ADVICE: A 17 year old HS student trying to buy a refurbished MBP.

Hi my name is Mike Flores, and I'm a 11th grade High School student at San Bernardio, CA. Trough the past 7+ months i've been saving up to buy a new mac laptop. I own a 3/4 year old iBook G3 Clamshell with os 9 on it and AOL 5.O, and beleive me, it is slow!!!. It has 128MB of ram, I mean my ipod shuffle has more than that!
Anyway I was planning on getting a REFURBISHED MacBook Pro, the 1.83Ghz model for now $1549 not $1599 in the apple website. I've worked really really really hard for my money so I want pretty decent machine. I've herd that the first macbook pro have lots of problems like: battery last for about 10min, way too hot, lid not even when closed, and some parts of the screen brighter than others. I dont mind the hot temp, but the others kind of suck!
Well can anybody give me some advice about my future purchase? please!!
I've also herd that some refurbished macs aren't so bad, because sometimes they come with free upgrades like more ram, or harddrive upgrades.
Has anybody bought s refurbished MBP from the apple website that can give me some of their PROS and CONS.
I would really appreciate all your help.
Thanks.
Mike Flores.

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iBook G3 Clamshell 366Mhz x1 usb, x1firewire 400, Cd-ROM. AOL 5.0 (credit card is required!!!)

 

We are still on the "first macbook pro".

MBP metal cases conduct heat, thus why its so hot, apple likes to follow a passive form of heat release, if you don't mind the heat you should be fine with the MBP, I believe most people in general use their notebooks sitting on tables, I do.

Refurbished Macs are totally fine because its basically a system that either had something defective and was returned then repaired, or it was merely a system that was restocked from someone who didn't want it in the end.

I never have never heard of free upgrades as you said.

I hope you have considered the MacBook as well, its truely a great system (its what I have) the only area that i found that it gets hot is near the magsafe port underneath and the top by the keyboard. Everything else is imo considerably cool/kinda warm.

 

Mike,

First of all, you should probably never post all that personal information on a public forum like this.

The mac refurbs can be pretty good and the MBP refurbs are pretty good deals. I have a friend who buys all of his macs refurbed and he saves money. Also, his last MBP came with some sort of memory or HDD upgrade that he didn't order or pay for. I guess if the person who returned the product upgraded it, the apple techs may not remove the good stuff. If you have problems with the refurb'd product, just return it and try again.

 

Yeah your right i shouldn't have gave out so much info but whats done its done. thanks..
I also didnt mean to write "free upgrades", its kind of like it already comes with the machine, because some one else returned it with out taking there ram out..
And about the macbook, i think they are awsome machines but, the integrated graphics aren't for me. I wanted a machine with a DVI port so i can do dual screens, i think thats so awsome. I know you can do it with the mac book, but the macbook cant take games like doom 3. but thaks for your advice.
I was also concerned about the graphics card of the MBP , is it a decent card? I'm want to try to play some games on it like doom 3 or quake 4, do u think it can handle them pretty decently??
thanks.
Mike Flores.

 

Mike, you can edit your personal information out of your first post.

The MBP should be able to handle those games, just read the reviews here and then you can learn a lot of what it can do and what it can't do. Good luck finding the right system for you.

~Arman

 

Hey thanks!!i found a page with lots og game reviews!!
I'M MEXICAN AND SORRY MEXICO LOST, BUT GERMANY RULES!!!
Anyway, I've also herd that some refurbished products come with scratches and or other bad stuff, is that true???
Any help really appreciated.
thanks.
Mike.

 

haha, I am Iranian, and Mexico beat Iran
Back on topic, I bet "some" refurbished products might have scratches and such, but you have to know, your buying a 'used' item, but they probably won't have it, and if it does see if you could replace it and get a different one, call apple and talk to them, they are really helpful.
~Arman

 

They can have some scrapes/dings, but you should be ok. It is also fairly common to get the upgrades you were talking about. Also, the refurbs are good because they are tested on an individual basis, not 1 out of the line. If you get it be sure to save and buy AppleCare before your warranty is up! It will be invaluable if something breaks.

 

I don't have any legit advice [except I have a Macbook and it's pretty awesome], but I think it's funny that you said your iPod has more memory than your laptop.

 

The nice thing about Apple refurbed products is you get the full one year warranty unlike most PC notebooks. You can probably get a new PC with better specs for less money if you are inclined, but you'd obviously be stuck with Windows.

 

there are bunch of coupons and rebates out on new mackbooks, I don't know if they apply to mbps but you should give it a try, just tons and tons of good info on this website.

 

You can also get a new MBP 1.83 at macmall for $1649 after rebate.

 

I believe calling because of a scratch or something is considered cosmetic and Apple won't do anything about it, Apples warranty only covers hardware defects.