I'm looking for guidance on the purchase of a new graphing calaculator preferably in the TI-84+ family covered by Mr. Mitchel's "Using the TI-84 Plus." I currently have a TI-84+ C SE but was told this was a waste and that it would be smarter to eat the loss and get a CE (even an older one) instead. Let me be perfectly clear that I have not taken an exam in decades so cutting-edge speed is far from a necessity, but increased programmability would certainly be a pro. I'm trying to find out from a current user whether this "replacement" advice is valid or if you think it would be a better idea just to stick with what I already have. Many thanks in advance to anyone willing to help me!

Depends what you want to do with it. From an OS perspective there isn't really a difference between the CSE (what you have) and the CE. Unless you are looking to develop applications in C/ASM or download other programs users have made, the upgrade may not be worth it.

I agree, while the CE is better in like every way, I don't really think its worth replacing your CSE. The CSE gets a lot of hate for being dreadfully slow (which it is) but functionally its basically the same as the CE.
That being said, if you really like calcs and want to dive in deeper, then sure, get a CE, preferably the Python Edition.

The CSE is horribly slow. You don't have to be a young whippersnapper to notice that. You're quite likely to regret the sluggishness of the program editor. But if you just don't mind that, then sure, it's functionally nearly identical to the CE, though it lacks Python.

That said, the TI-84 Plus without color shouldn't be underestimated. Its CPU is the same as in the CSE, but the lower screen resolution allows it to be just as responsive as the CE. Plus, there's a huge library of amazing software for the TI-83/4+ B&W calculators. But the B&W calculators' best feature is universally overlooked: they get great battery life. Seriously, you can expect well over forty hours on a single set of AAAs. (1 mA idle, 20 mA at max CPU utilization.)

If it's just programming you're interested in, you might be better off buying a Bluetooth keyboard for your smartphone and downloading an app.

Most importantly, thank you all for coming to my rescue. All I'm looking for is an adequate partner to help me teach myself Calculus and Physics. Exams are a thing of the past so the fact that a calculator is slow does not bother me in the least since I have nothing but time. I'm sorry if I misspoke; it is not programming I'm interested in, rather the numerous available applications which may be helpful. My understanding is that the CSE cannot avail itself of many. What I heard is that Python, though certainly helpful, is not something worth the extra $ (probably wrong). By the way, does the CE, white do anything special that warrants the very high price being asked for it, or is that just 3rd party seller malarkey?

It depends on exactly which applications you have in mind. Most of the apps published by TI are available for the CSE, and many BASIC programs will work correctly (though they may require some modification), which I expect would meet your needs in the category of "doing practical math." Most third-party assembly programs (which generally aren't compatible with the CSE) are tools and games rather than math utilities, so I don't think that's a major concern.

Unless you can identify something that you want to use that isn't supported on the CSE, it sounds like it will meet your needs.

The color of the calculator has no bearing on its function, so that's just a market pricing thing that's not important.

The CSE does have DCSE8 which has many useful oncalc functions and libraries.

It's interface is slower in general but from a practical math standpoint it should be fine.

The CE is the newest iteration mind you, I believe the CSE is around 9 years old at this point!

For clarification's sake: if my info is correct (and let's be frank, it probably isn't), the CSE's slowness is really only due to the way the screen is set up -- it's not memory-mapped, so graphics are necessarily much slower on the CSE than on the CE. That being said, there are no discernible differences in actual computational speed, and graphics really only matter in games, so you should be good. Keep it.

Also, it works with gCn. Maybe.

I hope my book has been a help! I agree with everything that has been said here: the TI-84 Plus C Silver Edition is a perfectly serviceable calculator for general math, physics, etc. You might wait an extra second or two for graphs to graph, but all the functionality you would want is there. Most of the extra slowness is indeed the screen (a relatively high-pixel-count display coupled to the same CPU the monochrome-screen calculators had, without even enough RAM to store a copy of the display). The TI-84 Plus CE calculators also have a faster ez80 processor, but as you correctly infer, you're rarely waiting for a computation to complete even on a TI-84 Plus C Silver Edition.

No, besides the fact that the CE's LCD is memory mapped, its processor is twice as fast and it has pipelining. For newer versions, the flash is also much faster so there is a significant difference in "computational speed" and its not just games. On top of that, the CSE has 23kb of user accessible ram like the monochrome 84+ while the CE has 154KB.
Also gCn doesn't work on the CSE.

gCn should be updated to support the CSE!

The hardware in the CE is (mostly) superior and faster for general use and calculations. HOWEVER it is not what I would call significant. The instances where the time variance for any individual calculation greater than a few seconds would be quite minimal.

The CE is the better calculator, but for general use the justification for upgrading to the CE when you already own a CSE may not be worth it.

Unless you can sell your CSE for a good price perhaps?

BUT! If you wanted to start a calculator collection then you can sometimes find cheap CE's on ebay or in goodwill type stores .