A MacBookDeal, Go for it?

Have the opportunity to pickup the last generation black macbook for $1199.99, is it worth it?

Specs

Black MacBook
2.0ghz
1gb RAM
120gbHDD
OS X Tiger

My only reservations is the intel 950 integrated graphics. Its a really dated graphics card, and with Apple touting Core Animation in Leopard how long will it hold up? I'm not much of a gamer, just need the laptop for music, movies, web use, and some schoolwork.

 

For $300 less, .16Ghz slower CPU, and a 40GB smaller HDD, I would definitely get it. You probably won't be seeing the new Intel X3100 graphics chip on the Macbooks any time soon since they just updated a week ago.

 

Can't you get a whitebook for the same price and faster processor?

 

Unless you absolutely have to have awesome graphics, GMA 950 should last for a while. There's plenty of PCs running older integrated graphics than GMA 950 out there running strong. Integrated graphics will never be enough to play the new games at full spec, but you shouldn't have much of a problem using most of the features in Leopard.

That being said, it looks like a steal to me. If you need more space then you can always upgrade or get an external. If you need more processing power, get a desktop

 

Yea space and processing power aren't an issue, got a 320gb external and thats the 7200 processor, with 4mb of L2 hehe.

The hardware value versus a PC is just so dismal... like 400 extra dollars for an OS.


EDIT to Bona_Fide :: Yes, but I do prefer the black ones.

 

But you're also paying for build quality and great customer support. You can compare and Apple product to something from HP or Dell. Compare to computers from the likes of Sony and Toshiba and you'll get a good comparison taking build quality into account.

 

But what of ASUS, who makes the chassis for the macbook?

Sony makes the keyboard.

 

I've heard generally bad things about asus laptops. Their motherboards and other electronics are great, but apparently their general quality isn't that great. Didn't know that they build the macbook chassis, maybe if they took some of the quality from it and implemented it themselves they may make some more money.

 

Where the hell did you hear bad things about Asus laptops? Ask around in the Asus forums mate.
They assemble the MacBooks, not just the chassis I believe.

As for value, its not really that bad. The cheapest you can get a Sony C (the PC equivalent to the MacBook) with identical specs is $1350, so its still $150 more expensive than this.

 

Asus makes the entire MacBook, Sony does not make the keyboard. And for a Blackbook that is a pretty good deal. If I were in the market I would jump on that.

 

I say go for it. Where did you get this deal?

 

Oh yea, and the Intel GMA950 isn't really a dated graphics card. It is just about the most common graphics solution on the market right now, the only thing is that it really sucks for gaming and rendering. It should be just fine for your uses.

 

Mac Resource, local store, not a Apple store. Also CompUSA is doing the same deal.