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College student's plight: Dying MBP's and Refurbished Sandy Bridge MBPs? =p

D

datniceguy

macrumors member
Original poster
Jan 11, 2011
31
0
To all the regulars in this forum - I was wondering if anyone had a good sense as to how soon refurbished versions of a new MacBook line would happen to pop up.

My girlfriend is basically giving me her Late 2008 15" MBP to use while I'm in school. I just ordered an 8GB kit for RAM (hehe, thinking ahead and bought the 1333 sticks), a 500GB/7200RPM HDD, and an Optibay mod to maximize my time with this laptop. Knowing those parts can move over to a new MBP, I hope this lasts me until a good break in price happens to pop up other than my student discount. Being really frugal. :D

That and it has been experiencing occasional screen flicker from the 9400m that everyone else has been experiencing. I was going to take it to the Apple Store to see if I can bargain (read: use my mind control powers) a deal since I am in school and this repair wouldn't be under AppleCare. After doing lots of research, it seems to be a common problem...
 
The refurbished 2011 MBP's probably won't show up until the 2012 MBP gets announced and everyone goes to the apple store to try to trade up. Right now you will only find 2010 MBP's.
 
I was also thinking maybe lasting until the back-to-school sales. Purchase one then, flip the profit on the iPod Touch or whatever giveaway they have. Then boom. :cool:
 
MultiMediaWill said:
The refurbished 2011 MBP's probably won't show up until the 2012 MBP gets announced and everyone goes to the apple store to try to trade up. Right now you will only find 2010 MBP's.
Click to expand...

Thats completely wrong. They should be in the refurb store in about 2-3 months. They put them up after getting some defective units that they repair.
 
My brother has a aluminum Macbook thats been flawless since 2008 When I bought it. I just odored a 2010 2.66 refurb from the Apple store. for only $1,115 with 2 day shipping. It gets the same battery life, and has a better GPU. Unless you really need an i5 or the Thunderbolt I'd just save a few $$ and get the refurb.
 
I'm not sure how much you're going to save going refurbished because you can't combine your student discount with the refurb discount. You may not save any money at all waiting for a refurb.
 
http://support.apple.com/kb/ts2377 - Do I have a case for my 2008 MBP that could hold up at the Genius Bar???

altecXP said:
My brother has a aluminum Macbook thats been flawless since 2008 When I bought it. I just odored a 2010 2.66 refurb from the Apple store. for only $1,115 with 2 day shipping. It gets the same battery life, and has a better GPU. Unless you really need an i5 or the Thunderbolt I'd just save a few $$ and get the refurb.
Click to expand...

See that's the other thing, I'd like to get a 2010 refurb but the jump in proc performance is undeniable. If I were to jump into anything new, it'd be 2011 and beyond. Especially since I do tons of work with VMs. But the thing is if this 2008 MBP can hold out until a November refresh (8-10 month cycles right?) or even the redesign, I'm golden.

karohan said:
I'm not sure how much you're going to save going refurbished because you can't combine your student discount with the refurb discount. You may not save any money at all waiting for a refurb.
Click to expand...

Every penny counts. What I'm actually curious about is if you do the back-to-school sale, can you get the free giveaway when you purchase a refurbished MacBook Pro?

Decisions, decisions...
 
karohan said:
I'm not sure how much you're going to save going refurbished because you can't combine your student discount with the refurb discount. You may not save any money at all waiting for a refurb.
Click to expand...

This is true. You may see the same discount on the refurb that you would have gotten with the edu discount. But right now you can find some really good deals on 2010 models that people are selling on craigslist. I've seen many that were bought as recently as the beginning of january.
 
Pballer110 said:
This is true. You may see the same discount on the refurb that you would have gotten with the edu discount. But right now you can find some really good deals on 2010 models that people are selling on craigslist. I've seen many that were bought as recently as the beginning of january.
Click to expand...

I keep getting solicited for inappropriate things in my area's Craigslist. Lol, as much as I'd like to, that's never an option for me. Especially with the chances of ending up getting murdered during a transaction by a lunatic. :p
 
MultiMediaWill said:
The refurbished 2011 MBP's probably won't show up until the 2012 MBP gets announced and everyone goes to the apple store to try to trade up. Right now you will only find 2010 MBP's.
Click to expand...

This is completely wrong. I'm sure one of my 2 that I've returned will be in there soon. :D
 
datniceguy said:
??? - For what reason? Lol, thanks for the contributions? :p
Click to expand...

You know it's funny...when I went to return the 2nd one one of the employees asked "Out of curiosity why are you returning?" I replied "I think I want a Macbook Air...oh and to stock the refurbished store..." He just kind of looked at me...lol.

And I returned because I didn't like it comparing it to my 2009 MBP. It just seemed like it had design flaws. Backlit keyboard always stayed on even in bright light...noise when moving it...idk, but they were both like that and I'm now typing on my 13" Air and I absolutely love this more than any MBP I've had.
 
It didn't help. Wompwompwomp. $500 for a logic board, $500 for a new screen. I mean, the flickering isn't that bad, so I'm gonna try to tough this out. My 8GB RAM kit and 2nd HDD for the Optibay mod is on it's way. I know this is an older MBP, but I'm starting to love it like it's my brand new baby. Lol, Speck cover is coming. My girlfriend also put in a new battery a month ago.

...I can't wait to see how the prices adjust with refurbs coming. :D
 
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