Best Notebook for $100 or less!

A NOTEBOOK FOR $100.00 ! NO WAY YOU SAY?
The MacBook 2009 or 20010 Unibody found on Ebay is the answer !
Here is why.
The price of a MacBook Unibody on eBay really can be purchase for less than $100. I view the "SOLDS" on eBay to see what they ACTUALLY sell for..

Additionally, the MacBook unibody is extremely easy to upgrade. There's eight screws in the back that you can remove and get Instant access to the battery, ram, and hard drive.

The best thing to do with a MacBook unibody that still has the original spinning 5400 RPM hard drive is to remove it and replace it with an inexpensive SSD Drive that can be purchased on Amazon for less than $80 depending upon the size of the hard drive that you want to install. However many listings on eBay already includes SSD drives so you can save yourself the trouble by just purchasing one that has the hard drive already installed.  Amazon SSD Link

If you decide however that upgrading sounds like a fun proposition you may wish to replace the battery while you're rooting around in there, Amazon sells battery replacements for the MacBook unibody for under $20. Amazon Link for battery.
Actually, the link is one that I have used in the past but sells for $28.00.

As far as RAM is concerned, the MacBook unibody can be expanded to 8 GB of RAM. However, I found just a few eBay listings with 8 gigs of RAM. Most are listed with 2 or 4 gigs of RAM. I have tested the 2, 4 and 8 gig  units and have found that the 2 gig units function perfectly acceptably  however I would choose to have 4 gigs as a minimum. The 8 GB units did not perform noticeably faster for light work

An older computer like this is not going  to perform well for  advanced programs like 3-D modeling, intense video editing, or having hundreds of spreadsheets open at the exact same time. BUT, for day-to-day operations such as watching Netflix , surfing the Internet, looking up recipes, writing school papers, making spreadsheets, and email, this is a great notebook. If you have a teenager who needs to have access to a notebook, this is the kind of notebook to let them have because if this were to be lost or destroyed, it will be less of a problem than having a new notebook that cost over $1000 magically disappear. Besides that, they won’t be using your computer !


Additionally, the original operating system can be upgraded and the MacBook unibody OS can go all the way up to High Sierra. That is just a couple of operating systems short of current, meaning that updates and security issue should not be a concern for a few years. Another option is that you could install a Linux operating system such as mint, or elementary.IO. These operating systems will run well  and stay updated for a very long time making the MB unibody perform very well even in the future. I've installed Mint OS on one of these computers. The install  from a DVD (I did try a SD card and was a non-starter ) was painless and it actually runs quite fast.  There's also an incredible amount of open source software that can be installed on a Linux computer.

BUT what about a Raspberry Pi 4 ? You may ask..? I have purchased the new Raspberry pi 4 and have installed it with a monitor, keyboard, and mouse The cost was just under $100.  The MacBook unibody running Linux runs hands-down faster than the Raspberry pi 4. With the MacBook unibody you get a built-in screen and keyboard…  an all-one solution. So if you're looking to do Internet of things projects or code or just be in the maker mode, the MacBook unibody is a great solution to look at…


Tips:
One thing that I have found with used MacBooks is that the boot time can be slow. I have found that resetting the PRAM fixes slow boot. Click here for article


To clean up your newly acquired used MacBook unibody, you may want to clean it up a little bit and I found that the magic eraser does a tremendous job cleaning the case and keyboard. Amazon link for magic eraser.

Youtube video click here. - Best $100 Real NoteBook.