Mac buying tips

[Lorrac]

So, recently adquired one of their machines and learned some things in the process that might be useful to people looking to buy one.

a) apple will gouge you on ram/hd prices, and I mean OMIGODITHURTZ kind of gouging. However, swapping ram on imacs and macpros is a simple and streamlined process. Their machines are rather snotty about ram, I found crucial has a line of mac certified ram they sell much cheaper than apple. Swapping the harddisk on the macpro is a rather trivial endeavor, but you are pretty much sol on that department if you intend to adquire an imac. It's doable, there are tutorials on the web, but it's complicated.

b) mac models last for a year, sometimes even more but apple does not modify the prices as the components in the machines drop in price. In other words, the more time it has passed since the model was launched, the worse the price/performance ratio goes. This link keeps a record of launches so you can judge things: Mac Buyer's Guide: Know When to Buy Your Mac, iPod or iPhone

c) you are stuck with whatever graphics card the machine has in. MACOS requires some especific bios on the card that no one else needs, so the only cards that get it are those apple is buying to make their computers. They eventually become available for the general public, at outrageous prices. The only exception to this is if you want your mac just as a windows machine - any card that's compatible with the motherboard bus will work (just like in wintel machines).

Hoping it's useful to anyone.

[Cryptin]

Buy mac ram from OWC. Much cheaper than getting it from the Apple store. As much I love macs I would never buy their ram. I plan on getting the iMac 24" 2.8ghz with 500g HD machine in Feb. I can buy two 2gig sticks of ram from them for roughly $150.00.

Yeah their video cards are less than spectacular. I'm not an avid gamer like I use to be and if I can run WoW, WC3 and SC2 then I'm satisfied. For playing games that is why I own a X-box 360. I've read that Apple may start putting the 8600gt mobile cards in their macbook pros and hopefully the iMacs too.

[Gigfc]

Here's a tip: do not buy one

[Kevincheese]

Originally Posted by Cryptin

Buy mac ram from OWC. Much cheaper than getting it from the Apple store. As much I love macs I would never buy their ram. I plan on getting the iMac 24" 2.8ghz with 500g HD machine in Feb. I can buy two 2gig sticks of ram from them for roughly $150.00.

Yeah their video cards are less than spectacular. I'm not an avid gamer like I use to be and if I can run WoW, WC3 and SC2 then I'm satisfied. For playing games that is why I own a X-box 360. I've read that Apple may start putting the 8600gt mobile cards in their macbook pros and hopefully the iMacs too.

And you already know you like the games on Mac, because you played them 5 years ago on PC!

[Taranatar]

Mac's already have the 8600 in them, have for a while now.

[Foradream]

Originally Posted by Gigfc

Here's a tip: do not buy one

Listen to him.

[xeg_IS]

Originally Posted by Gigfc

Here's a tip: do not buy one

Shit. Beat on this one.

[Nark]

My tip ....... get one that can run windows! Why? You have a larger advantage over those who can only run osx.

[Burf]

With bootcamp/parallels/vmware fusion, they can all run windows now.

[Sidhe]

Oh Gigfc, you card you. That was the most original joke I've ever heard. Bravo.

fuck you and die
die in a fire
kill her, then yourself
nuke it from orbit
it's a trap!

See, I'm original and humorous too!

[prescient63]

If anyone knows some people working at PC Connection all Mac stuff is 10% below cost until the end of november.

Edit: the only exception I know of us leopard which is $10 off retail.

[Laek]

Always buy a Mac from the Apple refurb site. Refurbs have the same warranty, you can get the current generation most of the time, and its about the only way to save money on a Mac.

Oh and unless you have a hard on for the OS why would anyone buy an mac desktop? I have a Mac Book and it is a much better machine them my work Thinkpad but for a desktop just build your own.

[Lorrac]

Originally Posted by Gigfc

Here's a tip: do not buy one

Look! he's trying to fit in, jumping on a bandwagon.

[wild_whiskey]

I use Macs myself, and I'm pretty surprised to see that on this board (being that it's all about PC games) there are other Mac users. Pretty good buying tips. Apple gouges hardcore on the RAM, if you're buying a Mac, always downgrade the RAM amount as low as it can go and buy it off NewEgg or something. Most RAM is Mac-compatible now and memory in general is cheap as shit right now.

It cost me less than $100 to throw in 2x 2gb sticks into my MacBook Pro.

Also, find someone who looks like they're in their 20s and go buy it from a Student store and save anywhere from 200-400 on a new computer. Most student stores don't ask for a student ID or anything like that so you can easily get that price. In fact, I recently saw some PowerBooks from a few years ago new, in their boxes that were being cleared out, at about $600 at a student store. They would have fetched probably $800 or more on eBay being that they were brand new machines (and 17" laptops, at that).

One of the things I learned about owning Macs since I started using them a few years back is that it's a good idea to really baby them and keep them in as good physical condition as possible because they sell incredibly well even after years of use. You can feasibly drop about $200-300 a year if you want to stay completely up-to-date on them by selling your old one when you buy a new one.

[Cryptin]

Originally Posted by Gigfc

Here's a tip: do not buy one

So the retardation begins.

Yeah there are a few of us on here who are mac users. The resale value on macs are excellent. Friend sold his 1 year old macbook pro on EBAY for about less than $500.00 what he paid for it. Despite the lack of games/gaming support I see no reason not to own a mac but that is my personal opinion.