Just looking around - Mac computers

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WinNZ90

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#280089 25-Nov-2020 19:24

Hi everyone

Just looking right now

Was just wondering if anyone has anything macish they want to get rid of, iMac, Mac Mini etc and what sort of price I'd be looking at, post on here or pm me.

Thanks

I don't have any money right now but finding it hard to do my course when I keep having major issues with the second hand windows computer I have.

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#2610846 25-Nov-2020 22:34

Pm sent

Geektastic

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#2610908 26-Nov-2020 08:32

Welcome into the Light, my friend!

1024kb

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#2611199 26-Nov-2020 14:55

Hmm, lack of funds & purchasing a Mac are not often compatible. Generally, a Mac will cost twice the equivalent PC price & deliver around half the performance. Mac will also last a long time & retain resale value for years & years too. But no/low funding doesn't make for a happy Mac user.

Just beware of believing the hype. It ain't all roses in Apple's walled garden. Check out Staingate, the butterfly keyboard problem (unfixable apart from repeatedly replacing the keyboard every time it wears), Batterygate ($US113m awarded) & the earlier 2011 GPU failure problem amongst others. Replacing MagSafe chargers is a regular thing, get used to it. Lightning cables too.

Make sure you buy a Mac with your future needs in mind, you cannot upgrade any component of most Macs produced since 2012. Need more RAM? Should have thought about that when you bought it. You can swap the NVMe drive on pre 2016 Macbooks but you'll be paying for the privilege - Apple use a proprietary connection instead of the industry-standard one that every other manufacturer uses. So the amazing bargains available in high-speed storage drives are not for MacBook users.

A MacBook Pro is just a well-built laptop with a different OS - take away the OS & it's just a well-built laptop. Most likely the component spec is well below competing brands - Apple only recently moved to DDR4 in MacBook Pros, within the last year or so. Dell / HP / Asus etc would have been ridiculed if they were caught offering technology 3 years past replacement date. Their Intel processors are very often lower spec units than those used in PC manufacture. Apple graphic performance has always been dreary to say the least.

There's no reason why a similarly well-built computer will not perform at least as well as an Apple product - they're made of the same stuff. Granted, there aren't that many PCs available of equal or superior build quality, but there are some & you'll get those for 50-75% of the equivalent Mac price.

Now, if it's Windows you're looking to get away from, if the OS is giving you grief, then there are viable options to consider - especially with your current lack of funds. A Linux distro, Ubuntu is the obvious one, can deliver long-term reliable operability with free industry-standard apps. You can install on virtually any hardware (even Apple) & check it out for free.

Also, off topic but whatever - by using Bootcamp, Windows runs really well on Apple hardware. Really well.

Megabyte - so geek it megahertz

wellygary

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#2611209 26-Nov-2020 15:23

1024kb:

Also, off topic but whatever - by using Bootcamp, Windows runs really well on Apple hardware. Really well.

At least until they complete the chip transition.....

Geektastic

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#2611265 26-Nov-2020 15:48

1024kb: Hmm, lack of funds & purchasing a Mac are not often compatible. Generally, a Mac will cost twice the equivalent PC price & deliver around half the performance. Mac will also last a long time & retain resale value for years & years too. But no/low funding doesn't make for a happy Mac user.

Just beware of believing the hype. It ain't all roses in Apple's walled garden. Check out Staingate, the butterfly keyboard problem (unfixable apart from repeatedly replacing the keyboard every time it wears), Batterygate ($US113m awarded) & the earlier 2011 GPU failure problem amongst others. Replacing MagSafe chargers is a regular thing, get used to it. Lightning cables too.

Make sure you buy a Mac with your future needs in mind, you cannot upgrade any component of most Macs produced since 2012. Need more RAM? Should have thought about that when you bought it. You can swap the NVMe drive on pre 2016 Macbooks but you'll be paying for the privilege - Apple use a proprietary connection instead of the industry-standard one that every other manufacturer uses. So the amazing bargains available in high-speed storage drives are not for MacBook users.

A MacBook Pro is just a well-built laptop with a different OS - take away the OS & it's just a well-built laptop. Most likely the component spec is well below competing brands - Apple only recently moved to DDR4 in MacBook Pros, within the last year or so. Dell / HP / Asus etc would have been ridiculed if they were caught offering technology 3 years past replacement date. Their Intel processors are very often lower spec units than those used in PC manufacture. Apple graphic performance has always been dreary to say the least.

There's no reason why a similarly well-built computer will not perform at least as well as an Apple product - they're made of the same stuff. Granted, there aren't that many PCs available of equal or superior build quality, but there are some & you'll get those for 50-75% of the equivalent Mac price.

Now, if it's Windows you're looking to get away from, if the OS is giving you grief, then there are viable options to consider - especially with your current lack of funds. A Linux distro, Ubuntu is the obvious one, can deliver long-term reliable operability with free industry-standard apps. You can install on virtually any hardware (even Apple) & check it out for free.

Also, off topic but whatever - by using Bootcamp, Windows runs really well on Apple hardware. Really well.

Not all Macs are laptops and indeed OP specifically referenced iMacs and Mac Minis, both of which have user replaceable RAM and can use any keyboard you like. They do not have batteries either or Magsafe chargers...

Benjip

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#2611283 26-Nov-2020 16:25

1024kb: Generally, a Mac will cost twice the equivalent PC price & deliver around half the performance.

You might have had a point until the past couple of weeks. The M1 chip is destroying the competition in the notebook space, including ones in the same price brackets.

I can only imagine what the desktop versions will achieve next year.

WinNZ90

196 posts

Master Geek
Inactive user

#2611329 26-Nov-2020 18:34

1024kb: Hmm, lack of funds & purchasing a Mac are not often compatible. Generally, a Mac will cost twice the equivalent PC price & deliver around half the performance. Mac will also last a long time & retain resale value for years & years too. But no/low funding doesn't make for a happy Mac user.

Just beware of believing the hype. It ain't all roses in Apple's walled garden. Check out Staingate, the butterfly keyboard problem (unfixable apart from repeatedly replacing the keyboard every time it wears), Batterygate ($US113m awarded) & the earlier 2011 GPU failure problem amongst others. Replacing MagSafe chargers is a regular thing, get used to it. Lightning cables too.

Make sure you buy a Mac with your future needs in mind, you cannot upgrade any component of most Macs produced since 2012. Need more RAM? Should have thought about that when you bought it. You can swap the NVMe drive on pre 2016 Macbooks but you'll be paying for the privilege - Apple use a proprietary connection instead of the industry-standard one that every other manufacturer uses. So the amazing bargains available in high-speed storage drives are not for MacBook users.

A MacBook Pro is just a well-built laptop with a different OS - take away the OS & it's just a well-built laptop. Most likely the component spec is well below competing brands - Apple only recently moved to DDR4 in MacBook Pros, within the last year or so. Dell / HP / Asus etc would have been ridiculed if they were caught offering technology 3 years past replacement date. Their Intel processors are very often lower spec units than those used in PC manufacture. Apple graphic performance has always been dreary to say the least.

There's no reason why a similarly well-built computer will not perform at least as well as an Apple product - they're made of the same stuff. Granted, there aren't that many PCs available of equal or superior build quality, but there are some & you'll get those for 50-75% of the equivalent Mac price.

Now, if it's Windows you're looking to get away from, if the OS is giving you grief, then there are viable options to consider - especially with your current lack of funds. A Linux distro, Ubuntu is the obvious one, can deliver long-term reliable operability with free industry-standard apps. You can install on virtually any hardware (even Apple) & check it out for free.

Also, off topic but whatever - by using Bootcamp, Windows runs really well on Apple hardware. Really well.

I do understand this, I have been a windows user for the last 12 years, I have no issue with the hardware but the operating system it is getting ****ing terrible, I have spent the better part of the Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday, reinstalling windows 9 times, I had to reinstall due to a heap of crap I was no longer using and one the first reinstall, NO KEYBOARD OR MOUSE function inside of windows from boot up so I couldn't even do the reinstall. No checked all my hardware, tried other spare keyboards and mice I have and nothing and the rest is ****ing history. I have said I would never go to Mac but its time. Windows has just become to fill of crap along with the big list of other issues with it.

Yes I tried 6 different version of linux and none of them would pick up my wifi chip, no matter what I did. And trust me, my wife is a hard out python coder and linux expert, has been playing with python and linux for years. My wifi chip is a real random one and I am down the other end of the house so a cable will not work.

I have just given up, yes I understand they are pricey, so far everything I have been offered, has been way out of what I could pull together right now. If this happened a month ago I would have gotten the New Mac Mini M1 model but right now I am up **** creek and need to work something out fast before I start having issues again.

Definitely no after Macbooks (Thanks for all the offers), iMacs or Mac Minis are the way I need to go

Wise

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K8Toledo

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#2611347 26-Nov-2020 19:10

Benjip:

1024kb: Generally, a Mac will cost twice the equivalent PC price & deliver around half the performance.

You might have had a point until the past couple of weeks. The M1 chip is destroying the competition in the notebook space, including ones in the same price brackets.

I can only imagine what the desktop versions will achieve next year.

Double the performance @ four times the price...?

WinNZ90

196 posts

Master Geek
Inactive user

#2611349 26-Nov-2020 19:13

Double the performance and half the price.

The old mac minis went for well over 1500, you can get a new one for 1100. The downside of intel cores, if you buy a computer with intel in it you am pay loads for the cpu compared to everything else

Andib

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#2611354 26-Nov-2020 19:28

WinNZ90:
but the operating system it is getting ****ing terrible, I have spent the better part of the Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday, reinstalling windows 9 times

Windows can be a challenge sometimes but after the second or third OS reinstall, its clear the OS is not the issue, its whatever you're doing to it or your hardware.

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WinNZ90

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Master Geek
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#2611355 26-Nov-2020 19:32

No not my hardware, cause I am using the same hardware now I was using before the reinstall and when trying to reinstall keyboard would work fine in the bios and everything else I was able to access before the windows loading screen, once windows loaded it keep switching to if I was on a touch screen devices and cutting power to my keyboard and mouse. So no not user - OS

Zal

209 posts

Master Geek

#2611459 26-Nov-2020 22:06

WinNZ90:

No not my hardware, cause I am using the same hardware now I was using before the reinstall and when trying to reinstall keyboard would work fine in the bios and everything else I was able to access before the windows loading screen, once windows loaded it keep switching to if I was on a touch screen devices and cutting power to my keyboard and mouse. So no not user - OS

100% your hardware. Windows 10 is an excellent OS. And it isn't terrible.

Wasting your time with what you have.

Go out an get a Elitebook 840 G3 for like $400 bucks and you'll be fine.

Geektastic

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#2611470 26-Nov-2020 22:33

WinNZ90:

Double the performance and half the price.

The old mac minis went for well over 1500, you can get a new one for 1100. The downside of intel cores, if you buy a computer with intel in it you am pay loads for the cpu compared to everything else

The new Air smokes some serious competition and gives you 16 hours of battery or something.

If I was buying a laptop for travel and work I would probably get the MBP though because it has more ports and a fan, so will run under sustained load faster. Still very good VFM though I think.

Pre-owned iMacs are good buying as well usually.

Handle9

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#2611493 27-Nov-2020 00:11

1024kb: Generally, a Mac will cost twice the equivalent PC price & deliver around half the performance.

Have you got any evidence of what you are claiming here or is it just your reckon?

1024kb

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#2611577 27-Nov-2020 09:52

Handle9:
1024kb: Generally, a Mac will cost twice the equivalent PC price & deliver around half the performance.

Have you got any evidence of what you are claiming here or is it just your reckon?

Read my words. "Generally" & "around" are what qualifies the line as a non-specific opinion. I can though, for the benefit of fanbois, expound. Macs are a premium-priced computer to start with. They do however come with very basic spec standard & really do require upgrade on order. I mean who thinks that a 128GB SSD is sufficient? This upgrade process is where they get very expensive. Apple have the policy of charging for the upgrade part (fair enough) but forgetting to refund for the part being replaced. You want 16GB RAM? They're going to charge you for 16GB even though you only need 8GB additional.

Today, if you purchase an EOL standard 13" MBP i5, 8GB, 512GB machine, Apple will charge you $3299. Dell's equivalent XPS with faster i5 (4.2GHz vs 3.8GHz) can be owned for $1767. Granted, not half price exactly but around half price, only $117 over. Nice to see Apple putting useful storage in these EOL laptops.

The remarks I made about DDR3, Staingate, butterfly keyboards & lower-spec processors are factually correct. All protest & indignant replies on a postcard please.

Don't get me wrong, I use Apple product - typing on my iPad Pro right now. I'm not blinded by the hype though, they're just a computer. Apple make solidly built product & charge a substantial premium for it. Buying into the Apple range does not grant you entry to computer Nirvana, they say their kit "just works" but often it only just works.

Megabyte - so geek it megahertz

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