[johnnyburst79]

My PC died last weekend and I am looking for a replacement. It is an old PC, built in 99 with various upgrades done by me. But I had two hard drive failures (out of 3 HD's) within 24 hours which wiped one hard drive that had over 80GB worth of music, movies, programs, and TV shows on it. The other hard drive needle broke, leaving a clicking sound to be the only thing I am getting.

So. Now that the PC is dead, I have a viable reason for getting a mac. I am looking for something in the $550-$600 range. I found an emac and would like to know your take on it, cost wise

1.42 GHz PowerPC 7447a (G4) processor with the AltiVec "Velocity Engine" vector processing unit and a 512k on-chip level 2 cache, 256 MB and 512 MB (2 slotts)chips of RAM an 80.0 GB Ultra ATA/100 hard drive, a tray-loading 12X/32X/24X/32X Combo Drive (DVD-ROM/CD-RW) ATI Radeon 9600 graphics acceleration with 64 MB of DDR SDRAM (AGP 4X), three USB 2.0 ports, and AirPort Extreme and Bluetooth support (installed) in a compact all-in-one case with a 17.0" CRT display (resolution support up-to 1280x960 in 24-bit color)+ support and software.

It comes with 10.4 Tiger on it, multimedia s/w, music, installed games as well as pre-installed games.

Worth it?

[DoubleHelix]

You realize that your old Windows programs won't work on a Mac, right?

[johnnyburst79]

Um...yeah....I do...

I know what I am doing when it comes to computers.

[Yankee Rose]

My opinion is yes, it is worth the money. Nice system.

Have you considered a Mac Mini? For just a little more you could get a brand new "system" if you BYODKM (bring your own display, keyboard & mouse.) You'd have their full warranty and updated software as well an Intel Dual Core processor. Just an suggestion. http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPL...0&nclm=Macmini

Good luck! Either way I predict you'll be quite pleased!

[VegasACF]

It is a good price for a decent machine. But be fully aware that it represents two generations ago as far as Macintosh goes. Don't expect it to be able to do everything that the latest/greatest can offer, nor at the speeds which the latest/greatest can offer. This may sound like a "well, duh" kind of statement, but you'd be surprised how many people think that "new" (to them) clamshell iBook G3 will be capable of running Call of Duty 2 with all the bells and whistles turned on.

If you were to provide a bit more info as to what your intended use(s) of this machine were (if you did I apologize for missing it) we would be better able to give you concrete information. If all you want to do is fairly basic stuff (word processing, web browsing, games that are a few years old [that's not to say they're not worth playing, mind you--the Marathon series is still a killer series--and well precedes this machine, so you need not worry about system specs, though mainly for the story line, which was the predecessor to the Halo series], et cetera), this machine will more than suffice. But if you're wanting to do something more than this you might be frustrated. And it's better if you avoid frustration prophylactically than deal with it after the fact!

Fill us in, and we'll provide whatever assistance we can!

For whatever it's worth, I second the recommendation of of the mini if you already have the necessary accouterment (USB keyboard/mouse and a monitor). That way you'll get the latest generation of Mac processor, but with minimal cost.

[chinajon]

I have been using my eMac 800 GHz and it is still chugging along. I doubt that I will be able to resist the new system and a new iMac next year though.

I do Photoshop, MS Office, mostly Excel, and the Apple apps. I have been using Macs since about 1989. I like this eMac a lot. I would not mind a speed bump to 1.4 GHz though. I did up to a Firewire 200 G HD. Too cool.

[johnnyburst79]

I will be getting into photoshop and some movie maker software with it. Game wise, not so much. Mainly just a fun web browsing machine, but sometimes I would do some hardcore stuff on it.

Good call on the mac mini! Thanks!

I do have the keyboard, mouse, and monitor from my old system and found a mini for $499. I think I will go that route. But, no programs or anything like that would be installed....hmmm....no matter.

[VegasACF]

To my knowledge, all Macs ship with iLife (iTunes, iPhoto, iDVD, iMovie, GarageBand) installed, along with Safari (a web browser), a simple text editing program and some utilities.

[chinajon]

Originally Posted by vbneteng

I will be getting into photoshop and some movie maker software with it. Game wise, not so much. Mainly just a fun web browsing machine, but sometimes I would do some hardcore stuff on it.

Good call on the mac mini! Thanks!

I do have the keyboard, mouse, and monitor from my old system and found a mini for $499. I think I will go that route. But, no programs or anything like that would be installed....hmmm....no matter.

I don't think it is a good buy if you are not getting the disks that come with the Mini. A brand new Mini is only $599. You are giving up a lot to save $100, the new warantee not least of all.
The Mini may be a lot older than the ones shipping now, but this is what comes with one:
(From the Apple web site)
* Safari 2
* • Mail 2
* • Address Book 4
* • iChat AV 3
* • iCal 2
* • Font Book 2
* • DVD Player 4.5
* • Preview 3
* • Xcode 2

Universal Software
Mac mini comes with an incredible bundle of Universal applications that run on both Intel- and PowerPC-based Macs:

* • iLife ’06
includes iPhoto, iMovie HD, iDVD and GarageBand, plus an innovative new application called iWeb
* • iWork ’06 30-day trial
includes Pages 2, a powerful word processor that's perfect for everything from letters to newsletters to brochures, and Keynote 3, next-generation presentation software for building cinema-quality slideshows, photography portfolios, animated storyboards and more with ease and elegance.
* • Front Row
* • Big Bang Board Games
* • Comic Life
* • OmniOutliner

The prices for software sold separatly by Apple ranges from $80 to $300 The iLife and iWork boxes are $80 each. iTunes and iPhoto are a must for me. The word procesor 'Pages' can read MS Word files and export HTML, DOC, PDF, and text.

Get a new Mini

[johnnyburst79]

Awesome, thanks! Looks like I will be going for the mini.

Oh, I have used mac's before at an old job, I am not entirely unfamiliar with them

[shyataroo]

I have a iMac G3 450 DV+ minus the hard drive and the monitor is in bad need of degaussing I will sell it along with some snake oil for 500-600 dollars. *snicker*