# Buying a Mac **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 8, 2009, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buying-a-mac/488691 "2009-03-08T00:39:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2009, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buying-a-mac/488691/1 "2009-03-08T00:39:24Z")
My dinosaur of a PC is being brought to its knees by all the stuff I’ve loaded onto it, so it’s time to up and buy something new. I want to get a Mac, though, and was wondering about a few things: 1. Refurbished. Seems like a good deal. Any thoughts? I will get the extended warranty. 2. MacBook vs MacBook Pro. I don’t play computer games, but I do use some pretty graphics intensive programs for doing brochures, architectural drawings and such. I’m leaning towards Pro, but not sure if it’s really necessary. 3. I don’t care about getting 10 - 20% more processor speed for $$$, and would rather spend it on some extra RAM. I was thinking 2.4 GHz (or thereabouts) on the processor and 4M of RAM. Not sure I can get a refurbished Pro w/ 4M, so is it easy to add that myself later? I’ve done plenty of circuit board work back in the day, and I’m not afraid of opening up the computer. Thanks in advance for the help. ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2009, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buying-a-mac/488691/2 "2009-03-08T00:55:02Z")
Refurbs are a great deal - and they have full Apple warranty. I have a 2 year old MacBook, and I find it plenty fast for Photoshop and Illustrator. The big advantage to the Pros is their larger screens. If you can deal with a 13" screen (or you are going to use an external monitor), than the MacBook is an awesome machine. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2009, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buying-a-mac/488691/3 "2009-03-08T01:00:20Z")
:smack: That should have been “G”, not “M” for the RAM. ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2009, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buying-a-mac/488691/4 "2009-03-08T01:07:20Z")
It’s trivial to upgrade RAM in all the new MacBooks. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2009, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buying-a-mac/488691/5 "2009-03-08T01:15:02Z")
What does 2G sell for these days? Would I be able to add 2G, or do I have to replace the existing memory with 4G? From [this site](http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1651) it looks like the latter. So I guess I have to buy 4G, right? ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2009, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buying-a-mac/488691/6 "2009-03-08T02:07:03Z")
I would wait until you get your machine to buy the memory. Apple has been known to change their memory configurations - 2 x 1’s vs 1 x 2’s. Either way, it should cost less than $75 - I use [memorytogo.com](http://memorytogo.com) ---
**Author:** ![panamajack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/47e85d/32.png) [@panamajack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panamajack)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2009, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buying-a-mac/488691/7 "2009-03-08T03:43:47Z")
I’d check out [Low End Mac](http://www.lowendmac.com/) for a good overview and comparison of models, as well as links to some good deals on used/refurb/clearance items. The MacBook, especially the latest model (unibody) is a great machine for the price. Probably better than an older MBP unless, as said, you want the larger screen (or Firewire). If you get the Macbook, get as much memory as you can for it since the graphics chip uses system memory. I picked up 4G of memory for my 2-year-old MBP last month for $45. Memory prices for that size and speed are hitting their lowest price point. Most likely you’d be replacing both modules, though several machines max at 3/6 GB. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2009, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buying-a-mac/488691/8 "2009-03-08T14:06:49Z")
Thanks guys. Very helpful. The good part about this is that I’ll be financing the purchase courtesy of Uncle Sam’s new tax law that finally refunds my AMT tax credits that he’s been holding for almost 10 years now. Let’s stimulate that economy, baby! ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2009, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buying-a-mac/488691/9 "2009-03-08T20:26:42Z")
> [@beowulff](#): > > Refurbs are a great deal - and they have full Apple warranty. > I have a 2 year old MacBook, and I find it plenty fast for Photoshop and Illustrator. The big advantage to the Pros is their larger screens. If you can deal with a 13" screen (or you are going to use an external monitor), than the MacBook is an awesome machine. How about a MacBook for lugging around, with a larger monitor to plug into at the office? ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2009, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buying-a-mac/488691/10 "2009-03-08T20:49:02Z")
I bought a Macbook about 16 months ago and got a slight (5-10%) discount through my company’s employee purchase plan. There are also educational discounts available. As suggested, you may want to upgrade the memory after the fact. When I bought mine, Apple would have charged about $800 for four gigabytes, so I bought it with the one-gig default and upgraded to four gigabytes for about $200 with Kingston memory I bought from Newegg. And I went with the Macbook because the Macbook Pro would have been too big for my computer bag. (And because I’ve got a PC background, I used Bootcamp to create a dual-boot system so I can continue to run Windows XP.) ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2009, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buying-a-mac/488691/11 "2009-03-08T20:49:13Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > How about a MacBook for lugging around, with a larger monitor to plug into at the office? It’s what I do…