Comparison of older Macbook models

[pullman]

Hi everyone

I hope it is permitted to post requests for buying advice. If not please let me know.

I am looking for a used laptop and it seems that for the money I can spend I can either get the late 2008 unibody aluminium Macbook or a white plastic unibody Macbook of later vintage.

The white model appears more powerful than the late 2008 model. But which one should I get?

Thanks very much for any insight and experience regarding these models.

/p

 

[Fast/Furious]

How much are you willing to spend and what area do you live in? Believe it or not, what you can get for your money depends a lot on where you live

 

[pullman]

Thanks for posting back.

I live in Holland and was hoping to find something for 600 euro, which translates to roughly 750 US$.

Thoughts?

 

[artifex]

I'd simply say buy the most recent Macbook you can afford, unless you find a slightly older model with substantially better specs. (Even then I'd be careful, as more ram or hard drive space may be third party hardware) If you have a couple to choose from that are the same generation and spec, look for one that still has AppleCare time left on it.

(Really, though, having personally had a lot of problems with a factory-reconditioned late-2006 model black MacBook, I'd actually tell you to try to hold off buying until you can save enough for a new one.)

 

[Fast/Furious]

If you can get it for 600 euro it's worth springing for a Macbook Pro or even the aluminum unibody Macbook. Increased processor speed, more ram, bigger HDD and illuminated keyboard (Pro model only) will do a lot to make sure your Mac fits your computing needs.

If this is your first Mac, please realize that the latest specs aren't as *must-have* on OSX as it is on Windows. To put things in perspective, I'm running a Mid-2007 (not a typo!) MacBook on 2.16GHz and 3GB of ram on a 250GB HDD. The RAM and HDD are all upgraded but the stock processor is the same and I run Snow Leopard very fast. TL;DR, you don't need the fastest Mac to run OSX well.

 

[pullman]

Thanks very much to both of you.

The AppleCare point is well taken. That is worth a lot (and will increase the price too).

The only processor intensive work I will be doing on the computer is Photoshop work on large image files. Apart from that it is the normal word processing, emailing and surfing (possibly watching movies).

I guess this means any Macbook or Macbook Pro from 2008 onwards will be fine. I have a slight preference for the aluminium Macbooks or ditto Pros however. They just "seem" sturdier (which may be an incorrect impression).

So it comes down to how well kept it is and any included warranty/AppleCare.

Thanks once again.
/p