TechTidBit: Mac Buying Tips

Sunday, February 17th, 2008
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Like the look of the new MacBook Air? Pondering buying the new MacBook Pro’s that are rumored to be released at Apple’s event coming up late Feb? Or are you just looking to make the switch like everyone else?

We all know Apple’s products come at a price premium, so here are a few tips to make the most of your hard earned money

  • Don’t pay the “Mac Black Tax”
    If you’re buying a MacBook, the difference between the mid-range and the top-of-the-line model is +40gb HDD space, a black finish and about $300. Considering Apple will upgrade your HDD to 160gb on the mid-level model for a mere $125, $175 is a lot of cash to pay for a colour!
  • Don’t pay Apple for RAM upgrades
    Most people want to upgrade their RAM. MacOS X loves RAM and RAM is cheap – unless you buy it from Apple that is. Upgrading from 1GB of RAM to 4GB of RAM on the vanilla MacBook will cost you $1420 from Apple. If you buy RAM from almost anywhere else, you’ll pay about $80 per DIMM (of which you’ll need 2 for the MacBook) for a saving of still over $1000. Note: You can install RAM by yourself, quite a simple procedure, without voiding your factory warranty or AppleCare. If you send it off for repair they’ll take it out and ship it back to you when they return the system.
  • Don’t pay Apple for HDD upgrades
    A few systems allow for user-upgradable HDD’s. You can easily save $100-200 by upgrading your own system with store-bought parts instead of paying Apple’s premium.
  • Buy AppleCare for laptops
    Worth every penny for laptops with very few user-serviceable parts in it. And you’ll bet that trying to get your Mac repaired out of warrenty will cost you a bundle with Apple’s proprietary hardware! This is a fairly decent rule for all Laptops – not just Apple since you’d be out of luck trying to get a lot of the components replace 3rd party – especially in NZ!
  • Don’t buy anything straight before a refresh
    Although Apple don’t usually let on when they’re about to refresh a product line with updated hardware, it’s usually fairly easy to predict. MacRumors Buyers Guide can help with the timing and have hints on when it’s a good time to buy.

Any more tips, leave ‘em in the comments!

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  • http://mainsequences.net/ mainsequences

    Heartily agree with your Mac-related advice. I’ve just upgraded my MacBook Pro from 2Gb to 4Gb for about $155. It runs a whole lot more responsively now. Not only a direct saving in cash but also will probably extend the usable life of the system for another year or so/OS upgrade cycle, which is a sizeable indirect saving.

    Replacing RAM is something anyone can do. But a few months back, I naively upgraded an iBook at home with a 160 Gb hard drive. No, I had no idea what I was doing, but had printed out pages of instructions from the net. The four or so hours of delicate electronic surgery reduced my lifespan and hair follicle count considerably, and the iBook’s never been the same since either.

  • http://nevermind.co.nz Chris

    Hello, thanks for the comment!

    Yes I’ve heard the iBook is a bit tricky – the hard disk isn’t “user-replaceable” in terms of the warranty. It’s the same with the MacBook Pro.

    In those cases it’s better to get Apple to upgrade it or else it voids your warranty! Of course if it’s out of warranty you have (almost) nothing to lose :)

    These days the plain MacBooks (not pro) and one or two other machines have a user replacable hard-drive. It’s just under the battery next to the RAM. You can play with it as much as you want without voiding your warranty!