I want to buy a used Mac, how much should I expect to pay?

[EQTitan]

I've always been a PC user, the only Apple I have ever interacted with was a AppleIIe Wayyyyyyyyy back in the day.

I work for a cable company and have seen a few Apples I have found rather impressive. I'm looking to either buy outright, or to trade my laptop and my gaming rig for an Apple laptop...

So, what kind of laptop should I expect in the $400 - $1000 range?

 

[DainBramaged]

tree fiddy

 

[dbk]

Originally posted by: EQTitan
I've always been a PC user, the only Apple I have ever interacted with was a AppleIIe Wayyyyyyyyy back in the day.

I work for a cable company and have seen a few Apples I have found rather impressive. I'm looking to either buy outright, or to trade my laptop and my gaming rig for an Apple laptop...

So, what kind of laptop should I expect in the $400 - $1000 range?

Apple Refurbs

 

[tfinch2]

Originally posted by: EQTitan
I've always been a PC user, the only Apple I have ever interacted with was a AppleIIe Wayyyyyyyyy back in the day.

I work for a cable company and have seen a few Apples I have found rather impressive. I'm looking to either buy outright, or to trade my laptop and my gaming rig for an Apple laptop...

So, what kind of laptop should I expect in the $400 - $1000 range?

WTF kind of price range is that?

 

[EQTitan]

Thats with either what I have in hand now $400 or after selling my PC's or trading them.....

 

[Pepsi90919]

$7

 

[BrianH1]

amazon.com always has a good deal with a rebate, and you pay no tax, and no shipping. cant go wrong there.

 

[RossMAN]

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.aspx?catid=40&threadid=1981341

 

[dartworth]

Refurbished Mac mini 1.66GHz Intel Core Duo
512MB memory (667MHz DDR2 SDRAM)
80GB Serial ATA hard drive
Double-layer SuperDrive (DVD+R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
Built-in AirPort Extreme and Bluetooth 2.0
Apple Remote

Your price: $649.00

Estimated Ship:
Within 24 hours
Free Shipping

 

[Philippine Mango]

Originally posted by: dartworth
Refurbished Mac mini 1.66GHz Intel Core Duo
512MB memory (667MHz DDR2 SDRAM)
80GB Serial ATA hard drive
Double-layer SuperDrive (DVD+R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
Built-in AirPort Extreme and Bluetooth 2.0
Apple Remote

Your price: $649.00

Estimated Ship:
Within 24 hours
Free Shipping

thats not a laptop.

Oh and BTW OP. I suggest you just buy an apple computer and play around with it before you dive in and sell all of your things as thats a pretty risky proposition and you may regret it considering that you're losing a great deal of money on the parts you spent on that gaming rig and on that laptop.

You can pickup a used apple off ebay and then load OSX on it, then play around with it and see if you like it, if you do then go ahead, sell your machines and buy a newer one. I have to warn you though, apple computers tend to be very pricey...

 

[loic2003]

Originally posted by: Philippine Mango

Originally posted by: dartworth
Refurbished Mac mini 1.66GHz Intel Core Duo
512MB memory (667MHz DDR2 SDRAM)
80GB Serial ATA hard drive
Double-layer SuperDrive (DVD+R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
Built-in AirPort Extreme and Bluetooth 2.0
Apple Remote

Your price: $649.00

Estimated Ship:
Within 24 hours
Free Shipping

thats not a laptop.

Oh and BTW OP. I suggest you just buy an apple computer and play around with it before you dive in and sell all of your things as thats a pretty risky proposition and you may regret it considering that you're losing a great deal of money on the parts you spent on that gaming rig and on that laptop.

You can pickup a used apple off ebay and then load OSX on it, then play around with it and see if you like it, if you do then go ahead, sell your machines and buy a newer one. I have to warn you though, apple computers tend to be very pricey...

Actually, if you price them compared to a similarly specced windows PC they're really not that different. Coupled with that the bundled software & OS and it works out quite favourably. It's the old tale of you get what you pay for, and you get more with an apple.
Apples also hold their value quite well in the second hand market, which is a bonus.

But yeah, use one for a while beofre making the leap. Also know that you're not going to be gaming unless you get one of the latest models and dual boot it with Windows.

 

[ViRGE]

To be perfectly honest, there's no such thing as a good, cheap, used Mac; you can only pick 2. Macs are notorious for keeping their value even long after they're out of production, they don't depreciate in value until they're much, much older. A laptop in the lower part of your price range is going to be an ancient machine with a G3 or G4 processor, which is not something you want to have now that Apple has completely moved over to Intel(Apple will continue to support PowerPC, but 3rd parties will drop off quickly). If you want a Mac, you need to go new or refurbished, straight-up used is a trap.

 

[iamwiz82]

Check out the Apple refurb section. They usually have some pretty good deals.

 

[HomerSapien]

Im still using a 5.5 year old tibook. I have looked at selling it, but it still runs osx decent, although it lacks in video playback. Anyways, I hate to recommend the auction sites due to so much fraud, but check out Ebay and you can get an idea on what to expect for the price range. Mine still fetches $150-$200. Depending on where you are, Craigslist might be an option too.

I would recommend buying a macbook and parallels for the option to run your windows software that you already have. It is just above your price range, but they have more power to them and the software is heading towards that direction.

 

[homestarmy]

Originally posted by: Philippine Mango

Originally posted by: dartworth
Refurbished Mac mini 1.66GHz Intel Core Duo
512MB memory (667MHz DDR2 SDRAM)
80GB Serial ATA hard drive
Double-layer SuperDrive (DVD+R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
Built-in AirPort Extreme and Bluetooth 2.0
Apple Remote

Your price: $649.00

Estimated Ship:
Within 24 hours
Free Shipping

thats not a laptop.

Oh and BTW OP. I suggest you just buy an apple computer and play around with it before you dive in and sell all of your things as thats a pretty risky proposition and you may regret it considering that you're losing a great deal of money on the parts you spent on that gaming rig and on that laptop.

You can pickup a used apple off ebay and then load OSX on it, then play around with it and see if you like it, if you do then go ahead, sell your machines and buy a newer one. I have to warn you though, apple computers tend to be very pricey...

But it could fit on your lap.

tree fiddy

 

[FoBoT]

you should be able to get a nice used apple laptop for $350

 

[tweakmm]

Originally posted by: ViRGE
To be perfectly honest, there's no such thing as a good, cheap, used Mac; you can only pick 2. Macs are notorious for keeping their value even long after they're out of production, they don't depreciate in value until they're much, much older. A laptop in the lower part of your price range is going to be an ancient machine with a G3 or G4 processor, which is not something you want to have now that Apple has completely moved over to Intel(Apple will continue to support PowerPC, but 3rd parties will drop off quickly). If you want a Mac, you need to go new or refurbished, straight-up used is a trap.

I picked up a used dual G4 tower for around 500 last month. Plenty fast for dev work, which is all I'll be using it for.
Most programs that are going to be made in the far foreseeable future will be universal binary(meaning both PPC support and x86 support).
It's going be a long long time till you need an intel processor to run a mac application.

 

[Injury]

Originally posted by: loic2003Actually, if you price them compared to a similarly specced windows PC they're really not that different. Coupled with that the bundled software & OS and it works out quite favourably. It's the old tale of you get what you pay for, and you get more with an apple.
Apples also hold their value quite well in the second hand market, which is a bonus.

But yeah, use one for a while beofre making the leap. Also know that you're not going to be gaming unless you get one of the latest models and dual boot it with Windows.

Not quite true.

As a cross-platform user, I can say that if you haven't used a mac and you aren't good enough with computers to figure it out if something goes wrong, don't waste the money.

It's definately a try before you buy situation.

There are so many tiny little differences that I don't like about OSX... the people at apple are so hell bent on having you do things THEIR way that true customization isn't really an option.

I'm not trying to talk you out of going apple, but I will try and talk you out of all out converting without knowing too much about apple.

The REAL question is, what do you do on a regular basis that you seem to think you need an apple system for? Your basic, everyday, solitaire playing, web browsing, user does NOT need or want a mac. Don't be fooled by the look.

 

[EQTitan]

Here's the rundown of my almost daily activities on my current 2 pc's Desktop is gaming, office 2007 (mostly excel, word) Some video editing depending on the job, Web design/graphics, freelance photography.

Laptop mainly used for browsing and doing my work on the road....

 

[chrisms]

I was the exact same way as you (worked for cable company, ran into Apple, was intrigued when buying a new laptop) until I decided on a Compaq. I would do as others suggested, just get some really cheap Apple desktop to play around with before selling all of your stuff. You could probably find an older one for under $50.

I say this because they do tend to be overpriced so you'd better really like Apple to choose one.

 

[iamwiz82]

Originally posted by: chrisms
I was the exact same way as you (worked for cable company, ran into Apple, was intrigued when buying a new laptop) until I decided on a Compaq. I would do as others suggested, just get some really cheap Apple desktop to play around with before selling all of your stuff. You could probably find an older one for under $50.

I say this because they do tend to be overpriced so you'd better really like Apple to choose one.

There are very few laptops that come with the same build as a Macbook for significantly less. I will admit that i ended up getting rid of my Macbook for a Dell, but the Macbook was built better in every way.

 

[Shawn]

Macs are overpriced, even used. I bought a Blue and White G3 400MHz for $120.