An older woman, around 65 needs a new computer. She has a two houses, one in florida and one in new jersey. Two months ago when in florida she ordered a new high end dell with monitor for 1100 bucks. She does a little digital photography, edits basic photos, does email web browsing etc. Will a mac be good for her with her such basic needs? She is not very good with computers so will she be able to make the switch, and then switch back, or should i just go out and buy another dell for her and not deal with all the hassle. She needs it to last a long time, thats why i bought a high end dell. But with the macs, in that price range im not gaining anything in specs.And the mac mini when you are done with it, is just as much as the other mac with the screen built in.
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mac for senior
- Thread starter jer446
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Littleodie914
macrumors 68000
Yea, a Mac sounds perfect for her. She won't have to deal with viruses or spyware, and Macs are known world-wide for their excellence when dealing with digital imaging. For web browsing, look no further than Safari and Mail, they'll do everything she wants. Macs generally last longer than PC's too, for example, our 5 year old B&W G3 ran panther perfectly. I can't imagine running XP Pro on a 5 year old PC... yikes! 😱jer446 said:
Definetly
Im getting my grandmother to get a Mac Mini or iMac. (she isnt good with computers) but when she used my iBook, she wanted one by saying they were easy to use. Definetly get her one, iPhoto is what she needs, unless she needs Pro Photo Editing, you can sill get that on your mac.
Littleodie914 said:
Im getting my grandmother to get a Mac Mini or iMac. (she isnt good with computers) but when she used my iBook, she wanted one by saying they were easy to use. Definetly get her one, iPhoto is what she needs, unless she needs Pro Photo Editing, you can sill get that on your mac.
Dont Hurt Me
macrumors 603
Mac Mini will be perfect for her, if you go the dell route then you are going to make her life more complicated and filled with trouble. Nothing beats a Mac for ease of use period. The Mini isnt a slouch either performance wise and there is nothing that matches iphoto in the pc world. I like mine better then my quicksilver and it gives you back a desk and its near silent. I mean silent! Not a better buy in the computer world at the moment in my view. 😀
Specs are not the key here. Usability and longevity are...
It sounds like what she's plannng to do with the computer isn't that demanding... it will have everything on it including iLife with iPhoto which will handle the photo-editing side.
Maybe an eMac with Combodrive with some added RAM might be best...
Within 6 months of using one of these, she'll be hating her Dell.
It sounds like what she's plannng to do with the computer isn't that demanding... it will have everything on it including iLife with iPhoto which will handle the photo-editing side.
Maybe an eMac with Combodrive with some added RAM might be best...
Within 6 months of using one of these, she'll be hating her Dell.
what is the point of getting a mac mini, when all said and done if you dont have a monitor, its the same price as the imac?
jer446 said:
No... the iMac starts at $1299, the Mini starts at $499.
Even if you got the 1.42 mini with the larger hard-drive at $599, that is still $700 less than the cheapest iMac. $700 buys a lot of monitor, keyboard & mouse...
jer446 said:
I was thinking the same. You might want to consider getting her the iMac (you can probably find a refurb 1.6GHz for $999). She might like it so much that she sells her dell and just carries the iMac with her when she switches homes. Afterall, portability is one of the selling points of the iMac, it's all right there in one case, just unplug it and go. (this is even more true if she gets the wireless keyboard/mouse)
well it wud be 599 plus another 70 for extra ram, then another 45 for bt then another 90 for keyboard and mouse. I wouldnt want to use the only two usb ports. Then another 300 for the monitor. Its almost the same price.
jer446 said:
Honestly, you are not comparing like with like.
Bluetooth? Desirable but not essential, doesn't come as standard on the G5 iMac. Normal Apple & keyboard=$58 instead of $135 for BT and peripherals.
If you add the extra RAM, BT & bits to the cheapest iMac G5 it then comes to $1499.
Apple Mouse plugs into Apple Keyboard which has two non-powered USB ports on it... so you'd have a spare powered USB port on the back of the Mini and a spare non-powered one on the keyboard very handy for digital cameras. Any other peripheral like a printer can go into the USB port on the back...
Are you trying to get a Mac for your friend/relative or for you?
I'm not saying get the Mini I think the best option in this case is the eMac with a bit more RAM that's all.
wdlove
macrumors P6
jer446 said:
You should sell the Dell on eBay.
Since she has two houses, purchase two monitors, one for each house. The Mac mini would be very easy to transport, not much larger than a large book. That would save her from transferring data, just be sure that she does backups to a CD.