Older MacBooks Worthwhile?

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A friend of mine is considering buying a refurbished older generation (white one) MacBook with the following spec.

13.3” Apple MacBook
2GHz Intel Core Duo
Apple White MacBook 2GHz
OSX 10.5 LEOPARD INSTALLED
+ iPhoto + iTunes
60GB-80GB Hard Drive • 2GB RAM
13.3” Glossy Display • iSight Camera built in
• Wireless • Super Drive (Burns DVDs + CDs)
Bluetooth • USB 2.0 • Firewire
plus MagSafe Powerlead

£528.75 inc Vat

My question is are these still worth buying? Seems like quite a lot of money for a second hand, discontinued piece of kit. Is that a reasonable price, how long before they're obsolete?
 
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For another 150 quid you could have a new white macbook if you are able to get student discount, the core duo puts me off that right away :)
 
JAMAL said:
For another 150 quid you could have a new white macbook if you are able to get student discount, the core duo puts me off that right away :)
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Trouble is he's not a student and doesn't really have the cash to spend anything more.
 
PardonTheWait said:
If that's core duo not core 2 duo then it's really quite old now, not worth that money. I'd grab a newer refurb.
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It's a good three years old. Seems a least £70 too expensive unless it's got warranty.

Either a MacBook Pro or a later MacBook with the nVidia graphics would be a better long term bet.
 
MagicBoy said:
It's a good three years old. Seems a least £70 too expensive unless it's got warranty.

Either a MacBook Pro or a later MacBook with the nVidia graphics would be a better long term bet.
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It comes with a warranty but I'm not sure about the details, how long etc. I know it's not direct from Apple though.
 
Would you have that macbook over a similarly priced, new, windows 7 based system?

Say for example

Intel® Core™ i5-430M (2.26Ghz, 4Threads, turbo boost up to 2.53 GHz, 3M cache)
Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium, 64bit, English
3072MB 1067MHz Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM [1x1024 + 1x2048]
15.6" High Definition (1366x768) WLED
250GB (5,400rpm) Serial ATA Hard Drive
DVD +/- RW Drive (read/write CD & DVD)
Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator HD

Which works out about £50 cheaper.
 
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It's certainly worth that on eBay... but to your pal it's not. Its a >3 year old machine, and though you mention refurbished, I suspect it will be a 30 day warranty thing. Not a year's warranty like new. Not that the Macbooks have a high failure rate!

I have a 3 yeard old Core 2 Duo 1.83GHz.. pretty similar to the one above. I could upgrade the mem to 2x2 (but only 3 addressable) and I have put a 500 gig HDD in it and expect to use it till it explodes.

It remains a fantastic machine.

However with £570 in my pocket I would blag the Student Discount (£701) or get Apple Refurbished (<£700, one there right now).

A saving of £130 for 3 year old kit is not a saving.
 
i bought a black one with the exact same spec nine months ago for 200 quid. second hand but great condition and still 3 months of warranty left. admittedly an absolute bargain but they are around 400 max for a good one on ebay. 550 is ridiculous

id never pay that much for one. not with a core duo for sure. the windows laptop someone above posted is cheaper and has a 2 generation newer cpu... im sure dell and the likes will have a great range in that price bracket too
 
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Depends what you want to use it for. E-Mail, Surfing, Flash Games, DVD's, Music: All those will work fine on that machine. If it was my money and I couldn't wait or save up then I'd buy it over a Windows machine depending on what the CPU turns out to be, but that's just personal preference. What you're paying a premium for is the Operating System, and while on paper the specs don't look amazing, what is amazing is the way that Leopard uses those resources. Hopefully it's a Core 2 Duo, if it is then buy. If not, then maybe look at Windows alternatives for the same price bracket, personally I'd opt for a Dell if that MacBook isn't a dual core.
 
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"andy" said:
i bought a black one with the exact same spec nine months ago for 200 quid. second hand but great condition and still 3 months of warranty left. admittedly an absolute bargain but they are around 400 max for a good one on ebay. 550 is ridiculous

id never pay that much for one. not with a core duo for sure. the windows laptop someone above posted is cheaper and has a 2 generation newer cpu... im sure dell and the likes will have a great range in that price bracket too
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Yeah, I (OP) posted the windows lappy just for comparison. I personally would advise him against buying the mac but I didn't want to predudice the responses.
 
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Yes - the Alu Macbooks from last year are going for this price on eBay. They have better specs all across the board and are likely still within Applecare.

Whoever is selling this is not giving your friend any benefit, this is in fact a bit of a premium over the already silly eBay prices.
 
artaxerxes said:
Yes - the Alu Macbooks from last year are going for this price on eBay. They have better specs all across the board and are likely still within Applecare.

Whoever is selling this is not giving your friend any benefit, this is in fact a bit of a premium over the already silly eBay prices.
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On top of that I wouldn't trust Ebay anyway. Although that's just my personal opinion.
 
Well I've got one of a similar spec and it's still a great machine, but it's not worth that money that's all. It's just too old to be spending that sort of wedge on. I'd either get the newest 2nd hand one you can get (hopefully with Applecare still running for a while), or save some pennies and get a new white macbook on education discount.

Don't go Windows :(
 
PardonTheWait said:
Well I've got one of a similar spec and it's still a great machine, but it's not worth that money that's all. It's just too old to be spending that sort of wedge on. I'd either get the newest 2nd hand one you can get (hopefully with Applecare still running for a while), or save some pennies and get a new white macbook on education discount.

Don't go Windows :(
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He'd like to go apple but doesn’t have the cash to afford something decent, even the £530 was pushing it a bit.

Therein lies the inherent problem with Mac’s, they're just too damn expensive for most people to justify buying one. Even with student discount they're a good 40% more expensive than an equivalent spec windows system.

There's nothing I'd like more than a 15" MacBook Pro, but I just can't spare £1,000+ at the moment.

EDIT: My gf works at a uni and I've just asked her to find out how much discount she can get. A 15" MacBook Pro 2.53GHz with discount is still £1,328.00 :/
 
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