First Mac, is this a good buy?

I have a friend asking $750 for a 13.3" MacBook purchased in July '06, it is in awesome condition, she took great care of it. Just wondering if I should jump on it (she claims its a steal) or if it's simply competitive (i.e. if I poked around ebay and/or craigslist I would get a similar deal). I don't intend to strong arm her, just want to be an educated consumer. Thanks in advance!

2.0GHz MacBook
White
2.0GHz Intel Core Duo
2MB shared
667MHz
2GB Ram Paired
Hard drive (1): 100GB Serial ATA; 5400-rpm
SuperDrive (DVD±RW/CD-RW)
Intel GMA 950 graphics processor with 64MB of DDR2 SDRAM shared with main
Built-in iSight camera; mini-DVI output port with support for DVI, VGA, S-video, and composite video
13.3-inch (diagonal) glossy TFT widescreen display, 1280 by 800
Built-in stereo speakers, built-in omnidirectional microphone,
Built-in 10/100/1000BASE-T
AirPort Extreme wireless networking (802.11g standard)
Hardware accessories: Apple Remote, MagSafe Power Adapter, AC wall plug, power cord, lithium-polymer battery

 

I don't want to be mean, but I'd say she's selling it rather high priced. That MacBook is a Core Duo machine, and the Core 2 Duos on the new Santa Rosa platform do have some good improvements over the Core Duo.

You can find some Core 2 Duo MacBooks refurbished (very good condition) for only around $800...so yeah .

Also, if you want Mac OS X Leopard and iLife '08 on the MacBook, you would need to purchase that separately for that MacBook, but if you got a new MacBook, it already has both pre-installed.

 

I'm with Sam. Not to be mean but that's waaay to expensive. I think that's at least a couple of generations old. The core2duo followed this one, then there was the santa rosas, then the 2.16 and now you get leopard pre installed. I say you're better off waiting for the next update which should drop these prices even more. If the rumours of the 12" MBP is true, you will find macbooks all over ebay.

 

If I remember correctly, there were lots of problems with those MacBooks. Like others have said, you can get a newer refurbished one for not much more money.

 

Wow guys, thanks for the superfast responses. This was exactly what I wanted to know

 

$650-$700 seems more reasonable.

 

You can get this one for $899 as an Apple Refurbished model:

White Macbook
2.0Ghz Core 2 Duo (4MB Cache)
1GB Ram
Combo Drive
Intel GMA 950 graphics processor with 64MB of DDR2 SDRAM shared with main
and it has a Wireless-N card instead of a G
and not to mention has Leopard installed on it


I'd rather get that one

 

Not to mention the possibility of updated macbook's or a micro macbook next month. If your not in a rush I would consider holding out till then, its possible that there will be more refurbished units, and or more on ebay etc from people upgrading. Either way you should get a better mb at a cheaper price.
a

 

yea i would say $700 or less and call it even.

 

I do mean to mean, so I will tell you that's a total rip. ^_^

On a totally unrelated note, I just noticed the word "mean" has a million different and contradictory "meanings". <- I wonder what this smiley means...

 

Umm, I think you guys are overlooking a few things. For example, the $899 refurbished Macbook listed by chipper, although has a more superior CPU and newer software, is inferior to the $750 Macbook hardware wise in every other way.
It only has 1GB RAM and most likely just a 80GB HD, but what will make the most difference would be the DVD drive.

So, you would be paying $150 more for half the RAM, 20% less HD space, and no DVD re/writing capabilities, and in return get a CPU which is around 15-20% quicker (on benchmarks tests, speed differences on non-intensive tasks is probably unnoticeable) and some newer software.

I wouldn't say the $750 Macbook is a steal, but Macs do indeed depreciate rather slowly with time when compared to other notebooks, and that price seems about right as to what a Macbook with that spec would fetch on eBay today.

 

Well, its worth noting that if he wanted iLife '08 and Mac OS X Leopard (both not included on that MacBook, and its way too late to qualify for any low price upgrades), that would cost him around $200 to get ($130 for Leopard, $80 for iLife '08) if he didn't qualify for any Student Discount.