worthy swap?

[ETID]

My parents have offered me around £400 for my macbook (described in signature) cus they want a mac. Normally I would have just said no but I saw on ebay you can buy the pre-unibody C2D Macbook pro with a speed around 2.2 for around 500-550. So I was thinking of selling and getting a second hand pro.

I'd love the bigger screen for work and better graphics for some games but just wondering if there is anything else to be aware of (apart from ebay scammers).

Seems good to me cus I'm a student and I will never have enough money for a new macbook pro for a very long time lol!!

 

[Shake 'n' Bake]

Your parents should just but their own computer.

I wouldn't do this.

 

[MacMini2009]

Keep your Macbook and tell your parents to buy a Macbook in the refurbished section on Apple.com.

 

[ETID]

Refurbished is still a bit pricy though. I'm still on the fence with the idea cus either way I'm going to be getting a second hand mac, as I will help my parents out as much as I can so thought I may as well treat myself a little too lol.

All depends on what deals are about I guess!

Cheers for the perspective

 

[thebrain74]

First I would be a little wary of $500 MBP's on Ebay. Mine just went for $1,050 and tons of them go for $700+. Also buying a non-unibody pro is a gamble based on the graphics card. If that card fails you're our $700 for a logic board replacement to fix* the problem. At least the computer you have now doesn't have a defective GPU in it.


*by fix I mean replace a broken part with the same one which will break again in the future

 

[QCassidy352]

First I would be a little wary of $500 MBP's on Ebay. Mine just went for $1,050 and tons of them go for $700+. Also buying a non-unibody pro is a gamble based on the graphics card. If that card fails you're our $700 for a logic board replacement to fix* the problem. At least the computer you have now doesn't have a defective GPU in it.


*by fix I mean replace a broken part with the same one which will break again in the future

he's in the UK, so that number is in pounds, not dollars.

 

[ETID]

In UK they regularly go for 500 pounds on ebay. To be honest I was pretty set on it until you reminded me of the logic board problem, which is the biggest risk. Slightly disappointed

Do these problems strike at any time or is it a sort of "if it was going to break it would have already broke by now type things" because we are talking 2 yr old machines now in some cases.

That question sounded ridiculous but I'm sure you see what I'm getting at.

Thank you for making me more aware of that.

 

[MacMini2009]

In UK they regularly go for 500 pounds on ebay. To be honest I was pretty set on it until you reminded me of the logic board problem, which is the biggest risk. Slightly disappointed

Do these problems strike at any time or is it a sort of "if it was going to break it would have already broke by now type things" because we are talking 2 yr old machines now in some cases.

That question sounded ridiculous but I'm sure you see what I'm getting at.

Thank you for making me more aware of that.

The failure of the GPU in the 8600M's can happen at any time.

 

[thebrain74]

Ya, they can happen at any time. Mine took a year and a half, but I ran it a lot of the time in lid closed mode and I used my GPU semi-regularly, so it could easily take more or less time for another GPU to fail. But what is important is not whether the GPU in those machines has already failed or not. Even if it has failed and it has been replaced, you are by no means out of the woods: Apple just replaces a dead GPU with another defective one.

 

[ETID]

Well that is a scary prospect! Are we talking any particular revision/gfx card or just straight across the board.

Darn I was looking forward to getting one as well.

 

[MacMini2009]

Well that is a scary prospect! Are we talking any particular revision/gfx card or just straight across the board.

Darn I was looking forward to getting one as well.

Only Macbook Pro's with the 8600M GT graphics card are defective.

 

[ETID]

Cheers for the info. In reality I would probably be looking at the older C2D ATI version then if I bother with it then, as they are slightly cheaper.

thanks

 

[thebrain74]

Ya, sorry, as long as it isn't an 8600M GT you're fine.