Best place to buy a cheap Macbook

DGMcreative

Ive got about £450-£500 quid to buy a cheap mac book (not off Ebay) anyone know of any good suppliers? not after new reconditioned will do.

regards
David

asininity

Cheap and apple dont go. Save up.

DGMcreative

asininity wrote: »

Cheap and apple dont go. Save up.

point taken.

macman

Try 2nd Chance PC's near Cambridge-they currently have 13 in Macbooks for £573-not much over your budget-or you might haggle. These are properly refurbed, and crucially you get a full 12m warranty on them.
http://www.2ndchancepc.co.uk/mac%20laptops.html
Apple sell off returns on their own site each week (used to be on a Wednesday I think) but the most you'd get off would be about 10%. The cheapest current Macbook retails at £719, so for these you would have to pay around £650.

Leopard

Hmm: £574 is a lot to pay for a 2006/7 MacBook with 2.0 Ghz processor that can't address more than 2 GB of RAM, has a (nowadays rather small) 80 GB hard drive, a non-British keyboard and no DVD burner.

I bought my last four Apple laptops (two of them G4 TiBooks, two of them MacBooks Pro) from sellers on eBay and all were perfect.

The most recent MacBook Pro that I bought, last June, was a 2.4 GHz. It was unused and it cost me £550: it was a little under-specced but that suited me because I wanted one to upgrade anyway.

It's covered by Applecare for another 15 months.

Provided that you know what you're doing, eBay usually is the cheapest source.

Next best is to wait until Apple refreshes its range and snap up one of the superseded models, new and sealed, when they're discounted for clearance, either from PC World, Currys, Comet or (best of all) from the Apple Refurbs Store. (My companion did that and got a clearly new and unused one at a 31% discount.)

Research and patience are the keys to getting a Mac at a sensible price.

Model-wise, if I wanted a MacBook, I'd seek out a November 2007 onwards, black 2.4 GHz, which I'd much prefer to the current range. But that's just my own preference: you may well, of course, have different priorities.

macman

I would tend to agree, but it's the nearest I can see to the OP's budget, since he did specify he didn't want to go the eBay route.
I didn't look at MacBook Pro's, because he said he wants a MacBook, and I have to assume he knows the difference. As for the DVD burner, isn't it only the newest release that has a Superdrive on the base white model? It all depends what he wants to do with it really.
I bought my iMac a couple of years back from th Apple Refurb Store-wish I could have got 31% off that!-your friend did very well.

DGMcreative

macman wrote: »

I would tend to agree, but it's the nearest I can see to the OP's budget, since he did specify he didn't want to go the eBay route.
I didn't look at MacBook Pro's, because he said he wants a MacBook, and I have to assume he knows the difference. As for the DVD burner, isn't it only the newest release that has a Superdrive on the base white model? It all depends what he wants to do with it really.
I bought my iMac a couple of years back from th Apple Refurb Store-wish I could have got 31% off that!-your friend did very well.

Cheers Guys some excellent info. I am Basically moving abroad for 9 months and need to carry on with my design work, At the office i have a imac G5, the power mac 8.2 model 512memory and 250 gig running osx 10.4 so i need something similar. someone in the office suggest the macbook which is why i suggest it in the thread but i am open to suggestions.
The dvd burner is not really essential but i would like one considering im looking to spend £500

Thanks again (Leopard for some great info) Making me think twice about ebay.

Leopard

Macman,

Please don't think that I was in any way criticising your kind advice to the OP: you addressed his/her question (and budget) directly, whereas I explored the options that were available if the OP was prepared to be more flexible in his/her approach.

I notice, incidentally, that the Apple Refurbs Store has become a lot more stingy in recent months. My companion paid £929 (with free shipping) last February, for a MacBook Pro that had previously retailed for £1,350. This was a few days after Apple had re-vamped the range; clearly (from inspecting it closely inside and out when I maxxed its RAM and put a 200 GB 7200 rpm hard drive into it for her) she got one that was new, unused but re-boxed remaindered stock of the replaced model.

In comparison, the MacBook Pro that I purchased for £550 from a seller on eBay, unused and in mint condition but slightly under-specced for complicated reasons, had previously retailed for £1,600.

This is an example of the savings that can be made by buying carefully from eBay sellers. There are, undoubtedly, risks in doing it: you have to take sensible precautions but it's fairly safe if you know what you're doing and the savings can be substantial.

The way that I bought mine was best for me and the way that my companion bought hers (which I found for her) was best for her. I could afford to take a risk but she couldn't. We each won, in our different ways!


DGM,

Only purchase a Mac on eBay if you really know your Macs (or, at least, the model you are buying) and really understand how to deal on eBay.

And always then extend its Applecare to the full three years (you can buy that, for half Apple's price, on eBay, too). Just in case...

I always collect in person and never part with the money until I have formed an impression of the seller and inspected both the Mac and its paperwork - including checking its serial number against the Apple database. (Apple keeps track of its babies!)

If I'm not happy, I walk away; there are plenty more out there.

Remember that it's wiser to buy a previous model that has proven, from the experiences of others, to be trouble-free than to buy a brand new model with which there may be problems that have yet to be discovered. That's especially true if you'll be taking it abroad. :cool:

Hope you find a good one! :money:

macman

No offence taken, Leopard.
Just out of interest, how do you buy on eBay and insist on collection and inspection before paying? Don't most sellers want the money by Paypal before they'll release it? I sell on eBay and won't now do anything, even small stuff, on a 'cash on collection' basis-the reason being that I did it once and the buyer didn't turn up; a second time and they wanted to renegotiate the price on the doorstep-no thank you.
Also can you please advise how you access the Apple serial number database-I didn't know this facility existed. Thanks

Marty_J

Cash on collection is really the best way to deal on eBay if you're a seller. There's no risk of the buyer doing a credit card chargeback, or filing a PayPal claim against you.

DGMcreative

please advise how you access the Apple serial number database