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downgrading from a 17"i5 to a UB White Macbook.

SPNarwhal

SPNarwhal

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Apr 22, 2009
1,260
156
illinois
All I really do on my laptop is record music on Garage Band anyway,
and I intend on buy an iMac in the future anyway if I needed to do some hard stuff.
Does anyone know how much UB White Macbook's go for?
I've been thinking about buying a used one on Craigslist for around 6-700,
selling the 17" MBP for about 2,200. (brand new)

1,500 for a downgrade is a pretty good price to go for.
 
SPNarwhal said:
All I really do on my laptop is record music on Garage Band anyway,
and I intend on buy an iMac in the future anyway if I needed to do some hard stuff.
Does anyone know how much UB White Macbook's go for?
I've been thinking about buying a used one on Craigslist for around 6-700,
selling the 17" MBP for about 2,200. (brand new)

1,500 for a downgrade is a pretty good price to go for.
Click to expand...

Microcenter has them for $800 new.
 
SPNarwhal said:
All I really do on my laptop is record music on Garage Band anyway,
and I intend on buy an iMac in the future anyway if I needed to do some hard stuff.
Does anyone know how much UB White Macbook's go for?
I've been thinking about buying a used one on Craigslist for around 6-700,
selling the 17" MBP for about 2,200. (brand new)

1,500 for a downgrade is a pretty good price to go for.
Click to expand...

you can buy a brand new unibody MacBook for 799 at MicroCenter

Edit: Beaten :p
 
Yeah, I might do that.
100 for having it new isn't bad.

What is up with the Macbook screens though?
Just curious, I mean. It looks like a middle ground between glossy and anti-glare. It's not super reflective but it doesn't look Matte.

And do you guys think there's a chance that they'll update the Macbooks by June-ish?

I know this is the Macbook Pro area, but I'd rather not go and make a whole new thread over there. Green.
 
SPNarwhal said:
Yeah, I might do that.
100 for having it new isn't bad.

What is up with the Macbook screens though?
Just curious, I mean. It looks like a middle ground between glossy and anti-glare. It's not super reflective but it doesn't look Matte.

And do you guys think there's a chance that they'll update the Macbooks by June-ish?

I know this is the Macbook Pro area, but I'd rather not go and make a whole new thread over there. Green.
Click to expand...

Why not get the 13inch MBP its only 1099, if you use a student discount. And the extra ram will come in handy when compressing that music.
 
Bucknut said:
Why not get the 13inch MBP its only 1099, if you use a student discount. And the extra ram will come in handy when compressing that music.
Click to expand...

well for one, its 300 more for not much improvement, at all. Also, we can upgrade ram quite easily for pretty cheap (about 100 for 4 gigs)

Regardless, you still save 200 bucks overall. which is like a 15-20% discount from the mbp
 
dukebound85 said:
well for one, its 300 more for not much improvement, at all. Also, we can upgrade ram quite easily for pretty cheap (about 100 for 4 gigs)

Regardless, you still save 200 bucks overall. which is like a 15-20% discount from the mbp
Click to expand...

True, I also just like the look of the MBP over the MB, was never fan of the plastic.
 
I'm a huge fan of the plastic.
If there were an option to pick between metal and plastic on MBP (even for same price) I would have chosen plastic for this 17"

Does installing your own ram void warranty?
Couldn't I just get an updated Macbook?

I mean, what big differences are there between the Unibody Macbook and the 13" Macbook Pro?
Other than the metal, glass screen, and backlit keyboard?

And again, do you guys think there's a possibility of them updating the macbook anytime soon? I know there's that buyer chart thing that says mid cycle, but i would rather personal opinions. It seems like the Macbook is falling behind now especially since the upgrade of the MBPs.
 
SPNarwhal said:
And again, do you guys think there's a possibility of them updating the macbook anytime soon? I know there's that buyer chart thing that says mid cycle, but i would rather personal opinions. It seems like the Macbook is falling behind now especially since the upgrade of the MBPs.
Click to expand...

i think they'll be updated either before or after the back-to-school sale in the fall, somewhere around that time.
 
You know that the white MacBook doesn't have a Firewire port right? You won't be able to use a really fast external drive and some audio interfaces such as the Apogee Duet are Firewire only
 
apw100 said:
You know that the white MacBook doesn't have a Firewire port right? You won't be able to use a really fast external drive and some audio interfaces such as the Apogee Duet are Firewire only
Click to expand...

And this ladies and gentlemen is why there are Firewire to USB adapters.
 
Firewire 800 is much, much faster than USB 2.0.

Answering the poster:
If you're planning to buy an iMac for the heavy duty stuff then it makes no sense to fork over large amounts for a powerful laptop as well. That said, I eschew the plasticyness of the unibody macbook. You looked like you thought going down to $1500 was a good deal, you can get the low end aluminium macbook pro for less than that. The low end aluminium macbook pro will still save you 1100 bucks over the 17" i5.

For just a few hundred dollars more, the low end aluminium macbook pro offers you a cooler metal enclosure, faster processor, twice the memory, much faster GPU, better speakers, backlit keyboard, SD card reader, brighter and richer screen, exceptional battery life and a bunch of other minor goodies. I really recommend you get yourself one of those, instead of a unibody white macbook that has reported issues with the case integrity.
 
Arrandale said:
Yes, but Firewire 800 is much, much faster than USB 2.0.

Answering the poster:
If you're planning to buy an iMac for the heavy duty stuff then it makes no sense to fork over large amounts for a powerful laptop as well. That said, I eschew the plasticyness of the unibody macbook. You looked like you thought going down to $1500 was a good deal, you can get the low end aluminium macbook pro for less than that. The low end aluminium macbook pro will still save you 1100 bucks over the 17" i5.

For just a few hundred dollars more, the low end aluminium macbook pro offers you a cooler metal enclosure, faster processor, twice the memory, much faster GPU, better speakers, backlit keyboard, SD card reader, brighter and richer screen, exceptional battery life and a bunch of other minor goodies. I really recommend you get yourself one of those, instead of a unibody white macbook that has reported issues with the case integrity.
Click to expand...


+1 on this. Also, people seem to overlook the addition of audio over mDP for a proper HDMI solution. It makes the macbook a nice portable media center without a bulky adapter or multi-cable solution being required. This alone has me sold on the 13" MBP.
 
Yeah, I'll probably go for the 13" uMBP.
I could even get away with buying a used last gen one.
There wasn't any updates this time around that were too impressive anyway, right? Or I'll look around for clearance prices.
If I can get a used one for 700 opposed to 1,000 for a new, I'll probably go with the used.
I know it's "only 300" difference, but then there's tax, which then adds on at least another 50.
so 350+, that's half of 700.
i know, talking about smaller numbers here, but to pay +half the price of the unit itself just to have the satisfaction of knowing i got it brand new, I'd probably rather the money. Just have to shop smart when it comes to laptops and not let impulse or want get in the way of making sure things are quality.
 
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