Which Imac for about £300 - £500

ukcyberboy

ukcyberboy

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Simon
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Hi
I know very little about iMacs and was wondering if anyone has a guide of which to go for. My daughter will be taking it to university to study fashion design. I have a limited budget and would prefer to spend less and get one which has a higher spec over one with a large screen etc,.
I know they do a version that is aluminium and one that is more plastic.
Any pointers or advice would be great.

Simon
 
The cheapest iMac is £999, which is more than your budget. In fact the cheapest mac is the 11" MacBook air at £899.

All Mac are now aluminum cased. You might get a refurbished older mac for you budget, but not from the Apple Store, you'd have to hunt around. I found a couple here

http://studiomacs.co.uk/secondhand_imac_and_emac.html

The problem is Mac's do tend to hold there value .
 
Unfortunately your budget just won't cover a new one. She will be eligible for purchasing from the Apple education store though, so there's some discount to be had.
 
Thanks chappers, i was looking at that kind of thing, something that I could upgrade with ram etc. just dont know what spec I should hope for.
Yes freecom but considering our kind government expect her to pay £8500 per year for something they got for free'ish she and I can't afford new.
Thanks and I will keep my eyes open as not making purchase until september.
 
A Mac Mini can be had for (just) under £500 on educational pricing. You will need a screen and periferals on top however.

http://store.apple.com/uk-edu/browse/home/shop_mac/family/mac_mini

I you wait until closer to the start of the new academic year they normally run a promotion where they throw in something with a new mac. Last year was a £100 mac app store voucher, previous years were iPods.

I'm a mac user but have to ask: does it have to be Apple, your money will go further with a Windows machine.
 
For 500 sourcing a second hand iMac shouldnt be an issue really, many iMacs and MacBook for for under that. Ive even seens a few Mac pros for less!
 
Chris, they use macs on the course, I run windoz but hate the trouble you get, she will be away and would like to know she can use it without problems.

Simon I have seen alsorts going on eBay etc. was wondering what to look for ie processer over graphics over RAM ?

Thanks Guys
 
I will be selling my iMac when the new models come out, I suspect there will be a few available as they have not had a refresh for some time. I would expect mine to sell for somewhere between mid to the top of your budget. Spec is 24" screen, 3.06ghz core 2 duo, 4gb max ram with all the bits and boxes it came with and (as most will be) is pretty mint.

I'm not trying to flog you mine, just letting you know that I'd anticipate some good 2nd user ones here maybe end of June.
 
ukcyberboy said:
Chris, they use macs on the course, I run windoz but hate the trouble you get, she will be away and would like to know she can use it without problems.

Simon I have seen alsorts going on eBay etc. was wondering what to look for ie processer over graphics over RAM ?

Thanks Guys
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For Fashion, most the Fashion students i know, don't do much in the way of Editing and stuff. Any Macbook will run Photoshop fine for most things, plus the easy of moving it around and everything.

A White Macbook should be source-able for 350ish, that leaves money for a External Display(If wanted) Nice keyboard/mouse/drawing tablet, and maxing the RAM and a external hard drive.

For 500 you can get a nice set up :)
 
I got my MacBook white several years ago for that money
First time into MacBook and will definitely do the same again soon

Prices come down a little when they do a refresh and higher volume of old models are on used market. But they generally hit an optimum level like this price bracket and float around this price quite a bit IMO
 
I'd be a bit careful about white MacBooks. There is nothing wrong with them but they may not support the next version of the Mac OS "Mountain Lion."

I only say this as she may have recommended software which may not run on older mac OS's. maybe not this year but in future years. In fact some MacBooks that are only 5 years ols may not run on OS 10.8 including I think some of the early Aluminum Unibody machines
 
paulc said:
I got mine from scrumpymacs they sometimes have some real bargains in they come with guarantees too....worth a look

here http://www.scrumpymacs.co.uk/
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QFT, scrumpymacs have great deals. I brought a G5 for there a while ago for next to nothing

And with the Mountain Lion thing, nothing official has been said by Apple, but if they don't let 32bit EFI macs run it they are shooting themselves in the foot.
 
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