Apple MacBook 13-inch 1.83GHz

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Anthony Fiti
Kurtis
N/A
Aug. 1, 2006

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Ordering the MacBook

After a lot of time pondering about which model I should purchase, I finally settled on the low-end model, convincing myself that I'd upgrade sometime soon (probably at the end of next year) to a Core 2 Duo-based Apple laptop. Since I've got other things to buy between now and then, I'll save my pennies.

I called the local Apple store as I left work to make sure they had some MacBook 13-inch 1.83GHz notebooks in stock, because as I mentioned I'm trying to save pennies here and I didn't want to waste my gas of course. When I got there I found an Apple guy and told him I was ready to buy a MacBook. He went over all the other add-ons that Apple tries to sell with the hardware (AppleCare, .Mac account, ProCare, etc); I opted only for AppleCare and declined everything else since many of the .Mac features I can replicate with my own web server - photocasting, backup, etc, and I know enough smart Mac people that I could ask with questions if I get stuck.

So we get to the counter and I'm ready to go when it rings up at over $1500. I'm wondering why since when I had priced it out on the web earlier that day it came out to under $1500. It turns out that since I wanted to upgrade the RAM from 512MB to 1GB, while that is a BTO (Build-To-Order) option on the website, you can't get that done in the store.

If you want to increase the amount of RAM, they'll provide the RAM and install it for you (for free even), however you have to pay for the RAM you upgrade to in addition to the RAM that comes with the Mac. Checking out the current auctions on eBay shows that people trying to hock the two 256MB RAM modules that came in their MacBook end with no bids and no sale, so you really can't expect to sell them if you buy third party RAM, which will leave you shelling out even more cash. Instead of buying it at the Apple store, I decided to order it online and save about $100. This was disappointing since I was hoping to get my MacBook that day, but for $100 savings I can wait 1-5 days.

I only think of it now after I've purchased everything, but what I really should have done is bought the MacBook without the RAM and then buy two 1GB sticks for $90 each online and pushed it all the way to 2GB (I'd eat the cost of having to keep the 256MB RAM modules given Apple's price premium on upgrading to 2GB). I'll probably regret not having done this when OS X 10.5 comes out, which might have the ability to run Windows applications inside (or possibly beside) OS X, and 1GB won't be nearly enough, though who knows, maybe even 2GB will not be enough.

After I told the salesman I'd prefer to buy it online, he configured it for me and then I put in my credit card number and it was done. At the end of the process it says that it should be somewhere between 1-5 days to ship it, and another day or two for it to arrive at my house. However, that wasn't the case.

I ordered my MacBook on May 16. It arrived on May 25, 2006. It took Apple nine days (8 days and 17 hours to be more precise) from order to delivery. I was kind of disappointed in the amount of time it took Apple to deliver my MacBook. Many other folks I talked to online received their MacBooks before me had ordered them two or three days after me. I guess I was a fluke, since it seems not everyone experienced such delayed processing and shipping as I did. I won't mark it down as a big negative aspect of buying from Apple. And as I mentioned above, there is a good chance there is an Apple Store near you (Apple continues to open more every few months), so you can always buy one in person and get immediate gratification.

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Page 2 of 14

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Page 1: Introduction
Page 2: Ordering the MacBook
Page 3: First Looks
Page 4: Taking a Closer Look
Page 5: Setup & Packaged Software
Page 6: Testing - Hardware
Page 7: Testing - Software
Page 8: Testing - Interfacing with and Running Windows
Page 9: Testing - Temperature
Page 10: Testing - Performance
Page 11: Testing - Battery Life & MagSafe Adapter
Page 12: Tech Support Experience #1
Page 13: Tech Support Experience #2
Page 14: Conclusion

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