Mac on a Budget?

Baron von Case · Post by **Baron von Case** » Fri Dec 19, 2008 7:19 pm

So I am living on student loans that I need to start paying back in May and 100% of my family income is from UAW so needless to say I'm financially fucked. My music is still a top priority, so I'm looking to maximize my studio with the means I have.

Would it be a terrible idea to buy a used iBook G4/G5 off of eBay? Can they run Leopard? If not, will the new versions of Live and Logic (which I'd like to check out if I got a Mac) support whatever the old OS was? Or should I save enough to get a refurbished Macbook/Powerbook? Any and all opinions welcome.

I am in a hole, but I am at an age where I have a lot of promising musical ideas, and it would suck to be in a situation where I'm 50 with a ton of money and have to wonder what would've happened if I were a thousand dollars richer and could've lived my dream.

Suggestions from people who inevitably know a lot more about this than me very welcome!

beats me · Post by **beats me** » Fri Dec 19, 2008 7:28 pm

Your income is UAW? Holy crap, not to thread jack already, but give us an insiders view because all we have to rant about is the bobble heads the media feeds us. What's going on on the battle field?

But on your topic, I would try to save up for a refurb. Computers are typically old and dated (yes, even Apples) after several years. I wouldn't try to push back even further than that, especially if this is going to be a main rig.

darkcatt · Post by **darkcatt** » Fri Dec 19, 2008 7:33 pm

http://www.google.com/search?q=mac+clon ... =firefox-a

Baron von Case · Post by **Baron von Case** » Fri Dec 19, 2008 7:47 pm

darkcatt wrote:http://www.google.com/search?q=mac+clon ... =firefox-a

Any personal experience in this area? I have an inclining that it's not quite the same as the Apple experience. The question is then, how much worse is it? I'll read about it in full later, can any clone match an Apple's processor speed?

Lo-Fi Massahkah · Post by **Lo-Fi Massahkah** » Fri Dec 19, 2008 7:51 pm

If I was on a strict budget, I'd get a Windows machine. Much more raw power for your money. And you can do the same things.

Live is Live is Live.

.m

Baron von Case · Post by **Baron von Case** » Fri Dec 19, 2008 8:00 pm

I've got a Dell Latitude notebook that I got in 2005. It ended up costing me more than a new Powerbook of today, plus as we all know, a three year old computer is as obsolete as a slide rule.

darkcatt · Post by **darkcatt** » Fri Dec 19, 2008 8:06 pm

http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/us/en/sm ... 32821.html

here is my next computer

2 quad cores for 1500 is dead sexy!

ethios4 · Post by **ethios4** » Fri Dec 19, 2008 8:07 pm

Live does not run as efficiently on pre-Intel Macs as it does on the Intel Macs because Live was never optimized for Altivec. Around the time lots of people were clamoring for Altivec optimization, Apple announced the move to Intel chips, so Live was never optimized for pre-Intel Macs.

wilxon · Post by **wilxon** » Fri Dec 19, 2008 11:36 pm

i would do everything possible to get at least a core 2 duo mac,

if its an early imac or macbook, that will be better than getting an old G5/G4

make sure you get a C2D though

Kilroy · Post by **Kilroy** » Fri Dec 19, 2008 11:46 pm

Apple.com has refurbished prev-gen(white) Macbooks starting at $849. For that money, you get 2.1ghz, 1gig of RAM and 120gig hard drive. Not sure if that it is in your price range, but the guys on here tell me it is more than enough to ran Live well. And it is an intel mack with more or less the latest version of Leopard.

K.

Baron von Case · Post by **Baron von Case** » Sat Dec 20, 2008 12:09 am

Kilroy wrote:Apple.com has refurbished prev-gen(white) Macbooks starting at $849. For that money, you get 2.1ghz, 1gig of RAM and 120gig hard drive. Not sure if that it is in your price range, but the guys on here tell me it is more than enough to ran Live well. And it is an intel mack with more or less the latest version of Leopard.

K.

If someone finds someone who can help me out here http://forum.ableton.com/viewtopic.php?t=103208, it will be perfectly within my means.

And this is the last generation to feature FireWire, no? So in some way it's almost the best alternative?

Chang · Post by **Chang** » Sat Dec 20, 2008 1:16 am

I just saw this on another forum. You can turn a cheaper pc to run OS X with this new dongle.

http://gizmodo.com/5049756/review-efix- ... -pc-to-mac

djfm · Post by **djfm** » Sat Dec 20, 2008 1:49 am

i would scrimp and save to get some money togeather to get a macbook or ibook at any cost mainly because of the stability of the os

pulsoc · Post by **pulsoc** » Sat Dec 20, 2008 2:08 am

http://www.macconnection.com/IPA/Shop/P ... ku=8252982

jackjack · Post by **jackjack** » Sat Dec 20, 2008 4:29 am

I'd buy a cheap pc. I've got two laptops in front of me - a cheap HP and an expensive macbook. Live runs the same on both. And to be honest, the mac has had more problems. It has the common wireless problem where it constantly loses the connection. Very annoying and nothing from apple despite a year+ and many people on the internet complaining.

It is very nice to have both. But on a budget the PC will do just as fine.

Wait until the week after Christmas and you'll surely be able to find a dual core PC laptop for $399 with 2 or 3 gigs of ram.

If you really must have a mac, I'd wait and see if live.com bring back the 25% off thing. If so, buy a used mac on ebay with that. A bit more risky but with good research you could probably do good. I'd also plan on buying a new battery to go with it.