Hi All! In the event that a somewhat budget impaired person would like to purchase one of these wonderful machines, what are the things you should pay for outright and what are things you can upgrade later as funds become available? Example of outright purchases could include the: processor, video card. Example of things you can upgrade later: RAM (?), Hard Drive (?) Your insight and advice are eagerly appreciated. Thanks in advance!
it all depends on what you intend to use your mac for, if you're going to do a lot of photography or video work then obviously you'd want to invest outright in additional RAM, if you're going to use it mostly for word processing and the usual media stuff, the good news is any mac out of the box will do the work.
Well, it'll be a personal unit so there will be the email, internet, music, videos & movies, pictures, some document crunching, and when possible, games.
as mentioned above consider your needs, and 2 max out what you can afford it'll be worth every centavo. these machines last well beyond their competitiveness in the current market, so might as well buy one you're truly happy with. make sure to do your research there are lots of cheaper alternatives than buying it at the mac store
I too was on a budget when I sought to find my Mac. I run a graphics heavy RC helicopter simulator. I bought the highest specs my budget could buy. That meant a used 2.2ghz MacBook 13", 4gb ram , and 144mb vram for graphics. The only MacBook that could beat these specs are the latest ones which is beyond my budget. In all, I spent P35,500.
Just to give you an idea, I own an old 2006 Intel Core 2 Duo 2.0 Black Macbook, with "only" 2GB RAM. I edit on photoshop, edit a lot of presentations and work a lot on Lightroom. I rely on it A LOT for my work as a photographer and as a training consultant. It's very usable and does what I need well. My brother has slightly similar specs and has edited a lot of great videos/AVPs/MTVs on Final Cut, and it's all stock. Try what you have first, see if it works for you, BEFORE buying anything. Leo
The cheapest macbook on sale on Apple is the White Macbook. It should have the most basic specs you're looking for: NVidia graphics card for games, ample RAM (2GB) and a 160GB HDD. Brand new, that would cost PhP55,900. I think it's very reasonable already and the only future upgrade you could do is the RAM (maybe to about PhP1,500) and a bigger HDD (something like PhP6,000), which you can buy anywhere.
or you can scour the forum marketplace and check to see who's upgrading the latest and greatest and hopefully grab yourself a really good deal.
you can also go for the now "classic" macbook unibody, but i suggest you go for the pre-owned 2.4 one (with 250 GB hard drive and 2GB ram) or the brand new one if it's not too expensive. i'm guessing it must be around 65k+ na lang. at least it'll be in between the brand new MBPs
Actually, I'm currently using a Fujitsu LifeBook S2020 which I inherited from my Aunt when she got herself a 17" MBP! I wiped out windoze and installed Ubuntu and am happily running Jaunty now. Thing is, I've always been a Mac person since I work in the graphics industry (printing) and it's all I ever used when I worked in The Netherlands. Since I didn't have a budget, I went Ubuntu rather than live with windoze. Owning a Mac is the final goal. This in mind my perfect set up would be a fully decked out 15" MBP but until then, I gotta work witha what I can afford. I actually spoke with Bong of Ynzal during a seminar I spoke at a few days ago and he said that he could hook me up with something so I will see if he's got anything for me. But keep the comments, suggestions, and tips coming as I'm a Mac person waiting for his dream to be finally realized
@HardCharger I have been longing for a Mac for almost a full year! When the moment comes that you will be opening the box of your new Mac. Trust me, it will literally feel like your dreaming... I actually had to pinch myself coz I didn't want to wake up only to find out I was dreaming again.
I have a netbook Hackintosh which I mainly use for word processing and email. Take note that if you are going to do OSX on a atom processor, many sites like Youtube and even scripting heavy websites like Facebook with all its Web 2.0 content tend to lag and stutter your browser.
theres a lot of pre loved macs for sale out there.. youre best bet would be a macbook or if you want a littlke risk you can get a Macbook Pro expired applecare warranty for around 35k.. just upgrade the ram and the harddisc and youre good to go..
This sounds like a good idea. Now if I can only get them for a number of PDCs.... Seriously though, thanks for all the advice and tips. Keep 'em coming...
Go for the new MBP 13". i'm not so sure but according sa reviews nagkakaron ng cracks yung MBwhite (mas mura but sayang naman yung pinaghirapang cash.). or you can try the 2008 Unibody. Im also a newbie, same worries as yours (budget), kaya nag-iipon pa for my 1st ever mac. My 1st choice was the white one kaso natakot ako sa cracks. So I aimed for the 2008 Unibody. Kaso after fishing for prices, nalaman ko na konti nalang new MBP 13" so ndelay nanaman para makaipon pa for the new one. Upgrade? If you need it then ipon ulit. =D
Hi boyromansa, That sounds like a plan. So I reckon maximize the processor and graphics card then just upgrade the rest later as resources become available. Does this make better sense to eveyone? Thanks.
