Deals on a Mac

[Neutron]

I'm looking at possibly getting a Macbook. I need to learn the Mac OS to gain more skills.

Does anyone know of a good place online to get a cheap used Macbook? I'd like to get a new one, but $1299 is a little steep.

 

[vurbano]

I priced a macbook before the new models came out but decided it was the ultimate waste of money. $2500 dollar mac or $600 dollar intel PC???? Actually I paid $525. Seemed like a no brainer to me.

 

[Neutron]

Yeah, but without hacking the OS to install it (violating the licensing anyway), I would need a Mac to learn Mac OS X.

I would much rather just buy the OS separate if I could and install it on my PC.

 

[Ira Lacher]

Unfortunately, Apple has always been predatory when it comes to pricing, and you can't find a discounted new Mac anywhere. You could look on Craiglist for a used Macbook and then install any one of several software apps that let you run PC apps and Windows itself on a Mac. Then you would have two computers in one.

 

[boch82]

I'm looking at possibly getting a Macbook. I need to learn the Mac OS to gain more skills.

Does anyone know of a good place online to get a cheap used Macbook? I'd like to get a new one, but $1299 is a little steep.

check out macmall.com

after rebate they have some decent discounts especially if you dont mind getting the previous generation models

 

[yourbeliefs]

Yeah, but without hacking the OS to install it (violating the licensing anyway), I would need a Mac to learn Mac OS X.

I would much rather just buy the OS separate if I could and install it on my PC.

Hmmm.. how powerful of a CPU would you need for OS X to run? Would it run on older hardware like a Pentium 4 or does it need more recent hardware like Vista does?

 

[Neutron]

Anyone gotten a Mac to replace their desktop entirely?

I've thought about getting a Macbook and getting Parallels to run on it so that I can still use Vista when need be, and swap back and forth easily.

 

[LER]

just beware of memory limitations on the MacBooks. I.E. can you get enough to run the windows stuff as well as the Mac OS X stuff side by side.

That said, I have a MacBook from the office and love it. Makes connecting to anything anywhere a breeze.

 

[JAG72]

If you just want to learn OS X why not buy a Mac Mini instead of a Macbook?

 

[aboz]

Anyone gotten a Mac to replace their desktop entirely?

I've thought about getting a Macbook and getting Parallels to run on it so that I can still use Vista when need be, and swap back and forth easily.

I have a Mac Pro tower 8 core and I absolutely love it! I do also boot (bootcamp) into Vista and it still runs slow compared to OSX. I do use Parallels a lot as well. I did have a learning curve, but not as steep as I thought. Almost anything I can do on Windows, I can do on my Mac.

 

[TheForce]

The OS X can run on the equivalent PC intel core 2 duo CPU. The problem is not finding the OS software as there are always ways to get that but you will need to figure out how to register it to get it working. One guy I know said he knows how to hack it to make it work but it really isn't worth it when Apple get's your machine ID and tries to do it's online maintenance run. The one guy who did it successfully, doesn't connect PC with OS X to the internet. So what's the point? He said just to prove it works.

I have a Mac Book Pro and OS X with parallels. It works but there are some serious gotchas in sharing files between the two OS, especially if trying to work with video editing. My plan was to be able to edit on the MacBook with a project that required FCP and then do some stuff in Vegas on the XP PC side. It works as long as you use the video with under 2 Gb file sizes.

Vurbano- For the price I paid for the MacBook Pro, I got a very robust Dell. The thing is the Dell XPS 1210 is a much better laptop for road travel. While the hard drive, CPU, and ram are identical, the other hidden features are double on the Dell. The Dell is also smaller, lighter, runs longer, has a better screen in brite sun, has a built in Verizon EVDO A card, plus a few other features not on the Mac. My Dell was about $2800 and so was the MacBook Pro.

In comparing OS X with Vista- both are very powerful but Vista is just annoying at times. I just went through two weeks of hell trying to install a 64 bit application on Vista and after Sony software engineer had me add additional admin accounts it screwed up everything requiring a manual file attributes change. Doing that on a couple hundred files was a real chore. Got it working now but the tech support really sucks on Vista.

 

[Neutron]

I'm still considering purchasing a Mac. I found a VMware image of a modified Mac OS X 10.5 that works on PCs just so that I can try it out and see how it works.

Even though I have optimal specs at home, even with allowing full use of my CPU it runs slow in VMware.

It does take some getting used to.

 

[LonghornXP]

I'm still considering purchasing a Mac. I found a VMware image of a modified Mac OS X 10.5 that works on PCs just so that I can try it out and see how it works.

Even though I have optimal specs at home, even with allowing full use of my CPU it runs slow in VMware.

It does take some getting used to.

Graphics, graphics and more graphics. The VMWare images run very slow because VMWare doesn't support accelerated graphics and as such when the entire Mac OS GUI is built to take advantage of those graphics everything will be quite slow.

Also if your so inclined to try and run OS X on a PC just know that the biggest issues are getting parts that have drivers (ie Kexts) so they can run. Also OS X doesn't use Activation like Windows so the previous post that said that Apple blocks or messes up the OS X install if you use system update isn't true.

What is true is that most of the current ways to install OS X on normal windows based computers requires using a modded/hacked kernel along with adding or changing existing kext files. Because of this anytime an Apple Software update comes down that makes any core change within the kernel or kexts it will overwrite or corrupt the modded/hacked kernel and kexts thus making the system crash on the spot after rebooting.

So if you are interested in trying OS X on your PC I'd highly suggest finding a hardware combo that has built in support for the kernel and kexts. This is also known as Vanilla and EFI support. Right now some motherboards you can buy have native kexts within OS X that support out of the box the chipset, video system, audio and LAN. With these types of systems you can now install OS X using a retail DVD using an EFI partition that includes all the kexts for installation. The benefit of this is that all software updates (including kernel updates) can install and work without any problems nor modding.

I'm involved in this stuff more just to see how far some of these hackers can go to make it very easy. Vanilla and EFI ability has only been around for a short few months so I'm interested in seeing where the community will be in say six months.

If you want to check this out you can google osx86 and the biggest forum for this stuff is osx86 forums at osx86project.

 

[EvilEuro]

If you want to go the "Hackintosh" route, the best thing I've seen for no fuss, no muss is efi-x. It's a USB dongle that attaches to the internal USB header on supported motherboards and will allow you to install a full, retail copy of OS X on supported hardware, take software and system updates, etc. It's a bit pricey at around 199 dollars, but it's worth it if you're looking for the OS X experience without having to a) shell out for Apple hardware at Apple prices or b) looking to build your own OS X rig without having to resort to hacked kernels, modified kernel extensions, etc., and the worry of possibly having your system go boom on the next system update.

Here's a nice little quirk though. The US distributor of EFI-X is charging 199 dollars for the product. However, the highly reputable Swiss dealer is charging €128 for it. At today's exchange rate, that's ~$162. So if you want to save yourself a little scratch, order through the Swiss dealer.

If you're willing to build your system using the hardware on the compatibility list, you're going to have one rock solid system that supports OS X out of the box.

EFI-X main site: :: EFIX ::
US Distributor: Efixusa.com - EFI-X™ Official Online Store
Swiss Distributor: EFI-X is available

Most importantly, the hardware compatibility list: :: EFIX ::

I'm close to building a few systems using this. One for myself and another for a friend that does video editing. From reading the forums off of the main site it appears rather straighforward and most people's problems are caused by building with stuff not on the HCL.

Just another option for ya.

 

[Neutron]

Will VMware Fusion or Parallels allow for a Vista 64-bit version to be installed?

 

[Foxbat]

I've used MacOfAllTrades.com to buy used Macs before. I've mentioned the Apple Store Refurbished deals where you can save 13-30% off of select refurbished Macintosh systems.

I switched to Mac for home at the beginning of last year and I'm glad I did. I could blame my in-Laws as my Father-in-Law used a Mac at his job and when he retired, he lost his Tech Support. It was a case of helping myself through helping them.

My Mac Pro has been solid as a VAX. The only times the Mac has crashed were related to the Folding client, and the last time that happened was last year. Hardware upgrades have been pretty simple as the Mac Pro is designed to allow easy access to the four SATA drive bays, memory, and PCI-e slots.

 

[Foxbat]

Will VMware Fusion or Parallels allow for a Vista 64-bit version to be installed?

Try VirtualBox from Sun. I've installed this on my Mac Pro and I'm trying out the Windows 7 RC. Works well so far.

 

[Ira Lacher]

I have a 4-year-old PowerBook G4 that I am looking to replace. I am looking for a laptop with a robust graphics card that will run streaming video seamlessly and also be snappy on apps such as PhotoShop and Illustrator. Would a MacBook fit that? Or would I need a Macbook Pro. The MacBook would be far less expensive. Thanks for y'all's input.

 

[Van]

Cheapest way to get osx on a non mac laptop. Gizmodo - How To: Hackintosh a Dell Mini 9 Into the Ultimate OS X Netbook - Dell mini 9 hackintosh guide
A blogger that I follow did this and has positive stuff to say about it.

 

[JAG72]

I have a 4-year-old PowerBook G4 that I am looking to replace. I am looking for a laptop with a robust graphics card that will run streaming video seamlessly and also be snappy on apps such as PhotoShop and Illustrator. Would a MacBook fit that? Or would I need a Macbook Pro. The MacBook would be far less expensive. Thanks for y'all's input.

The MacBook should be fine. I have the 13" MacBook 2.4Ghz model and love it. I have not found anything that it won't do for me.