

Ask HN: A TL;DR Macbook Buying Guide? - bubbletech

If this is inappropriate, please delete.<p>---<p>Hello fellow HN-ers.<p>I am looking to purchase an Apple laptop and would like to call upon the hive-mind of Hacker News to save a bit of time (and possibly save the time of others in a similar situation).<p>I will be starting a 3 year CS degree later this year so I'll be looking for something to fill the following criteria:<p>-Document creation<p>-Web browsing<p>-Multimedia playback (Hi-def video/ music)<p>-Design (Photoshop/Illustrator)<p>-Java, C/C++, Obj-C, Ruby, Python<p>-iPhone /Android Dev<p>-Output for at least a single external monitor<p>-Enough graphics power to play the occasional game of Half Life 2 (at least)<p>The reason I'm looking at the Macbook is mainly for the iPhone development capabilities. An alternative would be to buy both a Mac Mini and a more powerful Windows laptop but I would rather have an all-in-one package and in terms of power, I doubt I would even need something much more powerful than a Macbook.<p>I'll be buying a used machine and I'll have a budget of around $1000.<p>This will be my main machine for both home and university.<p>Thanks!
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mechanical_fish
Given that budget, if I were you I'd surf to store.apple.com, find the
"Refurbished" section, buy the cheapest Macbook you can find and add the
Applecare warranty. Now you have a machine, good as new, which Apple promises
to fix for you for the next three years, and you're probably even within your
budget.

I love Macs, and my white Macbook is still chugging along after five years
(though I have passed it on to someone else), but I did have to replace a hard
drive and a battery and get the backlight looked at. Applecare paid for it
all.

I'd rather spend the whole $1k and get a machine with a warranty than spend
half that on a used machine that's going to have, say, the backlight crap out
halfway through my degree program. Laptops are not built to last, even Macs.
The market has spoken. It wants cheap, not reliable.

The other hint to remember, as always, is that RAM is cheaper from someone
else than it is from Apple. Lots cheaper.

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brandonkm
$1000 will definitely sort you out with macbook. Be sure you get the education
pricing when you buy it. I think you'll actually be able to get the macbook
for $900. Theres also the 'buy a mac, get a 8gb ipod touch' special happening
now, which is a pretty nice bonus for buying a mac around this time.

