Apple MacBook Pro 17" Refurb (Oct 2010) 2.8ghz i7, 500gb, 4gb RAM WITH AppleCare - $1500 at Small Dog FS

davieboynj said:   Facts:
This computer does have anemic processing compared to a newer or newest 15" model at the same price.
All older 17" macbooks are inflated in price specifically because the screen is discontinued, not because they are necessarily great - - there is a reason they were discontinued.
Apple arbitrarily restricts functionality to capable older hardware to entice users to upgrade (buying old macs is bad).
Bears are ruthless killing machines.

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If you won't really miss the extra 2" of screen you are doing yourself a disservice purchasing this laptop. It is an ungainly beast compared to the 15" macbook, and significantly slower than a comparably priced 15". It already is missing some significant features of newer models, and will continue to do so at an accelerated rate.
Don't avoid this purchase because you don't want the applecare (you need it).Re: "comparably priced" - I'm not sure which 15" model you're talking about.

(I base what I say here on EveryMac.com's comparison chart.)

First of all, a lot is being said about this being a three-year-old computer when in fact it was last manufactured exactly two years ago. The benchmarks on this are just slightly lower than the closely-priced (based on Small Dog's price for the MBP alone) 13" October 2012 MBP - $1269 refurbished at the Apple site with a dual-core i5. All the refurbed newer 15's are $1529 and up...PLUS $349 for Applecare, so we're talking over $1900 when you factor in the sales tax that Apple charges. In WA, that would be a total of $2047 - but you do get a nice refurbed (virtually new) machine with terrific benchmarks and a current quad-core i7 processor. This Small Dog deal costs no tax in my state and there's free shipping.

It's painfully obvious to say that it's all a matter of personal preference, and there's no right or wrong. Here's a helluva nice 17" virtually new MBP with an early i7 processor and it's covered by Apple into 2016. You can max the RAM for another 60 bucks. If you don't want it, you don't have to buy it! That's why we live in America, Americans.

davieboynj said:   gardenlife1 said:   
As a person who has own a macbook pro 17" since 2007, you couldn't be more wrong. I also own Quadra from the 90s that I still use. Very easy to fix and worth every penny to own. Now the macs that have the fancy new retina display, those from what I hear are diffculty to fix. And no matter what size or brand laptop you get, you WILL want to get applecare or squaretrade.

What, pray tell, am I wrong about? I will tell you that in my experience, a similar repair on a macbook of practically any flavor will take at least 2-4 times as long and involve 4 times as many screws - - that is, if you can repair it at all (newer macs - - i'm looking at you). I could teach a third grader to replace a broken optical drive, keyboard, hard drive, and possibly even a screen on practically any thinkpad (~95% of the problems you would ever experience). I couldn't make any such claim for a macbook pro. I can't vouch for other notebook oems, as i just don't have the experience with any others.

If you purchase a thinkpad - have some limited mechanical sense, and take decent care of your stuff, you could safely skip the warranty. Skipping the warranty on a mac isn't something i would ever recommend. This doesn't make one better than the other - - they are just designed around two completely different design ideals.

I don't have the experience you have and I'm not computer person. But I only know from working on my macbook which I have taken apart to fix a couple of things that its not that hard or time consuming. Of course I use ifixit so that might be why its not that difficult.

gardenlife1 said:   davieboynj said:   gardenlife1 said:   
As a person who has own a macbook pro 17" since 2007, you couldn't be more wrong. I also own Quadra from the 90s that I still use. Very easy to fix and worth every penny to own. Now the macs that have the fancy new retina display, those from what I hear are diffculty to fix. And no matter what size or brand laptop you get, you WILL want to get applecare or squaretrade.

What, pray tell, am I wrong about? I will tell you that in my experience, a similar repair on a macbook of practically any flavor will take at least 2-4 times as long and involve 4 times as many screws - - that is, if you can repair it at all (newer macs - - i'm looking at you). I could teach a third grader to replace a broken optical drive, keyboard, hard drive, and possibly even a screen on practically any thinkpad (~95% of the problems you would ever experience). I couldn't make any such claim for a macbook pro. I can't vouch for other notebook oems, as i just don't have the experience with any others.

If you purchase a thinkpad - have some limited mechanical sense, and take decent care of your stuff, you could safely skip the warranty. Skipping the warranty on a mac isn't something i would ever recommend. This doesn't make one better than the other - - they are just designed around two completely different design ideals.

I don't have the experience you have and I'm not computer person. But I only know from working on my macbook which I have taken apart to fix a couple of things that its not that hard or time consuming. Of course I use ifixit so that might be why its not that difficult.

And, again, yours is a very different model. You realize that, right?

You don't need to champion your deal.

Even $249 is a bit much. I think I paid $180 for it with my last 17" MBP. AppleCare can be added anytime during the one-year warranty. It pays to shop around.