Good call. I recommend against Macs with internal hard drives for everyone at this point. Not wild about Fusion Drives either, though they’re better. SSD is faster and more reliable and the only way to go at this point in time. As Jolin says, you can always add an external drive for more storage if you can’t afford a big enough SSD to hold everything. (I keep my Photos library on an external drive, which I’m not wild about, but is an acceptable tradeoff for not filling up my SSD.)
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Thank you Adam. A big investment for me. I had to think hard of my current and future needs.
Slightly off-off-topic, yet I would recommend you skip System 7.5 all together and proceed directly to 7.6.1 which is significantly more stable and trouble-free. Additionally, it offers nearly all of the features of 8.0 and 8.1 through (mostly) robust extensions, if you really want to go there.
I would also point out that 9.0.4 has better compatibility with pre-G4 hardware, and anything later than 9.1 mostly adds “blue box” compatibility and is difficult to re-install as a primary boot disk.
Paul Henegan wrote:
Slightly off-off-topic, yet I would recommend you skip System 7.5 all together and proceed directly to 7.6.1 which is significantly more stable and trouble-free.
Unfortunately, 7.6.n was the first paid version, which makes it harder to get enablers for random old hardware unless you have a universal installer, and was always my least favorite system to deal with at work. It also dropped support for a lot of hardware. I do have universal installers for 8, 8.5, and I think 9.1, but a lot of software broke over those years. That said, I never had all that much trouble with 7.5.n. Or maybe the troubles have been lost in the mists of reminiscence. If I ever get time and space to dig out my older macs, maybe I’ll find out.
For everyone who has been saying that Microsoft won’t update Office to 64-bit…that’s not accurate.
Here is a free download to update Office 2016 to 64-bit:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/3187505/office-2016-for-mac-64-bit-upgrade
Office 2019 (the current version for the Mac) is 64-bit already.
If you are tired of Microsoft’s hegemony with Office, there is an awesome alternative. It’s not exactly like Microsoft Office, but it’s darn close, and the file compatibility is excellent. Actually, there are two choices:
FreeOffice (free)
https://www.freeoffice.com/en/
FreeOffice is impressive in it’s features, and it may be all that many users need. It can open older Office file formats, but will only save in the latest formats.
SoftmakerOffice Standard ($70) (also available on a subscription basis if you prefer)
https://www.softmaker.com/en/
Adds a bunch of nice features missing in FreeOffice, such as the ability to save in older Office formats and customization of graphic interface.
Comparison of features between FreeOffice and SoftmakerOffice:
https://www.softmaker.com/en/comparison-freeoffice-softmaker-office
At work I only just got Office 2016 a few weeks ago. It’s perfectly 64-bit compatible according to Sys Profiler. I assume it’s exactly the same with Office 2019.