Possible first Mac

DragonWoLf

DragonWoLf

DragonWoLf

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Joined
7 Nov 2004
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1,755
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Southampton/Oxford
So been a Windows user for a long time, dabbled into Mac's here and there at uni for random work and just exploring the OS and thought ok I shall get one but seeing I'm no rich bloke, gonna try and get a Mac Mini and start there first, so found a used but good condition Mac Mini A1283, now I'm told this has the latest OS and checked the specs and looks all good.

So this be a good place to start off with with a first Mac? My goal in the end is to practice and learn to create iOS Apps so...whadiyathink? ;)
 
Do you know which year it is? A1283 has two models associated with it. Although, I am running very similar specs to either of the two models - still going strong after 2 years.
 
Capable little machine, although if you just want to explore the OS you can do that on your PC if you really wanted. Google for more.

Might want to do that, then if you really like it save up for a better desktop or MacBook.
 
Personally, owning a top spec 2010 15 inch MBP and now a good w7 rig (see signature), I'd say work out exactly which programs you want to use on the OSX software and compare the windows versions with them directly. I definitely overspecced on my MBP as I thought I'd end up using it like a full blown gaming PC, yet never got anyway near that level of performance so could have done with lesser hardware and an SSD instead to keep it quick.

Directly comparing office for mac vs office for windows has the windows one coming out on top every damn time for me. The mac version is extremely slow even on a fast system, especially compared to iwork equivalents.
 
Really? That is surprising, I thought office 2011 for Mac was brilliant, with a better interface than the windows version too!
 
Oh god no I definitely prefer the Windows version of Office, something about it just seems odd on OS X, it's much better than the 2008 version of it though!

It lacks Powerpoint and Access as well. @___@
 
fleming222 said:
If money's tight whip up a virtual machine.
Click to expand...

Good advice. I done this last year to 'try out' OS X. Along with some first hand experience with iMacs at university it helped me make the decision.

Do remember there is no graphics acceleration in the virtual machine, so if you go down this route then ignore lagging graphics as this won't happen on the real thing.:p
 
fleming222 said:
If money's tight whip up a virtual machine.
Click to expand...

Been doing that for a past few weeks tbh with a few friends who have their MBP's and whatnot and liking it so far, real deal breaker is I need to use it more for work purpose to see its potential, abit worried that Mac Mini won't upgrade to 10.6 is it the lastest? But from what I've seen it has a Intel CPU so it would upgrade
 
Uhm. Okay..

DragonWoLf said:
Been doing that for a past few weeks tbh with a few friends who have their MBP's and whatnot and liking it so far, real deal breaker is I need to use it more for work purpose to see its potential, abit worried that Mac Mini won't upgrade to 10.6 is it the lastest? But from what I've seen it has a Intel CPU so it would upgrade
Click to expand...

Yep you're quite safe with an Intel, don't worry about updates they've just brought out Sandy Bridge with more laptops due a Sandy Bridge refresh, Intel will be supported for a long time yet.
 
RKO said:
You'll need at least a Core 2 Duo for Lion.
Click to expand...

Hmm I'll stick with 10.6 (Leopard? or some animal Apple likes) till I make a move to Lion unless, my Window's still do my primary stuff until something miraculous happens and I permanently move to the world of Banana Macs...no wait I mean Apple
 
Ah just found some info on everymac's site on the issue's of 32/64bit stuff, I really shouldn't worry about that stuff for the use I will be using it for should I?
 
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