Got my Refurb'ed Powermac today
I ordered one about a week before "the big announcement," but I'm not too upset. Chances are next gen PMs will have DRM's, as Intel has to adopt the standard, so I'll likely be happy with my dual 1.8s for many years to come. This is all beside the point, since you probably are wondering much more about what buying a refurbed Mac is like. I must say, I'm pleasantly surprised.
The Apple store was selling the refurb DP 1.8 for $1499. Specs showed that it would come with a GF5200/64mb, 256mb PC3200, 80gb drive, the older superdrive, and 10.3.3. I figured the price couldn't get any better, so I ordered one. At the same time, I also ordered 1GB of Corsair XMS PC3200 (512mb x 2 for $115 at zipzoomfly.com), as I knew 256mb wasn't going to cut it when I installed Tiger (which I bought a few weeks ago). My first surprise was sales tax. The initial price claimed ~$75 in sales tax, however, when the product shipped, it was closer to $65. I guess I live in a cheaper part of Missouri, Woohoo!
Anyway, I painfully watched my almost-new PM ship across the country via free FedEx ground. It finally arrived today, and man, is that one heavy box. While I'm not a weakling, it was a bit of a struggle getting it through the doors! Also, the box was in good shape, so FedEx must have actually handled with care.
I cut the box open and find it's very nicely packaged. I remove the top cover to find a brand new apple keyboard and mouse, along with the documentation. Surprise number one! OSX Tiger is included, along with iLife 05 (with 2CDs in the package?). Not bad, Tiger for free. Nice touch, Apple. 
Before booting, I open the side to install the extra RAM, which I ordered a day later, but got to me 2 days sooner than the PM. It goes in with no problem, and everything inside looked like it was where it should be (hey, you never know with shipping/handling). I plug it all in, and Bong, we boot to Panther 10.3.3. I reboot and install 10.4, and then do the file transfer via firewire with the iBook. All of the above went just fine.
After a few hours of setup time, I start messing around with things, seeing how much faster it is. I had "Activity Monitor" open to see overall performance, and, much to my surprise, I have 1.5GB of RAM installed! Apple must have upgraded the 256 to 512 when they included Tiger! That's another nice freebee. I also have the Pioneer DVR-117D superdrive, which supposedly can be flashed to dual layer. Not sure if I'll ever do that one, though, as I understand it can't be reversed.
Anyway, that's the refurb experience so far. I'm quite happy with the experience!
The Apple store was selling the refurb DP 1.8 for $1499. Specs showed that it would come with a GF5200/64mb, 256mb PC3200, 80gb drive, the older superdrive, and 10.3.3. I figured the price couldn't get any better, so I ordered one. At the same time, I also ordered 1GB of Corsair XMS PC3200 (512mb x 2 for $115 at zipzoomfly.com), as I knew 256mb wasn't going to cut it when I installed Tiger (which I bought a few weeks ago). My first surprise was sales tax. The initial price claimed ~$75 in sales tax, however, when the product shipped, it was closer to $65. I guess I live in a cheaper part of Missouri, Woohoo!
Anyway, I painfully watched my almost-new PM ship across the country via free FedEx ground. It finally arrived today, and man, is that one heavy box. While I'm not a weakling, it was a bit of a struggle getting it through the doors! Also, the box was in good shape, so FedEx must have actually handled with care.
I cut the box open and find it's very nicely packaged. I remove the top cover to find a brand new apple keyboard and mouse, along with the documentation. Surprise number one! OSX Tiger is included, along with iLife 05 (with 2CDs in the package?). Not bad, Tiger for free. Nice touch, Apple. Before booting, I open the side to install the extra RAM, which I ordered a day later, but got to me 2 days sooner than the PM. It goes in with no problem, and everything inside looked like it was where it should be (hey, you never know with shipping/handling). I plug it all in, and Bong, we boot to Panther 10.3.3. I reboot and install 10.4, and then do the file transfer via firewire with the iBook. All of the above went just fine.
After a few hours of setup time, I start messing around with things, seeing how much faster it is. I had "Activity Monitor" open to see overall performance, and, much to my surprise, I have 1.5GB of RAM installed! Apple must have upgraded the 256 to 512 when they included Tiger! That's another nice freebee. I also have the Pioneer DVR-117D superdrive, which supposedly can be flashed to dual layer. Not sure if I'll ever do that one, though, as I understand it can't be reversed.
Anyway, that's the refurb experience so far. I'm quite happy with the experience!
Comments
Originally posted by kwsanders
What is the link for the Apple refurbished site? I couldn't find it by doing a search.
(See below - you can't copy and paste a URL from the Apple Store if you are logged in - JL)
Text Edited By Moderator
Originally posted by kwsanders
What is the link for the Apple refurbished site? I couldn't find it by doing a search.
Go to the Apple Store and then click the red tag in the lower right corner labeled "Save".