Low power mac for $500?

Hello I am a college student interested in getting a mac. I recently brought a mac which is a used 2.0 GHz iMac G5. However, its super slow with flash video, is noisy, waste a lot of power, and cannot be upgrade to 10.6.

So I am interested in getting a new mac with following characteristics.
1. Low Power/Quiet
2. Able to run OS x Snow Leopard
3. Able to run 720p flash videos
4. $500 or less since I am a student on a tight budget. This includes a monitor.

Does anyone have any suggestions about which type of mac I should get? Thanks for helping out this new Mac convert.

Well, for that price I doubt you'll be able to find a mac better than the one you currently have. There is a good refurbished macbook available from the apple store, but its almost 900$. Therefore, I guess your options are limited to eBay/Kijiji/something like that, although its always a risk because you can never be 100% sure about what you're getting. Happy Shopping

P.S. Welcome to the forum

I've picked up a couple 17" core duo (and one core2) iMacs on ebay for around $550 each. Look around I'm sure you'll find one eventually. I also lucked out and got a 20" code duo with Bluetooth kb and mouse for exactly $500.

The least expensive mac right now is the mac mini and it starts at $600 not including monitor, keyboard, or mouse. Education pricing might put it around $550 though. You can always try macmall.com to save a bit but it won't bring you to $500 either. You could always try ebay too, but you always take a risk when buying from there. The only other option could be the iPad, but it's not really a computer.

I found this however: Amazon.com: Used and New: Apple Mac mini M9687LL/B (1.42 GHz PowerPC G4, 512 MB DDR SDRAM, 80 GB Hard Drive, DVD/CD-RW Drive)

Also keep an eye on apple's refurb store: Refurbished Mac - Apple Store (U.S.)

Thank you all for the replies, I appreciate it. I looked at apple's site and their cheapest mac would be 549.00 Mac Mini after the educational discount. However, I did find another site which offers cheap macs called Gainsaver, but I do not know if its a good company. I could get a mac there for under 500, but can such a mac run HD flash video? A 1.66 GHz mac mini or a 1.83GHz iMac?

For under $500 your choices are:

- 1.83ghz or 2.0ghz MacBook from Craig's List (not all will be under $500, but some will be)
- used Intel Mac-Mini from Craig's List
- refurbished 2.53ghz Mac-Mini from the Apple online store for $499 + tax. I just bought one this weekend (these are not always available...you have to keep checking if they are in stock).

Hope this helps,

- Nick

pigoo3 said:

- refurbished 2.53ghz Mac-Mini from the Apple online store for $499 + tax. I just bought one this weekend (these are not always available...you have to keep checking if they are in stock).

- Nick

Click to expand...

Mmmm..Thought for a second we may have been biding against each other on eBay for the same Mini.

Gainsaver is a ripoff, don't trust them. Bottom line is that any Intel powered mac will playback flash much better than your PPC machine. This isn't because of the speed difference but more about adobe actually putting a little bit of effort into making a better flash player of the intel platform (Barely). Keep in mind tho, flash is fading away very quickly.

Mac SK said:

Mmmm..Thought for a second we may have been biding against each other on eBay for the same Mini.

Click to expand...

No e-Bay on this transaction...I ordered the refurbished Mac-Mini directly from Apple.

- Nick

I'd say a 2nd hand MacBook is your best bet, but 720p Flash Videos will get the fans blasting very quickly.

Zoolook said:

I'd say a 2nd hand MacBook is your best bet, but 720p Flash Videos will get the fans blasting very quickly.

Click to expand...

Yes very true! Everytime I head to You-Tube...the fans kick into high gear!

OP...but don't let this discourage you from getting a 2nd hand MacBook...just par for the course...the flash videos will run fine.

- Nick

pigoo3 said:

Yes very true! Everytime I head to You-Tube...the fans kick into high gear!

OP...but don't let this discourage you from getting a 2nd hand MacBook...just par for the course...the flash videos will run fine.

- Nick

Click to expand...

Exactly - plus if you use Safari, where possible YouTube will display HTML5 videos, which are a lot kinder to the CPU.

Hulu is still a CPU hog though.