[geeks] Vista cost

[Lionel Peterson]

>From: Joshua Boyd <jdboyd at jdboyd.net>
>Date: 2007/01/31 Wed AM 09:25:14 CST
>To: The Geeks List <geeks at sunhelp.org>
>Subject: Re: [geeks] Vista cost

<snip>

>Last I looked, the Apple store a single refurbed Core 2 Duo, but it was
>a premium model.  I'm trying to keep an eye on that since I think I will
>be getting one for Deb in the near future, but I also think I'm going to
>insist on Core 2 Duo, in hopes that 64-bit support is worth it when
>Leopard comes out.

Refurb Core 2 Duo laptops are very rare at this point - give it some time, and they will become more plentiful. I was able to get my MacBook Pro as a refurb, which equalled a 21% discount of list price for a current model. The same discount is standard on previous generation machines, but almost makes them not worth while, since the difference in specifications can make the price difference...

For example, I first bought a MacBook Pro (non-Core 2 Duo), it had an 80 Gig HD and 512 Meg RAM for 29% off list price, $1,399. Then I saw a the COre 2 Duo version for 21% off list price, or $1,599 - it had 1 Gig of RAM and a 100+ Gig HD. Ignoring the processor speed-up of the newer laptop, in order to get 2 Gig in the older model, I would have to throw out the 512 Meg SoDIMM and buy 2x 1 Gig SoDIMMs for $200, so I'd be out of pocket $1,599 for 2 Gig and 80 Gig HD, with the newer model it would be $1,599 + $100 for the additional Gig of RAM, so the out-of-pocket is $1,699 - so for the $100 difference, I got a 25-50% larger HD (I can't remember ;^), and a 15-25% faster CPU...

IMHO, it is worth waiting for a Core 2 Duo with the latest features as a refurb (of course, YMMV)...

And of course, don't forget that thanks to Boot Camp, Apple gives you a CD-ROM with the required drivers (32 bit,IIRC) for WinXP Pro SP2 ;^)

Lionel