Want to buy a 15" non-unibody. Need advice regarding failing 8600GTs.

[groove-agent]

My SR 17" had to go into the shop just before a critical presentation so I went out and bought a unibody MBP. However, i cant say I'm a huge fan of the glossy screen, and the fact that the only cinema is the huge 24" which is also glossy.

I'm in the market for a 15" non-unibody, but I'm worries about the Nvidia scare. Is there a 15" model that wasn't affected? I thought I read somewhere that the 2.5 Ghz models were okay. I had a friend that was selling his 2.4Ghz SR 15", but it wasn't under warranty and I didn't want to take the risk.

The other option is that i buy one with a warranty, and get the applecare so that when it does fail, i can get a suitable replacement. I do game a bit, and use 3d rendering programs so of course, I want to be careful.

Any recommendations?

 

[melchior]

there is no guarantee, factual information is not publicly available but a lot of assertians and assumptions have been made.

there is no guarantee that 2.5ghz (what i have, manufactured april last year) will not fail. what is in your favour is if you can get a refurb, you will get one year plus the two extended for the 8600m gt even without applecare.

nvidia said that they are no longer using the filler that that was causing the problems and has moved across to eutectic solder bumps which do not suffer this problem. there has been some suggestion however that these chips were simply intermingled with the bad chips and there is no way to know until your card is failing.

personally, if you can get a refurb or retail, i would get the SR because you can be confident about the warranty for at least 3 years... but others want to have a computer to last a decade and this probably won't be the one.

the previous generation with the ATI chipset obviously doesn't suffer this issue.

My SR 17" had to go into the shop just before a critical presentation so I went out and bought a unibody MBP. However, i cant say I'm a huge fan of the glossy screen, and the fact that the only cinema is the huge 24" which is also glossy.

I'm in the market for a 15" non-unibody, but I'm worries about the Nvidia scare. Is there a 15" model that wasn't affected? I thought I read somewhere that the 2.5 Ghz models were okay. I had a friend that was selling his 2.4Ghz SR 15", but it wasn't under warranty and I didn't want to take the risk.

The other option is that i buy one with a warranty, and get the applecare so that when it does fail, i can get a suitable replacement. I do game a bit, and use 3d rendering programs so of course, I want to be careful.

Any recommendations?