I've just been reading up on the original base level MBP 15" as I am concidering buying a 2nd hand one (fantastic servey http://www.macintouch.com/reliability/macbooks2.html ) and have been comparing that to getting a brand new one.

Weighing up the pros and cons is challenging, new one has longer warranty, 50% bigger drive, less replacement issues, faster, single 1GB RAM chip, Dual Layer SD and is about $900 more (after I get the GST component back).

My original machine is way past it's use by date, so any upgrade is a big step forward. Thoughts?

Hi,

About the issues with 1st gens i would say you don't need to worry about that, being a second hand macbook pro means it has already made it this long and not had any problems, and if they were they were fixed.

For $900 you need to ask yourself
* Do you ever plan to burn discs, and if so how many of them will be dual layer
* Will the single 1gb stick benefit you?


Although a second hand machine has less warranty, it has already been around for a while and hasn't had any issues if you know what i mean, but i suppose being that anything could happen you could also invest some money into APP for the second hand one, rather than paying $900 extra for a new macbook with only a 1-year warranty.

I'd say as above, get the older one. If its still in the first year warranty, buy apple care for peace of mind so it will then get 2 more years warranty.