What would be a good, used Mac for a kid?

[SAWYER]

My son has been wanting a Mac since they use them at school. He has a Acer laptop already. What would be a good starter Mac that would be cheap? He is 8 and has a brother that is 6.

 

[dlock13]

Originally posted by: Sawyer
My son has been wanting a Mac since they use them at school. He has a Acer laptop already. What would be a good starter Mac that would be cheap? He is 8 and has a brother that is 6.

If you're looking for a laptop, get him a Dell Mini 9/10 and install OSX onto it. I'd personally go the Hackintosh route as that could possibly be the cheapest/best performance given how old he is.

 

[dwell]

You can probably get a used MacBook (plastic) for ~$700 in good condition.

 

[Kaido]

The next Mac Mini refresh is rumored to be lower in price, perhaps as high as $100 off. Right now it's $599 starting.

 

[smokozuna]

If you are looking for a desktop you can PU a used G4 for under $100 off Craigslist. Then if they like it upgrade to something higher end.

 

[smokozuna]

You can also get a refurb macbook with the 9400 graphics from the apple store for $749, they usually put them on the site on friday nights. They include full 1 year warranty, mine came to $809 delivered then I bought Snow Leopard for $10, couldn't be happier!

 

[ChAoTiCpInOy]

Do you want to buy new or used? If new, then Mac Mini. If used, then a Macbook.

 

[umrigar]

for a kid that young, i'd say eMac G4 for $100 or less.

 

[PCTC2]

Get a Powerbook G4 or PowerMac G4 for cheap.

If you want to get Intel, refurbed MacBook or a new Mac Mini if you have a monitor/keyboard/mouse available.

 

[James Bond]

Get something cheap. Either a G4 or Dell Mini (hackintosh)

 

[Agentbolt]

I'd stay far away from anything pre-macbook in terms of laptops. I've been personally burned by HORRIBLE QC in Apples Ibooks, specifically the G3 ones but also certainly the G4 ones as well. An old Powerbook might be nice, but my understanding is that stuff isn't being written in universal binary any longer.

Grab a 1st gen macbook, should be pretty cheap. If they're not dead-set on a latop, I'd wait for the Mac Mini refresh, it's your cheapest path.