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

Is the 17" C2D still a good purchase?

rockyroad55

rockyroad55

macrumors 601
Original poster
Jul 14, 2010
4,152
59
Phila, PA
I have the option of buying a MBP 17" which is the 09 model because AppleCare is scheduled to run out this September. It is the 2.66 C2D with 200GB HDD and 4GB RAM. I believe this is the one with the dual graphics cards with 9400M and another which I can't think of right now?

I can buy it for $900. I would just like a regular macbook to take to and from school, nothing crazy will be done on it like video editing and photos. Maybe the occasional game of L4D2.
 
The 17" might be a bit much for daily travel (though I did with a proper backpack) and for your uses. And yes, the 2009 MBP has a 9400M (IGP) and 9600M GT (dedicated GPU). Look at www.everymac.com or MacTracker for more specs.
Btw, Apple Care runs two additional years after the one year warranty expires, thus a 2009 Mac with Apple Care should be protected until 2012.

Mac2Sell, Gazelle or eBay (Việt Nam, Türkiye, Česká republika, Hanguk) might be good price checkers.
 
Hmm if that is the case, then that means it is an early 2009 then. Also, Mac2Sell quotes it at about 1280 but Gazelle gives it $700 haha. I'm clueless, but this would be more of a stay at home computer with the occasional trip to school every so often. I'm not worried about the weight, just if this is a good deal or not?
 
Last edited:
rockyroad55 said:
Hmm if that is the case, then that means it is an early 2009 then. Also, Mac2Sell quotes it at about 1280 but Gazelle gives it $700 haha. I'm clueless, but this would be more of a stay at home computer with the occasional trip to school every so often. I'm not worried about the weight, just if this is a good deal or not?
Click to expand...

This is an okay deal for that machine. I have a mid-2009 17" MBP and I currently use it as my main machine, as my iMac is my media machine now.
You can upgrade the RAM up to 8GB and almost get any 2.5" S-ATA HDD or SSD you want.

 
It's worth a lot more than that and would be silly not to snatch it up. You can resell it.
 
Wow really? I thought with it being a core 2 duo it would be cheaper. But maybe it's because it's a 17" and even last year's mbp 13 and MBA were C2D also?

I was going to get a base iMac instead but am now considering this purchase because of portability. Then again, carrying a 17" may be a hassle.
 
carrying a 17" to and from classes is a pain, but if you aren't taking it to school everyday it won't really be a problem.

It really just depends what your needs are, if you are just doing basic student tasks, I'd say it will be a fine purchase if you want the bigger screen. If you'd rather have a "future proof" machine that will be faster at tasks like encoding movies you should look to buy a newer machine imo.
 
xxBURT0Nxx said:
carrying a 17" to and from classes is a pain, but if you aren't taking it to school everyday it won't really be a problem.

It really just depends what your needs are, if you are just doing basic student tasks, I'd say it will be a fine purchase if you want the bigger screen. If you'd rather have a "future proof" machine that will be faster at tasks like encoding movies you should look to buy a newer machine imo.
Click to expand...

I don't even know what "encoding movies" is haha. I doubt I would ever do anything that intensive except for games, but I have a console for that. I consider myself a big techie in the mobile phone industry, but just a standard user in computers that just likes to upgrade parts for the heck of it sometimes :p

I think I may just upgrade the HDD to an SSD when I do get it since that is the best upgrade a lot of users here suggest to boost performance in terms of opening up things faster and boot times. That may make it feel like new again and maybe decrease its chances of failing because of no moving parts?
 
rockyroad55 said:
I don't even know what "encoding movies" is haha. I doubt I would ever do anything that intensive except for games, but I have a console for that. I consider myself a big techie in the mobile phone industry, but just a standard user in computers that just likes to upgrade parts for the heck of it sometimes :p

I think I may just upgrade the HDD to an SSD when I do get it since that is the best upgrade a lot of users here suggest to boost performance in terms of opening up things faster and boot times. That may make it feel like new again and maybe decrease its chances of failing because of no moving parts?
Click to expand...
yep ssd is the best!
 
xxBURT0Nxx said:
yep ssd is the best!
Click to expand...

I always get this feeling that a C2D will run much better than a PC with an i5 for some reason. I'm currently using my brother's white macbook that has 1GB RAM and 2.1 C2D and it is still smooth as butter. Mac OS is pretty good on conserving resources.
 
Repo said:
I have the same model, and it still runs great, but doesn't have dynamic GPU switching, so I'll just leave this here.
Click to expand...

Thanks!

chris y. said:
I just sold this very same model in mint condition with 8gigs of RAM and no applecare for 1550 I think you are getting a great deal for 900.
Click to expand...

Wow RAM is cheap these days too and I might just go for a 7200RPM HDD instead or a SSD hybrid. Thanks for the info. The place I'm getting it at is at an apple certified store so that helps too!

Also it is either get this MacBook or get a Sony vaio quadcore i7 with a free xbox that microsoft is not promoting for students for $1000.
 
Last edited:
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