4 GHz were affected.
mm yes that's interesting. The confusing thing is Apple doesn't have the tech specs of that particular model listed on their support section
What happens when you enter the serial number here: http://support.apple.com/specs/ ?
Here you can see that Apple refers to both the 15'' and 17''of the february 2008 update as MacBook Pro (Early 2008), so going by the lists of models updated theoretically the 17'' 2.5 Ghz models are also affected by the 8600 issue. Anyways, after clarifying that, you are right that the 17-inch late 2008 is not listed and (at least in theory) should not be affected, (Here you can see how to difference early and late 2008 models), so I stand corrected.
yes it is covered for 3 years but even the replacements are faulty. See are all 8600 gt owners screwed. Many have had replacements fail more than once.
It has the standard 12 month warranty, the thing I'm not too sure of is whether this model is eligible for the extended 3 year warranty on graphics card, if not Applecare would be a must have then, which would add significantly to the cost.
buy it if its a good price...even if you bought a new MBP you should get apple care...its worth it IMO...atleast you'll save money by getting the discount...
I wouldn't touch any computer with an 8x00 gpu. Apple, Sony, Dell, HP, etc customers have been burned by numerous failures. I would not believe nvidia telling apple that stock after a certain date was flawless. Stay away, buy a refurb uMBP.
Cheers,
Cheers,
Anything with the 8600M is potentially going to fail prematurely unless you check its repair history to see if the logic board has been replaced. If its been done in the last 6-12 months, its probably OK, if it was replaced earlier than that, it will likely fail again.
When these units are working, they are just great. I had one for two years and it was almost as good as a unibody in terms of performance. Very little between them, the CPUs are the same series.
When these units are working, they are just great. I had one for two years and it was almost as good as a unibody in terms of performance. Very little between them, the CPUs are the same series.
I have an hp laptop that supposedly wasnt affected by the defect, but had a card in the same family. It ran so hot that I had trouble keeping it cool, even with it sitting on a cooling pad. It eventually died despite my best efforts to keep it cool. hp said it wasnt affected by the defect and wouldnt cover the repair because it was just out of warranty. avoid anything with that family chipset.
I'd say go for it if it does what you need. I went from a 13in Unibody MacBook pro to a 15in/2.4/8600GT 256MB SR MBP. It's worth it, especially if you have a warranty. Just my thoughts