Dilemma - Macbook Pro Repair or New

[mdr]

My 17" Macbook Pro is over two and a half years old. It was the cream of the crop that one could buy at that time, with 4GB RAM, 2.4GHz CPU and a 160GB 7200rpm HDD. Have had no issues (until last week) and loved it.

It died last week and Apple has carried out their diagnosis. Bad news is, it needs a new logic board costing a whopping £770.

So now I have a dilemma. Do I pay for the repair (not under Apple Care unfortunately) or do I splash out on a new 17" one at around £2,000?

I checked eBay and saw that similar ones to mine go for around £850, so the repair is not much of it's resell value.

What would I get for the parts or selling as spares or repair on eBay?

What would you guys do?

[Fastfwd13]

It's worth fixing but maybe it's easier to just sell it for parts and let someone else fix it and get a new one. This is what I would do.

[Tony-S]

That's a bummer. Most people I know get Apple Care for the laptops (I never have). The current models are much better than the one you have in terms of chipset. Have you considered a refurb? You could also buy a used computer as well (and the risk that goes with it).

[Pete]

It'll probably be more cost-effective to get it repaired yourself rather than sell it broken.

If you were happy with it before, then just keep on using it (no real need to spend even more money on a more up to date model if you've worked perfectly happily before).

[basroil]

MBP have not really seen any real hardware improvements in the last few years, just that unibody idea and a slightly higher clock speed processor (maybe 20% improvement, a far cry from the 200-400% improvement by going to a mobile i7). No sense in buying a new one if it will cost you much more and doesn't give you much more.

EDIT: It's not excellence, it's a lack of heat control. Until Intel reveals i5 chips for laptops, the quad cores and i7 chips produce too much heat and use too much electricity for the MBP design (you would be able to run the cpu at 100% for less than an hour before the battery was depleted and cpu gets underclocked.... WITH the laptop plugged in). We can be fairly certain that any new MBP will not use the i7 chips, unless they pull an iMac and have a 20" screen version.

[Tony-S]

MBP have not really seen any real hardware improvements in the last few years...

It's really difficult to improve on excellence. ;)

[MaxxuM]

My 17" Macbook Pro is over two and a half years old. It was the cream of the crop that one could buy at that time, with 4GB RAM, 2.4GHz CPU and a 160GB 7200rpm HDD. Have had no issues (until last week) and loved it.

It died last week and Apple has carried out their diagnosis. Bad news is, it needs a new logic board costing a whopping £770.

So now I have a dilemma. Do I pay for the repair (not under Apple Care unfortunately) or do I splash out on a new 17" one at around £2,000?

I checked eBay and saw that similar ones to mine go for around £850, so the repair is not much of it's resell value.

What would I get for the parts or selling as spares or repair on eBay?

What would you guys do?

I'm with the others on this one - it would probably be best just to repair it and continue using it. I'm willing to bet Apple is cooking up some i7 and i5 laptops for next year - probably with different cooling and a body design to deal with heat. Your MBP is more than adequate for most things except the biggest camera's and even then it will do OK. Mac's retain their value pretty well so you could sell it this time next year for probably around £500-£600 and upgrade to the current Mac's which will be released early next year. And those will probably be discounted by that time.

[Psychobiker]

Take your Mac hating over to /b/ on 4chan please. :) People who care are there.

I'd say repair it. If it was a PC which didn't hold its value, then scrap it. Turn it into a nice ornament when it's closed. That's what I do.

[mdr]

Decided to go with the repair. Couldn't justify a new one financially, especially after just upgrading to a 5DII and 100 f2.8 L Macro. I would have loved to get a new one, but as indicated by you guys, the differences compared to a new one are pretty insignificant.

[BeritOlam]

Decided to go with the repair. Couldn't justify a new one financially, especially after just upgrading to a 5DII and 100 f2.8 L Macro. I would have loved to get a new one, but as indicated by you guys, the differences compared to a new one are pretty insignificant.

I think you made the right decision.

I had a logic board go out on an old iBook, but the cost to fix it ($300) vs. buying a MacBook Intel refurb ($800) made buying the new computer the preferred choice. Quite a big jump from a G3 700mhz to the Intel....and for a fairly modest price.

The pricing points are a little different for your MBP -- I would have done the same if I were in your shoes.