Advice on buying a macbook

Hey, I'm new to Macs and was thinking about buying a Macbook soon. The one I was looking at was the older model with the all white and the plastic casing, because I saw they were on sale at Microcenter for $850 with tax compared the $999.99 price tag I've seen almost everywhere else. I was also looking at the newer aluminum models but those are a bit more expensive.

So I'm wondering which one I should go with, the newer ones look more appealing but is there really much more different in them hardware wise than the older model, or is most of the difference aesthetic? I won't be doing a whole lot with it (School work, some photo editing, music, browsing, etc) so would I even need the extra specs of the new one?

And sorry if this post is too vague or this is in the wrong section, I'm pretty new to this. Thanks.

as far as browsing and office work goes, you don't need a computer from the new lineup of i5 and i7 processors and so on, for these tasks even an older computer will be enough

photo editing can get more demanding when you work with raw images

as stated in many posts before, you're the one who will be using the computer and a bunch of people can't decide for you

Honestly you'd be just fine with the 2009 Macbook unibody. It'll do everything you stated just fine.

Get the new model to future proof your purchase. Not that the older model won't do what you want it to do. It's still a good machine but ultimately it's your money.

Both of them are nice and will do what you listed. The new model does have a few futures that are nice, so it's not exactly all about looks. IE better graphic cards.

I would never recommend anyone get one of the white macbooks, they don't hold up with a flip. Had one brand spanking new... less than a month of use and it starts getting chips off the plastic around the keyboard.... got that replaced and the next time it lasts about 6 months before it starts getting the same chips. As far as I can tell the white ones were designed by idiots and don't last worth a flip... sure it will work with the chips of plastic missing but it bugs me to pay that much for something that clearly is more fragile than an egg shell.

Get the aluminum... just beware of dents.

@thomas998: did you get those chips replaced under warranty? just curious ... and yeah, I can confirm it's not the nicest thing to look at with chipped edges but I still like the white MacBooks ... for some reason

thomas998 said:

I would never recommend anyone get one of the white macbooks, they don't hold up with a flip. Had one brand spanking new... less than a month of use and it starts getting chips off the plastic around the keyboard.... got that replaced and the next time it lasts about 6 months before it starts getting the same chips. As far as I can tell the white ones were designed by idiots and don't last worth a flip... sure it will work with the chips of plastic missing but it bugs me to pay that much for something that clearly is more fragile than an egg shell.

Get the aluminum... just beware of dents.

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I have to disagree. I've had my white MB for almost two years now and it doesn't have a dent or chip anywhere on it. I don't think it's fair to say that "the white ones were designed by idiots and don't last worth a flip" if you've only ever used two. If this problem was widespread I would concede my argument but this is not the case as far as I know. Most notebooks are made of some form of plastic and if plastic really was that problematic, it wouldn't be used as the basis for notebook construction.

If you take care of the white MB, much like you should of any notebook, it will be fine.