Buying A New Mac Computer - Things To Look Out For

Buying A New Mac Computer - Things To Look Out For

Author: megnagase76

Looking to finally buy a used Mac and rid yourself of your PC? With the recession underway, several of you might be holding on dearly to your hard-earned money - after all, Mac's are not cheap. A complete new Mac will easily cost several thousand depending on which model you are after, while a PC would only cost a fraction of that price. Used machines are just as good provided you know what you are getting.

Here are some useful tips while shopping for a second-hand Mac.

Laptop batteries are typically the primary element to become faulty when it comes to second-hand computers. If the previous owner continually uses his laptop while not plugged into the wall socket, the battery might possibly be quite dead by the time it gets into your hands. A new Mac laptop's battery should hold about three hours of juice while a second-hand one will probably be much worse.

There are battery-checking softwares available which you can get for free and use to test the battery's status and life-cycle. Install this analytical software onto the laptop that you're planning on purchasing and let it confirm if the battery is still in good condition or if it's on its way out.

The other thing to do is find out if it's still under warranty. If you are fortunate enough to shop for a used Mac that's still under warranty, you have truly struck gold. Apple only gives customers a standard 1 year guarantee on all their computers, but a customer may buy "AppleCare" to extend their warranty by up to 24 months.

Apple does a great job of getting their damaged computers replaced quick and free, provided the guarantee period still holds. Don't take the risk of not having "AppleCare" on a second-hand machine. If you need a part replaced a few months or a year down the road, you may easily end up spending $1000 in order to get your machine working again. Make sure the owner of the laptop transfers their "AppleCare" guarantee over to you after you've paid for it.

I'm positive you have experienced "dead" DVD players at least once if you have owned computers before, their parts wear-down easily so it's critical that you give it a good examination. It's a good idea to bring along a number of DVD's with you and play them to determine if there are any issues with the drive reading the discs.

It is going to be generally safer to buy a refurbished Computer from a shop than to shop for it from a private seller, especially if you are not a technically savvy person.If you search on the web, there are a number of online computer dealers who sell refurbished Macs at extremely affordable prices. The refurbished Macs always come with an extended warranty of some sort, and it's good enough to put your mind at ease.

Before you place forth your hard earned cash to buy a used Mac, do some research and find out the market price of the actual machine you're after. You can use Yahoo Stores, Amazon and best of all eBay to work out the market price of a particular second-hand machine. It's the best method to determine the ballpark price of the laptop based mostly on the machine's condition and consumer demand.

Finding an very cheap Mac is rare, so beware. This almost never happens unless the vendor is desperate and urgently needs the money. You will notice if you look online that even computers that are a number of years old tend to get a good price still. Therefore, you must look twice before you even think of purchasing a terribly cheap Macintosh, as it is rare indeed. Usually there's some fault with the hardware.

As described before, take it slow and shop around a bit first. You would possibly realize a better bargain elsewhere and use the extra money you saved to get some other components that you may need like a carry bag (if you're shopping for a laptop).



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