dirty old mac

[wetpenny]

i want a mac desktop, i really dont need a behemoth, just need something reliable that will handle small music projects only. using apogee one/logic (8)...
im beyond fucking clueless!! its a minefield out there and theres only this forum i trust to get no BS advice.. i done a search but the threads it led me to were old..
whats my best option(s) ? old G5? or imac?
i`ll need OSX 10.5.7 for the apogee one... hmmmmmmmmm

ANY advice would be much appreciated amigo`s, i re-iterate im fucking clueless and poor!

 

[Trevoire520]

I've been looking into the same thing actually. I'm starting to struggle with my dual core Macbook.

Seems you can get a quad core (well, two dual cores in the same machine) mac pro on ebay for about the £600 mark. Spend a wee bit on upgrading the RAM and maybe getting a bigger hard drive and you should have a pretty decent (but not monstrous) machine.

 

[Sloan]

Hackintosh.

 

[nialldoran]

the next mac "desktop" i'm guna buy is definatly the new £679 mac mini, got decent connectivity for small setups or home work and a quad core i7, cheaper one also has a dual core i5, but thats speaking first hand and youd have to install the OS you need too as they come with 10.7

its an option though

 

[Studdy]

The Mac Mini Server is a powerhouse. I've been running protools 10 for over a year on it. Pretty smoking especially for the money.

my 2 cents.

 

[Sweetnothing]

Get one of those 2008 models, intel core 2 duo machines. I still rock a '08 mac pro with logic 9 with no problems at all.
I've seen mac minis go seconhand for 300 or maybe less. Still great machines for small projects.

 

[PhilTheBeard]

I have a mac mini server with the i7 quad core cpu in it and the thing is fucking awesome. And the new updated one's are even faster.

 

[fatalforce]

my macbook pro 3.1 from late 07 is still working great for tracking! Try finding a used one and upgrade the RAM and add an SSD. Those are fairly easy to install yourself.

 

[greyskull]

mac pro 3.1.

 

[wetpenny]

thanks for all the advice guys, much appreciate your insight(s)

 

[neptunian]

Mac Mini > iMac because it's cheaper, virtually no fan noise, uses only 10 watts at idle, can use any monitor (like matte), and models from 2010 onwards are powerful enough to fulfill your needs. I recommend sticking to Snow Leopard 10.6.8 if you get an older model, as it's rock solid for Logic. And if you get the server edition with two hard drives, you can join them into a RAID 0 config and get almost double the drive speed.

 

[Trevoire520]

I still think I'm gonna go for a secondhand mac pro, but them mac mini's do look very good. Lack of DVD drive or multiple hard drives puts me off though.

 

[neptunian]

The Mac Mini server version has two internal drives, and external DVD drives are cheap. But if you can afford a mac pro, why not. Some handy geekbench scores here: http://browser.primatelabs.com/mac-benchmarks

 

[wetpenny]

The Mac Mini server version has two internal drives, and external DVD drives are cheap. But if you can afford a mac pro, why not. Some handy geekbench scores here: http://browser.primatelabs.com/mac-benchmarks

awesome, thanks!!!!

 

[Trevoire520]

The Mac Mini server version has two internal drives, and external DVD drives are cheap. But if you can afford a mac pro, why not. Some handy geekbench scores here: http://browser.primatelabs.com/mac-benchmarks

Jeezo, my current macbook is less than 3000 on the geekbench score.
Great resource for buying a new (used) machine though, thanks man!

 

[GeertSamuel]

I managed to get 15000 on my hackintosh.

 

[Trevoire520]

Holy shit, those new Mac mini's are SUPER powerful!

Fuck it, come a new job my first month's pay will be getting spent on one of these!

 

[updog]

yeah the new Minis are the shit.

just ordered one in fact, with the 2,6 ghz processor then i'll upgrade the RAM to 16gb myself. i'd advise you to do that too, it costs 3x more to order one with 16gb of memory than buy them and add them yourself - it's also piss easy to do with the Minis. also keep in mind that you can fit 2 hard drives in, but it's not worth it to order it like that, rather buy an extra hard drive separately and get a licensed apple service to stick it in. you could do it yourself but you pretty much would have to tear the thing down to smallest pieces and you'd lose the warranty so i don't recommend doing that.

it's pretty amazing how they can stick something so powerful in a tiny box like that. the integrated graphics are also decent if you wanna use PS or play games, but that's still nothing to write home about. other than that the new Minis are great - you could get a PC with similar but better specs in a shitty huge box for the price, but this thing is basically easier to take with you than a laptop if you've got something to use as a display where you're taking it.

 

[Trevoire520]

Yeah I'm looking at the 2.6GHz aswell, throw in a SSD and 16GB RAM. I was hoping to change both the drive and the RAM myself, it's ridiculously easy to do on my Macbook. Guess I'll have to find someone who's authorized to work on apple stuff close to me.

Mind you, I'm getting a bit ahead of myself here. I need a job first!

 

[wetpenny]

yeh im seriously impressed with everything ive heard so far about the new mini's...