[nemosaltat]

I got my first MacBook in ‘06, the mid-range white one, when the black one was the max spec’. It was $899 with a .edu, and ~$960 with tax then, I might be off by a little, someone can check OWC.

In the last 2 months, I walked out of my local Target with a neo for just under $750 with Apple care (there was a special) so, cheaper, faster across most metrics a consumer cares about, plus longer battery life, lighter, aluminum over plastic, a USB-C shaped hole that will mostly somewhat work with something you have.

However, if you mean cheap in the sense that if it breaks I’m at the mercy of someone else. Yes. My ‘06 MBB had a data-doubler, and SSD upgrades, and maxed RAM, and I can and did replace and maintain many of its parts myself. Plus, firewire with target disk mode to just clone it onto another machine with SuperDuper that just don’t exist in the same way.