Which mac is best for a coder on a budget?

[Kaamoss]

Right now I have a 12" ibook g4 and I must say I love it. I want to get a desktop mac for home as well and finally make the switch too all mac and unix machines. Anyways, I'm not exactly the richest person so I'm currently toying with say a used 400 mhz imac g3, a mac mini, or perhaps a power mac g4. Of those three, or any others you might think would suit my needs...for around 600 dollars or so (used is more than fine) would be great. I just want to write code on it with xcode and maybe do some 3d rendering for opengl types of things and that's about it. Don't want to use it to try to play any games aside from ones I make and what not. Any advice you could give me would be greatly appreciated.

[kelvin]

I'd go with the PowerMac G4. Then you can put a decent gfx card into it and have the latest OpenGL extensions and features to play with.

[Kaamoss]

Dual processors or single, which would you go with?

[Zwilnik]

I'd get the Mac mini. You get a decent G4, ok video card and more spare change than a 2nd hand Powermac G4.

As the Mac mini comes with Tiger (or at least a 'free' upgrade to Tiger) and iLife 05, you're getting better value for money than a 2nd hand Powermac and for the money you're saving you can afford to stick a decent amount of memory in it and get a nice keyboard and monitor for it.

[Kaamoss]

True, though I don't worry about ram considering I work for a RAM manufacturing company as a software engineer so I get it at cost. Got a 1 gig ddr2100 sodimm for my 12" ibook for 41 dollars. I love working there. Oh, we have Apple developer connection so I already had tiger a while ago.

[funkboy]

The Mac Mini would be better unless you really need top-of-the-line graphics or hard drive speed... as a coder, you probably don't. The OpenGL on a Mac mini is just fine - it runs any moderately-intense game at a decent frame rate (except maybe Doom 3).

Mac Mini - skip the old, slow, loud, and large G4 and go with a super-sleek, drool-producing machine.

[kodex]

I would say mac mini as well, with second hand computers you never know what is going to fail you. Some people dont take good care of their computers at all.

[Kaamoss]

Sounds pretty unanimous then...now the only thing is finding the time to save up the 600 dollars. Ohh well I'm sure I'll get it sooner or later. Just need to find some scheme to make lots of money wicked quick legally.

[Dan Potter]

legally.

Such scruples! You can't succeed in business these days like that! :sneaky:

Just kidding :p

I got a blue and white G3 off of Craigslist a while back for $250. I love the cases on these things, and the machine itself isn't such a bad base. On retrospect, I've spent almost as much upgrading that thing to be a really useful machine with modern software as I could have spent if I'd just gotten a Mac Mini. But of course they didn't have the Mini back then either ;)

So yeah, if it's cheap you need, and a desktop you want, the Mini is definitely the way to go...

If you don't mind a little debt then Apple has payment plans on their web site but I don't have any experience with 'em.

[Kaamoss]

I'm only 18 and unfortunatly lack the credit history to get thier credit. Ohh well probably would get it in two months if I didn't have so much damn debt. Think after work I'll stand on the street corner in my suit with a cardboard sign..."will code for a mac mini". That oughta do the trick.

[Puzzler183]

It's generally been my experience that if you are going to save up $600 for a computer, you might as well wait to get a little more so you'll get something that will last a little longer and work a little better. Just my two cents.

[AnotherJake]

Man, you must be one tortured soul! The only time that it's a good time to wait longer is either Apple is expected to put out a new product within the next few months, or you just can't afford it yet. Waiting longer to get something that presumably lasts longer is like holding off on sex as though it won't be as good as if you do it now! :p Anytime you pick up a new Mac you should expect it to last about four years in my experience. Holding off the purchase doesn't change the length of useful ownership. Pick a time and do it. You'll never own the newest model except for a few short months if you're lucky.

If you want to spend money on upgrade cards to play the latest games, get an Xbox instead. If you want to do GLSL programming you'd better just chill out for a while and wait like the rest of us or buy a PC if you can stand it. I'd just go for a Mac Mini for now.

[PowerMacX]

I wanted to get a Mac mini, but decided to wait until it came with Tiger. Now, I decided to wait until it comes with 512 RAM standard. By the time that happens, I'll probably want to wait until it comes with an X800. :p

Seriously, Apple decided to drop educational discounts in Latin America, and that really pissed me off :(
I'll get a Mac mini... eventually.

[Max]

Credit cards, educational discounts, loans... bah! I use cash! I paid my $4000 Mac, cash! The reseller was a bit surprised... ;)

[Duane]

I'm not buying a mac mini until ~end of summer. I don't trust anything new. :sneaky: just look at the iPod's battery! At least now I'm prepared for the worst :ninja:

[PowerMacX]

Credit cards, educational discounts, loans... bah! I use cash! I paid my $4000 Mac, cash! The reseller was a bit surprised... ;)

Well, you had to get rid of those marked bills asap :sneaky: :p

I paid my current mac in cash too, $3000 pesos (ARS) at the time*. Now, with import taxes plus the 1 - 3 local currency exchange that would buy me 1 & 1/2 Mac minis... :mad:

(*)(back when I bought my PM G4 local currency, ARS, was == to USD)

[Najdorf]

what about an imac g5? Somebody owns one and can tell?

[Max]

Well, you had to get rid of those marked bills asap :sneaky: :p

:lol: Good one! Yeah, I'm a real bad man! I said $4000 but I converted it to US dollar. I actually gave $5000 canadian dollars.

I paid my current mac in cash too, $3000 pesos (ARS) at the time*. Now, with import taxes plus the 1 - 3 local currency exchange that would buy me 1 & 1/2 Mac minis... :mad:
(*)(back when I bought my PM G4 local currency, ARS, was == to USD)
Now that I think about it, my 1.8 GHz G5 is a good investment. It's a first generation G5 but it's better than the current 1.8GHz G5 (faster bus, more RAM, more HD, PCI-X slots).

[Kaamoss]

I mac g5s are nice but from what I hear not only are they a bit pricy and about the same performance level as the mac mini the screen is of somewhat poor quality sadley.

[Puzzler183]

$4000 for a Mac? Jesus. And my $2200 PC will still outperform it:P.

That's the one reason I don't have a Mac on my desk honestly, is the ridiculous insane price for the not so great performance. Everyone says that they do good for graphics but I see them using old graphics cards and not having good drivers... I dunno. For my money as a coder, a PC is the way to go (for cheaper, and more up to date graphics).

[kelvin]

what about an imac g5? Somebody owns one and can tell?
We just had a thread (http://www.idevgames.com/forum/showthread.php?t=9143) about that. ;)

[Dan Potter]

$4000 for a Mac? Jesus. And my $2200 PC will still outperform it:P.

Oh geez.. like throwing gasoline on a fire :)

That's the one reason I don't have a Mac on my desk honestly, is the ridiculous insane price for the not so great performance. Everyone says that they do good for graphics but I see them using old graphics cards and not having good drivers... I dunno. For my money as a coder, a PC is the way to go (for cheaper, and more up to date graphics).

So honestly, and I'm not trying to jibe you or anything, why are you here? Do you do Mac stuff also?

I can't speak for everyone else, but performance was one of my last considerations when I got my first desktop Mac, and ditto when I got my iBook. My blood pressure while using my Mac is like half what it is at work all day where I coder under XP. My battery life way outdoes any PC notebook users I know, except perhaps people with those tiny Vaios. *shrug* I guess you choose your tradeoffs and go with what makes you happy...

[MattDiamond]

I may be selling my current Mac (PowerMac G4 dual 867) sometime in the next month. I developed two uDG games on it, and it's in good shape. If there's interest I would consider selling it to someone here rather than go through the hassle of ebay.

Advantages: I'm a known quantity here (longtime member, helped Carlos distribute prizes for iDG 2003, etc.) I can donate the eBay commission fee to iDG. The price would be semi-negotiable, heavily based on what similar systems sell for on eBay, with a small discount.

Disadvantages: eBay is both an auction and a market. It might be possible for you or I to do better by doing our buying/selling through it, if we are willing to take on a little extra risk.

I'm just thinking aloud here. I may decide that going through eBay would be preferable, or a co-worker of mine may express an interest in the machine. (I'm also assuming I can find it's packaging so I can ship it.) But since people are discussing ways of getting reasonably priced Macs for development I thought I'd mention this possibility.

[Kaamoss]

Sounds cool but I bielieve those retail for almost around 800-850 bucks on e-bay. Deffinitly intrest however so keep me posted if you wouldn't mind. ;)

[MattDiamond]

Sounds cool but I bielieve those retail for almost around 950-100 bucks on e-bay. Deffinitly intrest however so keep me posted if you wouldn't mind. ;)

Glancing at the auctions, $750 seems to be typical for my configuration. Mine doesn't have a Superdrive or an upgraded video card like some do.

Anyway this is still tentative. I will post an update in a couple weeks once my plans are more definite.

[Max]

$4000 for a Mac? Jesus. And my $2200 PC will still outperform it:P.

Of course my G5 is expensive (or should I say "was expensive"). I bought it August 2003, a few weeks after Apple began production. I couldn't wait... my 7 year old Power Mac 4400 was painfully slow. :(

EDIT: I forgot to mention - the $4000 also includes my 17" Studio Display and my crappy Epson printer.

[Dan Potter]

Of course my G5 is expensive (or should I say "was expensive"). I bought it August 2003, a few weeks after Apple began production. I couldn't wait... my 7 year old Power Mac 4400 was painfully slow. :(

Indeed, a brand new top of the line pmac G5 (dual 2.7) is listed at $3k on the Apple site. So I'm not sure you can even buy one that expensive right now unless you get a huge Apple LCD panel with it or something :)

[funkboy]

Max: You should have tried to get a cash rebate, especially for a computer purchase of that size. "If I could pay for this big setup in cash today, how much would you drop off the price?"

And don't wait forever for a Mac mini update... just get it, you'll love it :)

[Max]

And don't wait forever for a Mac mini update... just get it, you'll love it :)

Mac Mini? I agree, it's a nice little computer but... I have a G5. Why purchase something less powerful?

[MattDiamond]

Sounds cool but I bielieve those retail for almost around 800-850 bucks on e-bay. Deffinitly intrest however so keep me posted if you wouldn't mind. ;)

I've just posted a message in the Classified forum- I'm now putting my older PowerMac up for sale. Details here:
http://www.idevgames.com/forum/showthread.php?p=88568#post88568

If noone here is interested of course I'll try eBay...

[Najdorf]

what about a solid emac? maybe a bit bulky, but the miniaturizing strategy had always it's problems, and you have a serious screen. with 800 bucks you're done

[Duane]

imacs are probably your best bet. They are reasonably low priced, with decent speed, though you might want to update your graphics card/memory.