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Demo machines at Apple Stores

M

mac-er

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Apr 9, 2003
1,452
0
What happens to the demo machines at the Apple Store?
Do they wipe the hard drives (and restore) and sell them as open box? Or do they send 'em back?
 
I know CompUSA sells them as "floor-model" reduced price machines. Don't know about the apple store though.
 
i'd be warry of buying one of these to save a hundred books-the demo machines i've seen all have cosmetic blemishes (not the biggest thing) but of more concern is that they've been keep on 24/7 for months so there's already a lot of wear and tear on them
 
thehuncamunca said:
but of more concern is that they've been keep on 24/7 for months so there's already a lot of wear and tear on them
Click to expand...

First of all how do you know they don't shut them down for night? Second, letting computers (Macs) run all the time extends their lifetime, because computers a BUILT to be on all the time
 
First of all how do you know they don't shut them down for night? Second, letting computers (Macs) run all the time extends their lifetime, because computers a BUILT to be on all the time
Click to expand...

...mmmmmmmm.... Not sure if you're being sarcastic or not... but in the case that you're not-

A computer's lifetime does not get extended by running it 24/7. A hard drive in particular is guaranteed to fail after an extended amount of wear. An LCD is theoretically supposed to last forever, but how often does that actually happen...

On another note, I've heard some nasty horror stories of display models... Of them being eternally kernally panicked (nice rhyme, huh?), and having broken cd trays and displays... of them not even being able to work and employees not bothering to do anything about it cause "it's a mac".... Makes me shudder.
 
Regarding Mac display models

I know sometimes at other retail stores some PowerBooks have had keys missing from they're keyboards. Probably some Mac-haters trying to deface the Macs. I'm not sure if they eventually sell those Macs, but....
 
time factor

I've had my pismo on 24/7 for almost 5 years now.... 98% of the time. The hard drive has failed once (IBM travelstar - prone to failure). I still have the original drive but it hasn't been used much. So I don't see a problem in buying a computer that has been left on for a long time.

Nuc
 
When the Apple stores replace their floor models they "refresh" them, meaning they wipe the hard drives and get them as physically close to out-of-the-box new as possible and sell them at discounted prices. I actually bought a Powerbook from one of these sales and it was a great machine. It was just like new and I never had any problems with it at all.
 
eXan said:
When I said this I ment that constant shutdowns shorten compute's lifetime
Click to expand...

That's correct, Mac's do definatly benefit from being on 24/7 and the Hard drive will spindown during the night times anyway when the computer goes to sleep...I would not worry about buying ex-demo models apart from if they were cosmetically in poor condition....

ShadOW :eek:
 
My G5, G4 MDD, TiBook, and 17" PB were all "floor models" and I've had no problems with them at all (knock on wood.) On top of that, they're all Rev As. I guess I'm just a glutton for punishment.
 
you are lucky. some guy i know just bought a display model from CompUSA (Rev. A) and after two weeks he said the screen went to "snow". He has since sent it out for repair but its been two weeks since he has heard anything.

Don't buy floor models.
 
eXan said:
First of all how do you know they don't shut them down for night? Second, letting computers (Macs) run all the time extends their lifetime, because computers a BUILT to be on all the time
Click to expand...

How did you get the new U2 Ipod in europe?
 
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