Refurb Mac Book

[FiveTimes]

I'm thinking of buying a Macbook, however I can't justify the cost of a brand new shiny one.
Has anyone bought an refurb from the apple site ?

As I've never had a mac before, what should I be looking for ?

[DaveB]

Go for the Pro rather than the standard model. The Pro version is a better spec and an all aluminium case. Pro's will also give you longer battery life at the expense of added weight.

Unless you need to save space or weight for portability the 17" screens are the ones to go for.

Refurb kit from Apple is generally very good and you should have no problems with it.

[Moscow Mule]

Macbook or Macbook Pro?

13" macbook is the baby - good for uni students & your gran
13" macbook pro is not quite the workhorse of the other sizes, but still cap[able with discreet graphics
15" & 17" are the workhorse machines - pick whatever spec suits...

If you are buying refurb from the apple site, there's nothing much else to look out for.

You'll be getting a Core 2 Duo as a minimum. Go for 4GB ram if you want to run a virtual machine.

Screens mostly come as Glossy (I think Sony call it x-black all the other manufacturers have a similar market BS) you may or may not like that. Anti-glare screens are a paid for extra so check what you're getting if you have a preference.

Check the buyers guide for some more info.

Mac Buyer's Guide: Know When to Buy Your Mac, iPod or iPhone

Every mac comes with iLife (photo manage/edt + garage band + dvd authoring + video editing)

[NickFitz]

Go for the Pro rather than the standard model. The Pro version is a better spec and an all aluminium case. Pro's will also give you longer battery life at the expense of added weight.

Unless you need to save space or weight for portability the 17" screens are the ones to go for.

Refurb kit from Apple is generally very good and you should have no problems with it.

MacBook has also been aluminium case since late 2008.

N.B. There's a mistake in that Wikipedia entry - it claims that the lack of a FireWire port means Target Disk mode isn't supported, but in fact all Intel Macs support Target Disk mode via USB. EDIT: or maybe I'm thinking of the fact that they can boot from external USB drives, which isn't the same thing at all

[Moscow Mule]

MacBook has also been aluminium case since late 2008.

Until the 13" Macbook Pro came out in the last (?) iteration.

Macbook moniker is reserved for the white model now.

[d000hg]

Yep they backtracked on the unibody for standard MacBooks. I'm pleased I got mine when I did, the aluminium body is probably the best thing about it.

Get one with decent graphics (nVidia) which is the easy way to tell good ones from cheap low-spec ones IIRC.