Every so often, it's interesting to take stock of what the
minimum practical Mac is for running the latest versions of Mac OS
system software and popular applications. It's always something of
a moving target, and individual users have different levels of
tolerance for the sluggish and cranky performance you get running
too much OS on too little Mac.
Dan Knight, Low End Mac's publisher, posed the question last
week: "If you were setting someone up with a low-end Mac on a tight
budget, what would you pick? How would you configure it?"
Actually, I'm right now looking to set up my daughter with a
low-priced but decent-performing Mac to replace her old 450 MHz iMac, whose power supply failed last
week. That iMac had been in intensive use and rarely shut off since
it was new, and it deserves to rest in peace, but the fall-back
machine so far has been a 233 MHz Bondi
iMac, which is not adequate by any stretch of the imagination
for the sort of work it's being pressed into.
It wouldn't be quite so challenged if she wasn't insisting on
running OS X 10.4 Tiger on it - OS X 10.3.9 is the
optimum OS X version for older, slower Macs, but she won't
hear of running anything but the latest version of the OS, and for
that she really needs a faster computer.
Needs and tastes are all over the map, and it's not really
possible to draw a line in the sand as to what the lowest-spec.
computer you can tolerate using is. I know what it is for me, but
there will be others who will no doubt differ.
Dan suggests budget Macs might fit into four separate
categories:
1. Field computer, a complement to a desktop Mac.
By my lights, that could be any
dual USB iBook if one is content running OS X 10.3.9, or
at least a 700 MHz G3 iBook with
the RAM maxed out at 640 MB if you insist on running Tiger.
I have a 700 MHz G3 with 640 MB of RAM, and it runs Tiger quite
nicely, although really processor-intensive applications like
iListen are sluggish. 700 MHz iBooks with CD-ROM drives have
dropped below $300 on the used
market, with 800 and 900 MHz models in the $350 - $495 range.
I've even seen early G4 iBooks
offered at under $400.
An upmarket choice would be a 12"
867 MHz G4 PowerBook, versions of which have dropped below $600
on the used market.
2. Road warrior all-around use notebook.
In this category, I would say a PowerBook G4 or iBook G4 of
greater than 1 GHz clock speed. My 550 MHz G4 upgraded Pismo PowerBook is still an awesome machine
and offers surprisingly lively performance, but I would no longer
want to use it as my primary production workhorse. 12" 1 GHz PowerBook G4 units are going for
about $650, and 15" titanium G4
PowerBooks around $100 more.
Actually, G4 iBooks can fill the bill here quite nicely for even
less money.
3. Budget desktop system for a Windows switcher who will hold
on to existing monitor and peripherals.
What else other than a Mac mini?
Any flavor of mini should have no trouble supporting decent
performance in Tiger, and they're the no-brainer choice if you
already have serviceable or better peripherals - PC or Mac. The
recent Core Duo minis will be the
most fun, but a G4 model can still acquit itself very
satisfactorily. The trouble is that Mac minis seem to hold their value remarkably well, with 1.25
GHz G4 refurbs going for $450 or so, which is only $150 less than
you can buy a brand new 1.66 GHz Core Duo model for.
4. Budget desktop system from someone who is just starting with
computers or whose old Mac or Windows PC is so outdated that
there's no sense bringing over any peripherals.
In this
category, I would suggest either a 700
MHz G4 iMac (about $350) or an
867 MHz "Quicksilver" PowerMac G4
tower (around $550, but you'll
have to find a monitor). eMacs are
also a possibility, although I'm not personally a fan.
The G4 iMac is the real value machine in low-end desktops, with
decent power and a lot of elegance that the eMac (IMHO) is
lacking.
For all, I'm assuming Tiger will be the OS, although you will
get more lively performance on the slower models with OS X
10.3.9 - and if one is content to run OS X 10.3.9 in
perpetuity, the minimum hardware requirement can be ratcheted down
to (my personal threshold anyway) approximately a 500 MHz G3 with
640 MB of RAM.
These are my arbitrary evaluations, and I'm sure some will
disagree.
In practice, I've noted that many folks buying a budget Mac are
inclined to go with whatever OS is installed at the time of
purchase, perhaps adding any free updates that haven't already been
installed. Personally, these days I wouldn't want to use anything
less than Panther (OS X 10.3.x). I wasn't really happy with
Jaguar (10.2.x) even when it was the current state of the art, and
I continued to use Mac OS 9.2.2 for production until Panther was
released.
The State of the Classic Mac OS
Speaking of which, I'm still quite happy in OS 9.2.2 for doing a
lot of things - but not Web browsing, since there is no Classic
browser available that I find satisfactory. However, if you don't
mind using clunky, out-of-date browsers and don't have any other
support issues for applications you need, Mac OS 9.2.2 will still
give you a lot better performance with a slow Mac than any version
of OS X. It always blows me away when I boot my iBook or Pismo
into OS 9 how fast and smooth and slick the Classic interface
and Classic applications are.
Software Suggestions
As for applications on a budget, (back in the OS X world), there
are a ton of absolutely great free browsers: Eudora's ad-supported version is
my email client fave, or if you prefer, Thunderbird is
free. AbiWord makes a good
free word processor, although I'm partial to Tom Bender's $15
shareware Tex-Edit Plus for
most of my word crunching. Another really great text editor - Bare
Bones Software's TextWrangler
is freeware (and still being frequently updated).
For image editing, if you can't swing $59.95 for Color It! 4.5 (see
Charles Moore Reviews Color It! 4.5 For Mac OS X), try Seashore or ImageJ (see ImageJ: Advanced Image Editing at a Low-end
Price (Free)), both of which are powerful and free (Open
Source). And don't forget ToyViewer,
which I wouldn't want to be without even if it wasn't free (see
ToyViewer, a Cool Free Graphics Tool
for OS X).
For a desktop database/information manager, Devon Technologies'
$20.00 DEVONnote
is a great value.
OnyX
is a slick and professional system maintenance app that's free, and
the free basic ("lite") mode of RBrowser is a good, solid FTP
client.
Enjoy!
