I need an Apple owner's opinion!

[VigCS]

Hi all. I recently got a nice tax refund. I'm a college student in need of a laptop. I have a gaming desktop so games aren't my concern.

Basically, I have two opportunities.

1) My friend who works at bestbuy can get me an open box 2.0 GHz conroe macbook with 1 gig of ram for $850 after taxes.

2) I can get a 2.16 GHz Penryn macbook for $1050 after taxes. Same specs, just a penryn instead of a conroe.

(Either option, I'm going to replace the 512x2 with 2gb x2...really cheap on newegg)

What do you all think I should do? I really haven't the slightest. The open box is semi-used as it was a display model. Thanks for any opinions!

 

[AliensAreFuzzy]

Personally I wouldn't want a display model. Who knows what those strange Best Buy customers did to it. Plus you can get the same thing from the Apple Refurb store for the same price.

 

[KingYaba]

What do you all think I should do?

I would purchase direct from Apple.

 

[iMpathetic]

Personally I wouldn't want a display model. Who knows what those strange Best Buy customers did to it. Plus you can get the same thing from the Apple Refurb store for the same price.

I would go for the Conroe. Penryn has almost no speed increase over it.

Plus, $200 in your pocket for a decent LCD to hook it up to!

(You could return it if the customers screwed it up.)

 

[Cave Man]

Well, with the Penryn you'd get 802.11n (vs. g), 128 mb vRAM (vs. 64), 4 gig RAM max (vs. 2 gig) and 64-bit addressing. If you can afford the new one, that's what I'd get.

 

[Phear]

Penryn

i will be better to get the macbook with penryn
Reasons,

extended battery life (penryn 45nm archutecture sips less power than conroe's)

Notable speed difference (even the cpu frequency vary by .16 GHZ there is a major speed difference, since the penryn core archiutecture has more cache by 4 mb i believe and shorter pipeline, And its 45nm)

also if u are looking down the road for a cpu upgrade there is a chance that the cpu will be incompatible with ur conroe chipset since conroe has a 667 FSB penryn has a FASTER 800 FSB

 

[dborja]

Personally I wouldn't want a display model. Who knows what those strange Best Buy customers did to it. Plus you can get the same thing from the Apple Refurb store for the same price.

+1

I did buy exactly the same from Apple refurb store; though it was $850 before taxes. The extra $60+ in taxes was worth the peace of mind that the machine is good as new with full warranty, etc...

 

[Yoda3984]

The extra $60+ in taxes was worth the peace of mind that the machine is good as new with full warranty, etc...

Agreed. My refurbished MacBook may as well have been labeled new, because I couldn't tell otherwise (with the exception of the box it came in). And I haven't had a single problem with it. I've never been too keen on display models since you're never quite sure what has happened to them in the store.

 

[lost eden]

lso if u are looking down the road for a cpu upgrade there is a chance that the cpu will be incompatible with ur conroe chipset since conroe has a 667 FSB penryn has a FASTER 800 FSB

You can't upgrade the CPU in a MacBook anyway, the chip is soldered to the board.

 

[jay1097]

I think that he means it's a 2.0 SR MB.
And its merom not Conroe. Conroe is the desktop version of merom.

Also never buy an open box laptop from best buy, they are usually scratched and could have some problems (sometimes even dropped ). Buying open box at best buy is one of the worst deals. They give you 10-20% off for a used and abused product.

Honestly the price difference is very small i would go with the new one, or like the others said get an apple referb or maybe try craigslist, both are much better bets than best buy.

 

[Cave Man]

I think that he means it's a 2.0 SR MB.

The OP is not clear. Is this a 2 gHz Core Duo MacBook, or a 2 gHz Core 2 Duo MacBook? Core Duo for laptops was on the Calistoga chipset, not SR. It is firmware-limited to 2 gigs RAM tops (thanks, Apple!) and takes Yonah (CS, CD) and even-numbered Meroms (C2D) because of socket M. Santa Rosa takes the odd-numbered Meroms and Penryns because of socket P. This is why Intel made two different 2 gHz processors for socket M (T2500 CD Yonah, T7200 C2D Merom) and socket P (T7300 C2D Merom).

If OP has chance at a T7200-based MacBook, then that is a nice price. But if it's a T2500, I would take the new Penryn.

 

[Cyroceon]

No questions asked, I would buy from the Apple Store refurb.

 

[KompleX]

2) I can get a 2.16 GHz Penryn macbook for $1050 after taxes. Same specs, just a penryn instead of a conroe.

don't even bother with this option since there are no penryn macbooks running at 2.16ghz. not according to my knowledge and apple's website at least.

 

[kuwisdelu]

Neither of your descriptions can be right. 1) MacBooks never had a Conroe processor. You must be thinking of Merom. 2) No Penryn has 2.16Ghz processor. Go back and ask your friend what these laptop's real specs are, and what's really in them. I'd go with what the people here are saying and do not get a display model if at all possible.

Check out the Apple refurb store. In many ways, they can be even better than buying new, because before being sold they have to be tested and made sure to work right and well.

 

[ricpac]

What's "Conroe?" Is that better than the SR? I know the Penryns are the latest ones out in the market right now.

 

[nick9191]

Santa Rosa- Chipset
Penryn- Processor
Merom- Processor
Montevina- Chipset.

The current macbooks are Penryn processors on a Santa Rosa chipset. The older ones were merom processors on a santa rosa chipset. The ones before that were meroms on a napa (I'm guessing) chipset. The future ones will be Penryn processors on a montevina chipset.

Conroe is a desktop Core 2 Duo and is not used in notebooks.

Just to clarify.

 

[ricpac]

Santa Rosa- Chipset
Penryn- Processor
Merom- Processor
Montevina- Chipset.

The current macbooks are Penryn processors on a Santa Rosa chipset. The older ones were merom processors on a santa rosa chipset. The ones before that were meroms on a napa (I'm guessing) chipset. The future ones will be Penryn processors on a montevina chipset.

Conroe is a desktop Core 2 Duo.

Just to clarify.

Thanks man! I'm still trying to be hardcore with these things.

 

[nick9191]

Get a new baseline macbook with student discount off the Apple store, you'll feel much better

 

[Cave Man]

The ones before that were meroms on a napa (I'm guessing) chipset.

Napa is the platform; Calistoga was one of the chipsets used with Napa platform, including early Yonah-based MacBooks and Minis.

 

[SFStateStudent]

BB Open Box MB 2.16GHz 120GB for something that cost $850.00 aft taxes...

v. Apple Store Brand New MB 2.1GHz 120GB $999.00 plus tax (student discount). No "BRAINER" at least for me. BestBuy has a difficult return policy, especially on items that they no longer carry in stock or fall into the "open box" policy. MB 2.16 120GB is pretty much only available as a refurb or demo model and I would go with the refurb, since the warranty and return policy is the same as the sale of a brand new MB. Apple Refunds are immediate on the MB, minus the 15% restocking fee v. BestBuy which is the same form as the original purchase; except items over $250 will be refunded in the form of a check by mail within 10 business days, which sometimes works out to about 2 & 1/2 weeks. Also, it sounds like you'll probably be getting the Tiger OS v. Leopard OS, so you might look into that particular issue. Also, check on the "items" that are missing in the open box purchase! It should come with the MagSafe Charger, Cord, Remote, iWorks '06/'08, and the install disks. 9 times out of 10, you will be happier shopping at your local Apple Store and taking advantage of your "student discount."

 

[Phear]

macbook pro soldered

You can't upgrade the CPU in a MacBook anyway, the chip is soldered to the board.

last time i checked the macbook has a ZIF socket the macbook pro has it soldered

_________________________________________________________________
10.6 lion not supporting PPC this is blasfomy

 

[Phear]

ooops big mistake wrong type of macbook
_____________________________________________________
newton does anything!

 

[VigCS]

Wow, thanks for all the responses guys. I wound up getting the slightly upgraded macbook (2.4 Ghz, 2 gigs ram, 160 gig, superdrive) for $1270 after taxes. I'm posting from it now .

I have a question though, do these usually idle at ~45-50C? Seems a bit warm. Any good fan controllers ya'll could suggest? Thanks a lot.

 

[iHerzeleid]

ooops big mistake wrong type of macbook
_____________________________________________________
newton does anything!

all macbooks are soldered with their cpus

 

[VigCS]

Never mind, found SMC controller and made a few profiles for it.