I'm a mac user without a lot of money who needs to upgrade....

[liberalitch]

advice.... please....

[DS1]

1. Find another hippie Mac user who will donate one

Because Apple sure wont. Or open their architecture to 3rd party manufacturers.

[Rob H.]

2. Have you thought about the Mac Mini?

What kind of hardware and which OS are you running now?

If you can hold off a little longer, rumor has it that the Intel-powered Mac Minis and portables will be introduced at Macworld Expo on January 9th. Like I said, though, it's still all speculation at this point. Steve has a habit of playing his cards very close to his vest, but we still might see, "And one more thing..." in another week and a half.

[liberalitch]

4. i'm running os 9.1 (thus the need for an upgrade)

I only use the internet (explorer)
Appleworks 6
photo, movie music programs
and micorsoft office
So.... I'm not like designing software or anything real complicated

[Rich Hunt]

6. the used market

The used market is the way to go. I now have a new ibook, but back when I was cash strapped, I got an old mac and it served me well for about three years until I had the money to buy a new one.

[Rob H.]

8. The Mini sounds like a good choice

You'd get updated versions of iPhoto, iTunes, iMovie, iDVD, and you'd also get GarageBand (I don't do anything serious with it, but it's a lot of fun to play with).

[kick-ass-bob]

3. Mini.

Like the above poster said.

But not DS1 - because he hasn't yet gotten his head out of his ass. :P

[Taverner]

5. What are you trying to upgrade to?

and what from?

[LSK]

9. yes, that would help!

[MadHound]

7. Two recommendations

Either get a Mac Mini, $500 bucks w/o monitor. Or better yet, get an eMac, which is an all in one unit, for $700. If you hit the sales right, you can pick up a free printer with it.

Which ever you get, make sure that you get the split OS. That way you can continue to use your OS 9.x apps and won't have to reinvest all of that money into getting new ones.

[kick-ass-bob]

10. I forgot they still had the eMac - that would be good, too. n/t

[MadHound]

11. I picked up an eMac a couple of years ago, and just love it

It can even do some pretty heavy duty lifting graphics wise. I highly recommend it, especially with the split OS. And like I said, hit the sales right and you can get a free printer or some such. Good luck!

[BigMcLargehuge]

12. eMac is discontinued

they only very rarely show up in the clearance bin of the online store, and still garner 700 bucks for less processing/graphics/RAM than a new low end mini.

[MadHound]

13. Actually they're pretty comparable

eMacs have 1.42 Ghz processor, 80 Gb hard drive, 256Mb of RAM. Same stats as the Mini, except for the RAM, and you can always add that. <http://www.cdw.com/shop/search/Results.aspx?key=emac&platform=mac>

[BigMcLargehuge]

14. but you're essentially paying an extra $300 for half the ram and

a 17" CRT...

The Mini, even the$499 1.25 GHz without bluetooth and Airport has the same specs. If the OP already has a monitor/keyboard/mouse, why spend the extra cash?

[NV Whino]

15. Depending on the model you have...

consider buying more RAM and upgrading to Tiger for the system. It's a relatively inexpensive way to go unless your current computer won't handle any more RAM.

But look into the iBooks, too.