12-04-2006, 01:00 PM

Sooooo, I was gonna get a mac mini, upgraded to a gig of RAM, with applecare, but that is a little pricey (around $850 I think) ... Is there any alternative to this? Is there a lesser model that would suit me fine (laptop or dekstop, used)? I'm going to be using it for image editing, flash design, and some code editing, but the system doesn't have to be "blazing fast". I'd also like a warranty if possible... Any thoughts? Oh yeah, my gf has a macbook, so it'd also kinda be a "learning" machine, thats what I meant by compatibility. Thanks in advance!

12-04-2006, 04:18 PM

Any Ideas?

12-04-2006, 04:27 PM

Sell your gaming PC and switch to a MacBook. Yeahhh

12-04-2006, 05:17 PM

Never!

12-05-2006, 06:32 AM

I think your only option is to try and get a second hand machine. Having said that if you go on eBay you'll see even old Mac still fetch a good price. It would be fast enough for what you want though.

12-05-2006, 06:42 AM

A second hand G4 iMac might be worthwhile, or even a second hand G4 Mac Mini.

12-05-2006, 10:40 AM

I just sold my G4 mini 1.42 with 1GB of RAM for $450 :-)

12-06-2006, 05:43 PM

a new mac mini on its way...........to meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

12-07-2006, 12:38 PM

Originally Posted by jbubriski

Sooooo, I was gonna get a mac mini, upgraded to a gig of RAM, with applecare, but that is a little pricey (around $850 I think) ... Is there any alternative to this? Is there a lesser model that would suit me fine (laptop or dekstop, used)? I'm going to be using it for image editing, flash design, and some code editing, but the system doesn't have to be "blazing fast". I'd also like a warranty if possible... Any thoughts? Oh yeah, my gf has a macbook, so it'd also kinda be a "learning" machine, thats what I meant by compatibility. Thanks in advance!

You should consider not getting applecare right away. They will let you add it at any time while you are still under warranty. This reduces some of the cost for the machine. Another thing to look at is that these machines tend to last and work well for a very long time. It is an investment, and as someone else mentioned, it's not a bad investment because even if you want to upgrade in a year or so it will still be valuable.

12-08-2006, 03:04 PM

Well, no more deabting it, I got a Mac Mini through the deal at best buy. I also ordered 2 gb of ram that I'll put in myself!!! I'll let you know how it all goes after I get up and running! BTW, I'll get apple care off Ebay next year sometime I think.

12-14-2006, 09:26 PM

Excellent move jbubriski, you will not be disappointed. I made the switch last month for the same reasons. I ended up with a PB G4. The really cool thing is that the Macs have Apache built in. A couple of clicks and some sudo's and you have sql and PHP running along with phpMyAdmin. Can you say local testing. I do work with a lot of cms's and forum software so I needed something to do some local testing.

Enjoy,

Curt