Friend bought a used 2006 Macbook for $150. Bad idea?

[GoodEnough]

Or is it a good value? Basic needs for a student.

 

[Eug]

Specs? Probably a decent deal, with say 2 GHz Core Duo. Would be much faster with SSD, and should max out RAM at I believe 2 GB.

Should install 10.6.8 Snow Leopard. Note that 10.6.8's Safari is now out of date, so recommended are Chrome and Firefox.

1080p H.264 playback will be problematic, but 720p will work fine, which is OK since the screen is 1280x800 anyway.

 

[Eug]

Specs? Probably a decent deal, with say 2 GHz Core Duo. Would be much faster with SSD, and should max out RAM at I believe 2 GB.

Should install 10.6.8 Snow Leopard. Note that 10.6.8's Safari is now out of date, so recommended are Chrome and Firefox.

1080p H.264 playback will be problematic, but 720p will work fine, which is OK since the screen is 1280x800 anyway.

Weird. Double posted at the same time.

 

[KeithP]

Basic needs for a student.

What kind of student? Grade school, high school, college? Any specific software they have to use?

What are the exact specs of the machine...RAM, HD, processor? What kind of shape is the battery in? http://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201585

It might be good deal but it also might be a waste of money. Hard to tell without some details. For example, if it has 2GB of RAM, a newish 7200 RPM HD and a battery that is good shape it might be an okay deal. Such a configuration would be usable as is. All that would need to be done is wipe the drive and install a fresh copy of OS X. Maybe add an SSD for an upgrade but it wouldn't be absolutely necessary.

However, if it only has 1GB of RAM, an old, small 5400 RPM HD and a battery that is on its last legs, then I am not so sure. By the time your friend upgrades the RAM, gets better storage and replaces the battery the cost will have increased to the point where a Chromebook or low end Windows notebook might have been a better choice.

It really comes down to the specs on the Macbook and the users specific needs. It could go either way.

-KeithP

 

[GoodEnough]

They are not reinstalling or upgrading anything.
Pretend your grandmother bought this laptop.
In fact, an OS upgrade without a hardware upgrade is often counterproductive.

 

[Eug]

They are not reinstalling or upgrading anything.
Pretend your grandmother bought this laptop.
In fact, an OS upgrade without a hardware upgrade is often counterproductive.

You must run 10.6. Safari is no longer being updated for Macs that old, so you need a different browser, but both Chrome and Firefox require 10.6. However 10.6 doesnt really run well unless you have at least 2 GB RAM.

Again, what are its specs?

 

[Rakehellion]

Specs are important.

Install Mavericks on it.

 

[manly]

Specs are important.

Install Mavericks on it.

No 2006 Mac will run Mavericks (or Mountain Lion IIRC).

Without knowing how much RAM it has, I'll say $150 is not a good value. It's such an old machine now, about $100 is fair value.

Like Eug said, you really need 2 GB RAM; and Snow Leopard is the best OS for older Intel Macs. Even without an SSD, that will be "OK" for basic needs/K-12 students/grandma.

 

[KeithP]

They are not reinstalling or upgrading anything.
Pretend your grandmother bought this laptop.
In fact, an OS upgrade without a hardware upgrade is often counterproductive.

I can understand not wanting to spend money on any hardware upgrades. As far as the OS goes, I would never trust an OS install on a used machine. Who knows what the previous owner might have done.

If the seller is known and trusted I suppose that would be different but I would still wipe it and reinstall if it were me.

If my Grandmother bought the laptop, I would tell her not to use it until the drive was wiped and the OS reinstalled from a trusted source.

-KeithP

 

[GoodEnough]

Grandma does not know how to upgrade hardware or OS, like 95% of the general population.
The user won't know how to update the OS even if they wanted to.

I will have them check how much RAM and advise to upgrade to 2GB.
Can you add a RAM stick on a Macbook as easily as you can on a Win laptop?
Or is it sealed, like most Apple products?

 

[Eug]

Not sealed but a little bit more of a hassle, but overall not hard.

http://support.apple.com/en-us/HT1651

OS upgrade is not that hard either. Can be done as an upgrade by an end user. Costs $20 though for the disc.

http://store.apple.com/us/product/MC...6-snow-leopard

 

[vailr]

Some 2006 MacBooks came with only 512 Mb memory, running OSX Tiger 10.4. Snow Leopard 10.6 won't install unless there's at least 1 Gb of memory; 2x 1 Gb is the maximum installable. Buying "used" off of eBay would probably be a lower cost source of a memory upgrade for that machine, compared with "brand new".
Note: an SSD replacement for the (probably: 60 Gb?) hard drive would make for a more enjoyable user experience.

 

[mmntech]

For basic school work at that price point, I'd probably pick up a Chromebook instead. There's even some inexpensive Windows 8.1 laptops for around $200. They won't blow your mind but at least they're supported by current software.

 

[GoodEnough]

I am assuming the user base was "delighted" when it first came out, so why would it be any different today? If it was good enough in 2006, with no SSD or RAM upgrade, I assume it should still be good today.

Hardware doesn't get slower, only software does. Do Macbooks allow a factory reset?

 

[KeithP]

Here is Apple's spec page for the 2006 Macbook
http://support.apple.com/kb/SP23

From that page, that machine came with Tiger, OS X 10.4.x. Newer 3rd party software will most likely not be supported. If the software they need is already on the machine and they won't be using it on the internet, then they would probably be okay.

The problem is internet access. Web pages using more recent tech and potential security issues could be problems for any browser compatible with 10.4.

From what I can see Snow Leopard 10.6.8 and Lion 10.7.5 are supported on that hardware. Is it possible the previous owner has already upgraded the machine to one of those?

On the Mac, under the "Apple" menu in the top left corner, there is a menu option "About this Mac". They should be able to get the details on the hardware and software from there.

-KeithP

 

[Eug]

I am assuming the user base was "delighted" when it first came out, so why would it be any different today? If it was good enough in 2006, with no SSD or RAM upgrade, I assume it should still be good today.

Hardware doesn't get slower, only software does. Do Macbooks allow a factory reset?

10.4 with 512 MB RAM is basically unusable today. Even just surfing will be a major problem, as web pages have become a lot more complicated, and browser technology has changed a lot since 8 years ago. To use a 10.4 machine with that piddly amount of RAM will mean it will be uber slow, pages won't render right, and YouTube won't play properly.

Heck, even using Safari in 10.6 is problem with stuff like YouTube and what not. That's why recent versions of Chrome and Firefox are needed, and those require 10.6, which in turn requires 1 GB RAM minimum and which functions way, way better with 2 GB RAM.

 

[GoodEnough]

That's a good point about web being very different today with AJAX, etc.

When they get it, I will find out specs.

 

[vailr]

From what I can see Snow Leopard 10.6.8 and Lion 10.7.5 are supported on that hardware.

Starting with version 10.7, OSX requires a 64 bit CPU, while the machine in question (first year edition of an Intel CPU Mac) contains only a 32 bit CPU.

 

[KeithP]

Starting with version 10.7, OSX requires a 64 bit CPU, while the machine in question (first year edition of an Intel CPU Mac) contains only a 32 bit CPU.

When I searched for 2006 MacBook I found this Apple page http://support.apple.com/kb/SP23 and those specs indicate all models had a Core 2 Duo CPU.

On this page http://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202328 it lists the system requirements for 10.7 and it says "An Intel Core 2 Duo, Core i3, Core i5, Core i7, or Xeon processor" among other requirements.

However now, digging further into it, I am seeing Core Duo MacBooks were released earlier in 2006, didn't see an Apple page for them, this is the best I could do http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/macbook/index-macbook.html

I guess it depends which 2006 MacBook we are talking about, MacBook 1,1 with Core Duo CPU (early) or MacBook 2,1 with Core 2 Duo (late).

-KeithP

 

[Eug]

By the way, come to think of it, 10.4 never ran well with 512 MB RAM.

 

[manly]

KeithP is correct that the late 2006 MacBook can run Lion, although the benefits over Snow Leopard are limited. Personally I found SL to be a more stable and leaner OS. But Lion had security updates through this year, and slightly better app compatibility (i.e. Java 7).

By the way, come to think of it, 10.4 never ran well with 512 MB RAM.

Apple for years was notorious at shipping tiny slices of RAM in entry-level Macs, mainly iBooks and MacBooks. That strategy worked so well it's still applied to iPhones to this day.

 

[Eug]

KeithP is correct that the late 2006 MacBook can run Lion, although the benefits over Snow Leopard are limited. Personally I found SL to be a more stable and leaner OS. But Lion had security updates through this year, and slightly better app compatibility (i.e. Java 7).

The early 2006 MacBook can't run Lion though. BTW, Lion is required for the latest version of iTunes too.

 

[ViRGE]

By the way, come to think of it, 10.4 never ran well with 512 MB RAM.

It really didn't. Mac OS X didn't sing until 1GB of RAM as far back as 10.3.

 

[TheStu]

It really didn't. Mac OS X didn't sing until 1GB of RAM as far back as 10.3.

When I had my '06 OG MacBook, I was pretty impressed with all that it could do with the 512MB RAM that it shipped with, but yea, 1GB really opened that thing up.

 

[slashbinslashbash]

I still have my '06 MacBook 1,1 with the Core Duo. I would say that $150 is a fair deal for it. Memory is pretty easy to upgrade; remove the battery, unscrew 3 screws around the edge of the battery compartment, you will see the edges of the SODIMMs. A 128GB or 256GB SSD would make the thing really fly.

As others have said, it will have trouble with some aspects of browsing, but almost everything else should be fine. Apps of that vintage (MS Office, Photoshop, etc.) will run great. As long as the person has a tablet/smartphone for YouTube, they should be fine.