I have officially convinced myself that it is absolutely necessary for me to buy a Macbook.
Unfortunately, reality tells me there’s no way I’ll be able to shell out the $1,000 for a new one. So I’m looking at buying one used.
A quick search on eBay turns up literally thousands of Macbooks priced at or below $600 (pretty much my ceiling for prices). Some of them as low as $300 still match the recommended (not required) specs to run Ableton.
My question is this: other than the usual caution I should take on eBay, is there any reason not to buy a Macbook there? I know absolutely nothing about Macs, other than that I want one.
The only program I’m looking to run on said Macbook is Ableton and the small handful of VST(i)'s that I use to produce.
a top of the line mbp with their barclay card financing runs $250 / month, which though is basically a decent car payment and hurts a bit, is well worth it.
I took my first MBP in for repair. Went on Holiday and got call whilst i was poolside… “Mr Santos your Mac has a busted logic board. We can fit a new one for £770”… Just what i wanted to hear on holiday !!!
Thing was i was 5 days out of Applecare as i forgot to renew it.
Yeah…might look into financing one, but…be careful about interest rates.
An ex girlfriend of mine has bought several used iBooks, PowerBooks, and MacBooks off of ebay over the years, and she always had good experiences.
I–on the other hand–have gotten screwed over every single time I’ve tried to buy or sell something on eBay…so I avoid it like the plague. But apparently eBay just hates me…that kind of shit doesn’t happen to anyone else.
Interest rate state side for Barclay (along with BestBuy, Alienware [A.K.A. Dell] and a few other companies) is 23%ish (a month) I believe if you don’t pay it off within the year. Ohh and here’s the kicker, it’s off the total amount, not what you still owe them.
I’m pretty sure when I checked last, thats what it was at (about 2 months ago, when I picked up my apple).
People need to really watch for that shit, cause that’s where they truly rape you.
Educational Discount on hardware is rubbish. Worked out about £50 on my Mac Mini yet the EDU discount on software is phenomenal.
Logic Studio £499. Edu discount Logic Studio £120 … wow.
I’m a big fan of the student discounts but you have to be somewhat careful about getting EDU discount on software. I’ve read that people run into problems updating the student edition of Logic.
Logic (Normal) $499 + Update a few years down the line $200ish = $700 invested
Logic Academic $459 + Full Version (when you want to update in a few years) $499 = $950 invested
Just something to look out for when buying student software. I’m not sure how common this type of update limitation is though.
Where do you see it for £120 Carlos? (Don’t need logic right now, just curious)
That 5% really makes a difference.