older Refurbished MBP's on the apple site. worth it?

[blackxrob]

well, im new to these boards. and really want to get a macbook pro for the coming school year. i want to use the mbp for graphic design, video editing, and a lot of music production. also i would be getting the base model.

but heres where my question comes in: sometimes on the apple refurb site i see the 2.33ghz model mbp, and i am highly considering getting that the next time it comes up, but is the .7 extra ghz really worth the extra 200 dollars? i also am considering the 2.1ghz model. also on the 2.33 i see the 256mb ati cards instead of the niveda cards i hear so much about.

also, would those computers still hold their own when the newest model comes out?

 

[alphaod]

No don't get the ones with ATI cards. They are more than a year old. The NVIDIA problems are exaggerated.

 

[blackxrob]

alright. well i have a new question.

i found a newer 2.4ghz macbook pro on craigslist from a seller by my house. but he said their is a dead pixel running across the whole screen, and about a centimeter in length. but the computers covered by applecare until 2010. is this covered by the applecare?

 

[Diseal3]

alright. well i have a new question.

i found a newer 2.4ghz macbook pro on craigslist from a seller by my house. but he said their is a dead pixel running across the whole screen, and about a centimeter in length. but the computers covered by applecare until 2010. is this covered by the applecare?

Should be if it's not physical abuse. Make sure you check to make sure that the applecare certificate is legit though!

 

[taylorwilsdon]

alright. well i have a new question.

i found a newer 2.4ghz macbook pro on craigslist from a seller by my house. but he said their is a dead pixel running across the whole screen, and about a centimeter in length. but the computers covered by applecare until 2010. is this covered by the applecare?

That is not a dead pixel. That is hundreds, if not thousands of "dead pixels" (a defect or damage, not something normal)

 

[Firefly2002]

No don't get the ones with ATI cards. They are more than a year old. The NVIDIA problems are exaggerated.

Truly poor advice.

Yes, the old 2.33 GHz model should hold its own just fine; there's not much chance you'd notice a performance different in computing power (unless you're gaming, but as you mentioned, though the ATI card is slower, it's also not going to die). The new base model will be (again) 2.4 GHz or at best 2.53 GHz; compare that to 2.33 GHz C2D, and big deal.

It's actually probably faster in Core Image-accelerated applications, too, so for a pro-app machine it's possibly a better bet anyway.

 

[Smighty24]

hey man remember you can use your student discount since your a college student. If you get the base pro model the discount is $200 off the price and they have a promo going on that if you buy a computer from apple you get a free ipod nano or ipod touch. Thats a very nice deal. If you don't want the touch you can sell it and get even more money back. So i would say that if your in the market for a computer from apple, go ahead and use your student discount and get the free ipod with it. I have had my pro for a week now and i love it and am glad i went ahead and used my discount to get a new computer and not a used refurb model. It's totally worth it!!!!

 

[Firefly2002]

It's totally worth it!!!!

Unless your GPU kicks it =x

 

[Smighty24]

well... to be quite honest, i think the whole gpu situation is really not as big as everyone is saying it is. Is it a problem? yes. But not one that everyone is dealing with. I wouldn't let this problem affect anyone in purchasing a MBP.

 

[Firefly2002]

well... to be quite honest, i think the whole gpu situation is really not as big as everyone is saying it is. Is it a problem? yes. But not one that everyone is dealing with. I wouldn't let this problem affect anyone in purchasing a MBP.

Given the dozens of MBP users who've complained about it on these very forums... and the fact that we seem to get a few a week, yeah, I'd say it really IS a problem and SHOULD affect your decision. I'd sure as hell never buy one.

 

[Xander562]

well... to be quite honest, i think the whole gpu situation is really not as big as everyone is saying it is. Is it a problem? yes. But not one that everyone is dealing with. I wouldn't let this problem affect anyone in purchasing a MBP.

Well said. I *SUPPOSEDLY* have a *DEFECTIVE* GPU that will *CATASTROPHICALLY FAIL* any second now. However I have been gaming (that is HL2 series, Portal, TF2, Oblivion, Crysis, Bioshock, etc) pretty much daily since the day I got it and I have had ZERO problems. Besides if something does go wrong, AppleCare protects. So don't worry about it.

Refurbished items get the same applecare treatment as brand spanking new ones. There is no risk in buying refurbished.

 

[Firefly2002]

Well said. I *SUPPOSEDLY* have a *DEFECTIVE* GPU that will *CATASTROPHICALLY FAIL* any second now. However I have been gaming (that is HL2 series, Portal, TF2, Oblivion, Crysis, Bioshock, etc) pretty much daily since the day I got it and I have had ZERO problems. Besides if something does go wrong, AppleCare protects. So don't worry about it.

Refurbished items get the same applecare treatment as brand spanking new ones. There is no risk in buying refurbished.

Of course you haven't had any problems. It's not a gradual thing, it's all-of-a-sudden.

I hope you have the 3-year Apple plan, not the one year.

As for me..... pay extra for AppleCare when otherwise I never would, in the event my GPU fails, meaning a few weeks without my laptop (likely when I'm at college) and dings and scratches on the case when I get it back?

No thanks.

 

[erikistired]

i really like my 2.33 with the ati x1600. the only drawback for me is that i can't go to 4gb of ram. the gpu is showing it's age a bit, but it works fine for me and i game on it.

 

[alphaod]

Truly poor advice.

Yes, the old 2.33 GHz model should hold its own just fine; there's not much chance you'd notice a performance different in computing power (unless you're gaming, but as you mentioned, though the ATI card is slower, it's also not going to die). The new base model will be (again) 2.4 GHz or at best 2.53 GHz; compare that to 2.33 GHz C2D, and big deal.

It's actually probably faster in Core Image-accelerated applications, too, so for a pro-app machine it's possibly a better bet anyway.

OP says the better one is only $200 more; why bother wasting time with the older chipset, with slower graphics card, CPU, bus, memory, non-LED backlighting, Tiger OS? Oh and the hardware only supports up to 3GB of RAM.

 

[Xander562]

Of course you haven't had any problems. It's not a gradual thing, it's all-of-a-sudden.

I hope you have the 3-year Apple plan, not the one year.

My point is that I've had this computer for almost a year and intense use of the gpu is supposed to shorten it's life even further than the ~1 year life expectancy ---- and it hasn't failed yet.


And I do have AppleCare...

 

[Smighty24]

Given the dozens of MBP users who've complained about it on these very forums... and the fact that we seem to get a few a week, yeah, I'd say it really IS a problem and SHOULD affect your decision. I'd sure as hell never buy one.

well this is a site where people come in need of help. Of course you will see lots of people complaining about the defective gpu's. You don't have people saying "hey i have this macbook pro and a great gpu". people submit their problems.

 

[lazydesi]

it was really worth to get a refurbish one if you can't afford brand new one

 

[Firefly2002]

well this is a site where people come in need of help. Of course you will see lots of people complaining about the defective gpu's. You don't have people saying "hey i have this macbook pro and a great gpu". people submit their problems.

I realize it's a site where most people are more likely to voice issues than praise.

However, how many total MacBook Pro users by % do you think come to Macrumors? Probably less than 1%.

OP says the better one is only $200 more; why bother wasting time with the older chipset, with slower graphics card, CPU, bus, memory, non-LED backlighting, Tiger OS? Oh and the hardware only supports up to 3GB of RAM.

The older chipset isn't much slower. The graphics card is admittedly a lot less powerful, but it's also not in question of dying. The CPU, bus and memory make a minimal difference in terms of system performance... the only significant improvement from me original MBP has been the switch from Core to Core 2 (and of course the increase in clock speeds, which has been very little since the introduction of the 2.33 GHz Core 2.

Tiger is a perfectly capable operating system.... there are very few pieces of software for Mac OS X that will not run on Mac OS 10.4.11.

I actually greatly prefer Tiger to Leopard, though admittedly I do like Spaces.

As for the 3 GB of RAM (or 2 GB, on the earliest models), I agree that's a shortcoming (and I would argue that 4 GB of RAM is a shortcoming as well). However, it might not be an issue for him, as 3 GB is more than enough for most people.

 

[tristan]

Refurbs are always good values, especially within a month or two after a product line update. I would definitely recommend them. Anyway, you definitely want Applecare with a MBP, so you're protected for three years.