Please help a questionable preswitcher

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I hate being flamed as a newb, so I read this forum for over an hour and now I feel a little out of place and scared to buy a Macbook. Please go easy on me and hear me out. I want to buy a Macbook but seriously $900+ for a laptop- OMFG!! I don't want to buy a $900-$2700 mistake. I'm also assuming that everyone here has a $1000 computer? I wanted to buy a Mac off Ebay and everyone called me an idiot. I've only purchased one Mac laptop back in 1994 that ended up being totally bricked after one day of use and a computer tech. Threatning me he'd call the State Police because it was stolen. Seller didn't give me a reciept. Paid cash! Any way, I've been a PC guy ever since. Until 2 days ago my Dell crashed while backing up 4 years worth of Itunes. Crashed=Blue Screen=Gone totally gone. Unrecoverable! It must have been quite scene when I took my 2.5 lb. Sledge to it in the driveway. I felt a little better. So I'm going the Mac route. But $900! Some one tell me they've got a G4 collecting dust that I can buy!!

Thanx for the listen and again go easy.
 
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Your Mac's Specs
21" iMac * 2.8 Ghz Intel Core i7 * 16GB 1333 Mhz DDR3 * 1TB HD *AMD Radeon HD 6770M 512 MB
Most people here will tell you the same thing: you get what you pay for. For less money, you get a cheap plastic windows machine brimming with crapware and running an OS known for its headache inducing tendencies. For more money, you get an aluminum piece of art that runs a stabler, more efficient OS. It just depends on what's more important to you. Just keep in mind that most Macs last for many years longer than many Windows machines.

You can find deals on ebay, but most newbs don't realize that Macs come with machine-specific installation disks. If you buy a Mac on ebay and no disks are included, you've probably paid for a stolen machine. Whatever you do, make sure you get the original installation disks or at least make sure you can afford to buy them and then wipe out the hard drive.
 
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Your Mac's Specs
2018 15" MBP, 2019 11" iPad Pro, iPhone 11 Pro
e-bay is not a "bad" choice, provided you get the OS discs as Oneironaut mentioned.
Or you can get a refurb from the Apple store. Good as new. Can't beat it with a stick!
LINK Cheapest notebook available from the Apple store at the moment. Check back daily but this is a smokin' deal.
 
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Wow! It's true! There are nice people here! Thanx for the info. Are Macbook upgradeable for memory and such?
 
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Your Mac's Specs
27" iMac, Acer second display 1TB Iomega HD, iPad 32GB wifi, iphone 4, sprint overdrive
I agree with the above. You get what you pay for. Macs last. I am on my second macbook. I had a white MB.(sold it for only a couple hundred under what I actually paid new) Sold it on ebay and got a great Macbook Pro 15" from ebay. I also have two mac minis in the house. You will not regret you purchase.
 
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Your Mac's Specs
21" iMac 2.9Ghz 16GB RAM - 10.11.3, iPhone6s & iPad Air 2 - iOS 9.2.1, ATV 4Th Gen tvOS, ATV3
Yep if you want one i would seriously consider going the  store refurb.

You will get a near new computer, wrapped up nice and neat in the original boxes and it will come with the full warranty that you get if buying a new Mac.

If problems do arise  have no problems in resolving them for you, or replacing parts, or giving you a new machine. $900 is one of the most sound investments i have ever made, and being apart of this community has resolved other problems (self inflicted) that i have had, and answers or solutions have been fixed within a day.

Take a leap of faith and join us :)

Cheers
 
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27" iMac, Acer second display 1TB Iomega HD, iPad 32GB wifi, iphone 4, sprint overdrive
Yes they are upgradable. But, it depends on the model you get. My MBPro is maxed at 4gig ram. As well as the hard drive. Both upgrades VERY easy.
 
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Ok. I'll get one. I'm not super computer tech. savy, so what siZe should I get? I'm heavy on iTunes and movies- legally ( I'm against piracy) I'm hoping the bare bones Macbook will hold and not pull my system resouces down to it's knees.
 
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Your Mac's Specs
Mac mini (late 09) 2.26, 2 gb, 160, 1 tb hitachi 7200 ext hdd. Macbook 2.26, 4 gb, 360 hdd 3G Iphone
Ok. I'll get one. I'm not super computer tech. savy, so what siZe should I get? I'm heavy on iTunes and movies- legally ( I'm against piracy) I'm hoping the bare bones Macbook will hold and not pull my system resouces down to it's knees.

I have the 2.26 macbook and it does everything I need and more, I do have 4gb of ram in it but even my mini with the same specs as my macbook but with only 2gb of ram does everything only time there is even a bit of strain on the cpu is encoding movies and such. I think for your needs you could use the base model macbook and be extremely happy.
 
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Your Mac's Specs
Unibody MacBook Pro 2.26, 4gb RAM, 500gb HD
Ok. I'll get one. I'm not super computer tech. savy, so what siZe should I get? I'm heavy on iTunes and movies- legally ( I'm against piracy) I'm hoping the bare bones Macbook will hold and not pull my system resouces down to it's knees.

There is no such thing as a bare bones Macbook. An entry level $1000 Macbook (I'd lean toward a $1000 entry level refurbished 13" MBP) is on par with the higher end $1000 PC notebooks from other manufacturers.

They are also perceived to last much longer than other Windows based machines. Most people's Windows machines get bogged down with crap and they think they need a new machine every couple years. In reality they just need a clean installation of Windows, but the average person just goes out and buys a new notebook. Macs do not automatically need a clean installation of OS X every couple years. They will give you many years of reliable service. This gives them a much higher resale value. I just sold an 18 month old white plastic entry level Macbook on Craigslist for $800 cash. Try and sell an 18 month old Dell for $800!

Also, if you buy on ebay, buy a machine with Applecare. The 3 year warranty is automatically transfers to the new owner and will give you some additional peace of mind.
 

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