buy old macbook Buy an old Macbook and upgrade to SSD.

[Deaverl]

Hi there,

 

I already have a quite powerful windows desktop, but I would like to get a secundary machine for when I am on vacation or when I need to do group work with some friends.

It's really just for casual browsing, watching movies and text editing, so I don't need top notch performance. However, I would like to spend as few money as possible, so I consider buying an old MacBook and give it a speed boost with an SSD. I know it won't be as good as new laptops but I just like the simple look of those old macbooks, and as long as it isn't too slow, it's okay for me. My budget would be very low, I am thinking of 200$ max (but if I need to I can go over that)

 

Would this even be usable? Which model/year should I purchase? Is it worth it?

 

PS: My question is really about a macbook. I'm not interested in buying a new chromebook or other cheap laptop.

[EdInk]

Get an Asus UX32 Zenbook, equipped with an i5 processor and 4-6GB RAM or ASUS X202E...they both look like macs but not with it's price tag.

[Deaverl]

18 minutes ago, EdInk said:

Get an Asus UX32 Zenbook, equipped with an i5 processor and 4-6GB RAM or ASUS X202E...they both look like macs but not with it's price tag.

Yes, the price tag of new MacBooks is higher than my primary desktop

 

That's why I'm looking for a used machine that I could upgrade. However I'd like it to be a Macbook as I like their look and feel.

 

nowadays you have good looking Windows laptops but the older ones are all terrible. I was maybe considering a used white MacBook from 2007 or 2008. What do you think about that?

[AlanAlan]

You can buy a old MacBook and upgrade it. 

Watch unbox therapy's MacBook upgrade video it may help you.

You can build something like this if you want.

 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=UDXSDnEv9uY

[Panda689]

I have a mid-2009 13" MBP and it still works fine for web browsing, 720p youtube playback(1080p noticeably drops frames) and general computing.

 

Something that you MUST check before getting one is the ram, mine came with 2GB, which basically made it unusable in Yosemite(or EL for that matter it stutters, freezes loading certain things and is just slow in general), but after I upgraded to 8GB it works great.

 

The problem is that not all ram is compatible with these earlier MB and MBP so get Corsair's mac memory(roughly $70CAD for th 8GB kit if you can still find it), this doesn't apply to some of the newer models w/ upgradable RAM AFAIK. If you go 2008, then you're in DDR2 era with max support of 4GB, 2007 and you are at max 2GB support, so I really wouldn't go older then 2009.

 

Another thing is that these old MBP have old batteries so you might need to replace it. Anker makes them and I replaced mine for $80CAD off amazon.ca(It couldn't hold a charge idling for more then an hour).

 

Something else is that since the older ones only have DP1.1 or mini-DVI, so there is no audio over DP/HDMI.

 

I use the stock HDD but an SSD would be a nice upgrade(specifically for boot/wake times), but since OSX caches a lot of stuff, RAM should be the first upgrade.

 

That means you're going to be paying around $150+ in upgrades(more if you want an SSD as well), so I would only recommend it if you can find one for under 200 or for free(like mine was), otherwise save up some more and get a better windows laptop.

[Panda689]

I should also add that you might need to repaste the CPU and GPU, mine overheated like a bitch until I did.