[.onearm]

Hello guys,

I'm considering to buy my first Mac (always wanted to have one). I got an offer from a guy to buy a new/not used A1181 Macbook 13" 2.1GHz, GMA X3100, 2GB DDR2 RAM, it has MS Office too (included in the price), 120 GB hard drive... blah blah blah. It's white too, if that matters. Some version of Leopard is installed but not sure which one and whether that's important. He told me it has iLife09 installed so I imagine it's one of the latest versions.
I don't know anything else cause I haven't seen the computer yet; I'll probably see it later tonight or tomorrow, so I'm not sure what other specs it has.

The price is 800 euros.

I'm new to Macintosh computers and have no idea how old this model is and whether it's worth the money. I could use your opinions on this one.

I don't even know will it play HD movies (1080p/720p) and it would be nifty if Adobe Ps Lightroom will work ok on it, since photography is my hobby. The idea is to carry it with me when I travel and use it mainly for Internet and photography related things (basic editing in Lightroom and stuff like that).

Thanks.

[kylef]

800 Euros? I'd say that isn't really worth it. For a bit more, and for roughly the same price if you can get education discount, you could get a 13" Unibody MacBook Pro. More warranty - option to buy Applecare within that year period - along with better graphics, memory and processor.

[olePigeon]

If you go with the 800 euro one, make sure you ask for the Microsoft Office discs.

[CharlesS]

I just checked out the web page for the France and Germany Apple stores, and it looks like the 13" MacBook Pro is going for 1149 €, and with this model you get a much better and more durable case, a much better GPU (the GMA X3100 is lower than low-end, and the NVidia 9400M should be able to get at least 5 times the performance), a better screen, longer battery life, FireWire 800, a backlit keyboard, a multitouch trackpad (which I'm finding really handy, especially with the four-finger gestures). You'd lose quite a lot by going with the outdated MacBook just to save 350 €, but if you can't afford 1149 €, then I'd recommend at least going for the current white MacBook for 949 € so that you can get the NVidia 9400M GPU - seriously, the GMA X3100 is utter crap and is probably going to have trouble handling new software products from Apple in the future that will be relying on the GPU, and the 9400M is easily worth the extra 150 €.

[.onearm]

Thanks all !!!

Guess I'll say NO to that guy then.

Thank you.

[Spheric Harlot]

Originally Posted by .onearm 

Hello guys,

I'm considering to buy my first Mac (always wanted to have one). I got an offer from a guy to buy a new/not used A1181 Macbook 13" 2.1GHz, GMA X3100, 2GB DDR2 RAM, it has MS Office too (included in the price), 120 GB hard drive... blah blah blah. It's white too, if that matters.

This is the version before the previous one, so two versions old.

The remaining last-generation white ones - only 2.0 GHz, but much faster logic board and WAY better integrated graphics (nVIDIA 9400M) were sold off NEW at €799 here in Germany when the current generation was released a few weeks ago.

If it comes with MS Office Home & Student, that's a €110 new value - provided you actually get the package and original disks.

Not a terrible deal (not really good, either), but not something I'd go for considering you can probably get that machine for almost the same price refurbished at the online Apple Store, except with full warranty.