To refurb or not to refurb?

[Harry Pujols]

Greetings everyone from a hopefully soon to be Mac owner!

A couple of questions to support my (already extensive) research (thanks in advance!)

I'm currently using a Toshiba 15" Vista machine - that does have a dedicated GPU (albeit a mid-range for 4 years ago GPU)

I think I've narrowed down my focus to the 13" (I think the Air isn't enough machine for me, and the 15" is probably too much machine for the $). My needs are mainly web, some gaming (possible via a Windows partition, but not sure yet), movies, music and maybe some photo editing.

Pretty settled on 8gb of RAM. Have 4 now, and don't feel it's enough, but don't think the 16 is worth the $ for my needs. (If editing a photo takes 1.8 seconds as opposed to 1.5 I think I'll live )

Pretty settled on 256 of SSD (would love 512, but not sure I can justify the $)

And then I started seeing the 13" refurbs pop up on the Apple Store. Having never had a Mac, nor ever had a refurb of any electronic device, I'm a bit hesitant - but have seen decent things said on this site...

So my questions are:
* How safe/reliable/good idea is going down the refurb path?
* If I do go down the refurb path, should I just take the savings and be happy?
* If I go refurb, should I take the path of getting a bit more machine for the same $ as a new one? (i,e 512 instead of 256)
* If refurb is a remade/reconfigured machine - why don't they call new ones furbs?

Thanks in advance
HP

 

[GGJstudios]

Apple refurbished products are considered by most to be a very good deal, as they're pretty much like buying a new Mac, except for the box.

Apple Certified Refurbished Products are pre-owned Apple products that undergo Apple's stringent refurbishment process prior to being offered for sale. While only some units are returned due to technical issues, all units undergo Apple's stringent quality refurbishment process.

Click the link in that quote for more details on the refurbishment process.

• Apple Certified Refurbished Products are available online from the Apple Refurb Store and are not sold in local Apple stores
• Educational discounts do not apply to refurb products.
• Refurb products come with the same warranty as new products, and qualify for AppleCare
• Refurb products have a changed serial number that identifies them as refurbished
• Refurb products come with whatever OS version and software they originally shipped with as new
• Refurb products come with the same items in the box as new products, only the box is a plain one, not the new box.
• A refurb product could have some cosmetic signs of prior use, but rarely do
• A refurb Mac notebook may have some cycles on the battery, but not a significant enough amount to affect usable life
• The refurb store inventory changes frequently, sometimes several times a day, and doesn't have any direct relation to upcoming product releases. What's available in the refurb store is determined by what has been returned to Apple.
• If you're looking for a particular item, refurb.me can alert you when it becomes available.

 

[robvas]

Refurb!

 

[jakespeed]

Refurbished...definitely. In fact, I only buy refurbished now. I consider them better than new. I have purchased 15-20 macs since 2006 when i switched for good. When buying new, I have consistently had to deal with some sort of minor defect (misaligned keys, screen, trackpad, etc). Every refurbished item has been perfect in every way. After enough of these, I always just wait for them to show up 4-5 months later, save a few bucks and know I am probably getting one hand rebuilt very carefully.

Can't say the same for other companies (Lenovo, Dell, etc) but for Apple refurbs are the way to go.

 

[Harry Pujols]

Thanks for the feedback guys - the cost difference is actually a bit less than I was hoping since refurbs aren't eligible for the edu discount. I was hoping to be able to combine the edu discount with the already lower refurb cost..

Another side question about storage - I think 256GB will be enough for a bit (currently have 320, and i'm about full, but have a lot of games, etc that won't make the transition). Will probably get a couple of 16-32GB thumb drives (those super tiny San Disk ones have caught my eye). Does USB 2.0/3.0 provide enough speed to play music/movies from a drive like that? Probably wouldn't load games onto the drive, but I could see moving some of my media library externally.

Thanks again for everyone's help - I'm sure once I finally pull the trigger, I'll be asking loads more questions

HP

 

[robvas]

USB 2.0 will usually read 20MB/s which is plenty for music/movies.

3.0 will do 80-90 depending on the drive it's connected to.