Buying A Used MacBook - What To Look Out For?
 

Hey guys,

I'm back in the market looking for a MacBook preferably a 13". The ones I'm looking specifically are the Intel MacBooks in which most of them (if not a bulk of them at least) are out of warranty. Are there any quirks or signs or things I should look out for when buying one?

I see them go around the $700 to $800obo range. Not trying to be cheap but in the end, it's caveat emptor. Thanks! :)

make sure it has applecare, or qualifies for applecare, it defeinitley is worth it, apple really takes care of their laptops. even after my applecare was over they took my laptop in for a final servicing and fixed everything that was wrong with it themselves, even things i didn't even ask them about.

so... applecare.

Definitely try to get the generations built in 2009. Better CPUs with lower wattage, more base RAM, and the NVIDIA 9400M is useful even if it's low-end (high end of IGP).

Mike. Make sure it's a unibody macbook. Most of them still have some sorta warranty left that will allow you to upgrade to applecare. ie. First gen unibody. The 2nd gen unibody's ie. macbook pro 13 is probably more than what you wanna pay. Also compare prices. A lot of ppl try to sell macbooks for way more than what they're worth. ie. appreciating in value instead of depreciating.. lol.

What is this "unibody" you speak of? How do I tell if it's unibody or not? I've been so out of the loop with computers, I don't even know what the current standard for RAM is. :lol

if you're getting the plastic ones, look for any yellowing? and like the bottom half near the front edges check for any creaking? because I know of several people who have chipped off some plastic near the sleep light area.

Unibody means one piece aluminum body.

Original Macbooks = white polycarbonate
Unibody Macbooks = aluminum casing

The unibody design was only used for one generation of the Macbooks.

Thanks for the tips guys.

Are there any other physical attributes to look for? Such as places known for cracks, keyboard buttons that fail, screens that suddenly die, or other weird quirks?

It's mostly cosmestic for the polycarbonate. usually the right side area of the keybaord where the magnet is has a lined crack. There's some cracks on the top edge of the bottom piece of the macbook where the top half and bottom half meet. There's also cracking on the back near where the heat vents are. My sister went to the Apple store to get the Keyboard piece change free of charge. But other than that the Macbooks software/hardware wise is good. Oh one more thing I forgot to add, I don't remember which year of the Black Macbooks but one of the years they had some peeling issues.

It'll take some photos later or grab them online to show you the areas with "issues".

i picked up a black macbook for a pretty good price on craigslist. Its been months and i've basically converted over. All my pc does now is torrent and download.....everything else i need to do is on mac.

haha same situation here

i wouldn't say which one is better than the other, but it's nice to have both. i like MPC more than vlc so the pc pumps video thru hdmi to the lcd. then i play with aperture or lightroom on the mac...