Help Me Find A Perfect Match

J

JAdams

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So I came around here a little more than a year ago asking some questions, looking forward to buying a Mac. Unfortunately, I never really got around to it. But now I'm back to wanting one again and may be able to purchase one in the near future after christmas.

So I'll try and develop a profile of myself and hopefully someone can provide some suggestions.

I'm a high school junior with a little money to spend. How much money is a function of the events of this weekend (christmas.) Hopefully though, I'll be looking in the $500-$800 range.

I'd really like to get a used iBook or Powerbook. Primary uses would be internet & email, but I'd really like to be able to get the "total mac experience" and be able to get some messing around done with iLife and iWork. I do minor video editing type of stuff, but that's not really a necessity in a laptop, my Windows computer is more than capable if need be.

I've been looking at PowerMax. Anyone have any suggestions for a specific model?
 
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Your Mac's Specs
3.4 Ghz i7 MacBook Pro (2015), iPad Pro (2014), iPhone Xs Max. Apple TV 4K
For that price range you can buy a new Mac-Mini. Is the portability of a laptop a must have for you?
 

eric


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you could probably get a used macbook for 800 bucks (at least one of the basic coreduo models). add a bit of memory (if you find one with less than a gig), and you may even have some basic warranty left.
 
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Your Mac's Specs
15" MacBook Pro 2.8 GHz/4 GB/500 GB
If you don't need the portability of a laptop, the high end Mac mini is great in the $800 range. http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPLE/WebObjects/AppleStore.woa/wa/RSLID?mco=B3C47B0&nclm=Macmini

If you can spend a little more, the iMac is even better. The $999 model is ok, but the $1199 is much better (2x RAM, SuperDrive, video card vs integrated, 2.0 GHz vs 1.83 GHz) http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPLE/WebObjects/AppleStore.woa/wa/RSLID?mco=C1211F78&nclm=iMac

Either way, I would recommend going for the 1GB of RAM. My Mac is an older G5 with 2GB of RAM, and it runs the iLife stuff great, but the newer Intel Core Duo the family uses doesn't handle heavier apps such as iMovie and GarageBand as well with only 512MB of RAM (the new iMac's are Core 2 Duo and come with 1GB RAM except the $999 model).
 
OP
J

JAdams

Guest
You guys have sort of struck upon what I think my dilema is:

I want a laptop. And I want the high-powered Mac experience. Within my price range, those two sort of conflict.

I could probably afford a Mac mini or used iMac and it would be more than capable of what I want to do.

But at the same time I think a laptop would be more useful to me, seeing as that I already have two desktop PC's in my house (and no laptop.)

But I dunno, I'm still open to suggestions. How easy would it be to install new ram in a used Powerbook?
 

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