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MacBook - New Owner Buyers Remorse?

OldMike

OldMike

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Mar 3, 2009
551
251
Dallas, TX
We had been in the market for a laptop for a couple of weeks. After reading the rumors that Apple was going to be coming out with some new computers, I decided to hold off and see what they might introduce.

After yesterdays new MacBook release, I was less than excited about it. I like the fact that it had better battery life - but that was not a total deal breaker since the older MacBook had decent battery life as it was. The bigger hard drive does not mean that much to me since I'm thinking of throwing in a 500GB drive anyway. It is nicer, but not that much nicer.

I had my heart set on a 13" MBP - but it is extra money that I really shouldn't be spending. So today, I was looking through Apple's refurbs and came across the MacBook with the 9400M (which also has FW, which I kind of need right now) for $749.

I thought to myself, a Mac laptop for $749!?! :eek: - and impulsively pulled the trigger. Now, I'm kind of wondering if I would have been better off spending the extra $$$ on a MBP...

I'm sure when the MacBook gets here, I will like it. I guess I'm just worried since it seems like here on the forums there are lots of threads about cracked cases and other problems that don't seem to be found on the MBP forum.

So, I'm wondering if I should just be happy that I got a great deal by getting a $749 Mac laptop, and relax - or if I should consider upgrading to a MBP based on durability alone?

The laptop will be used primarily by my wife for studying and, when available, by me for work when I don't feel like sitting in front of my iMac. My wife will be taking it with her to work and school all of the time - so I would imagine it will receive its fair share of (hopefully gentle) thrashing. Is the MBP's durability so much better that I should be considering spending the extra $$?
 
which macbook did you get? Specs?

I dont think you will regret getting the macbook for $749. You would be paying quite a bit more for a MBP. I have had my white MB for little over 18 months and still love it. It does everything I need it to do except hold my entire iTunes library (200GB)
 
forester54 said:
which macbook did you get? Specs?

I dont think you will regret getting the macbook for $749. You would be paying quite a bit more for a MBP. I have had my white MB for little over 18 months and still love it. It does everything I need it to do except hold my entire iTunes library (200GB)
Click to expand...

The MacBook I bought had the following specs:


2.13GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
Frontside bus 1066MHz
Memory 2GB (two 1GB SO-DIMMs) of 800MHz DDR2 SDRAM; two SO-DIMM slots support up to 4GB
160GB 5400-rpm Serial ATA hard disk drive
8x slot-loading SuperDrive (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
NVIDIA GeForce 9400M graphics processor with 256MB of DDR2 SDRAM shared with main memory
One FireWire 400 port, Two USB 2.0 ports

There was another one on there for $699 but it had the older video chipset.

I spoke with the CFO (my wife) and she approved of the purchase of a cheaper MacBook over the MBP - so I guess I made the right choice :eek:
 
thats a good computer, go to owc and upgrade the RAM to 4GB and you will be very happy.

The only thing I wish my had was a Superdrive and bigger HD (I have 2 superdrives in my new mac pro and 2.5TB in there as well)

I now use my laptop for taking to class and doing homework. The battery still lasts quite a long time so I am very happy with my purchase
 
Its worth the extra $$$ for the track pad alone! its impossible to be productive or navigate around on the older generations small unresponsive pad. Do yourself a favour and send it back if you can afford the upgrade.
I would seriously consider exchanging it for the new macbook! Apple will be more than willing to assist if you get on to the phone straight away. Then you can pay the difference and have it sent back and your new one sent out.
The are creaky too, and feel more fragile than the new model!
Its also worth noting that Fire wire will be dead as a door nail next year when usb 3 is released.

I wouldn't waist your hard earned cash on it, upgrade to the macbook pro and get a multi-gesture track pad, 7 hour battery, amazing LED professional grade screen, 4gigs of ram and the unibody design!
 
it all depends on what you are going to be using it for and if you want to spend the extra money.

You are looking at $450 more minimum for a new MBP. If you think you will need it, I think it will be worth it but if you are not doing anything that requires a ton of RAM and/or processing power I dont think it is necessary
 
I'm in the same exact boat, bought the same exact machine, but bought mine a little while ago when the price for the refurbished was $850. I fell into about an extra $1,000, went to the refurbished store, and it was the only one within my price range. Then a few days after getting it, I saw a 13" Macbook pro for $999 on the refurbished site. Made me sick - for only $150 more, look what I could have gotten. Now, I could have returned the Macbook, but that would have added an additional $85 restocking fee.

Here is where I take solace:

I bought the cheapest iMac a couple of years ago - the stripped down 17" without blue tooth and only a combo drive, 1.83 Gh Core 2 Duo. But it does everything I want. I upgraded, upgraded, to 2Gb. I got an external DVD burner with Lightscribe. I still love that iMac, and it does everything I want, and it is quicker than many of the higher clock speed iMac Core Duo or Power PCs of a little while ago.

The point is, if it does what you want, buy the cheapest you can, because it is likely better than the more expensive stuff of a generation or two before, and is going to become obsolete in the about the same time period into the future anyway. And you paid $100 less than I did, and the least you would pay for a Macbook pro refurbished would be $250 more.

Firewire is a bit of a big deal. I don't want to have to buy a new video camera too. So I figure that into the savings. And for what I do, why do I need more than 2Gb of memory.

Enjoy your purchase and relax, man. Wouln't you fee more guilty for spending the additional $250 when you have something that does everything you need?
 
Enjoy your new mac. Something better will always come out lol. 749 is a steal. At least the DDR2 in it is dirt cheap.

250$ is enough to get the ram, and a 500gb drive, and buy an ipod lol, or a nice set of headphones to go with it :)
 
glossywhite said:
Why would any sane person buy last gen, when latest gen is imminent? :confused:
Click to expand...


Because prudent people only pay for what they functionally need, not extra for non-essentials. But I suppose that is not sane when you have to have the latest generation.
 
TheZA said:
Because prudent people only pay for what they functionally need, not extra for non-essentials. But I suppose that is not sane when you have to have the latest generation.
Click to expand...

Having to have the latest generation IS insane. It's a strange human impulse to have the latest and greatest to look good, or to look better than others. It's very silly. Most people are paying more for features they either don't need, don't use or don't want.
 
glossywhite said:
Why would any sane person buy last gen, when latest gen is imminent? :confused:
Click to expand...

To save money. The last generation is still a great Macbook. Why spend money on stuff you don't need? If people are tight with money and still want a Macbook, that's the way to go.
IMO the comment you made is kind of snobbish. Is he any less of a Mac person because he didn't get the latest? No. He's probably one of the smartest by buying the lest generation Macbook and saving money.
 
To the OP, you made the right choice.

The new MB is crippled for you - no firewire. It doesn't do what you need a computer to do for you. Buying it would be a waste.

USB3 makes no difference - it's not out yet, and it will take another year or so for everything to become USB3. Your camera won't stop working when USB3 comes out either.

Given that, you have a choice of keeping what you have, or buying a refurb MBP (+ $250 minimum) or new (+ $450)MPB, both of which cost considerably more than your budget.

$250 is 33% extra, and $450 is a whopping 60% extra over what you paid.
 
Thanks for all of the replies here.

I have decided, like many said, that it will do exactly what we need for a long time - and will just keep it. I paid the extra $23 for next day shipping and it appears that it has already left PA and is headed here for me tomorrow. It will be nice to be able to get it, set it up and be able to use over the weekend.

I don't think I will have any regrets. IF the case cracks - it looks like Apple will step up to the plate and resolve the issue (even if I have to arm twist a little). That was one of my worries. Otherwise, performance wise, this MacBook will be able to do just about everything the MBP I was looking at would do - so the extra money is not really justified for us.

Besides, the CFO (wife) is happy ;)
 
The screen on the older Macbook that the OP bought is horribly washed out. The viewing angles are virtually non-existent. Today I was at the Apple store and saw the new Unibody Macbook. All I can say is the screen is AWESOME. Excellent black level with wide vertical viewing angles. The whole casing is very strong due to the new unibody enclosure and the bottom is made of rubber, it also has a nice strong hinge.
The OP may have gotten FW but the screen on the older white Macbook is horrible.
 
OldMike said:
Thanks for all of the replies here.

I have decided, like many said, that it will do exactly what we need for a long time - and will just keep it. I paid the extra $23 for next day shipping and it appears that it has already left PA and is headed here for me tomorrow. It will be nice to be able to get it, set it up and be able to use over the weekend.

I don't think I will have any regrets. IF the case cracks - it looks like Apple will step up to the plate and resolve the issue (even if I have to arm twist a little). That was one of my worries. Otherwise, performance wise, this MacBook will be able to do just about everything the MBP I was looking at would do - so the extra money is not really justified for us.

Besides, the CFO (wife) is happy ;)
Click to expand...
Well as long as the wife is happy then you're happy :D
Are you getting AppleCare?
 
i have my white macbook since this january '09, here is what i can tell you:

+upgraded 4gb ram, cosair ssd (runs stupidly fast)
-superdrive got stuck (tekserve technicians replaced drive, got my CD out)
-screen flicker on software reboots (don't care, don't have time to send it in)
-wireless doesn't obtain dhcp at home sometimes (tekserve cannot replicate)
-had one minor crack on the edge (don't care, don't have time to send it in)

besides those negatives, overall the white macbook runs well so far. but i will make sure to fix all those before my 1 year support expires, i'd definitely get Applecare IF i were to keep it more then a year.
 
HLdan said:
The screen on the older Macbook that the OP bought is horribly washed out. The viewing angles are virtually non-existent. Today I was at the Apple store and saw the new Unibody Macbook. All I can say is the screen is AWESOME. Excellent black level with wide vertical viewing angles. The whole casing is very strong due to the new unibody enclosure and the bottom is made of rubber, it also has a nice strong hinge.
The OP may have gotten FW but the screen on the older white Macbook is horrible.
Click to expand...

Thanks for verifying HLDan. Some people in the new thread where boasting about how the unibody MacBook's LED display was not on par with the 13-inch MacBook Pro which is why the MacBook Pro would be the better choice. Minus the FireWire, the unibody MacBook is a home run and is an awesome improvement on the previous generation.
 
iLog.Genius said:
Thanks for verifying HLDan. Some people in the new thread where boasting about how the unibody MacBook's LED display was not on par with the 13-inch MacBook Pro which is why the MacBook Pro would be the better choice. Minus the FireWire, the unibody MacBook is a home run and is an awesome improvement on the previous generation.
Click to expand...

Some of the lcd's on the unibody macs were subpar when they first came out in late 08. 9c8c's were 'meh' and 9c89's were horrid. Apple did a quiet stealth upgrade of the screens made in early 09 until the 13" mbp was introduced.

The early 08's had poor viewing angles and lousy contrast. As much as I didn't like my 9c89 screen, it was better than my friend's year old 2.4 ghz white macbook.

And the worst of the lcd's kind of depended on what you did with the laptop. The leopard background stank to look at, because it looked really washed out. Movies were kind of a bummer with its inability to distinguish degrees of black and other dark colors. But when I was doing surfing on pages on a white background or word processing, I caught myself marveling at how bright and crisp the screen was. My current 9c8c is acceptable, especially with 10.6 changing the gamma level on it.

As for the original post, the new battery may make the difference worthwhile for buying a new whitebook or a refurbed 13" mbp. 1000 cycles without a decrease in capacity may mean the difference between having to buy a replacement battery or not during the expected life of the machine, which could add another $130 to the cost of the old model. The extra battery life, and the other new features such as the trackpad and led backlit screen-which also promises to have a longer life than the ccfl backlit model-may be worth it.
 
macbook

I have the 2nd model black macbook. with 2 gig of ram and 250HD. I looked up upgrading both HD and Ram and i get all kinda answers. I really
dont know what the truth is. I dont think i NEED 8 gig of ram, but it wouldnt hurt. Yes apple ram is WAY over priced! Is there other ram that will work or do you HAVE TO get theirs?

And what about the HD? From what ive seen 320 is the biggest my MB will do, but I'm not sure. I read in MF that there IS a 500 gig coming out sooner or later, but I dont know exactly.
Can someone tell me?


:apple: LOVE
Sid
 
twiztidsid13 said:
I have the 2nd model black macbook. with 2 gig of ram and 250HD. I looked up upgrading both HD and Ram and i get all kinda answers. I really
dont know what the truth is. I dont think i NEED 8 gig of ram, but it wouldnt hurt. Yes apple ram is WAY over priced! Is there other ram that will work or do you HAVE TO get theirs?

And what about the HD? From what ive seen 320 is the biggest my MB will do, but I'm not sure. I read in MF that there IS a 500 gig coming out sooner or later, but I dont know exactly.
Can someone tell me?


:apple: LOVE
Sid
Click to expand...

Core duo's will take 2 gigs of ram, max. Core 2 duo macbooks will take 4 gigs. Your mb will take any 2.5" sata hd, up to 500 gigs. Try seagate 7200.4 500 gig or WD scorpio blue 500 gig.
 
Received the refurb MacBook that I purchased the other day. Opened it up, turned it on and.... DOA!

I was actually quite surprised. The last 4 Macs that I have bought have all been refurbs, and I have always been 100% happy with them. This MacBook must have slipped through somehow...

I called Apple Support, and they were great to deal with. I had paid extra for quicker shipping and which they refunded me for, without my even asking. They said that I would receive my refund for the MacBook 5 days after they receive it back. They also sent me a pre-paid 2 Day FedEx mailing label.

One thing that I was surprised about, and never knew before, was that refurbs cannot be returned to local Apple Stores. After I saw that the MacBook would not boot, I gave it to my wife who was going to be passing an Apple Store. She said the manager was very nice, but couldn't accept the MacBook since it was a refurb and they did not have the SKU in their system. I thought buying online was the same as purchasing from a local store - so I was a little surprised about that.

So after confirming that Apple would refund me for the computer, I went back onto the Apple Store web site and ended up ordering the MacBook Pro 13" that I was originally looking at purchasing. I found a refurb MBP 13" for $999. Funny how I was starting to have buyers remorse, and ended up getting the MBP in the end anyway...

Overall, even though I was sent a MacBook that was DOA, I was extremely pleased how Apple handled everything and still feel the experience was pretty positive.

Now I just have to wait patiently to get my hands on my new MBP!
 
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