buying first MAC ADVICE PLEASE

I’m thinking of buying a Mac but I’m on a budget!

I have bought a windows passed laptop two months ago so my budget for the Mac will be tight!… about 500Euro… although I could stretch a tiny bit.

My girlfriend got an Ipod mini for Christmas and I have ordered a 20gb 4th generation iPod, waiting for it to be delivered.

As a student of multimedia and web design, my interest in Linux had grew in the last few months…. And then I discovered the Mac….. So much more stable than windows based PC’s and from what I have seen so far, so much better.

Ok now…… here are some questions regarding my future mac:

I have the following software on the PC—Dreamweaver, Flash, Fireworks, Photoshop, Microsoft Office, Paint shop pro and a few others… Will I have to purchase different versions for the Mac or are they the same??


How do I know what to go for? Especially within my budget! I have been looking on Ebay and I don’t know what is a good mac and what is a bad one!

I would appreciate if someone could suggest one.

Im not sure about the Mac Mini, unless I can get matching keyboard, mouse and screen from apple?? Can I??

Secondly, The eMac I have been having a look and the price seems reasonable… even new. But are they any good??? Powerful for video editing etc??

The new iMac, seems to be a bit out of my price range…but… I was wondering are the older ones any good?

And finally here is what the mac would be mainly used for:

Dreamweaver
Director MX
Flash
Photoshop
Video Editing (I don’t know what software for Mac)
I play in a band too , so I want to be able to record.. drums, guitar, bass etc.
I need a bluetooth connection because I have a nokia 6600 which I sync via Bluetooth

Music… well apple is in a class of its own. Im familiar with iTunes and of course iPod.

Hard disk space…. Is it important?? I could hook up an external Firewire drive right??

It would be great if someone could point me in the right direction and point a good one out online or on Ebay for a reasonable price.

Thanks a lot.

I look forward to learning more about Apple. Keep up the good work.
:yinyang:

On your budget I'd go for a mac mini, with matching keyboard+mouse from apple, plus a cheap LCD screen from another manufacturer.

The emac is alright, but a bit long in the tooth imo, plus the crt screen isn't as nice.

An older iMac G4 would also be good, but they are still quite expensive...


Software: Macs come with the iLife creative suite which includes iMovie for editing movies and iDVD for creating DVD menus for your movies.

Also includes Garageband 2 which is excellent for bands as you can record up to 8 tracks at once and it has features like pitch/volume/speed correction as well as lots of AU effects etc.

Bluetooth is a build-to-order option if you want it internally, otherwise just get an external usb dongle.

If you go for a mac mini I'd get the internal option to save usb slots.


I'm not sure if you can transfer the licences from your pc software to the mac version of the software, you'd need to check that with the makers.

But you will need a different version, windows programs cannot be installed on a mac natively, only through virtual pc (an emulator).
Most programs have a mac-compatible equivalent though (i.e. ms office for mac, photoshop cs for mac etc.)

Yes you can use an external firewire harddrive (and most other peripherals too - digicams, camcorders, usb sticks, printers, scanners.....)

If you are a student, I'd buy a mac mini with apple's educational discount with bluetooth and extra RAM as build-to-order options. Also buy a keyboard from apple and get a 3rd party mouse with more than 1 mouse button!

Then pick up a cheap lcd somewhere and you'll be set.

yeah man, that actually sound cool!

Im a student so I will get a discount,

Can you point out an LCD screen on some site for me to set me in the right direction??

Thanks

Get as much ram as you can afford, I just got a mini, I only have 512mb in it, it needs more.

mynameis said:

Get as much ram as you can afford, I just got a mini, I only have 512mb in it, it needs more.

Click to expand...

512MB is fine for most people. i don't think i'll be using the mac mini for any heaving gfx/video editing or game playing anyway.

with that said, i'd still like to go 1GB...