Hi all, especially the knowledgeable people about Mac.

I'm new here so this is my 1st post/thread. I see here as a good community so I decide to askhere,IhopeYou'd be OK with this.

I'm a Windows user but I 'play' in Mac and Hackintosh sometime as a hobby. I haven't have one, but already decide to use MacOS as my platform in making music, with Ableton Live as DAW.

My friend offers me to buy his good condition iMac. 'Old' iMac (2009) for about $700. The spec is:

Apple iMac "Core 2 Duo" 3.06 27-Inch (Late 2009) ( Late 2009 - MB952LL/A - iMac10,1).
4GB RAm, 1 TB HD.

I know from my experience, I need more than $700 to be able to build my (own term) 'decent' Hackintosh. And I know with 700$ I should be able to build a Hackintosh that performance wise can be better than the said iMac.
But the iMac is so good that I can't stop thinking about it.

My questions are:
"How Far do You think I will be able to 'go' in making music with Ableton Live with that 2009 iMac?"
If I buy it, I plan to save to buy additional RAM.

"Or do you think it's not a good decision to be bought, consider it's 'old' ?"

"Should I pass it and keep saving for a better Hackintosh?" (I don't think I'd like to save to buy new mac that too expensive for me.

That's my questions. I hope You'd like to help me.

Thank You in advance and Merry X'mas & Happy Holiday for all

 

Core 2 Duo are kind of slow,with $700 you can build a powerful hackintosh,then you can get a good 27 inches monitor,my advice dont buy your friend imac because later you will regret it.

 

For all music production (arrange, audio-design/synthesis, mixing, mastering, audio analysis) you need more cores, more GHz, more RAM, more HDD (for libraries, sounds, samples, WAVs/AIFFs etc.), also more for graphics!
You need it all, especially for high-quality synthesis and mixing as well as mastering!

 

Better spend $700 for a powerful Hackintosh with 4 cores at 4GHz.

 

Thanks for the advice.
yes I understand.
But... You say...$700 for a powerful hackintosh build? Are You sure? Can You give me the example of specifications?
and..also, can You please tell me what do You think is a good 27" monitor I can get?

Yes, I'm aware of that. Thanks for the reply.

 

To put things in perspective...

9th Wonder (Hip Hop producer) won a grammy for the music he made on his old lenovo laptop using FL Studio.. (2ghz 2gb ram)

u dont need more cores, more ram, more hd space...just a bit of imagination and creativity.

honestly...

 

"Should I pass it and keep saving for a better Hackintosh?" Absolutely. With a 300-400 bucks more(computer alone), you will get much better machine in every way. Mac is ok, but not if you need sacrifice 50% computer performance just for sake of "MAC".

And you will probably want to be my friend, because i have tradition that when i build new computer for myself, old ones(which is stil good-mediocre) go to my friend, which can't afford it. When i see his joy, everything is payed off

 

Of course, but he want to get most for his money, as we all do.

 

Yes sir,.. human factor is the most important. All I'm doing is collect advices to get the most effective machine with my limited budget LOL..but you're right sir.

I want to be Your friend

 

my exact same thoughts...


maybe you are my soul mate, marry me !




just kidding with the guy.

 

A bit pricey for those specs. The iMac, on the used market, usually sells based on the screen size/quality to people who aren't that worried about specs. They just want a good looking, big screen computer for their desk.

Having a big screen is nice, but obviously musicians don't NEED a 27".

For that exact amount of money, I bought a 2011 QUAD core i7 Mac mini, with TWO hard drives (1x128gb solid state system drive, 1x500gb audio drive), and maxed out 16gb of RAM. It's a beast for a musician.

 

lol

 

Just bought another mac 8 core 16 gigs of ram with 3 ssd drives for 450$ off craigslist. IMO there are a lot better deals.
On the hackintosh front there are many options that work as there are many options that will give you hell..
Honestly the mac i just bought can take what ever i throw at it and its from 2008!!!
Hold out for better deal.

 

That iMac with the 27" would be good for uncomplicated video editing, especially if the RAM were upgraded to at least 8GB, and for graphics work, but is now on the trailing-edge for music production. If you're just beginning in music production, there might not be much technical limitation, but it also depends upon the software you'll be using. You should be able to run Logic Pro 9 and Ableton Live on that iMac, in 32-bit on Snow Leopard, no problem. Logic Pro X or some other 64-bit software would require Mountain Lion or higher, and a processor such as an i5 or i7 is much better suited for that.

When considering a Mac for music production, one should assess the minimum specifications of the software (and O/S) that one needs at present - and also look forward, to where the minimum specifications for most software might be in, say, five years from today. Also consider the maximum amount of installable RAM, and upgrade to that if/when you can. A Core 2 Duo might still cut it with some applications, but for the price of that iMac, one can buy an used Macbook Pro with an i5 or i7 processor with at least 8GB of RAM.

 

If budget concern, then I'd go Hackintosh all the way for it'll give better performance for equal $$$. Although it also has less sophiscated things than the real Mac.
BTW jakempc, I checked the best 2008 mac pro, it's processor, Xeon X5482, it's benchmark perform is much lower than, many i7processors. If looking at that fact, again, I'd go Hackintosh.
But... I admit..the mac, esp. in this case, the mac pro you have- looks beeeautiful and has many advantages, manufactured wise. Sometime thing like that confusing people in decide what way to chose.

 

You are mainly paying for the monitor here. The computer specs are pretty low. For $700 you can get a great custom built desktop with latest i7 and at least 8GB ram.

 

I have the same mac with a 21" screen. The downside on the 27" is the extra power and heat generated to feed that bigger monitor. Although it is spec'ed to run at 8 Gb of RAM, I maxed mine with 16 Gb. To be honest with you its more than enough for a lot of work, but it's behind the times.

It's not thunderbolt enabled, and newer hardware now comes with this newer bus on Mac. I'd say pass up.

Happy holidays.

 

It's not going to be $700 to build it, but would be more than worth it. It'd be more close to $900 to $1000. The 27" 1440p Monitor jacks up the price. This is the lowest specs I would go on a build. No Cd drive, usb should be enough now a days. Just dont use the usb 3.0 ports to install the OS

I chose a single 8gb ram stick so you can have a total of 32GB whenever you're ready.

http://pcpartpicker.com/user/tdames/saved/j9zCmG

 

yes core 2 duo is very less. I am using windows i3 processor and when i am working on large projects, i have buffer under-runs (maybe my soundcard is not that good) all the best!!

 

and you must know that Imac is a closed machine ... never build to endure 100% load continuously.
Many old machines gets in problems because of internal heat ... especially video-audio users