So the time has come for me to replace my aging desktop. I do a fair bit of high definition video editing, and my requirements were simple: a Macintosh with power, and lots of it. Oh yeah, and I didn't want to spend a lot of money either, so the shiny 8-core Mac Pro for $3.5K is a bit out of my price range.
My original plan was to make a Hackintosh with the parts adding up to about $1400. This would be a Core i7 based computer, which when overclocked would give even a top of the line Mac Pro a run for its money in HD rendering performance. Unfortunately the realization set in that when combined into a working machine, these parts become practically worthless. I would not be able to resell this computer for any reasonable amount of money down the road when I needed to upgrade. Ever tried to sell a custom built PC? If a top-of-the-line Dell XPS gaming laptop, purchased by me in 2008 for $1200, right now would not fetch even half that money, what chance would my custom rig have? It would just not be a smart financial decision to build a machine for the price of a used car which I will literally throw away in two years. Macs, on the other hand, lose only about 1/3 of their new value over two years. Yep, time to get the genuine hardware. It will be cheaper in the long run.
I spent a good chunk of my workday yesterday hunting Craigslist for a perfect mac. I decided that I needed an aluminum iMac between 2.4 and 2.8 ghz, 2GB ram (I would upgrade to 4 myself). Several deals fell through, the machines were either sold, or the owner wanted too much $$ for them. I reached a deal with one owner, only to have him turn around and ask for more money because he had other offers. I told him to pound sand.
Ultimately, ended up using Apple's free Ipod touch promotion and purchased a new machine, a 24" imac. I'll put the ipod touch I got free on eBay if noone wants to buy locally (anyone need an 8GB iPod touch still in the box for $200? Shameless promo!). Plus the computer itself was another $100 off for an educational discount.
When savings are factored in, my gorgeous new 24" iMac comes in at about $1200 plus tax. The specs on it are: Core 2 duo 2.66ghz, 4 GB Ram, 620GB HDD. Plenty fast for doing the editing, and any rendering I usually have the computer do at night when I'm asleep.
Now comes the long saga of juggling data from multiple externals to re-arrange everything for the new machine. But with this purchase, I'm finally completely free of Windows! (my laptop, a Dell XPS, is currently running OS X Leopard) Having used windows since version 3.11, I shed a tear for microsoft. But it won't be a big tear.