MkII Posted August 7, 2014 Posted August 7, 2014 Needed for a local scout group, to use for admin as well as producing promotional material with InDesign. Any help/ pointers/ advice gratefully received. Thanks.
MkII Posted August 7, 2014 Author Posted August 7, 2014 Oh and they've mentioned a wish price of £800
localzuk Posted August 7, 2014 Posted August 7, 2014 (edited) Why does it need to be a mac? Do they already have InDesign for Mac? (As InDesign is available for Windows too). For £800, you could get a brand new Mac Mini - Configure - Apple Store (UK) and a monitor to go with it (although, obviously not a new Mac monitor, as they're ridiculous). You could probably even get a new 21.5" iMac for that price to be honest! Edited August 7, 2014 by localzuk
ICTDirect_Dave Posted August 7, 2014 Posted August 7, 2014 I might have a Refurb mac Mini Going spare. They're about £340 Ex VAT. 2009 Model (Core 2 Duo 2GB, 8GB DDR3 RAM, 120GB SSD, DVD R/RW Mavericks) They're really nice machines.
MkII Posted August 7, 2014 Author Posted August 7, 2014 They have nothing localzuk. The Admin has used a Mac before, is familiar with InDesign and has sold it (the idea) to the boss. The Mac mini spec seems good to me.
localzuk Posted August 7, 2014 Posted August 7, 2014 (edited) Ok, in that case you also need to cost up InDesign. You can get the official "CC" one for about £125 a year subscription, or £120 for a standalone CS6 copy. Hope this helps! Edited August 7, 2014 by localzuk
plexer Posted August 7, 2014 Posted August 7, 2014 http://www.edugeek.net/forums/classified-adverts/136495-2007-mac-mini.html Any good? Ben
MkII Posted August 7, 2014 Author Posted August 7, 2014 Thanks Ben. Looks a little low specced compared to the one above. I'm only going on win8 hardware requirements though.
steveg Posted August 7, 2014 Posted August 7, 2014 A new i5 / 4gb / 500gb mac mini I just over £400 ex vat, add a non apple monitor / keyboard + Mouse and you can come in well under budget? Steve
MkII Posted August 7, 2014 Author Posted August 7, 2014 Thanks Steve. Would people definitely not go bigger than the Mac mini then? I like the idea of an ssd and enough ram to make InDesign snappy. They're looking at open source everything else. I'm thinking Google docs/ drive... which should do for now. I don't know about a backup drive. Security would be an issue I guess.
mac_shinobi Posted August 7, 2014 Posted August 7, 2014 Thanks Steve. Would people definitely not go bigger than the Mac mini then? I like the idea of an ssd and enough ram to make InDesign snappy. They're looking at open source everything else. I'm thinking Google docs/ drive... which should do for now. I don't know about a backup drive. Security would be an issue I guess. A lacie or similar external hdd thats got two drives in raid one and lock it somewhere safe when not being used ??
mac_shinobi Posted August 8, 2014 Posted August 8, 2014 (edited) I was thinking a NAS but as a lot of other edu folk keep saying "A NAS Device is not for backup purposes" ...... Just curious - data protection and other aspects - would using an external company / 3rd party company to do backups so googles back blaze ( which is cheap ) or if you google there are plenty of 3rd party companies who can do backups of the mac mini ( obviously this will require a good internet connection both up and download speeds / bandwidth and amount of data that you will be uploading / downloading etc ) https://www.backblaze.com/mac-online-backup.html?gclid=CJ6izoifg8ACFcrpwgodwn8AVw Best cloud backup services reviewed and rated | News | TechRadar Obviously if backing to an online external company as per above is out of the question then will have to be to a local device such as the Lacie Drive / NAS or something to that effect However as you stated above if its just documents then maybe google or dropbox to keep a safe copy / backup of said documents ? There is Own Cloud if there is a server you could use and set this up just as a thought : https://owncloud.com/download/?ref=adwords&gclid=CIL3hNmfg8ACFazItAodNxcAGg @Arthur / @seawolf - any other suggestions / thoughts or criticisms of my above thoughts lol Edited August 8, 2014 by mac_shinobi
MkII Posted August 8, 2014 Author Posted August 8, 2014 Thanks mac. The phone line isn't in yet but I'm expecting the broadband speed to be decent. Fibre is months off too if that's insufficient. I think I'll quote for the LaCie as well just to give them the option.
mac_shinobi Posted August 8, 2014 Posted August 8, 2014 no problem - just some thoughts ( as to how helpful / useful they are , that's another story due to data protection of keeping backups off site and with a 3rd party company who may or may not keep said backups within the EU / UK etc ) Anyway be good to know how it goes with this mac mini / SSD / Extra RAM and the backing up of said mac mini
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