iMac for Church

[straderade]

Looking to upgrade our software/hardware at our church. We are smaller so do not have a huge budget for a new one - any ideas on where to get a older, iMac or MacBook Pro to run our presentation software.

Ideally I'd like to buy a 2011 model or newer. I've tried eBay, Craigslist, etc but nothing in our price range that's reasonable.

I'd ideally like to find a large church that's looking to upgrade their hardware that we can purchase from OR someone looking to donate old hardware to charity. We'd be more than happy to provide the person a tax write-off for the purchase.

Any ideas? Or should we just save more and buy a new/rebfurbished unit from Apple?

 

[Mac-lover3]

Looking to upgrade our software/hardware at our church. We are smaller so do not have a huge budget for a new one - any ideas on where to get a older, iMac or MacBook Pro to run our presentation software.

Ideally I'd like to buy a 2011 model or newer. I've tried eBay, Craigslist, etc but nothing in our price range that's reasonable.

I'd ideally like to find a large church that's looking to upgrade their hardware that we can purchase from OR someone looking to donate old hardware to charity. We'd be more than happy to provide the person a tax write-off for the purchase.

Any ideas? Or should we just save more and buy a new/rebfurbished unit from Apple?

I think for a laptop take a MacBook Air from 2011/2012/2013/2014 with at least 4GB RAM (More is NOT needed)
Or a MacBook Pro more expensive also 2011/2012/2013/2014 but with SSD!

For iMac's I think from 2011/2012/2013/2014 but also with SSD!
Mac Mini maybe not the best option because there is no screen with it and you will need to buy a screen.. but 2011 models are best but mind that you will/want to upgrade the HD to a SSD..

For the financial part:
Can't you sell the old computer from the church community ? It will bring in some cash.. or you could organise something that will bring in some more money. Because everything beyond those models above won't be a great update I suppose.

 

[bwillwall]

I think for a laptop take a MacBook Air from 2011/2012/2013/2014 with at least 4GB RAM (More is NOT needed)
Or a MacBook Pro more expensive also 2011/2012/2013/2014 but with SSD!

For iMac's I think from 2011/2012/2013/2014 but also with SSD!
Mac Mini maybe not the best option because there is no screen with it and you will need to buy a screen.. but 2011 models are best but mind that you will/want to upgrade the HD to a SSD..

For the financial part:
Can't you sell the old computer from the church community ? It will bring in some cash.. or you could organise something that will bring in some more money. Because everything beyond those models above won't be a great update I suppose.

Actually I have seen Macs on the newest operating systems perform poorly with 4GB of RAM. I gave my sister 8 in her MBP and it made all the difference.

 

[Mac-lover3]

Actually I have seen Macs on the newest operating systems perform poorly with 4GB of RAM. I gave my sister 8 in her MBP and it made all the difference.

I own a MacBook Air (2011) with 4G RAM it shipped with 'Lion' worked very well, updated to Mountain Lion still working great. Then Mavericks still worked great. Subscribed for the Public Beta for Yosemite in the beginning it had it's rough edges but I can tell you 10.10.2 & 10.10.3 made it more stable and reliable. The system performance isn't so good with a HD but with and SSD and 4GB of RAM I can tell you that your machine will certainly last a couple of years..

 

[26139]

Okay...?

Ask for donations, buy something refurbished from Apple.

 

[A.Goldberg]

Crowd fund it!

 

[PhelpsiPhan]

I assume you are talking about ProPresenter software? Right now we have a large church (around 2000 people per weekend) and we are using a 2010 MBP with 4 gb of memory and it works great. You don't need something crazy. Presentation software has hardly any needs

 

[js81]

Playing Devil's Advocate here (ironic to say that on a church-related post lol), but do you really need an iMac?

When we built our new building, I was the lead on the tech committee. What I wanted for our booth was a pair of Mac Pros to run the AV; however, reality hit in two ways - 1) I had a limited budget and 2) I had limited space. Instead of $3k+ Mac Pros, I built two custom PCs in 2U rack-mountable cases. Cost each - about $800. And the best part is that these same computers are still running our in-house AV today - both are quad-core, 8GB RAM, Win7 machines and still serve us very well.

As much as I'd like to have a Mac for everything, there is a time and place for a vanilla PC as well. As bad as I hated it, I couldn't make a Mac fit our budget or space (Mac Minis of the time, late 09-early 10, were too under-powered and we didn't have space for the 20"+ display of an iMac). The PC fit our needs much better and saved us over $4000.

Do you really need a Mac at all? Or would a PC potentially be a better fit?

**Keep in mind: I do NOT mean an off-the-shelf consumer PC. Those are junk. I mean only a custom-built rig or a business-class machine.

And Mac-friends, please don't hate me for my honesty... Since this is a "church" post, we have to look out constantly for the best use of the Lord's money - the whole "being a good steward" bit and all.