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    hmmm macbook envy stirring

    Discussion in 'Apple and Mac OS X' started by want_an_apple, Oct 25, 2010.

  1. want_an_apple

    want_an_apple Notebook Enthusiast

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    Hello, i am looking for a macbook and im 13 years old. well as you can imagine i do not have a lot of money and well i have come to love the mac osx operating system from our desktop iMac. so i was wondering if getting an older macbook and upgrading its ram and hard drive to something more reasonable so if you think this is a good idea please chime in. Thanks :)
     
    want_an_apple, Oct 25, 2010
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  2. Nick

    Nick Professor Carnista

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    Buying cheap(i.e. Craigslsit or eBay) and upgrading later is a great idea. Do you need one with the Nvidia graphics or will Intel do? You can find a decent whitebook on eBay for $500. What's your budget?
     
    Nick, Oct 25, 2010
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  3. RogueMonk

    RogueMonk Notebook Deity

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    How much money do you have? What do you plan to do with it?
     
    RogueMonk, Oct 25, 2010
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  4. want_an_apple

    want_an_apple Notebook Enthusiast

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    well my budget would be 500-600 i could go to 700 but i would like to keep on the 600 because i have seen older white macbooks with 2gb of ram for 600 on amazon (i love that site) so if its a good idea then that would be awesome so would snow leopard be able to function on an older macbook, Iknow it will need more hard drive space so just tell me how much) here is the specs to the one im looking at: Apple MacBook - Core 2 Duo 2.16 GHz - RAM 1 GB - HDD 120 GB - DVD?RW (+R DL) - GMA 950 - Gigabit Ethernet - WLAN : Bluetooth 2.0 EDR, 802.11 a/b/g/n (draft) - MacOS X 10.4 - 13.3" Widescreen TFT 1280 x 800 ( WXGA ) - camera - white
    so just tell me what needs upgraded and i will do it (by the way the one ive seen already has 2gb of ram)
     
    want_an_apple, Oct 25, 2010
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  5. want_an_apple

    want_an_apple Notebook Enthusiast

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    i plan to use it for watching hulu and youtube videos and for browsing the web. i also may download something like neo office for word processing so i can do research papers on it.
     
    want_an_apple, Oct 25, 2010
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  6. RogueMonk

    RogueMonk Notebook Deity

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    I'd wait until you have enough for a newer one.

    The older ones can choke on HD video.
     
    RogueMonk, Oct 25, 2010
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  7. Nick

    Nick Professor Carnista

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    I have a Macbook 13: 2.1GHz, 2GB, 10.6, Intel GMA X3100 and I'm watching 720p(Youtube) video perfectly.
     
    Nick, Oct 25, 2010
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  8. cdcohen

    cdcohen Notebook Consultant

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    You could go for the first generation MacBook 13" unibody before they were branded MacBook Pro. I sold a 2.0GHz last week for 700.
     
    cdcohen, Oct 25, 2010
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  9. Nick

    Nick Professor Carnista

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    Nick, Oct 25, 2010
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  10. cdcohen

    cdcohen Notebook Consultant

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    BAM.

    Also, kudos to you guys. Working for anything you buy will only make you appreciate it more. I work in a IT department at a college and kids come in with broken macs/pcs all the time because they didn't understand how expensive they are therefore they just didn't appreciate them enough to handle them properly. Plus they forgot the square trade accidental coverage o_O. A must on a Apple laptop at college.

    Edit: Had to add this. A girl came in today and she asked me if I could fix her MBP13. Turns out tomato soup had something to do with it... :O
     
    cdcohen, Oct 25, 2010
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  11. want_an_apple

    want_an_apple Notebook Enthusiast

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    lol ya thanks for that link i will certainly look in to getting that :D
     
    want_an_apple, Oct 26, 2010
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  12. sander1991

    sander1991 Notebook Consultant

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    I'd have to admit that, that surprises me.. I've got the 2.2GHz version of that machine and it's got trouble watching 720p without kicking on the fans and lagging? Maybe my unit is just weird?

    Try and give the Apple Store a look, under the Refurbished page - they usually have some great deals going on there :)

    I hope you make it happen :)
     
    sander1991, Oct 27, 2010
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  13. want_an_apple

    want_an_apple Notebook Enthusiast

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    ok well unfortunately i wasnt able to get the one on the link you gave me but i may be able to get this one Apple Macbook 2 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo - eBay (item 260680990672 end time Oct-27-10 19:11:11 PDT) (sorry about the length) but anyways if i did get this what types of ram chips would i get and i would of course add a better hard drive so could someone give me a link to a hard drive with about 250 gb for this laptop and ram chips that i could put in for about 2 or 4gb of ram
     
    want_an_apple, Oct 27, 2010
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  14. Nick

    Nick Professor Carnista

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    I just bought a Samsung SpinPoint HM320HJ 320GB 7200rpm from Newegg for $55. Here's my review of it vs standard Apple drive: http://forum.notebookreview.com/har...-vs-hitachi-5k500-benckmarks.html#post6835011

    As for ram, basically just go to Newegg and get the cheapest PC6400 4GB(2X2GB) kit you can.

    Personally, I would wait for another cheap Unibody Macbook with the Nvidia 9400m.
     
    Nick, Oct 27, 2010
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  15. want_an_apple

    want_an_apple Notebook Enthusiast

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    yeah i probably should when do you think a new one would come out? i heard may is for the Macbook Pro but those are usually expensive.
     
    want_an_apple, Oct 28, 2010
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