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Worth buying this damaged macbook pro?

K

kmarketing

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Mar 26, 2004
416
0
Hi,

A friend of mine is willing to sell me his macbook pro for $500 because the screen is damaged (I guess it is cracked internally). Everything else seems to work fine.

The specs are:
2.0 ghz
1gb memory
100gb hard drive
etc.

What do you think, is this a decent buy at $500? I was thinking of updating our powermac g4, but was looking at an imac or something.

So let me know. I have a day or two to decide.

Thanks!
 
Personally I would get it hook it up to an external monitor and keyboard and bam you have an intel iMac right there and then for the most part.

I would definitely buy it because even then later on you can put on a new LCD from ifixit.com
 
i certainly would. i'd go with the eva01's suggestion until you can afford to get a new screen. granted a new screen is expensive, but i mean, even if you pay him 500 for the computer and 500 more for a new LCD.. bam! you got a MBP for only a grand!
 
kmarketing said:
Hi,

A friend of mine is willing to sell me his macbook pro for $500 because the screen is damaged (I guess it is cracked internally). Everything else seems to work fine.
Click to expand...

Just go to www.apple.com/store and check what an equivalent MacMini would cost you: Probably twice as much, and it will run a lot slower. So yes, go for it.
 
barr08 said:
I would do that in a second.

He doesn't have applecare? tsk tsk.
Click to expand...

Applecare doesn't fix broken things you broke and since the MBP hasn't been out for a year that is the only reason it would be broken without him/her being able to use applecare
 
Hi,

He said that his cat knocked it over and the screen got damaged. He went to the apple store and they quoted him something like $800-$1000. Since it was accident, the screen won't be covered. Fortunately the casing looks fine and everything is working well.

I'm leaning towards buying it though.

How would this compare with my powermac?
 
Another vote for buying it. Hook it up to an external monitor and you are in business. Then you start scanning ebay for a LCD. You could end up with a MBP for VERY little dough.
 
Take all of our advice and buy it! You won't see a deal like this come around often. Remember it's 1500-2000 bucks if you buy it refurb. New LCDs are 400-500 bucks as another poster provided. So you're potentially getting a sweet deal.

BUY IT!
 
Assuming that the rest of the machine is in good working order, and you don't mind replacing the screen, you could have a pretty nice machine for the money. You might even want to head over to the thread that is discussing high resolution screens for the MBP and see if you can have an even better machine than what is available.
 
Just cleanly remove the LCD from the macbook pro, relocate the power button, and find a way to attach it to a monitor, and boom you have an imac
 
If you decide not to buy it, send your bud my way. I'll buy it in that condition no problem.
 
Hi,

Thanks everyone. I bought the pro today. I plugged it into our recent samsung 19" widescreen, and it looks good so far. While checking the specs, I noticed that this one has 256mb video memory, I didn't even know that they made these with that much video memory. Very cool!

And I should add that he was nice enough to lower the price to $450.

I'll get a chance to play with it a little later, but is there anything I should look for?

Now I'll need help figuring out which computer to sell - the powermac, powerbook, or even this pro.

Thanks again!
 
Hi,

Haven't used the macbook pro too much, but it works great. I love watching those big movie trailers with it.

Here's the question now - I may be able to get a glossy lcd for the macbook for $200. I've taken powerbooks apart so I hope that I'll be able to do the same with this macbook, but what do you think?

Is $200 a good investment, or should I just keep it the way it is?

thanks!
 
kmarketing said:
Here's the question now - I may be able to get a glossy lcd for the macbook for $200. I've taken powerbooks apart so I hope that I'll be able to do the same with this macbook, but what do you think?

Is $200 a good investment, or should I just keep it the way it is?
Click to expand...
450 for the computer, plus 200 for a screen = $650. As stated, refurbs are 1500-2000. You have a bargain we could only dream of.

GO FOR IT!!!! :D :D
 
Hi,

Thanks!

I just didn't know if I wanted to put more money into it especially since there are newer machines out and still coming.

Now how about the powermac I have in the sig? Will the macbook pro be significantly faster? If yes, then I may look into selling the desktop. The 12" powerbook is hard to let go of since there is no replacement for that, and it is the perfect travelling companion.

I definitely don't need all these machines, especially with their depreciation.

thanks!
 
kmarketing said:
Hi,

Thanks!

I just didn't know if I wanted to put more money into it especially since there are newer machines out and still coming.

Now how about the powermac I have in the sig? Will the macbook pro be significantly faster? If yes, then I may look into selling the desktop. The 12" powerbook is hard to let go of since there is no replacement for that, and it is the perfect travelling companion.
Click to expand...

If you are talking about the 1.4 G4, then yes- it will be significantly faster.
 
definately fix it if you can get a display for $200. why are you even asking? even if you dont end up wanting it you can sell it on ebay for profit
 
Kmarketing, you're one lucky (explicit word)!! That's got to be the deal of the century! If you can get a replacement screen for that much then you're laughing. If you do it carefully then Apple won't know that the warranty's been voided and you'll have Applecare again. If you don't want a laptop you could always sell it once repaired on eBay along with your G4 and you should have enough for a 24" iMac!!
 
Hi,

Thanks for the support!! I'll get the screen then!

The only thing is that it is the glossy screen, so I know that it currently has the matte one, so I think Apple will be able to tell.

$450 sounded great for a desktop, but $650 I was thinking of how much the macbook pro would depreciate now that new ones are right around the corner. But since it seems like I should definitely do it, then I'll begin my little project soon!

Thanks again!
 
maybe silly question: why the hell did you sell your dualG5 to go back to a G4PM?

my G5 outruns my MacBook on allmost everything... ok once the apps I use all the time go universal it might be a lesser gap...

G5: work
MacBook: e-mail/internet/work: on location when it's needed (3x slower than the G5 in Photoshop)
 
Hi,

We sometimes do miss the g5. But several months ago when the intels were making their push we were worried about the resale value of the g5. I originally bought the g5 for $800. I sold it for $1500 which I thought would be pretty decent. And since my wife and I didn't really use the power of the g5, I felt that we can downgrade to something that could hold us over until we could get a good deal for an intel mac. So we bought the g4 powermac for $200.

We just sold the g4 powermac for $300 and $70 for the airport card separately since everyone here thought the macbook would be faster than the powermac. I also sold our lcd screen so that we could cover the costs of the lcd for the macbook.

Weird math. But while most people would say get the best machine that you can afford, I look for the best computers at the cheapest price.

Thanks!
 
your deal on the G5 was very nice indeed (same with all the others...)

I never buy the fastest computer (hence choosing the 2x1.8 & CD1.83 over both 2Ghz versions...) why? well for the pricedifference I invest in extra's: ram etc. and be honest 200mhz & 170mhz "slower" is not something you really feel... because photoshop is a ramhog... I spend my money there...
and I allways buy them new for my buisness, but don't change them fast... they need to work a lot first before they get replaced ;-)
 
Hi,

Just wanted to let everyone know that I received and installed the lcd. It was pretty easy to do.

The glossy screen is terrific. I ended up getting a discount on the lcd since there were a couple of pencil point size nicks in it. But for $150 for a glossy lcd that has perfect color, etc. I think it worked out okay.

So the total of the macbook pro came out to under $600. So the sale of the powermac, airport card, and lcd pretty much paid for the macbook pro. And I still have an extra hard drive and radeon 8500 video card for sale also. I think its been a pretty good trade off.

We're trying to save as much space as possible in our apartment so this definitely meets that. It will be my wife's to use for her music and things, and I'll still have my 12" powerbook.

So thanks to everyone who was involved and supportive in getting the macbook and then the lcd.

Thanks again!
 
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