Buying Advice Needed

[Lostatsea3]

So. I'm going to Chile for all of next year, leaving August, as an exchange student (I'm in high school) Right now I have a junk HP laptop... and really need a Macbook for reliability. Here are my options as I see them for my budget... just wanted some input.

Option A - Buy the $1099 refurbished aluminum unibody macbook. 2.0ghz. Now.

Option B - Buy a white or black one... only problem is graphics, but more CPU power. Saves some money.

Option C - Wait until spring or summer and hopefully some small updates will happen and the older refurbished ones will go down a bit.

Option D - Find a used one. Craigslist, ebay, etc.


Thanks... Not really sure what I'm looking for as an answer... but any input is much appreciated.

 

[EB66]

buy refurbished they are a great deal and are a much safer bet in my opinion than ebay

 

[Mpulsive81]

I wouldn't touch eBay, but craigslist is a good option. Pay attention to how the listing is set up, you can usually tell scams or punk kids by their grammar (or lack thereof) Find a mature, responsible individual who's selling theirs for whatever reason, meet up with them, talk with them, play with the machine to test functionality (check the iSight, verify the memory/hdd specs sited, look for damages, etc) verify AppleCare (or it's availability to be purchased still) via serial number, etc etc. Also make sure they're giving you the disk that came with the machine. if you can find someone who kept the box, documents, etc, that's a good indication of how they treated their machine. Someone as OCD as myself, I'm not about to purchase someone's machine unless I know it was well taken care of.

 

[fibrizo]

So. I'm going to Chile for all of next year, leaving August, as an exchange student (I'm in high school) Right now I have a junk HP laptop... and really need a Macbook for reliability. Here are my options as I see them for my budget... just wanted some input.

Option A - Buy the $1099 refurbished aluminum unibody macbook. 2.0ghz. Now.

Option B - Buy a white or black one... only problem is graphics, but more CPU power. Saves some money.

Option C - Wait until spring or summer and hopefully some small updates will happen and the older refurbished ones will go down a bit.

Option D - Find a used one. Craigslist, ebay, etc.


Thanks... Not really sure what I'm looking for as an answer... but any input is much appreciated.

Umm... why not E. Buy a white one with the new nvidia graphics? If you are cost conscious, then it's basically the same thing as the 2.0 aluminum macbook - the aluminum. (if someone mentions the ram, please reference my ram thread)

 

[Lostatsea3]

Thanks.

Yeah I had a few 'almosts' with craigslist. I hate bad grammar. So all the ones who responded with, "yepp still availablee. lemme kno if u need ne info," I ignored.

I think I'm just gonna suck it up and get the 2.0ghz Refurb Unibody. Granted it costs more... but I'm a sucker for a sleek metallic look.

 

[arthursiew]

Smart Idea. The new MacBook is a very good machine.

 

[The Samurai]

eBay - risk level (high).

Craigslist - never used it, can't comment

Refurbished (risk type LOW) - go for it

Buy later in the hope prices would go down (possible, you will also get the student offers that kick around at that time (free ipod nano) ). Although, thats only if you buy a brand new system.

 

[harry454]

go for refurb its the best option and it will have warranty and straight from apple