randomname
Well-known member
I'm going to be buying a laptop fairly soon (not for editing) and was just wondering if it would be smarter as far as life expectancy goes to buy a mac thats a year or two old or a brand new PC?
used mac vs new pc
- Thread starter randomname
- Start date
What going to be its main purpose? If its not for editing, Id suggest getting a new Windows laptop.
randomname
Well-known member
I'ts just for general use, I have a preference for macs and would be willing to spend a little extra on one but my main concern is just whats going to last me the longest.
Randy Ericksen
New member
Go Mac. I have a 5-6 year old G4. It rides around in my truck is not babied in the least. It never stops working. Last year I shot a 10 day race and it ran 24/7 for the whole race.
Nathyn
Low Budget Ninja
I'm typing this on a 400 megahertz G4. I use this for my writing laptop. This thing took a drop to the pavement. It was having issues and I was sure it was doomed after the drop. The guy at the Mac store tested it and basically the plug was bad. The front cracked from the drop, but to this day it still works. I bought this from a pawn shop for $250. I'd say go Mac.
Right now I'm in the same boat, older G5 versus newer PC or Mac Mini and I keep hearing great things about the G5. People are doing no cost hacks and mods and getting whole new life out of it. A person even found that FCS does run on the Power PC. Some people made changes to the actual code and reburned their FCP disc and got the thing to load with no problem. G5s are still fast and if I remember correctly Final Cut HD ran on a G4 so did everything else up until FCP6. It seems FCP 7 was slated to do the same, but at the last minute someone decided to make it Intel only via changing only a few lines of codes. Thing is, I can get an adequate G5 for $299. I know you won't be using your Mac for editing, but my friend edits on a G5 and transcodes using Toast and has had 0 problems.
-Nate
Right now I'm in the same boat, older G5 versus newer PC or Mac Mini and I keep hearing great things about the G5. People are doing no cost hacks and mods and getting whole new life out of it. A person even found that FCS does run on the Power PC. Some people made changes to the actual code and reburned their FCP disc and got the thing to load with no problem. G5s are still fast and if I remember correctly Final Cut HD ran on a G4 so did everything else up until FCP6. It seems FCP 7 was slated to do the same, but at the last minute someone decided to make it Intel only via changing only a few lines of codes. Thing is, I can get an adequate G5 for $299. I know you won't be using your Mac for editing, but my friend edits on a G5 and transcodes using Toast and has had 0 problems.
-Nate
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A friend bought our two year old MacBook black three years ago.
He treats it as badly you can, and it still working fine.
Even runs his golf course on QuickBooks Pro PC in bootcamp.
He bought from us after his new HP laptop stopped working after six months.
Just a report.
He treats it as badly you can, and it still working fine.
Even runs his golf course on QuickBooks Pro PC in bootcamp.
He bought from us after his new HP laptop stopped working after six months.
Just a report.
cordvision
Well-known member
Just be aware that the battery might not last very long anymore and you have to replace it ($100+). Also, you should run a hardware test (included on the system DVD that comes with every new mac) before you buy it. It takes about an hour or so but well worth the troubles. I personally wouldn't buy anything else than an Intel mac.... PowerMacs tend to be two slow to watch highly compressed HD trailers etc.... Hope that helps....
Just know that if you go as much as 2 years old you won't have the most current os, It'll probably be 10.4 or earlier, and apple doesn't sell a full version of 10.6, just OES and upgrade from 10.5. Power PC users are screwed anyway as we've been formally obsoleted, 10.6 and FCS 3 will not run. Having said that 10.4.11 is a very stable platform, as I type on my 11 year old G4 tower. The only problem is finding current third party tools and web aps that work properly. I recently had to install an ftp client, never needed one before, oh man... And nate, If you can get your hands on a G5 tower for $300, go for it, That is my main station, FCS 2 runs fine. H.264 encoding can be pig slow if you want decent results, but I hear that can be true on many systems. I haven't tried avchd yet, but I'm glad to know toast can handle the trascode.