Mac purchase advice

[discopete]

Ok folks I'm convinced that I need a mac. I had a look at the new mac mini for $849 and am sorely tempted as I have a decent monitor and accessories. But the budgets pretty tight so I was hoping to get something seconhand for about $500. What should I be looking at for that money and is it worth it or should I try and find the extra funds for a new mini?

Pete

[disco2hse]

I am not certain what is available for that money but if you can get your hands on a G5 dual processor you should be pretty happy with it. You can use your existing monitor, etc.

Alan

[Xavie]

I think macs are the way but for a decent system it will always cost more. I guess the best way to answer your question is to find out ....

What are you using it for?

Even if it is just every blue moon are you using it for any games, word proccessing only aulro?

Also, unless your nifty with downloads software tends to cost a bit more.

[Turtle61]

You could look at fleaBay for used minis, but they will be a bit slower and will not give you the benefit of warranty etc.

If you can get a used Intel-based mac mini for a good price the speed might not be an issue... Mac Mini 1.83GHz 2GB RAM Intel Core Duo - eBay Mac Mini, Desktops, Apple, Computers. (end time 15-Dec-08 17:31:01 AEDST) (http://cgi.ebay.com.au/Mac-Mini-1-83GHz-2GB-RAM-Intel-Core-Duo_W0QQitemZ300279419713QQcmdZViewItemQQptZAU_Com puters_Apple_Desktops?hash=item300279419713&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=66%3A2%7C65%3A1%7C39%3A1%7C240%3A1318) isn't bad and is the same speed as a new one with double the RAM.

[disco2hse]

Also, unless your nifty with downloads software tends to cost a bit more.

Really? Like what?

Alan

[Xavie]

Better encoding of all the software. Some stuff is not so bad but I mean if it is general word proccessing stuff then you can get that open office stuff which is free anyway.

OH and cost of repair...... Freakin astronomical. I chucked an ibookG4 in the bin when something died as they quoted me 3/4's the price of a new one.

[discopete]

The computer will be used for net forums and general net surfing. At the moment I'm using a packard bell laptop amd2400 522mhz with 224 ram and it is very slow. So what is the minimum system configuration I should be looking at, will a g4 be ok. This is all new to me so go easy. :)

[Xavie]

G4 would easily suit your needs. None of what you said needs much power and a G4 would be light years ahead of what you've got.

The only thing I'd suggest is you need 1 gig ram. I had 512 for a while and it couldn't cope with daily tasks very well.

[discopete]

G4 would easily suit your needs. None of what you said needs much power and a G4 would be light years ahead of what you've got.

The only thing I'd suggest is you need 1 gig ram. I had 512 for a while and it couldn't cope with daily tasks very well.

Thanks mate. That's what I was after.

Pete

[LoveMyV8County]

While a G4 would indeed suit your needs I would recommend an Intel-based Mac Mini if you can possibly afford it. Will come with (near-)current bundled software (iLife etc) and the Intel versions of OpenOffice are under continuous development.

If you have any future software needs/wants you will wish you had gone with an Intel CPU.

My 2c.

Chris

[Captain_Rightfoot]

There is a mac MINI update coming soon. See here (http://buyersguide.macrumors.com/#Mac_mini).

You might find this will drop the price of the existing ones. If you're feeling flash with cash I've seen apple resellers (who else could it be?) selling new outdated models of macbooks for about 1/3 less than their list after an update on ebay. Maybe the same thing will happen for mac mini's if you watch.

Be careful of one thing - the combo drive doesn't write DVD's. This could be painful. If you think it is get the one with the combo drive.

I wouldn't worry too much about the software costs. I've been using them for years now and never bought anything other than ilife. If you need professional editing stuff you will pay.. but you're getting serious to do that and I can't imagine you would need that. They do normal "home" video editing great with the standard stuff. Don't forget you won't have to buy anti-virus or spyware programs.

[discopete]

Thanks fellas. I've been watching ebay and the price difference between a new $849 mac mini and second hand gear isn't enough to justify a second hand purchase. The new mac mini seems like great value which is a problem for me because I don't really want to spend that much on another computer. I'll wait and see what happens when new model mini arrives.

Pete

[Xavie]

Also, and you may be aware that students and education staff gte a 10% discount too. Even if your not maybe you know someone that is who would be happy to sign up for it instead? That will bring you around $780 atleast.

Xav

[Coastie]

Keep an eye on the refurbished macs on the apple web store they occasionally have a mac mini for about 70-80% of retail with 123 month warranty. There is a tab on the LHS of the mac purchase page.

Refurbished Mac - Apple Store (Australia) (http://store.apple.com/au/browse/home/specialdeals/mac'mco=MTE3NjY)

[discopete]

Thanks everyone for the help. At this point it looks like I'll have to dig deep and get a new mac mini. I was thinking about waiting for the new models in January, possibly, but a lot of people are saying prices will rise considerably so I think Ill get in before xmas.

Cheers,
Pete

[Captain_Rightfoot]

Thanks everyone for the help. At this point it looks like I'll have to dig deep and get a new mac mini. I was thinking about waiting for the new models in January, possibly, but a lot of people are saying prices will rise considerably so I think Ill get in before xmas.

Cheers,
Pete

It's on the cards. The Macbooks certainly went through the roof.

Please come back and tell us what you think of it! :)

[Delta_Farce]

Hey Pete,

You can pick up a second hand PC for under $500 with hefty processor and RAM specs (several on eBay for between $300 and $500). You could run Linux on that and it'd be faster than OSX or Windows with no software costs whatsoever.

If you've got your heart set on the Mac, that's cool, but if you're still looking it's worth considering Linux as an option.

Cheers,

Mark

[disco2hse]

Hey Pete,

You can pick up a second hand PC for under $500 with hefty processor and RAM specs (several on eBay for between $300 and $500). You could run Linux on that and it'd be faster than OSX or Windows with no software costs whatsoever.

If you've got your heart set on the Mac, that's cool, but if you're still looking it's worth considering Linux as an option.

Cheers,

Mark

Linux is not necessarily faster than OS X, or Windows. It is the hardware that facilitates performance, and in the case of the Mac the hardsware and OS are optimised to maximise on that.

I have used Linux since about 1995 and on some machines it is very fast and on others not. It depends on many factors, hardware, what services are running, what windowing manager (if there is one ;) ), etc. But the Linux movement has been pretty much broken since it was forked in 1997 so performance is far from guaranteed and usually it requires the user to optimise their distro for the hardware is gonig to be installed on.

There is a cost to everything you get and one of the major costs on Linux has been the user's time in configuring it. With Windows there are ongoing costs to keep it running, both in time and money. On the Mac you can literally get a new machine, pull it out of the box, plug it in and it will configure itself to suit your local situation. Recently I upgraded my Powerbook to a Macbook Pro. Not only did it configure itself but it also walked me through the process of connecting the two machines (choice of Firewire, USB 2.0, or ethernet - I chose the latter) so it could copy *all* my applications, configurations, files, etc, onto the new machine. Then set them all up so they'd work.

Now, if you want *really free* software you should be looking at the BSDs. FreeBSD is great, OpenBSD is blindingly fast, NetBSD is virtually unbreakable.

Alan

[disco2hse]

Thanks everyone for the help. At this point it looks like I'll have to dig deep and get a new mac mini. I was thinking about waiting for the new models in January, possibly, but a lot of people are saying prices will rise considerably so I think Ill get in before xmas.

Cheers,
Pete

If you are looking at a new machine you are far better off looking at the iMacs than than the Minis. You said you want to use yiour existing peripherals but frankly you're wasting your time and money.

The screen on the iMac is, well, brilliant and their performance is absolutely exceptional. The cost difference between the mini and iMac is not worth the loss of performance and quality. You also don't get all the expandability, ports, the amont of RAM you can put in it is very limited, etc. You will probably be keeping the Mac for 8 years or more so you are better off getting everything in it now, including more than 3Gb of RAM.

Sell the monitor, etc. and get it all in the iMac.

My old G5 dual processor is 7 years old, it is running the latest OS version and is faster than the new MacBook Pro. I bought it second hand 4 years ago for $750.

Alan

[discopete]

Hey Pete,

You can pick up a second hand PC for under $500 with hefty processor and RAM specs (several on eBay for between $300 and $500). You could run Linux on that and it'd be faster than OSX or Windows with no software costs whatsoever.

If you've got your heart set on the Mac, that's cool, but if you're still looking it's worth considering Linux as an option.

Cheers,

Mark

Mark,
I seriously considered using linux as I have a reasonable desktop with a infection that I could use but I'm not good enough with a computer to set it up myself. And the thought of trying to find an honest computer guy to set it up, and I;m not saying computer guys are dishonest, steered me towards the macs. I just want to be able to get on the net with minimal fuss and not have to worry about viruses. But in saying all of that I'll have a chat with you about it. I won't be ordering till next week. When's the next trip? Also, on a side note is Kris still after a weekender PM me.

[discopete]

If you are looking at a new machine you are far better off looking at the iMacs than than the Minis. You said you want to use yiour existing peripherals but frankly you're wasting your time and money.

The screen on the iMac is, well, brilliant and their performance is absolutely exceptional. The cost difference between the mini and iMac is not worth the loss of performance and quality. You also don't get all the expandability, ports, the amont of RAM you can put in it is very limited, etc. You will probably be keeping the Mac for 8 years or more so you are better off getting everything in it now, including more than 3Gb of RAM.

Sell the monitor, etc. and get it all in the iMac.

My old G5 dual processor is 7 years old, it is running the latest OS version and is faster than the new MacBook Pro. I bought it second hand 4 years ago for $750.

Alan

Just when I thought I new what I was going to do. So Alan, your saying if I buy new go the imac but what would you recommend between a second hand g5 like you have which seem to go on ebay for about a $1k or an refurbised or new imac. And, do you know if there are a lot of risks when buying secondhand, is there a bit of faulty stuff out there?

Pete

[disco2hse]

Just when I thought I new what I was going to do. So Alan, your saying if I buy new go the imac but what would you recommend between a second hand g5 like you have which seem to go on ebay for about a $1k or an refurbised or new imac. And, do you know if there are a lot of risks when buying secondhand, is there a bit of faulty stuff out there?

Pete

Hmm, well obviously new is better if you can afford it. But really the Mac is a very well constructed brand and apart from the hard drive the electronics don't wear out. The only thing you need to be careful of is that it is not full of fluff, say if it was sitting on a carpeted floor. But then again inside there are ducts that keep most dust away from the motherboard and expansion cards.

The G5's have pci slots that mean you can put things like extra video cards, external SATA drives, video capture, etc. The downside is that they have powerpc chipsets, which Apple are phasing out in favour of Intel. How long the new OS upgrades will continue to support powerpc I don't know, but I have had no problems with new software, thanks to Rosetta (a chipset emulator). As a dual it has 4Gb RAM and two 1.8Ghz powerpc chips.

So, there is little risk in buying secondhand and if you do experience a major hardware failure and it is because of poor manufacture Apple covers those issues for the life of the computer.

Consider it this way. If they are on eBay for a thousand then that gives some idea of their quality. G5's have been in service now for years and they are still soldiering on. The comparable new machine is the Mac Pro at around $5000.

On mine I have two large SATA drives that I have set up as RAID, so if I lose one I can still replace it and not lose anything. As a real Unix system I am reasonably secure in the knowledge that it is very stable and Apple releases security and other updates fairly regularly. Oh and I have upgraded the video card and superdrive over time, which is not such an easy thing to do on the iMac since it is all incorporated into the system and I understand that you can't do that with the Mac mini.

Currently, I have the G5 dual, a MacBook Pro, and an old Quadra 650 in service. The Quadra is about 13 years old and still going strong. That doesn't include the PCs.

HIH
Alan

[discopete]

OK all, the matter has been settled. Just ordered a refurbished iMac 20 inch screen 2.4Ghz etc etc. :D Thanks again for your help, now all I need to do is inform my partner of the purchase. :eek::(

Pete

[disco2hse]

Now the real work begins :p:D

[Delta_Farce]

Good call Pete. Just remember though that me, Gary, Brett and Carlos are all computer guys and are more than happy to help out or build the system for you.

Alan (disco2hse) makes a good point about setting Linux up properly to get the most out it, as some versions are as bloated as Windows and OSX (IMHO both get slowed down because they come with stuff you never use). They all get slowed down when unecessary stuff is installed though, so your best bet is to identify what you need the system for and work towards that.

If that means a new compy then great (and may I point out that a Mac mini would fit in dash :) ), but you can always use the old one to try Linux and BSD out.

I'm hoping to get one more trip in before Xmas. Are you guys going out this weekend?

[Delta_Farce]

Hmm...didn't see page 3 before posting my msg. Please ignore references to Mac mini.

Congrats on the machine Pete, sounds like a beauty!

[LoveMyV8County]

OK all, the matter has been settled. Just ordered a refurbished iMac 20 inch screen 2.4Ghz etc etc. :D Thanks again for your help, now all I need to do is inform my partner of the purchase. :eek::(

Pete

GOOD DECISION.

[discopete]

Have the new machine, and all I can say is BRILLIANT... :D:D:D
It is absolutely beautiful in it's form and function. I don't think I would have been as happy with a mac mini, so a big thanks to those that steered me in the right direction.

Pete

[disco2hse]

Glad to hear it :)

Alan

[Captain_Rightfoot]

Have the new machine, and all I can say is BRILLIANT... :D:D:D
It is absolutely beautiful in it's form and function. I don't think I would have been as happy with a mac mini, so a big thanks to those that steered me in the right direction.

Pete

Good call :)