Are refurbished products from the apple store a good idea?

hi i am getting a mac for my birthday, i am 14 and will be using it for school and school related tasks and loading music onto and films etc. I would just like to know what mac you guys would reccomend for me and wether buying refurbished products is a good idea or not? Thanks for all your advice.
P.S- I will be buying a notebook not a desktop.

Same thing as new. How I got mine. And if it breaks down at any point, it has nothing to do with it being refurbished and the fix it like its new (depending on the warranty of course.) Mine hasn't broken down by the way.

I've had a refurb. Macbook and sold it 3 months later. Not that it was bad, only because I decided on a refurb iMac. I've had that for 3 months with no problem. I've had 2 refurb. iPods as well. Refurb is the smart way to go.
Bryan

it's a very good idea. All of the apple products I've owned are refurbished and no one, including myself, can tell the difference vs. new.

I've never heard anything bad from any members here who have bought refurbed Macs. They're basically brand new, they function new, and they look new.

Love my refurb macbook, only difference I noticed from a new macbook was the plain brown box it came in.

No problems with my MacBook Pro - I couldn't tell it from new aside from the plain cardboard box it came in. They even gave me 1GB of RAM when it was advertised as having 512MB. I paid $1270 out the door with tax, I've yet to see another deal like that with equivalent specs. Even the older G4 15" Powerbooks go for more on Apple's refurb site.

I've said this in a few other threads, but I think it's worth repeating - the term "refurbished" implies that the machine has been made "like new". If there are any problems, you can always return or send it back for a refund.

thanks guys and any advice on which portable mac to get?

and also on the apple mac webiste (UK as that is where i live) it says that there may be cosmetic imperfections to the macs have any of you experienced this?

srgthunder said:

thanks guys and any advice on which portable mac to get?

Click to expand...

It depends on your needs. What do you want to do with the machine?

srgthunder said:

and also on the apple mac webiste (UK as that is where i live) it says that there may be cosmetic imperfections to the macs have any of you experienced this?

Click to expand...

No, but the return policy still applies - so if something is not to your liking, you can always return it and get another.

ok thanks guys and im undecided between the black macbook or the just below it, also does anyone know any uk stores to get external hard drives for macs?

Cancom have lots of externals (lots of expensive ones too :O). They also sell refurbs there, but they might not be as good as the ones on the Apple website..

srgthunder said:

ok thanks guys and im undecided between the black macbook or the just below it, also does anyone know any uk stores to get external hard drives for macs?

Click to expand...

You can use just about any external drive you want to. You don't need to purchase something "Mac-specific".

I think a lot of mac users like LaCie for external storage. I'm getting a western digital passport to lug around and still looking for a good NAS for the house.

AFAIK only some externals work with Macs.. some are have different formats or something.

I really like the WD Passport, too. How much are you paying for yours, buttuh? £130 for the 250gb on Cancom.. Oh so tempted.

Matteh117 said:

AFAIK only some externals work with Macs.. some are have different formats or something.

I really like the WD Passport, too. How much are you paying for yours, buttuh? £130 for the 250gb on Cancom.. Oh so tempted.

Click to expand...

Most USB/Firewire external drives will work. The format may need to be changed, but that's true of any drive unless it comes from the factory pre-formatted.

My point is that you don't need to spend a lot of money on a drive that says "Mac friendly" because they basically all work, providing the drive is formatted with a file system that the Mac can read and write to. By default, many drives are formatted NTFS, which the Mac can read, but not write. Changing this is simply a matter of formatting the drive from Disk Utility.

hmm yeah i was thinking of getting the one just down from the mac black. 80gb hard drive 1gb RAM etc and just getting a decent externall like mybook 500gb or something like that. My dad said i could have £700 ($1400) dosent go as far in the uk though Good idea or not? First mac ive bought so i wanna get it right. Also my dad said i could get it when i want and he'd give me the money when its my birthday but i think i should wait till october, then i can get one with leapoard. All coments appreciated..........

srgthunder said:

hmm yeah i was thinking of getting the one just down from the mac black. 80gb hard drive 1gb RAM etc and just getting a decent externall like mybook 500gb or something like that. My dad said i could have £700 ($1400) dosent go as far in the uk though Good idea or not? First mac ive bought so i wanna get it right. Also my dad said i could get it when i want and he'd give me the money when its my birthday but i think i should wait till october, then i can get one with leapoard. All coments appreciated..........

Click to expand...

You DO understand that Leopard costs only 129 dollars, right? Why would you wait 4 months to save that kind of chump change? Mow someone's lawn, boom, there's leopard.

yeah but why waste £65 ($129) when i can just wait.