Should i buy iMac or Macbook

[arnes]

Hello, i want your opinion on buying old iMac or Macbook pro.I never had neither pc or laptop but i would like to buy one now. Most of my job i get done via iphone so my needs are very low and modest. I would use it only for youtube, mail, hbo, spotify and ms office. I found one iMac from 2008 ,24inch with core 2 duo 3.06 and nvidia geforce 8800 gs 512mb vram, 4gb ram(ill update it eventually). Its really cheap and fits right into my budget.Also i found Macbook pro mid 2009, 2.53 c2d, 80gb ssd and nvidia geforce 9400m 256mb vram, 4gb ram. Which option is better and could these devices meet my needs since i have small budget but still want apple pc or laptop. Thanks so much.

 

[chscag]

My honest opinion: I wouldn't buy either one. They're both going on 12 and 11 years old respectively. I realize you may have a low budget but you would be much better off looking for something a lot newer even if it means spending more $$.

 

[glenthompson]

Both are getting really old but the MBP at least has a small SSD. The spinning drive in the iMac will be very slow, particularly if you upgrade the OS version.
Unless your budget is very low, you can get good deals on newer Macs with better specs.

 

[Fishrrman]

You don't want an iMac from 2008. Too old to be useful any more.

I wouldn't buy one UNLESS it was 2017 or 2019.
Maybe a 2015.

For a MacBook Pro, get at least a 2012 (the unibody with the DVD drive is easily upgradeable, but the Retina model is not).

 

[NikeNikon]

I second the recommendation on the 2012 Macbook Pro. I have a 15" unibody with i7. I upgraded with 16GB Ram, SSD. It isn't blazing fast, but it's faster than even some new macs from a couple of years ago. It's still plenty good for web surfing, light web development & even audio editing. You can pick these machines up for dirt cheap around $500 or less.

You never did say what your budget is, btw. That would help with recommendations. If it's in the 1-300 range, consider chromebooks over things like 12 year old macs.

 

[CooperBox]

You don't want an iMac from 2008. Too old to be useful any more.

I wouldn't buy one UNLESS it was 2017 or 2019.
Maybe a 2015.

For a MacBook Pro, get at least a 2012 (the unibody with the DVD drive is easily upgradeable, but the Retina model is not).

Mostly good advise here. I agree, get a mid-2012 15" (A1286) as it's the golden-era MBPro and never been bettered in terms of reliability and ungradeability. Wonderful Macs! Beware though of the Retina model A1398 as that was introduced in mid-2012 too.

However I wouldn't say that a 2008 iMac is too old to be useful. Even using it's max OS El Capitan today, plus the bundled software iTunes, iPhoto, iMovie, iDVD etc, it's still a very useful machine for general bureaucratic & basic web use.
For info, along with my much newer Macs, I still regularly use a G4 Cube and PowerBook Titanium (both PPC machines of 2001-2003 vintage) which are admittedly slow but still a joy to use today. And a 2008 iMac would run rings around them....

 

[MacGizmo]

I wouldn't buy anything older than 2017. But to be honest, with what you want to use it for, you would be well off buying a brand new Chromebook for $300-$600. You can't install MS office on it, but you can use the web-based version of Office for free, or use Google Docs. The problem is that many websites use technology that is available only in newer browsers, which may or may not run on older computers/OS versions.