Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Buying Mac Pros on eBay?

S

StrokeMidnight

macrumors member
Original poster
Jun 22, 2007
64
0
Have any of you had any experience buying Mac Pros on eBay? A brand new Mac Pro is way out of my price range, but a used one is basically within budget. The main thing I'm worried about is not cosmetics, but if the system slowed down after a lot of use. I'm not sure if I'd go the eBay route, but if I did I'd assume I'd do a completely new install of OS X in order to make sure everything's running in the condition it was in shipment.

Would that be a safe plan? Buying off eBay, getting Apple Care and then doing a system restore or OS X reinstall?
 
The sellers feedback as of now is 100%. I don't think it's a scam. I just want to make sure that I could restore it to factory settings basically, and find out about anymore problems I could encounter that I don't know yet.
 
StrokeMidnight said:
The sellers feedback as of now is 100%. I don't think it's a scam. I just want to make sure that I could restore it to factory settings basically, and find out about anymore problems I could encounter that I don't know yet.
Click to expand...

Yes, as long as you have the restore discs. Also, the Apple store will do it, or at least they did it for me a couple years ago when I had scratched disc 2.
 
Wow that sounds great! I'm amazed that you can buy a used Mac and get it restored by Apple so that it runs like new!

Thanks!
 
StrokeMidnight said:
Would that be a safe plan? Buying off eBay, getting Apple Care and then doing a system restore or OS X reinstall?
Click to expand...

That's exactly what I did with my Mac Pro that I bought on eBay. The price was right, the machine was less than a year old and in exactly the condition the seller had advertised. The Mac Pro came with the original invoice and I could activate Apple Care for it right away. One of the best eBay purchases that I've ever made.
 
Winni said:
That's exactly what I did with my Mac Pro that I bought on eBay. The price was right, the machine was less than a year old and in exactly the condition the seller had advertised. The Mac Pro came with the original invoice and I could activate Apple Care for it right away. One of the best eBay purchases that I've ever made.
Click to expand...

So you haven't experienced any problems with it since purchase?
 
StrokeMidnight said:
The sellers feedback as of now is 100%. I don't think it's a scam. I just want to make sure that I could restore it to factory settings basically, and find out about anymore problems I could encounter that I don't know yet.
Click to expand...

100% out of how many? 100% out of 1 feedback is still only 1 feedback. I wouldn't be putting that kind of money on something unless I was sure. I would want at the very least a 20 user rating feedback.
 
The seller has 100% feedback from 153 people. The only problem is that there are two pretty big marks, however he says that it runs perfectly.
 
I bought my MP off eBay, I got it for 2,100 and picked it up and paid in person in Seattle. So I guess my experience doesn't count because most likely you'll be sending someone your money and hoping they send you a MP in return.

But as others have mentioned, FEEDBACK is very important, if I'm making an expensive purchase, I usually e-mail the seller and ask a couple questions, just to see how quickly they respond, because that will normally be an indicator of how good of customer service you will get after the auction is over.

-Andrew

Good luck and safe bidding!
 
Just pay attention to feedback and scoring. Also look at their items they have sold. If they specialize in cheap items, but have great feedback, it could be a scam / hijacked account to suddenly have a 3000 dollar MP listed.

Not a reason to not do it, but a reason to investigate it more.
 
kellen said:
Just pay attention to feedback and scoring. Also look at their items they have sold. If they specialize in cheap items, but have great feedback, it could be a scam / hijacked account to suddenly have a 3000 dollar MP listed.

Not a reason to not do it, but a reason to investigate it more.
Click to expand...
Good point. :)

I can't see additional research hurting. :D
 
Hmm alright sounds pretty good to me. I'll look into the sellers.

By the way, just in order not to make a new thread, is there a big advantage in the 8 core over quad core? There are some pretty nice quad cores for sale almost brand new in my price range, but the 8 cores in my price range now are a little beat up. Are there enough programs that can use the 8 cores to warrant me buying it?

Here's one I'm possibly looking into: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Em1jIQvQXY&feature=player_profilepage

Does everything seem to be running correctly in that one?
 
Ok. Sorry for all these questions, but is it possible to upgrade a 2x2.66 Dual Core Mac Pro to a 2x2.66 Quad Core Mac Pro? Like a quad core to 8 core upgrade?

Thanks!
 
StrokeMidnight said:
Ok. Sorry for all these questions, but is it possible to upgrade a 2x2.66 Dual Core Mac Pro to a 2x2.66 Quad Core Mac Pro? Like a quad core to 8 core upgrade?

Thanks!
Click to expand...

Yes it is quite possible to upgrade a mac pro with two dual core processors to 2 quad core processors. I did it, and so have others here. My journey is chronicled here. However, if you're going to buy a computer, it would be much easier and probably more cost effective to just shell out for the 8 core system right away.
 
The goldenmackid, I meant if I bought a Mac Pro with 2 Dual Core processors (Mac Pro Quad Core) is it possible to upgrade it to a Mac Pro with 2 Quad Core Processors (Mac Pro 8 core).

Bozz2006, it may seem to be more cost effective to do it now, however, I'm only 15. I have no steady income. I'm really really pushing it to get any type of Mac Pro, but I'm doing it because I plan to go to college for music/film scoring and I think it's good to prepare on some of the equipment that I'd be using.

I probably don't need 8 cores right away (I'm using EWQLSO though so I'm not sure), and that's good because I can't afford them yet. If I decide later I need 8 cores then I can upgrade in the future, so for me it's more cost effective because I cannot get the money for 8 cores now, but in a year or two I can.

Thanks a lot for the help everyone! I think I'll go get a quad core mac pro :).
 
One more thing. If you can manage to get a PayPal account at your age it would be very usefull for you. If you run into a scam or the Mac Pro has substantial defects that were not mentioned you will get your money back. You can identify good sellers because they accept PayPal.

I had to use it once and it worked nicely when I bought a grafics card from a guy who had overclocked it and never mentioned it in the item description. I quizzed him about it because I learned it from another source. He did not denie it but was not prepard to give my money back. After 10 days PayPal gave me the money back 100%.
 
StrokeMidnight said:
The goldenmackid, I meant if I bought a Mac Pro with 2 Dual Core processors (Mac Pro Quad Core) is it possible to upgrade it to a Mac Pro with 2 Quad Core Processors (Mac Pro 8 core).
Click to expand...

The latest nehalem only have one cpu, so no upgrades to octo.

The first generation mac pro had two dual cores, so you can swap in quad cores to make an octo.

The 2008 quad has an open cpu slot, but you would have to locate an apple heatsink.

Pretty sure on what I posted, its not first hand experience, but from lurking around here.
 
feedback is key and was able to get a great deal and it was local so i saved on shipping. Make sure the mac pro qualifies for applecare.
 
I bought an Early 2008 2.8x8 Mac Pro on eBay in March of this year (2009).

I had a great experience, but the main reasons I wasn't too worried are:

1) Guy had pictures of the Mac that were taken in a house, not stock photos.
2) Guy lived less than 2 hours from me, so I could go hunt him down if necessary (it wasn't).
3) Guy had serial number to me BEFORE I bought it, so I could check its AppleCare status/make sure it wasn't stolen, etc.
4) The machine has AppleCare until 4/2011. That was very important to me, as I wanted to make sure I was covered if something had been broken.
 
Just received a Mac Pro I bought off of ebay. The seller has been a member for like a decade and had a feedback score of 99.5% and 6869.

I got an '06 mac pro with 2.0ghz dual cores x 2. Probably not the fastest thing, but a whole lot faster than my g4 powerbook. It only cost $1299.

So far it's been working pretty well, have to get a monitor for it as i'm using a 15 inch extra monitor that was laying around, but I'm definitely excited to get fcp running on that.

So just keep a look out for good deals and whatnot.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back