Is This A Good Deal?

[nguinn97]

Hello,

I have never owned a mac before, so I would like some advice. I currently have a Windows laptop, but I will probably be building a desktop PC during the holidays.

I was browsing eBay to find out the price of Macbooks, and I saw a listing that caught my eye. Here it is:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Apple-MacBo...129&pid=100015&prg=1006&rk=1&sd=350614256500&

Assuming that the laptop is in pretty good condition (He does list some small problems),
is it a good deal? I was thinking of selling my laptop to buy it, seeing as I would be getting another Windows machine later.

My current specs are:
Intel Core i3 (Sandy Bridge): 2.2ghz
4gb RAM
500gb 5400RPM HDD
Intel HD Graphics 3000
Around 15 inch Screen (15.6"?)

As far as I can tell, the processor would be slower and the graphics would be about the same.
I could upgrade the HDD and RAM with some extra money.

I am not sure about which machine I would rather have. I am pretty good at keeping Windows maintained, but I still have some problems every now and then. Would the Macbook be much slower when I upgrade the RAM and HDD?

 

[wickedking94]

Well it all depends on what you do on your computers. If you just do web browsing word processing, and maybe some light gaming or video editing, then you should hardly notice the slightly slower CPU. The graphics you might notice are less robust than the intel HD 3000 but again if your not doing anything to graphically intensive it should't be a problem. Keep in mind though that you might not be able to run the latest version of Mac OS on that MacBook, but that might be for the better as the last 2 OS are very demanding. It should run Mac OS 10.6 no problem, and thats arguably the best Mac OS.

I would definitely upgrade the ram and HDD. 4GB should be plenty to run smoothly, and you can probably put a 500GB HDD in there no problem.

I would say over all 350$ for a working MacBook thats only 3 years old is a good deal considering that they went for over 1000$ when they came out.

Also because it's an Intel Mac you can always install windows on it along side Mac OS so you can switch between Mac OS and Windows if you want to use it to run windows software.

 

[nguinn97]

Thanks

I most commonly do web browsing and word processing on my PC. However, I am prone to have a lot of tabs open and up to three different browsers at once.

I might also have a word processor open, but I usually only have 1 or 2 documents open at the same time.

That is probably the most strenuous workload that I would do on a day to day basis. I usually don't even have that many things open.

I do some light PC gaming, but I usually use a console instead.

I do some occasional photo editing and video editing.

However, I will probably end up using the desktop for most of this workload once I get it, because it will be more powerful.
I will probably use the Macbook for mobile stuff that is a bit lighter.

Thanks for your help.

 

[nguinn97]

Another quick question

How much slower is the processor in comparison to my current one?

----------

Can the GPU handle streaming and, or playing(offline) 1080p video?