Buying 2nd hand

I'm in the market for a Mac laptop, but before I frisk up eBay for all the available alternatives I want to get some advice from long time users.


I'm looking at buying a ~2008 Macbook... 2.4 C2D w/ 4G RAM are the specs I want. I can't buy new because I need a FW400 port to run my music interfaces, and it seems a Macbook of the aforementioned specs is the best I can get. I gotta run to a budget of about $800 too.


What to look for when buying 2nd hand? Do Macbooks have any common hardware issues I need to keep an eye open for? Are parts readily available should I need them?

And what sort of lifespan can I expect from a Macbook? Is it a piece of equipment that'll last forever if I treat it right, or do these things have a natural useful working life?

I'm also wondering if a Macbook with the stated specs will perform comparatively to my current iMac (2.33C2D, 4G RAM @ 667Mhz)? I ask this as desktops and laptops are inherently different, i'm just not sure if a laptop vs desktop with identical spec components will throw the same punch.

Any tips/info much appreciated

When you mention 'White Macbooks', are the black macbooks in the same basket?

The black Macbooks i'm looking at (gotta be black - 100% cooler ) come with a superdrive... like this one

Things are looking good.

The older ones come with a superdrive as well.
AU$700 isn't cheap for that, which is why you will see 0 bids on it!
You'd be better off stretching the budget and keeping an eye on the Apple refurbs, which include full warranty!
IMHO, you should be looking for the 13" MBP which on there.
At the moment there is one for AU$1150, but if you keep your eye on there, you may find one comes up cheaper quite soon.
Refurbished Mac - Apple Store (Australia)

I had the black macbook and it had the same cracking problem as almost every other MB, the black macbooks as far as I know only ever shipped with Intels Integrated Graphics so anything like gaming or video editing may not perform so well.

Wow! I thought $700 was a steal. That being the case I might see if I can knock another $200 if the auction falls through.

The newer MBP's don't really offer me what I want - within my circles we're amazed that Apple dropped all the porting fruits the pro market is now screaming for, in preference for tapping the consumer market. FW800 isn't much good to me without an adaptor or daisy chaining through something else, and an SD slot won't see any use at all. I don't need a killer graphics card either - I might watch the odd DVD, but I play no games nor do I edit video of any sort. I need only a decent processor, lotsa RAM, and a FW 400 port.

I think a Macbook is a better option for me, I just need to know it'll be reliable for a few more years. I'll take the gamble on one as long as I know spare parts will be available in the near future.